The year is 1879. When thirteen-year-old Ruth Merritt Holbrook emerges from her family's burning estate, bloody and charred, but entirely numb--She makes headlines. Reporters believe she is deranged. They accuse her of having set the fire. All the h...
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Dearest Merritt,
I write concerning your recent visit to the Ballantyne. Could you not have heeded my warning and taken refuge in the countryside? Your foolishness could have cost you your life—and Rosalie Gressil's. Lucius has set his eyes on her and I doubt she shall escape his wrath as easily as you seem to have.
He thinks you mean to cleanse the earth of our demonic presence. How he believes you shall accomplish such a thing is beyond me. I shall speak plainly to you on this matter—you must leave or you will die. There is no third option. Though it is clear you are not entirely human, I do not believe you capable of the deeds Lucius accuses you of. The angels who accompany you should know better than to put you in such danger, Gabriel especially. I am certain he is aware of what has happened in the past to people who have threatened Lucius. It would pain me to see you meet a similar end. And so you must run.
I do not claim to understand you, Ruth Merritt Holbrook, but I do feel we are somehow bound to one another. Last night, when I found out that you had been spotted in the theater, and that Rosie had been seen alongside you, I was petrified. Where this fear is based or why I allowed it to shake me so, I am unsure. But, I can be certain of my feelings for you.
I know that you will find yourself grievously hurt by Lucius if you continue as you are—and some distant part of myself cannot bear the thought of you in his grasp. For an instant, as I was running through the theater in hopes of finding you before you could be seen by Lucius, I imagined you dead. i imagined him doing to you what he has done to countless others, what he will enevitably do to Rosalie. I am unable to express to you what such thoughts did to me. I do not know why I care for you so or why I feel as if I know you, but alas I do. Please do not remain in London a second longer. Cease whatever you may have planned—for your own sake and, perhaps, mine.
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