The Things We Bury

Tirzah Beaupré has known three things for certain: one, that her mother protected her from her father and his empire by taking her away from it. The empire, she always said, was doomed to destroy itself. And it would take her father and brothers with it when it fell.

Two, that she is a self-serving snitch that trades in secrets- though she prefers to think truth teller rather than snitch. After her mother died, there was a plan in place for her. St. Sylvans. A private boarding school that doubled as foster care, which prided itself on it's exemplary education and ability to find only forever homes for its students. On the outside, it was beautiful. Surrounded by towering green forest, sunlight always visible through the trees. But inside, Tirzah learned quickly that it was survival of the fittest- or the smartest, and now that, she was. What benefits her, benefits her, and she has never cared what happens to people as a result of that. After all, if they are dumb enough to tell their secrets, or not cover them up well enough, it's all fair game. It has to be.

Three, that she and Cole De'Ath are the only ones that know about the body buried deep in the words. She isn't remorseful- and she will never be. That act has been her most selfless yet. She likes to think that no flowers have bloomed over it for a reason- that the earth has swallowed it whole, like it should have done long before she and Cole had to put it there.

Only one of those three things is not really a certainty. That her mother protected her from her father and his doomed empire. At least, not well enough. The Beaupré's have been searching for years, and now, Tirzah must return to everything and everyone her mother warned her about.

There is one positive: Cole found his forever home in Briar Ridge, Canada- and that's where she is going. Or, only just now returning. She'll see him again.

But she soon realizes that the Beaupré name is a curse. A bigger secret than she knows how to handle- for no