visitor toothbrush, then put on a nightshirt and jumped under the covers. It wasn't like me to feel so at home in a strange place and yet, in this house among these people, I felt as though I had returned to a place where I belonged. That instant I knew I could never restore my old life. I could never go back to the old me. Sure, the music career would have to continue because it gave my life meaning and I had a mission to fulfill, but I knew the lost and scared Sofia from before was gone.
With the soft covers wrapped around me, I fell into a deep yet uneasy sleep and while the darkness I had grown to fear didn't return, I knew something was watching me, waiting for me to make a mistake. I wondered what that mistake was.
Morning had yet to break when I woke up with a jolt. The moon lay hidden behind a thick veil of dark clouds. The room had noticeable cooled down. I shivered and closed my eyes again, ready to get back to sleep. But there was a soft, indiscernible whisper, which must've been what woke me up in the first place. I slipped into my jeans and the sweater Clare had borrowed me, and pushed the curtains aside.
Gloomy shadows still covered the woods. I opened the window to let in the freezing night air and strained to listen to determine where the whisper came from. My lungs burned from the cold as I inhaled deeply, held the breath, then exhaled. Only then did I notice the small writing on the glass, the same word I saw at the hotel in Rio: HELP. Someone needed me.
Branches snapped below the window. Something caught my attention in the distance. I peered at what looked like a white curtain. It took me a while to realize it was the long hair of a girl, framing a pale face. My heart almost stopped beating and a whimper escaped my throat.
"Theo." The word choked me, brought me on the verge of tears. Leaving the window open, I stormed out of the room and down the stairs, through the kitchen into the back garden. She wasn't there, but I recognized the spot where she had been standing. Near the gnarled tree with its low-hanging branches that almost brushed the lush grass beneath.
"Theo," I whispered again, trying to be still so I wouldn't wake up the others. My naked feet sank into the damp grass as I picked up in speed, my eyes scanning the area frantically for a glimpse of that almost white hair that was so typical of my family. And then I saw her twenty feet away. She was staring at me, her eyes looking sad. She put a finger to her lips, as if hushing me to be quiet. In slow motion, she gestured a no, as though I shouldn't seek her, and then turned her back on me and took off again. Panic rose inside of me. I wanted to see her. She needed my help. I could feel it.
"Theo, wait!" My voice was raspy, already hoarse from the cold. I sprinted through the trees, determined to catch her, and only stopped when a crow flew over my head and perched down on a branch a few feet away from me. I leaned against a tree to catch my breath.
The clouds broke and the moon come through, casting an eerie light over the place and the big crow—the same one that turned into a dark entity and chased me. I felt my heart racing, my palms sweating as the bird cawed.
Think, my mind screamed. Think. I remembered the word HELP appearing out of nowhere. At that time, when I opened the window in Rio, I also spied the crow instead of my sister. My stomach protested. My ears began to ring at the mere thought, but what other explanation was there? The crow was warning me before something happened.
It was a trap.
I could see the mansion in the distance, its contours stretching menacingly into the night. The people in there were my friends, the crow wasn't. Or was it the other way round? So far I didn't have any proof that they were really on my side. Cass had yet to keep her word and grant me access to my sister. What if Gael indeed was trying to protect me from something? Maybe he was trying to protect me from the immortals