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“Sleep, Little Flower,” I muttered to the dark. “You have no idea what you just saw.”

Chapter 6

Liv

Holy fuck.

Someone had been in my house. It was dark and I didn’t see them clearly, but someone had definitely been there . . . before they just disappeared like a fucking specter.

I stood there, chest heaving, eyes glued to the back door. My mug lay in shards on the floor, tea bleeding onto the cheap laminate. The laptop screen still glowed on the coffee table.

That wasn’t a fucking dream.

The room smelled wrong. Different. Not just me and dust and tea. Cold air from the back hallway. Something sharp, clean, expensive under it.

He’d left a rose.

My gaze jerked to the counter.

Two of them now. Sitting neatly in the same glass. Matching stems. Matching blooms.

My stomach flipped.

This wasn’t random.

My hands shook as I fumbled for my phone. I texted without thinking, fingers clumsy.

Liv: someone was just in my apartment

Liv: mask, all black, he was standing over me.

Liv: there are TWO roses now

Liv: get here. now

The three dots popped up, vanished, popped up again.

Sam: CALL THE GUARD

Sam: WAIT . . . WHAT DO YOU MEAN TWO???

Sam: I’m grabbing keys

Sam: Daniel is half dressed we’re on the way

Sam: Liv I’m serious CALL THE GUARD

I stared at the screen.

I should call the Guard. That was what normal, well-adjusted people did when someone broke into their home.

They’d come, sure. Take a statement, poke around, ask why there was a private ward on my door that I definitely hadn’t paid for.

A pounding on the door made me jump, heart shooting into my throat.

“Liv, open up, it’s me.”

Sam.