I made it through that day. That night. The next day. The next night. And on it went. On the morning that I was cleared to go back to school, I heard a sound on the other side of my fireplace.

Jameson. I made my way to the mantel and closed my hand around the candlestick. With a breath, I pulled it forward.

Jameson wasn’t the one standing on the other side.

“Thea?” I said. I was confused. I had no idea what she was doing at Hawthorne House or why she’d come through the passage. My gaze darted toward my door. Oren was in the hall. Even now, with Skye and Ricky in prison, he was staying close.

“Don’t say anything,” Thea implored me, her voice low. “I need you to come with me. It’s Grayson.”

“Grayson?” I repeated. He’d been like a ghost in the House since I’d woken up. He either didn’t want to see me or couldn’t face me. I’d watched him swimming laps every night.

“He’s in trouble, Avery.” Thea looked like she’d been crying, and that scared me, because Thea Calligaris wasn’t a person who cried. She didn’t do vulnerable.

She didn’t do scared. “What’s going on? Thea.”

She disappeared back into the passageway. I followed her, and an instant later, hands gripped me from behind. Someone slammed a damp cloth down over my mouth and nose. I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t scream.

The smell of the cloth was sickly sweet. Everything started going dark around me, and the last thing I heard was Thea.

“I had to, Avery. They have Rebecca.”