So I slipped out from behind the roses, waited until the guard below the balcony had moved away, climbed down the closest drainpipe, and vanished into the night.

I made it across the grounds and back over to the woods that ringed the castle. Victor’s office had been on the opposite side from where I’d gone in, so I had to circle all the way around the compound. I had almost reached the trail that would take me back to the Sinclair mansion when I came across something else interesting—the Draconi Family cemetery.

It was just like the Sinclair cemetery, a clearing ringed with a wrought iron fence, with one notable difference—almost all the tombstones said Draconi. Apparently, the Draconis preferred to bury only their blood relatives here, instead of all those who had been loyal to their Family like the Sinclairs did. Exactly what I would expect from Victor.

I should have kept walking, since it was getting late and I needed to get back to the mansion, but I found myself stopping, opening the gate, and moving deeper into the cemetery. It took me several minutes, but I found a single white tombstone set off all by itself at one edge of the cemetery, like a lonely kid being left out of the rest of the cool crowd. Only a few simple words flowed across it: Luke Silver.

My father.

My heart squeezed tight as I stared at the marker, all sorts of emotions bubbling up inside me. This was the first time I’d ever seen where he was buried. This was the first time I’d ever seen any tangible proof that he’d ever truly existed, other than a few old photos my mom had shown me.

I’d never known my father, but my mom had told me all about him. Luke Silver had been the Draconi Family bruiser—before Victor had him killed. Victor hadn’t liked Luke’s relationship with my mom, especially after he’d proposed to her. Victor had thought that my dad was being disloyal to the Draconis by being with her, so he’d sent my dad out to deal with a copper crusher that had invaded one of the Family businesses.

It should have been a routine assignment, but Victor hadn’t told my dad that there was a whole nest of copper crushers, and Luke had been ambushed, overwhelmed, and killed by the monsters. My mom had left Cloudburst Falls shortly after his death. He’d never even known that she was pregnant with me.

I turned my star-sapphire ring around and around on my finger—my mom’s engagement ring—even as my heart twisted and twisted in my chest as though a copper crusher was coiled around it and squeezing the life out of me.

I’d once told Felix that Romeo-and-Juliet relationships between the Families never worked; because if Victor could so easily betray his bruiser, his right-hand man, his supposed friend, he wouldn’t hesitate to arrange some sort of similar accident for Felix.

All the stupid, senseless Family plots and politics were another reason that I wanted to leave Cloudburst Falls as soon as possible—after I made sure that Felix, Devon, and the rest of the Sinclairs were safe.

This part of the cemetery wasn’t as well tended as the rest, and bunches of wildflowers had grown up along the fence. I reached down, picked another blue forget-me-not, and laid it on my father’s tombstone. I opened my mouth, but I didn’t know what to say, so I clamped my lips shut and settled for turning my sapphire ring around on my finger one more time.

I sighed and rubbed my head, which was aching. There was nothing to say. Luke had loved my mom, and he’d been killed because Victor didn’t approve of their relationship. Yet another love story with a tragic, bitter end.

There was nothing in this cemetery but ghosts, hurts, and regrets. That was the way I felt about all of Cloudburst Falls sometimes—the Midway, the squares, even the sweeping views from the mountain. All of it reminded me of my mom and everything I’d lost.

And all of it made my heart keep right on aching from the deep, jagged wounds that would never, ever heal.

So I sighed again and turned around, ready to leave the cemetery and all the painful memories behind, and go back to the Sinclair mansion for the night. I looked up, my breath catching in my throat.

A woman stood at the cemetery gate.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

I was so surprised that someone would be out here after dark that my brain ground to a complete halt, and I didn’t even think of doing the smart thing, like vaulting over the fence and running away. Instead, all I could do was stare at the woman, my mouth gaping open.

Long, golden hair, dark blue eyes, pale skin that shimmered in the moonlight. She was one of the most beautiful women I’d ever seen, like a fairy-tale princess come to life, but something about her seemed strangely . . . familiar. Like I’d seen her somewhere before, although I didn’t think I had.

For as beautiful as she was, her appearance was also a bit strange. A long, flowing white garment covered her slender body, looking more like a nightgown than an actual dress, and her feet were bare, despite the sticks, rocks, and other woodsy debris that littered the cemetery. One lock of her golden hair was braided down the right side of her face and tied off with a sapphire-blue ribbon, while a white wicker basket full of blood-red roses dangled from her hand.

The woman stared at me, obviously seeing me despite the mist and the darkness, which meant that she had some sort of sight magic. I expected her to open her mouth and yell for the guards, but to my surprise, a soft smile curved her lips. The warm, welcoming expression made her look even more beautiful, like an ethereal ghost come to frolic in the moonlit cemetery.

“Serena!” she said, tossing her basket aside and racing over to me. “You finally came back!”

I couldn’t have been more shocked than if she’d started doing cartwheels. Serena? She thought I was my mom? Why? Why would she think that? Sure, I had my mom’s black hair and blue eyes, and I was even wearing her sapphire-blue coat, but I obviously wasn’t her.

But the woman didn’t seem to realize that. Instead, she stopped in front of me, reached out, and drew me into a tight hug.

“Oh, Serena,” she said in a choked voice. “It’s been so long. So very, very long.”

I stood there, my mouth still gaping open, my arms hanging by my sides, wondering who this woman was and why she thought I was my dead mom. After several seconds, the woman drew back, still smiling.

“Oh, Serena,” she said in a light, lilting, almost singsong voice. “I have so much to tell you. About Deah and Lila and everything else that’s been going on between the Families.”