The blackness was oppressive with silence, and Amelia could not sleep. She sat in Alexander's enormous bedroom, staring at the blackness projected on the ceiling. His steady breathing stroked the air next to her, but even that comfort was not enough to calm the raging pounding of her heart. There was something other than normal between them, something she felt in the way he held her tighter in his arms, kissed her more hungrily, as if trying to keep at bay apparitions she had not seen.

Before ...