The call from Madame stirred me awake. My phone vibrated on the nightstand, its light blinking against the shadows of my dark bedroom. At first, I thought it was an alarm or a reminder I had forgotten to disable, but when I squinted at the screen and saw her name, I frowned in confusion. Madame never called this early. She barely called at all unless it had something to do with Matthew or with the family. This was strange. The kind of strange that made my chest tighten with unease.

I sat up ...