Rissa’s POV

I didn’t sleep.

Even after Mark checked the perimeter of the estate three times, he sat in the chair across from the bed like a silent, immovable mountain, watching over me with eyes that never blinked. I couldn’t close mine.

My fingers kept tracing the crack in the pendant, like touching it could make it whole again. The jagged line down the center split more than just a stone. It split the last shred of protection I believed I had. My mother gave it to me. Told me it ...