Chapter 27

Valerie

The windows were blocked out.

I had been staring out through the glass at the lush forest outside, when Cliff hit a button on his door, and suddenly, there was only black staring back at me. Black and my own reflection.

What was this? Some kind of privacy screen?

“You aren’t going to love what you see in a moment,” Lucas had warned me upon entering the limo. Maybe he was telling the truth, because clearly, I was not allowed to see outside.

And yet, I heard sounds that terrified me.

They came through, creeping over the rumbling of the engine, like ghosts howling echoes of haunting things in my ears. Low, grating voices. Growls and shrieks and screams that came and went in passing.

I did not know what was happening beyond these blackened windows, but I was certain now that I didn’t want to. Lucas was right. There was nothing to love about this ride into Baycrest.

I was suddenly grateful for Cliff. For whatever magical button he had pressed that blocked the rest of the world from