Jake stared at Amelia, knuckles white on the steering wheel. “You took the book?”
She nodded. “I didn’t think… I just… It called to me. I thought it was just something old—maybe magical, but I didn’t know it could cause this.”
Diane’s voice cracked, raw from tears and disbelief. “You brought that thing into our lives? That’s what started all this? Those creatures… they killed people, Amelia!”
“I know!” she yelled back, instantly recoiling from the emotion in the car. “I know what I did. But I didn’t understand until it was too late. When the nightmares started, I thought I was just cracking under pressure. Then the voices began—telling me things. That something was coming. That it was too late.”
“And now it knows where we are,” Jake muttered.
“Who knows where we are?” Diane demanded, eyes darting between her son and Amelia.