Chapter 3

Heartbroken, I drifted upstairs to my old room.

It was exactly as I had left it three years ago. The same pale blue walls, the same white furniture. But something was wrong. It felt sterile, like a guest room, not a place where a girl had grown up.

Then I saw it. The shelves were bare.

All the mementos of our shared past were gone. The photos of us at my Georgetown graduation, the silly postcards he' d sent from his trips, all of it.

My eyes fell on the mahogany box on my dresser. I floated toward it and lifted the lid. It was empty.

My collection of vintage compasses was gone. He gave me one every year on my birthday, from the time I was eleven. "So you can always find your way, Gabby," he used to say. "Always find your way back."

He had erased me. While I was risking my life for his mission, he was systematically removing every trace of me from his home, from his life.

A new kind of pain, cold and sharp, filled me. It wasn't the ache of unrequited love. It was the agony of being forgotten. Of being nothing.

Grief and rage churned inside me. I looked at the fireplace, cold and empty. With a surge of spiritual energy, a small flame flickered to life inside the grate.

I didn't have the photos or the compasses to burn. He had already taken care of that. So I burned the only thing that was left. The memory.

I let the small fire die down to smoldering embers.

The door burst open. Drew stood there, his face tight with annoyance. "What's that smell? Are you burning something?"

He saw the dead fireplace, then his eyes swept over the empty shelves. He didn't seem to notice the missing items. Or maybe he just didn't care.

I gave him the coldest smile I could manage, my voice a whisper only he could hear.

"Just clearing out some old things. They were taking up space."

He stared at me, his eyes narrowed. He couldn't understand what he was seeing, this ghost of a girl he thought he knew.

"Fine," he said, his voice clipped. "Just don't burn the house down. Molly and I are having dinner. You should join us. We need to present a united front."

He turned and left, closing the door behind him, leaving me alone in the empty room with the ashes of a life that no longer existed.