Chapter 2

While I was recovering, I sorted through the few belongings of my parents that had been salvaged and sent to me. Among them was a small, leather-bound book of my mother' s herbal remedies. I found a recipe for an eye strain poultice, a mix of chamomile and eyebright. I remembered Caleb' s red-rimmed eyes, the way he squinted at his phone in the dim hospital light. I wanted to do something for him, anything to repay his care.

I prepared the remedy and took it to his study late one night. He wasn' t there. His laptop was open on the desk, the screen glowing. I was about to leave the poultice on his desk when I saw the open email chain.

It was between him and his brother, Ethan.

My blood ran cold. I couldn't stop myself from reading.

"Caleb, Jennifer is getting better. Your plan to sacrifice the Pact Keeper town to channel their life force to her was a stroke of genius. Jennifer and I will never forget this."

My breath hitched in my throat. I kept reading, my hands shaking so badly I had to grip the edge of the desk.

"I'd do anything for Jennifer. I know she can never be mine, but as long as she's happy, I'll walk through fire. Her congenital heart condition was getting worse. That's why I insisted on marrying the Pact Keeper's daughter in the first place."

The words blurred. Jennifer. Ethan' s fiancée. The beautiful, frail socialite I' d met a few times. The woman Caleb was supposedly just polite to.

The final email made me want to vomit.

"It's an honor for the Pact Keepers to die for Jennifer."

The loving husband, the sleepless nights, the red eyes. It was all a lie. His grief wasn't for me. It was the strain of his monstrous act. He hadn' t been nursing me back to health out of love. He was protecting his investment.

I stumbled back to my room, my mind a black void of horror. My mother, before I left home for my wedding, had given me a small, hidden pouch of herbs. "For emergencies," she had said, her eyes serious. "When you need to make a hard choice." I knew what they were for.

I took one of the bitter pills from the pouch and swallowed it with water. Then, I packed a small bag with cash and the few pieces of my mother' s jewelry I owned.

It was time to collect a debt. The life of a Pact Keeper is not something you take for free. A soul for a soul. A hundred souls for a hundred souls.