Chapter 3

The next day, I drove to my aunt' s sanctuary under the pretense of volunteering. My real reason was to check on the bull, Titan. A sick feeling of dread had been growing in me since I saw the corrupted beef bones. What had I unleashed by dumping those human remains in the trough?

Eleanor Vance, my aunt, met me at the gate. She was a tall, practical woman with kind eyes and hands that were perpetually covered in dirt.

"Ethan! What a surprise," she said, wiping her hands on her jeans. "Here to finally earn your keep?"

"Something like that," I said, forcing a weak smile. "Thought I' d check on the animals."

"Well, you picked a strange day for it. Titan' s been acting up all morning. Scared the new volunteer half to death."

My blood ran cold. "Acting up how?"

"He' s just... off. Agitated. Staring at the farmhouse like he' s waiting for someone. I' ve never seen him like this."

I walked toward the large enclosure where Titan was kept. Usually, he' d be grazing peacefully or lying in the sun. Today, he was standing by the fence, perfectly still, his massive head aimed directly at me. He wasn' t chewing. He wasn' t swishing his tail. He was just watching me with an unnerving, focused intelligence.

As I got closer, I saw that his eyes, normally a placid brown, seemed darker. There was a glint in them I had never seen before. A human glint.

He let out a low rumble, but it wasn't his usual sound. It was deeper, more guttural.

I cautiously approached the feeding trough where I' d dumped the ribs. As I got within a few feet, Titan suddenly charged. A ton of muscle and horn hurtled toward the fence. I stumbled back, my heart leaping into my throat.

He stopped just short of the fence, the wood groaning under his weight. He stared at me, his nostrils flaring. And then he made a sound.

It wasn't a moo. It wasn't a bellow. It was a rasping, wet, half-formed word.

"M-mine..."

It was a nightmare. I was frozen in place, staring into the eyes of a monster I had helped create. The soul that was meant for me, or part of it, was trapped in this bull.

Suddenly, Eleanor was there, holding a long cattle prod. "Get back, Titan! Get back!" she yelled. The bull looked at her, then back at me, a look of pure malice in its intelligent eyes, before slowly backing away.

"What in God' s name has gotten into him?" Eleanor muttered, her face pale.

My phone vibrated violently in my pocket. A string of texts from Liam' s number.

"WRONG SOUP."

"WRONG BONES."

"YOU TRICKED ME."

"THEY KNOW."

"YOU WILL PAY, ETHAN. YOU WILL PAY."

My hands were shaking so hard I could barely hold the phone. My lie had been discovered.

As if on cue, my phone started ringing. It was Sarah. I stared at her name on the screen, the betrayal a fresh, open wound. I answered, my voice barely a whisper.

"Ethan?"

"What do you want, Sarah?"

Her voice was high-pitched, laced with a fake, theatrical panic. "Ethan, honey, where are you? You have to come home! It' s Liam! He' s going crazy, he just showed up at the apartment! He keeps screaming your name! He says you have to come over right now!"

The lie was so transparent it was insulting. She wasn't at my apartment. She was with him. They were together. This was a trap.

"No," I said.

"What? Ethan, don' t be like that! He' s scaring me!"

"I said no."

I ended the call and immediately blocked her number. I blocked Liam' s too. The lines of communication were cut. The battle lines were drawn. I was on one side, and on the other were my best friend and the woman I thought I loved.