The Crimson Mark

Cassia Thorne

For one brief second, I thought I had misheard her.

“Mommy, why was there a red light in my room last night?”

My heartbeat slowed. Not calm. Slowed in that awful, unnatural way it did before a storm, one heavy beat, then another, each one sinking lower into my chest until it felt like something cold had wrapped around my lungs and squeezed.

I forced my expression to remain soft. “A r