Page 108 of Bound By Crimson
And with that, he was gone.
Chapter Thirty-Two
Maybe Tomorrow
They had been at the estate a few days already. Lyric realized she hadn’t even called Velora or Rowan. She grabbed her phone and started to call Velora—but there was no service.
She spent the morning wandering the gardens, letting the sun warm her face as she walked between towering hedges—all the while looking for a signal.
The blooms were lush, but their scent felt heavy—like they’d been kept alive too long.
As she wandered near the back of the estate, she looked up at one of the high windows.
Mrs. Thornwick stood there.
Watching.
Lyric smiled hesitantly and raised a hand.
The woman didn’t move. Didn’t blink.
Just stood, stone-still—unreadable.
Like a painting hung to intimidate rather than decorate.
The weight of it sank into Lyric’s spine.
She turned away, pretending it didn’t matter—but it did.
Needing to get farther away, she followed the paths until the hedges grew denser, and the house disappeared behind her.
At the farthest edge of the estate, the trees and hedges thinned—
And then she saw it.
A towering stone wall, nearly fifteen feet high, stretching endlessly in both directions like the edge of the world.
It stopped her in her tracks.
She stepped closer. There, nestled in the grass at its base, sat a weathered stone bench—half-sunken, cracked by time.
It looked almost forgotten. But somehow, it felt familiar.
It reminded her of the old graveyard bench she used to sit on, talking to her parents when no one else could hear. That secret place the world couldn’t touch.
A pang of guilt crept into her heart. She had promised she would visit them every day. Now she was so far away.
Maybe this could be her new place to visit them, she thought.
She sat down slowly, brushing a hand over the weathered stone. The wall behind it loomed tall and solid—a towering expanse of gray that cut off the horizon.
She couldn’t see over it.
She wondered what was on the other side.
Maybe—somewhere—there was a hidden door, like inThe Secret Garden, the book she had loved as a little girl.
A secret place, just beyond reach.
