Page 26 of Sins of the Heart

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her live, but something told her the truth would serve

her better.

“Yeah.” Her answer was more breath than formed

word.

“Do you know what they are?”

36

SINS OF THE HEART

“No.”Maybe.They were something dark. Something evil. And they’d come from inside the two people,

two killers, who had in turn been killed. What had he

said earlier? That he was here for a darksoul. Was that

what those slimy balloons were? Darksouls?

Did she have one inside her, obsidian and oily?

After what she had and hadn’t done, the choices

she’d made—choices that had indirectly led her here—

she thought she might. What she’d done…did it make

her a monster now?

She felt like one, for sure.Rhianna.Her foster sister.

It hurt even to think her name. So she locked it away

in a dark corner of her mind and she pressed her

parched lips tight. It didn’t help. She was shaking so

hard that her teeth clacked together like a jackhammer.

The events of the past two days were catching up to

her, big-time.

“She wasn’t your friend. You know that, yes?”

Horror congealed in her gut. Heknew.About Rhianna. How?

Then he glanced at the bodies, and she realized he

was talking about Marcie, telling her that Marcie

hadn’t been her friend.

“Yeah.” She did know it,now,though she hadn’t when

she’d followed Marcie here like a lamb to the slaughter.

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