I laughed. I laughed and laughed as I shook my head in disbelief. “Bella,” Mae said. She was upset by this sudden tension between her love and me, I could see it.

“No,” I said softly. “I just . . . I just need to sleep. I need to be alone.”

“We just got you back,” Maddie said, and my heart almost broke for my timid little sister.

“I know, sister,” I said. “But I cannot take all of this in. I am struggling to see how this life is different.” I met eyes with Styx again. “To me it appears that you have simply exchanged one controlling environment for another. I am worried that you are not free here at all. You have simply been given a greater cage in which to roam.”

My words were like a trigger to Mae’s lover. His face reddened with barely suppressed rage. Mae took hold of his arm and made him face her. She put her hands on his cheeks, and he closed his eyes, breathing in deeply. Her touch seemed to calm the man down.

“Maddie,” Mae said. “Please show Bella your old room. She can rest there.”

Maddie took my hand. I let her lead me away, up wooden stairs to a bedroom. Maddie hovered by the door as I walked to the bed and sat down. I let my eyes drift around the pretty furnishings, then out of the large window that overlooked a grass verge.

“Bella,” Maddie finally said. I looked at my sister. Her head was down and her hands were clasped in front of her. “I just . . . I just want you to be happy.”

My heart shattered at her words, because I knew that she meant it. Maddie had the kindest heart I had ever known.

“I know you do.”

Movement from the window caught my eye, and I saw a large dark figure emerge from the trees. My stomach flipped. He was the most terrifying man I had ever seen. “Someone is coming,” I announced. Maddie sighed.

“That will be Flame. He never leaves me for long.”

“That is your husband?”

Maddie nodded, and I saw her happiness light her from inside. “Yes. He is the one I love. He is the other half of my soul.”

Flame stopped below the window and stared up at me. He looked to my side, and his lip curled into the beginnings of a smile. Maddie. Maddie had moved beside me.

My sister pressed a kiss to my cheek and walked toward the door. I dropped my head, feeling an ache begin to throb behind my eyes.

“Bella?”

“Yes?”

“I do not know much about matters of the heart. But I know what it is like to harbor feelings for a man people greatly disapprove of. Who people regard as wrong, unsalvageable or sinful.” Maddie blushed. “But I also know what it is like when you are in their arms. In their hearts. It is different. You can make them different . . . you can show them that they too can be saved, even when they believe they are a lost cause.” Maddie looked me directly in the eyes. “I know what Rider has done is bad. And I can see how much of a toll all this has been on you. But . . . but I do not believe he is evil. He may be lost, confused . . . but I believe he can be saved. You, Bella. You can save him. You have that ability.”

“MADDIE!” I jumped as a loud roar of my sister’s name came from below the window.

Maddie smiled. “I must go.”

Maddie disappeared out of sight. I realized that gone was my timid little broken girl. In her place was a grown and strong woman. One that had just shaken my world.

Chapter Fourteen

Bella

I lay down on the bed and tried to close my eyes. The hours ticked by. I tried to find sleep, but it did not come. All I could think of was Rider. I needed to speak to him. I needed to hear all this from him.

The bedroom door creaked open. In the moonlight, I saw Mae enter the room. I sat up as she padded silently to my bed. Without speaking, she handed me a key. I frowned as I took it from her hand.

Checking no one was behind her, Mae whispered, “Go out the door, walk directly through the trees, then take a right. He is in the old barn.”

“Mae,” I said almost silently.

Leaning forward, Mae kissed my forehead and helped me from the bed. She handed me a long black sleeveless dress, and I removed my white wedding garment and pulled it on. I slipped my feet into the sandals I had been wearing when I wed Rider. I followed her down the stairs and out of the house.

Turning, I met Mae’s eyes and mouthed, “Thank you.”

Mae smiled and shut the door. I cast my eyes over the darkness surrounding me. I swallowed the unease I felt at being in such a strange, unknown place and rushed to follow the directions Mae had given me, gripping tightly to the key in my hands.