***

Mercy ushered them to the house’s greatroom, where Deborah’s parents were waiting. The chamber was dark despite the hour, the undrawn curtains only admitting slim shafts of sunlight.

This room, this house, has always been in shadow.

As they always did when she returned home, childhood memories assailed her. Many of them were unwelcome: the many moments of her father’s disapproval and disappointment in her, and her pious mother’s silence in the face of his wrath.

Deborah pushed the thoughts away as she had so many times before. She saw her father standing before the massive fireplace that dominated one wall of the greatroom. Enoch Zane looked up from the fire burning in the hearth. The roaring flames cast a hellish dance of light and shadow across the ma...

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