When the lights go down, who knows what danger...and unspoken desires lurk in the dark?
Three young people with a shared tragic past that left them burdened as well as blessed with supernatural talents are now the target of forces determined to harm them. But their fate rests with the strangers that help themâa nurse at a mental hospital, a detective and a small-town librarianâstrangers who must suspend their own disbelief to protect them. In this enthralling trilogy, these fearless, damaged souls are ready to embrace the unfathomable but are wholly unprepared for the passion they find in the arms of a stranger.
Love blooms best when the night falls, doesnât it? Donât miss this scintillating collection of novellas from New York Times bestselling author Megan Hart!
Prologue
Collins Creek
Jed doesnât like the sound of the babies crying. He can hear them even from the other building, wailing inside his head. Heâs too big to be one of them anymore. No more diapers. No more crib. No more giant room that always smells faintly of milk and poo. Now he has his own big bed in the dorm with the other kids, and although he misses his mothers, he knows better than to give in to tears. If you cry here in the dorm, you get a beating.
Instead, he clenches his fists tight at his sides and stares up at the ceiling. His cot is hard and lumpy. The blanket scratches his chin if he pulls it up too high, so he tucks it around his belly. The other kids are sleeping, but Jed canât seem to manage. Thereâs too much noise, too much going on. If he gets up now, he could go to the monitor, who will give him some medicine to sleep, but it makes his head feel fuzzy and his belly hurt. He tries to fall asleep on his own.
Tomorrow is dedication day.
The fathers have been watching them all since they were babies in the nursery. They already know which ones are special. Who will be dedicated, who will be sent away.
This is Jedâs first dedication time, but heâs heard the other kids talking even when theyâre not supposed to. Everyoneâs scared about what happens when youâre sent away. The rumor is that you get put into the big fireplace in the barn and made into smoke, and Jed believes it. Heâs been able to âfeelâ everyone at the farm for as long as he can remember. The kids who get taken away after each dedication, well...he doesnât feel them anymore.
Before heâs even had time to sleep, the lights overhead come on. The other kids shift and squeal, crying out in excitement and fear when the doors to the dorm boom open and the fathers are there in their black robes, their white masks. Itâs supposed to make them all equal, but it doesnât matter to Jed that they all look the same. They all feel different.
The kids are up and in a line, marching into the hallway. One by one, they go into the meeting room. None of them come out. They wonât know until later whoâs still left, though of course, Jed will know before everyone else. Thatâs what he tells the fathers waiting for him in the meeting room when they ask him. He tells them who he can still feel. Who he cannot. They stare at him from behind their white masks, nodding when he points to each and names them.
They feel happy, and that makes Jed feel happy, too. He wonât be burned up into smoke. He gets the special pudding for dessert that makes the world spin around in many colors. He gets to go back to the dorm and his lumpy bed, where he can only lie on his back, laughing and laughing at the funny way everything grows and shrinks.
Heâs still laughing when the doors bang open again. More men in black. No white masks. Guns. They kick over the beds, the monitorâs desk. They shout. Most of them feel angry, though one or two feel more scared than anything else, and none of them feel nice.