Chapter 93

The voice was high-pitched, clear. It sliced through the tension like someone’d just popped a balloon in a silent church. Ashton’s head snapped around. The kid couldn’t have been more than seven. She wore a daffodil-yellow dress speckled with tiny white blossoms and had pigtails so neatly braided they looked vacuum-sealed. She looked right back at him, completely unbothered by the fact that every single adult was now gaping at her. A woman bolted to her side and slapped a hand gently over the girl’s mouth. ‘Don’t talk nonsense, Freya,’ the woman hissed, frantic. ‘You don’t know anything.’ She forced a shaky smile in Ashton’s direction. ‘She’s just a kid. She doesn’t understand—’ ‘Let her finish,’ Ashton said. The woman’s lips kept twitching like she wanted to protest, but all she could do was shut up and move to the side. Freya jabbed a finger straight at Isobel. ‘I was playing out back just now. I saw you talking to that pretty lady, but she didn’t wanna talk to you. She tried to leav