Free Bedeviled by Sable Grace

truly thought Haven had never lied to her about anything. She’d told Kyana she’d grown up in the Smoky Mountains, in a small Tennessee town where all the kids in the county went to the same school and her father had been the local youth minister. Turned out, she’d grown up in a small town about fifteen miles outside Panama City. Once Kyana was able to gather herself, she inhaled deeply. The double-wide reeked of Haven.
    Haven’s lie disturbed Kyana as she drank in the dingy aluminum siding and the weed-filled driveway. Cast in the gray halo of night, there wasn’t even any sun to cheer the dump up. Why had she lied? Kyana didn’t care where Haven had come from. Hell, Kyana knew firsthand that the crap you lived through—or didn’t as had been the case with her—didn’t necessarily have anything to do with who you became. A trailer park in Tennessee or a trailer park in Florida, what did it matter?
    Knowing the truth wouldn’t have changed her love for Haven or made Kyana think less of her because she hadn’t had the perfect childhood. If she hadn’t wanted to talk about it, fine, then avoid the subject the way Kyana did. But why the lies?
    â€œWhy’d they bring us to this place?” Ryker’s voice took her by surprise. She hadn’t realized he’d been following so closely. “Why are we here?”
    She ignored his question and looked around for Silas. He could defend himself should something attack, but he didn’t have the ability to find her that Ryker seemed to.
    â€œYou left him alone?”
    Ryker pointed over his shoulder where Silas was just making his way slowly down the street toward them. “Is this the place you saw in your vision?”
    She took in the sight of the factory looming in the distance just outside the run-down trailer park. Three stories high and covered in red brick, the factory released plumes of gray smoke into the air and stank to high heaven.
    â€œYes. She came home.”
    Feeling the bitterness of Haven’s lie creeping back into her throat, Kyana blew into her whistle twice and set it on the ground, then stepped back to let the dogs return home to rest. They disappeared as one slobbering bundle and she slipped the chain back around her neck.
    â€œThis isn’t her home,” Silas said as he joined them. “She’s shown me pictures of where she grew up, and trust me, this isn’t it.”
    Knowing she wasn’t the only one Haven had lied to didn’t ease the hurt. However, the sound of glass crashing inside put a stop to the speculation. The trio glanced at one another before breaking into a sprint.
    They dashed up the rickety metal steps and ripped open the squeaky screen door just as a full-grown man flew across the room and collided with the wall. He lay slumped there as they pushed their way inside, his eyes wide, his mouth hanging open. Confusion and fear had turned his features into that of an old hound dog’s. Nothing but wrinkles and worry.
    â€œHelp me,” he said, raising his arms to protect his face.
    Kyana followed his horrified gaze to the small, puke-green kitchen, and her heart tumbled somewhere around her knees. Haven glared at her from behind long, knotted hair—her chest heaving, her nails raking into the cabinets over her head. Small splinters of wood rained down on her, coating her head with chips of pea green.
    â€œHaven.” The name fell in a whisper from Kyana’s lips as she moved forward.
    This most certainly was not the same Haven Kyana knew. It wasn’t smiling Haven, offering a friendship Kyana hadn’t wanted ten years ago. Wasn’t the Haven who laughed and flirted with Geoffrey, who wanted that relationship to go further and was too afraid to make it happen. Wasn’t the same Haven who sat cross-legged in front of the fire at Solstice, sipping cider wine and wrapping presents she’d been shopping weeks for.
    No. This