Chapter Twenty-Nine
The early morning sky glowed hazy amber, and a cool breeze blew against Dani’s sweat-damp neck as she approached the cabin.
Here in the foothills of Appalachia it truly felt as though summer was at an end and fall was on its way.
Any other moment, she would have gladly taken the time to breathe in the sweet, fresh mountain air and welcome the start of another day.
But at that moment, Dani didn’t have time to smell the roses.
She flexed her grip around the handle of her blade and walked toward the cabin.
Everything she had done for the last twenty-five years led up to this very moment.
Even though she had worked hard in her career, gotten a new name, had her own home and friends, Dani never felt like she had really moved on.
The attack and the murder of her family and friends defined her life in a way that was impossible to shift.
On the outside, she was a functioning adult; inside, she was perpetually a scared eighteen-year-old, ready for the boogeyman to jump out of the shadows and claim her once and for all.
Her natural instincts to run, to hide, to be scared were hard to push aside all those years ago, but not now.
Now she would have her moment of reckoning, her final form crystalized, her blood-splattered cocoon broken free.
She was Dani Spencer.
A blade of vengeance.
Death to the death stalker.
Dani opened the cabin door and spread her wings, prepared at last to meet her fate.