“I’m here for you,” I say, my voice pitched so only she can hear. “But I have to know one thing first. Did you always plan for me to be the tithe?” Her brows lift; her mouth is soft and unhappy. “Yes, Janneth,” she answers as quietly as I asked. “From the moment I accepted your bargain. The long year of watching you and wanting you…falling in love with you. I knew what you’d be marked for. What I’d do to you.”
