Every protection the house had was pointed outward.

She had spent eleven years trusting those outward-facing locks.

Now she understood that they had been guarding the wrong direction the entire time, and that somewhere within the walls she had thought so safe, something had been making itself at home.

Chapter 7 — The Infirmarian’s Fear

Sister Soledad, who ran the infirmary, came to her that evening and offered, as she always did, to prepare a calming infusion to help Amparo sleep.

“You will give her nothing,” Inmaculada said.

“From tonight, no sister in this house takes any medicine, any infusion, any drop of anything, without Dr.