by Eve Langlais
Kane’s mother saying, “Let her in. It’s cold outside.”
27
I couldn’t help but cast glances at Kane’s mom, perched on the couch across from me, Orville by her side, holding her hand. She looked younger than I recalled. She had to be in her sixties at the youngest, more likely her seventies. But since the last time I’d seen her, her skin appeared smoother, her ears more pointed, and her demeanor definitely softer. She leaned into the stocky Orville, who wore comfortable slacks and a dark sweater. He had a hand on Kane’s mom, offering comfort. Such a nice guy.
I couldn’t help but hear Queen singing in my head, “Another One Bites the Dust.” One by one, the people I’d counted on left me. The only thing I could rely on? Bacon, but that salty goodness could only keep a girl happy for so long.
When the silence stretched, it was as if I had awkward gremlins inside. I swear they made me blurt out, “I’m sorry about Kane.” Way to be sensitive. Remind her about her dead son. I didn’t even want to imagine the agony she was in. As it was, saying those words had my lips wobbling and my eyes watering.
“I highly doubt you’re sorry.” She sniffed. “Especially since everything that’s happened to him is your fault.”
“You can’t entirely blame her, Veronica.” The word held a hint of warning.
Veronica sniffed. “I will blame her because he wasn’t supposed to be with her that night.”
“A moose stepped onto the road. It was an accident.” I couldn’t shut up.
“I highly doubt that. Admit it, you killed him.”
“Whoa, lady. That’s quite the accusation. Why would I kill Kane? Hell, why would I kill anyone?” If my ex and all his vitriol couldn’t get me to snap, why would I go off on Kane?
“Everyone knows he must have forced you into that car. You were supposed to be with Leviathan at midnight.”
“Who is Leviathan? Are you talking about Darryl? I dumped him for being an asshole.” No point in hiding it. “Kane was taking me home.”
“You went willingly?” She sounded baffled.
I’d been willing both times, but I didn’t think it prudent to mention that. “Kane was my rescuer.”
“So why did you try to escape him?”
“I didn’t. There really was a moose.”
“Doesn’t matter now. Because of you, he won’t get to see the dawning of the next era.”
“The dawning of what?”
As if suddenly realizing she’d said too much, Veronica offered me a cool smile. “I think I’m done talking to my son’s murderer.”
The words jabbed me. Poked me. I dug my nails into my palms, and I could have sworn the temperature in the room dropped.
“Don’t you ply your witch tricks in here.”
“What do you mean?” I asked on a frosted breath.
“Do something,” Veronica hissed.
Orville slashed the air with his hand, and I saw the mark he created for a moment as it flashed to existence then faded. I could feel it working, fighting back against the chill.
The room returned to its previous warmth.
“How did you do that?”
“You’re not the only one with magic. And I wouldn’t recommend trying to use it against me.” Orville stated flatly.
I shivered. “I didn’t come here to cause trouble.”
“And yet here you are. Were you hoping for a piece of my son’s funeral cake?” Veronica spat.
I would have killed for some cake, extra icing, but I suspected Veronica would add poison if she offered it. “I should go.”
“Yes, I think you should. Go home and hide. Or do as your grandmother did and try to fight us. We all know how that ended for her,” Veronica snapped.
Did she just imply...? Surely, she hadn’t.
With a pop, the frigid cold burst in and, on a breath that dropped icy daggers with each vowel, I said, “Did you kill my grandma?”
“Not us,” Veronica hissed. “But we would have. She lied. She said she was the last, but then it turned out there was you. Can you believe she hid you? Hid you for a while even after her death. We only realized the lie when someone noticed the cottage hadn’t fallen into disrepair.”
“What’s the cottage have to do with anything?”
“Your family is what keeps it alive.”
I shook my head. “No, the sigils do.”
She snorted. “Those are just marks if you don’t pour magic into them.”
I almost asked, whose magic, only to know the answer in that same instant. My magic.
“Once we realized someone in your family still lived, we started searching for you and ran into difficulty tracking you down. Your grandmother was quite the sorceress.”
“But you did find me.” I remembered the letters reminding me of the cottage. “Your family company tried to have me sell the cottage.”
“We hoped to remind you of its existence and convince you to return. We knew our efforts paid off when the watcher saw the house waken.”
“It knew I was coming,” I muttered aloud.
“And we knew we had a chance.”
“A chance to what?”
Veronica’s chin lifted. “To take back that which was stolen from us. To once more touch the source of our magic.”
“You can’t do magic?”
Her lips turned down. “Only the original eleven can. But soon that which was taken will be returned.”
It sounded like something out of a fantasy novel. The thing that didn’t fit? Usually crazy quests happened to moody teenagers, not middle-aged women.
“Why are you telling me this?” Why now when I’d been asking for answers pretty much since my arrival?
“Why not?” She shrugged.
I tried to make sense of it. “How do I fit in this? Is this about the fact I wouldn’t sell you my cottage?” Did they need to own all the property around the lake to conduct a weird ritual?
“Don’t bother explaining,” Orville interjected. “She’s clueless. I told you, Irma didn’t prepare her at all.” Irma being my grandma.
“How could she not have taught her? Even after her death, her magic kept so much hidden from us. Why go through that trouble and not prepare her heir?” Veronica eyed me as if she could see the answer in my face.
The epiphany emerged when I whispered, “She didn’t teach me to be a witch because of my mom.” Maybe Grandma feared I’d turn out to be crazy too.
The good news, I never tried to kill my kids. Doing better than her already at the mom thing.
“My grandma wanted me to have as normal of a life as possible. It’s why she sent me off to college.” I remembered the extra-long hug. The promise to visit often.
I hadn’t meant to break it.
“In the end, even her magic couldn’t fight fate. You returned, and now our work will bear fruit.” Veronica couldn’t have sounded more like a villain if she tried.
“What kind of fruit? What exactly are you all waiting for? And who is this we? Is the whole town involved?” Veronica and Orville reminded me of the Rapture people. Anytime, anyplace, they were ready to go.
Veronica stared at me as if astonished. “Your ignorance is astounding. Do you know any of your history at all?”
I remembered the stories my grandma told me of some heroes. “Are you a Maed’doulain’a?” The strange word swirled sinuously off my tongue, a name for ancient heroes who battled an evil power. But in the end, the Maed’doulain’a conquered and hid the power so that the bad guys could never use it again.
“A Maed’doulain’a ?” Her laughter rang like a trill of songbirds. “Never.”
I said the word I’d heard most bandied around. “Orcs.”
At her sour expression, Orville stirred. “You’ve just insulted my people saying it like that. Our true name is Orgh’kks.”
I blinked. Sounded the same to me. “And what makes orkus”—“I deliberately skewed it—“different from so-called humans?” Other than the fact Orville definitely had a ghos
tly silhouette with pointy ears that poked from his hair. Veronica appeared one hundred percent human bitch. But inside? Definitely part troll.
“The Orgh’kks are a people who came here accidentally from another dimension and were stranded,” Orville stated. Apparently, he was finally willing to talk.
My eyes widened. “Aliens.”
Veronica took offense. “We are descended from superior beings.”
“Says you. How diluted is that bloodline? Or is this a case of sibling intermarriage?”
Her jaw dropped, and she was indignant. “We’ve done an excellent job preserving our lines without familial ties. We might be small in number, but we are highly placed around the world.”
“If you’re so important, then why all this interest in a small town? You can’t tell me the lake mud is that special.” I’d been making pottery with it for weeks and couldn’t say I’d noticed any of the so-called health benefits.
“That mud contains something very precious. Which, when the time is right, will return us to our former grandeur.”
Was it me, or did Orville roll his eyes? “Does this have anything to do with Maddy?”
Veronica’s nose wrinkled. “The guardian? I thought that thing was dead.”
The reminder hit me in the gut. “She was guarding the mud? Why?”
Rather than reply, Veronica went off on another tangent. “Did you know, the moment you arrived at the cottage, there was a scramble to find bodies suitable for hosts so the Eleven could get close to you?” Veronica declared.
That went deeply crooked. “Hold on, a second. When you says hosts, are you talking about possessing people?”
“The correct term is owning,” Orville said.
I glanced at him. “That sounds even worse.”
Veronica’s smile deepened. “Actually, it’s a great honor. Imagine my pride when my son was chosen as one of the vessels. Elevated above all others, honoring our family until you killed him,” she spat.
Orville put his hand on hers. “He didn’t die in vain. I promise, the next honor will be coming to you.” They gave each other a sappy gaze that almost made me gag.
Was everyone in love? Way to rub it in.
“What do you mean by vessel?” I asked before they started making out.
“A vessel is a willing body given over to one of the ruling eleven,” she explained.
It didn’t make it clearer. “Are you saying Kane has the soul of some dead guy inside him?”
“A simplistic summary at best.”
“But true. Kane does have some kind of ghost inside him.” Or was it more like a demon? After all they usually possessed people. Someone fetch a priest and some holy water.
“Kane was blessed by one of eleven.”
I didn’t like her use of the past tense. “Eleven what? Demons from another dimension?”
“The Eleven are what’s left of the originals who were stranded here, who seeded the Orgh’kks line by mixing our blood with those already living in this dimension. They are the spirits of our rulers. Passed down amongst our kind so that their knowledge is not lost.”
It was as if a light bulb went off, and I suddenly understood. It was in a story my grandma told me, except it was seventeen demons, not eleven, who broke out of hell and caused chaos on Earth. Fornicating and seeding the world with minions. It was up to the heroes to wipe them out because only when all the minions died would the demons die too.
Seventeen minus eleven meant six down, too many to go and one of them in the room with me. Orville was definitely wearing a demon. Veronica wasn’t, however there was no doubting the fact she hoped she’d be chosen as a vessel. Meaning there were at least ten more out there, wearing bodies, owning people who didn’t deserve to lose their identity. We were going to need tankers of holy water.
“Why did your eleven demon ghosts want to get close to me?” Because I’d not forgotten what Veronica said.
“Your ignorance is stunning. And I tire of explaining. Begone.” Veronica waved, but I was just getting started.
“You can’t stop talking now.” Not when I was finally getting answers. “What is the end game here? Why are the Orgh’kks invading Cambden? Is the whole town possessed?”
“Those not descended of the Orgh’kks were encouraged to leave. Those that wouldn’t depart, or could be used, became hosts.” Veronica smiled at Orville and a shiver went through me as I realized these eleven demon spirits could jump into anyone.
“All the new people moving into town, they’re Orgh’kks?” I struggled with the pronunciation. Veronica nodded. “Why here?”
“They have come to see the return of our power.” Orville stepped in.
“How did you lose it in the first place?” I tapped my chin, only it wasn’t hard to see where this conversation would lead. “Let me guess. A great, great relative of mine didn’t like how the Orgh’kks used their power or magic or whatever and hid it from you. I can see how they might have come to that conclusion given you have real asshole tendencies.” Yeah, it felt good to say it.
Judging by Veronica’s gnashing teeth, she didn’t enjoy it as much. “We will take back our magic.”
“Not sure that’s a good idea.” Because I was fairly sure they had a good reason to act as they did. Genocide and dictatorial attitudes came to mind.
“The source is ours.” When Veronica appeared as if she’d launch from the couch, Orville held her back, murmuring, “Patience. It won’t be long now before she’s nothing and we reign supreme.”
“I would have preferred she die in the crash instead of my son.” Veronica proved blunt, and it worried me.
In the movies, there was one thing I knew. When the bad guys stopped hiding, it was because they thought they’d won. Veronica and Orville no longer cared what I knew, meaning either there was no escape or it was happening too soon for me to do anything about it.
Leaving me with two choices: run now, as far as I could to try and escape, or stop whatever it was from happening. Running hadn’t worked thus far, so I chose to get answers.
I snapped my fingers. “Returning to the body snatchers, you said one of them took over Kane. Which is horrible, by the way. He’s your son.”
Veronica’s chin lifted. “He did it willingly. It is considered an honor among the Orgh’kks.”
“How much of Kane was left behind?” Or was the man I’d met all demon?
“All of him, but with improvement.”
So the man I’d flirted with was the demon and man. “What happens if the body dies?”
“The body dies.”
“And the parasite leeching on to it?” Because if it was passed down, then it would have jumped to a new host.
“Would have jumped to a new host that hasn’t made himself known yet. And it could be he’s not even a he anymore. The eleven choose the shape that suits them best.” Veronica sounded nonchalant about it.
“If they can choose, then why Orville and not you? Rich woman with tons of power and yet he’s the one with a demon inside.” I pointed out.
That brought a slow smile to Orville’s lips. “This new host was a step down from my previous one.”
“Who were you before you took over Orville?” I asked.
“A man with a position in government, high enough to shift laws.”
“And you dumped it to become a short order cook?” I was confused.
“He suited my needs, although, I’ve had to shift my vessel’s mindset quite a bit. He wasn’t happy to share the body.”
“Is Orville still inside?”
“He is now a part of me, sharing all his knowledge and abilities. And when I move vessels, he’ll move with me.”
“Meaning whoever got Kane’s demon spirit, will also have Kane.” This all seemed wild, and yet I knew it to be true. Which again made me think of the movies. Was everything in life comparable to a show? “Why are you telling me all this?”
“Because it soon won’t matter.” Veronica gestured. “You’re not your gra
ndmother. You don’t know how to stop us. And if you tried, we’d remove you and use the next heir. After all we made sure you had two.”
Those were heart attack words, but I’m glad to say I remained alive but not well. Not well at all. “Pretty sure you had nothing to do with my babies.” I remembered pushing them out all too well.
Veronica’s expression turned sly. “Did you know Martin was sterile?”
The query out of the blue threw me. “No, he wasn’t.” Geoff was proof, even if I wasn’t sure about Winnie anymore.
“Neither of your children was fathered by him. Best we can tell he was sterilized by magic. Didn’t your grandmother’s recipe book have a spell for that?”
I wanted to say impossible. She’d never do that.
Only I was beginning to see there were lots of things I didn’t know.
Veronica clapped her hands and laughed. “Oh my. Yet more surprises. Imagine ours when we discovered one of the eleven accidentally found you and ensured you had heirs.”
“Who?” I could barely say it.
“Berith. He made sure you got impregnated, twice. He used two different Orgh’kks to do it and then hid your existence from us for the longest time. Kept an eye on you via a spell he placed on your husband.”
It made me think of some of Martin’s journal entries about feeling watched. They made a lot more sense now. “He’s the reason Martin went crazy.”
“The seed of his insanity already lingered inside.”
“But this Berith triggered it. You pushed him off the edge and made him hate me. Our kids.” I reeled at the strange fount of information. “You people have been manipulating me almost my entire life.”
“Haven’t you grasped the truth yet? We’ll do anything to unlock our magic and rule the world.”
28
Nothing like having your whole worldview blown apart, making you question everything.
Neither kid belonged to Martin. I’d stayed in a loveless marriage for the wrong reasons.
I left Orville and his cackling lover, feeling worse than ever. I had gone for moral support from a friend and discovered more enemies, more questions, and more danger.