It was a stalemate. It was a bluff. There was no Sworn, no plan in place, because when it came down to it, they needed my silence more than they needed to kill my gramps, and I needed my gramps more than I needed to keep my mouth shut—at least that’s what they needed to believe. But the truth was, if they called my bluff, then we were fucked.
I’d been raised to protect the mortal realm, to protect the supernaturals from the humans, and we couldn’t do that without the Demonica influences on this plane. Gramps had raised me to put the needs of my people before my own.
But they couldn’t know that.
I lifted my chin. “My gramps is my world. How much do you care about your world?”
Carmichael nodded slowly. “I’ll lift the house arrest, and you’ll have a pardon within the hour.”
“Carmichael!” Faraday protested.
“No,” Carmichael said. “We’re done.” He stood and locked gazes with me. “Sending you to retrieve that book was no easy decision, Kat. There are forces at play that you can’t understand. I just hope that your decision today hasn’t doomed us all.”
* * *
Karishma pulled up outside my family home and cut the engine. “Call me when you’re done here, and I’ll drive you back to Scorchwood.”
“Thanks for picking me up earlier.”
“Anytime. You made the right call leaving Henri and Tris behind. If things had gone sour, the council could have confiscated them.” She sucked in her bottom lip. “Were you serious about setting Henri free?”
“Yes, of course.”
She nodded slowly. “In that case, I have the script needed to do that. I found it yesterday, but Kat, you should know that setting him free removes all and any attachments he may have to you. He may not be the same golem you remember once it’s done.”
Henri’s tormented face, his confusion, his cocktail of emotions filled my head. He was in pain, and I had to help him.
“I understand.”
“Okay, then go see your gramps, and call me when you’re done.”
I leaned in and gave her a one-armed hug. “Thank you. I couldn’t have pulled this off without you.”
She shrugged. “I know. But hey, that’s what friends are for, right?”
My throat grew tight. “Yeah. Yeah, that’s what friends are for.”
I exited the car and crunched up the drive to the house, but by the time I hit the porch, I was ready to run.
Gramps turned to face me as I shot into the library, and then my arms were around him, and I was breathing in the pipe smoke scent that always hung around him. My eyes pricked and burned, and the urge to sob into his shirt swelled inside me. He was okay. He was alive, and he was going to stay that way.
“Kat. Kat.” He gripped my shoulders and pushed me away. “You didn’t do it. Please, tell me you didn’t.”
I swallowed the lump in my throat. “I didn’t, Gramps. I didn’t.”
His shoulders relaxed, and then he pulled me into his arms. “That’s my girl. I can leave this earthly plane in peace now.”
Shit, he probably thought my failing meant he was going to die. “Um, Gramps.” I pulled the Sworn from my pocket and handed it to him.
He unrolled it and read it. “Kat, I don’t understand.”
“How about you ring for some tea and cake, and I’ll explain it all to you. I’ve got a ton to catch you up on.”
* * *
“The shimmer man…” Gramps rubbed a hand over his face. “He’s found a way to get to you…”
“You knew about him. Is that why you had Tris made? To stop me dreaming?”
He placed his teacup on the table between us. “You started dreaming about the shimmer man when you were six years old. You’d tell the most imaginative tales about your adventures. At first, I didn’t think much of it, but as the year went on and your dreams didn’t change, I began to get concerned. Were you really dreaming about the same man and the same place, or were you making up stories? I spoke to Vinod about it, and he did some research and discovered that this shimmer man was an urban myth. A creature that tales had been told about for over a century.”
“So, you had Tris made to stop me from dreaming.”
His eyes darkened. “No. That wasn’t what prompted that decision. I made that call after the nightmare.”
“Nightmare?”
“You awoke screaming, babbling about the sleeping lady and how the shimmer man was hurting her. You told me she gave you a message for me.” His throat bobbed. “My secret heart mustn’t dream.”
“I don’t understand…what sleeping lady and what secret?”
His smile was sad. “Before we brought Tris to you, before Vinod helped you to forget, you would call your mother the sleeping lady. That’s all she was to you. The woman who never woke up.” He sighed. “When she was pregnant with you, when I demanded to know who the father was and she refused to tell me, she would call you her secret heart. That was her nickname for you. Secret Heart.”
Gooseflesh broke out across my skin. “Oh God. That means…he has her. He has my mother.”
Gramps pressed his lips together. “Your mother only held you once after you were born. She fell into the never-ending sleep the day after. Vinod did tests, using the weave to try and penetrate her subconscious again and again, but we were never able to make a connection. Never able to wake her or communicate with her. We tried again after your nightmare, but with no luck. I had to accept that I couldn’t save my daughter. But I could save you.”
“So, you knew he was real?”
“Yes. I just hoped you’d never have to find out.”
How long had it been since I’d seen her? Since I’d sat with her, and read to her. My eyes pricked. Too long. I was a fucking crappy daughter. “I need to see her.”
“I’m sorry, sweetheart, I had her moved to a care facility a few months ago. It’s a wonderful place in the countryside. The feyblood who was caring for your mother got offered a position there, and I couldn’t find anyone else I could trust to care for your mother.”
“Could I have the address?”
He got up and grabbed something off his desk. A business card. “Here you are.”
“Honey Cottage. It sounds idyllic.”
“I’ll let them know you might visit.”
No. Visiting the care home wouldn’t do anything, because all they had was a shell. The shimmer man had my mother. The bastard had her. There had to be a way to get her back. I just needed to find it.
Chapter Nineteen
Karishma stood between Henri and me, her trusty notebook clutched in her hand. “Are you ready?”
Henri’s baby blues were fixed on my face, hot and yearning. “Are you sure about this? You don’t have to do this.”
My smile was shaky. “Yeah. Yeah, I do.”
Karishma nodded and pressed her enchanted quill to Henri’s chest. This time she used actual ink, some kind of squid ink I’d never heard of, and the rune she drew was intricate and beautiful.
She stepped back after applying the final stroke, placed her hand over the marking, and uttered the words needed to activate it. The area around her hand began to glow, and my insides quivered. It was happening. The unbinding was happening.
Henri scanned my face, and then pain shot down my body from head to foot. It was so sudden and sharp it stole my breath, leaving me unable to scream.
“Done,” Karishma said.
I don’t know what I was expecting. Lights, fireworks, some kind of broken, shattered feeling, but the absence of anything wasn’t it. My body was numb, empty, and when I looked up into Henri’s eyes, the heat that had burned there a moment ago was gone.
* * *
I crawled into bed and pulled the covers up over me. Henri was free. A golem, but free. Gramps was safe, and the shimmer man couldn’t get to me. But my mother was out there, her soul tethered to a sleeping body. Trapped by the shimmer man. Yet he hadn’t used her as a bargaining chip to get what he wanted from me. Karishma w
as certain it suggested he no longer had my mother in his clutches. So, where was she? What had become of her?
A wave of melancholy washed over me. A surge of despondency that made my eyes burn.
Tris climbed up onto the pillow beside me with a romance novel clutched in her hand. “You’ve been through a lot the past couple of weeks, this is just the adrenaline dip.”
“You think?”
“I know.” She smiled. “We may not be able to help your mother right now. But if anyone can find a way, it’s Karishma. In the meantime, tomorrow will be a new day, a new case will probably fall into our laps, and we’ll be busy thwarting the next mini threat.”
She had a point. “And don’t forget there’s Lex in the dungeon. We still haven’t dealt with the Custodians.”
“Or there could be something even worse waiting to roll into town.”
Hope bloomed in my chest. Actual hope. I was excited about having monsters to fight.
“Tris, I’m messed up, aren’t I?”
She laughed softly. “No, chickie. You’re a fighter. That’s who you are, that’s your purpose, and when there’s a slump, you begin to question yourself. It’s natural. It’s normal. It’s why you need a hobby to ride you through the quiet times.”
I arched a brow at her. “Like reading?”
She held up the paperback with the smooth man chest on it. “You could do worse. You want me to read to you?”
Fuck it. “Sure, why not.” I closed my eyes.
Tris cleared her throat. “He unlaced his britches and pulled out his huge, throbbing—”
“Nope. Bad idea.”
She sniffed. “Yes, yes, you’re probably right.” She placed an unread paperback on my chest. “Do not tell me what happens.”
Sod it. I cracked it open and began to read.
* * *
I woke to the sound of a door closing. For a moment, my body refused to cooperate as sleep held me immobile, and then I rolled onto my side to stare at the clock. Two in the morning. My vision blurred and then came back into focus to find a white envelope propped against the bedside lamp. My name was on it in a script I didn’t recognize.
Well, this was new. Love note, perchance? But my stomach was doing a twisty thing, and then the sound of an engine starting outside registered and had my heart sinking because I knew. I knew even before opening the damn letter.
Kat,
Thank you. Thank you for setting me free. I planned to stay. To be your partner on my own terms, but I can’t do that. Not until I know what I am. Not until I know who I am without you. I need to find my place in this world, and I need to do that alone.
Good Hunting, Kat.
Until we meet again,
Henri
The emptiness inside me yawned wider around my aching heart. I folded up the note and dropped it back on the nightstand. He was gone, and hell, somewhere deep down inside, I’d known he’d leave. I’d known, and I’d prepared, which was why the tears didn’t come. Instead, there was a stubborn calm that pulled me out of bed and wrapped me in my robe and slippers. It carried me down the stairs and to the basement doors. It took me down into the dungeons and placed me outside Bres’s room.
The door was open, and Bres was lying on his cot with a book.
He sat up at the sight of me. “Kat?”
I walked in and stood hands on hips. “I’ve got a few hours to kill before sunset.”
“Oh?” He smirked. “What did you have in mind?”
I gave him my sweetest smile. “Fancy a game of chess?”
To be continued…
Join Kat as she continues her adventures in Ghost at the Feast
Grab it HERE
Other books by Debbie Cassidy
The Gatekeeper Chronicles
Coauthored with Jasmine Walt
Marked by Sin
Hunted by Sin
Claimed by Sin
The Witch Blood Chronicles
(Spin-off to the Gatekeeper Chronicles)
Binding Magick
Defying Magick
Embracing Magick
Unleashing Magick
The Fearless Destiny Series
Beyond Everlight
Into Evernight
Under Twilight
The Chronicles of Midnight
Protector of Midnight
Champion of Midnight
Secrets of Midnight
Shades of Midnight
Savior of Midnight
Chronicles of Arcana
City of Demons
City of the Lost
City of Everdark
City of War
For the Blood
For the Blood
For the Power
For the Reign
For the Hunt (novella)
Heart of Darkness
Captive of Darkness
Bane of Winter
Fate’s Destiny
Deadworld
Deadworld
Dead City
Dead Sea
Dead End
The Nightwatch Academy
Shadow Caster
Shadow Weaver
Shadow Warrior
Shadow Master
The Nightwatch Series
Ghost of a Chance
Give up the Ghost
Ghost at the Feast
Lay the Ghost
Survivor’s Heart (Planet Athion world)
Novellas
Rogue
Rebel
Survivor
Standalone Novellas
Blood Blade
About the Author
Debbie Cassidy lives in England, Bedfordshire, with her three kids and very supportive husband. Coffee and chocolate biscuits are her writing fuels of choice, and she is still working on getting that perfect tower of solitude built in her back garden. Obsessed with building new worlds and reading about them, she spends her spare time daydreaming and conversing with the characters in her head – in a totally non psychotic way of course. She writes High Fantasy, Urban Fantasy, Space Fantasy, and Reverse Harem. Connect with Debbie via her website at debbiecassidyauthor.com or twitter @authordcassidy. Join her Facebook Reader Group, or sign up to her Newsletter to stay on top of the new releases.
Give Up the Ghost: The Nightwatch Series Book 2 Page 16