“I don’t think it’s a good idea,” he said, and my heart sank. “Carolyn wouldn’t be comfortable.”
Triskel groaned and opened her mouth to protest, but I shook my head. “Cut it.” I glared back at her, and she fell silent instantly.
“I need to know if the danger is an immediate threat.” I stared up at the darkened house. I didn’t really know Carolyn, but Merry and I had a connection. The thought of anything happening to her filled me with panic and fear.
“Right now,” Grey said, “no. Well, as far as I know anyway. And,” he continued before I could interrupt him, “you don’t need to worry about me telling anyone they’re here. My lips are sealed.”
I nodded and pushed the car door open, the overhead light flickering to life and illuminating Grey’s exhausted eyes. Driving home while he was so tired seemed like a bad idea on so many fronts.
“Look, you did a major working tonight. I’ve got a couch you can crash on if you want it, but I won’t force you to stay.” I let out the breath I’d been holding and kept my gaze trained on the gravel beneath my boots. It was easier to deal with disappointment when you had something to concentrate on.
“Maybe a couple of hours wouldn’t hurt,” he said. “At least this way we can leave early and catch Antony as soon as he gets into the office.”
I kept my smile hidden, choosing instead to shrug, as though his decision to stay hadn’t just caused my heart to leap into my throat.
“Yeah, great,” I said as non-committedly as I could manage.
Triskel groaned and climbed from the car. “You guys are pathetic.” She threw the statement back over her shoulder with a flick of her dark hair.
The moment she was clear of the car, I started to laugh, and Grey quickly joined me. Maybe she was right, but even so, I certainly wasn’t going to let her know that.
I got Triskel set up as quickly as I could in the bedroom on the opposite side of the house from where I knew Carolyn and Merry slept. No sooner had I passed her the spare blankets I kept in the airing cupboard than she had slammed the bedroom door in my face, the sound echoing through the house.
As the silence settled back into the house, I paused on the top of the stairs, listening for any sign that Carolyn was awake. But even the ghosts were quiet.
I tiptoed back to the kitchen, where I’d left Grey. He was slumped over the table, his head on his folded arms, and the sound of his light snores made my heart ache.
He looked so peaceful, but I knew he couldn’t possibly be comfortable. Approaching him gently, I brushed my hand over his hair, pushing the dark strands from his face. The serious expression he wore when he was awake was smoothed out when he slept, making him look much younger. But that was one of the perks of being a druid: you could live for hundreds of years, maybe even a thousand, and not look a day over thirty-five.
Did Grey consider that to be a gift? I’d never asked him. I wasn’t convinced that my immortality was a gift, but then that was the difference between us. Grey could die. If he was wounded badly enough, his life would draw to a close; no amount of magic could cure a mortal wound. If he taxed himself where his magic was concerned, especially as he’d chosen to eschew human sacrifice as his means of ritual, the life would drain from him.
I, on the other hand, always imagined myself to be more like a rechargeable battery. The creature had drained the life from me, and yet my heart had not stopped beating completely. I’d woken the next morning, stiff, cold, and with the knowledge that I had died, but my magic brought me back.
Gently tugging Grey’s arm over my shoulder, I helped him up from the table and half-walked, half-carried him to the large couch that sat mostly untouched. Up until yesterday, I’d left the dust cover on it, but Carolyn had removed it so Merry could sit on it.
“I missed you, Jenn,” Grey mumbled in his sleep, the words barely recognisable.
“I missed you too,” I whispered as I helped him onto the couch and tugged off his boots. Sliding his legs up onto the couch, Grey rolled over and mumbled again. I leaned in a little closer in an attempt to understand him.
“Cheeseburgers don’t need rabbit food,” he muttered before he snorted and his breathing deepened once more. Trust Grey to dream of cheeseburgers and his hatred for salad. Or at least I assumed that was what he meant. He’d certainly told me often enough about his dislike for ‘rabbit food,’ as he dubbed it.
A gentle tapping on the back door caught my ear, and I froze. When I heard it again, I was on my feet, blade in hand, in an instant. Flicking off the kitchen lights, I tried to see out through the windows.
Whoever or whatever was outside at this time of night couldn’t be good. The noise came again, but from the kitchen it sounded much more like scratching on the back door rather than tapping.
Creeping to the window next to the sink, I peered out into the darkness. But the window was opaque, making it impossible to see anything beyond the hint of my own reflection in the glass.
I let out a slow breath and reached across the back door to the light switch. I flicked it upwards, and light flooded the small yard outside the door. I scanned the area, and while everything looked normal, my heart continued to beat a tattoo into my chest.
I was losing my mind. Jumping at shadows and freaking out over tiny sounds that were probably just mice. Out here in the country, small rodents were an issue. You could always get a cat?
As soon as that thought popped into my head, I pushed it away. No way was I getting a cat. I could barely look after myself, and now my house was full of people I needed to protect. The last thing I should add to that was even more responsibility.
Flicking off the light, I kept the blade in my hand as I made my way through the house, checking the doors and windows, ensuring each one was locked. Not to mention I had the wards that kept anything supernatural out, except for the ghosts, who had been here from the start. I imagined they would still be there long after I had moved on.
I slipped my blade back into its sheath as I made a beeline for my bedroom and came face-to-face with Merry. She stood in her doorway, her long nightgown brushing her toes, her blonde hair a curly mass. She scrubbed at her eyes, and when she raised her face to mine, I could see the mark from the pillow creasing her cheek.
“Friend,” she said happily, before she yawned. She crossed the floor toward me, and before I could move, she’d locked her arms around my waist, pressing her face against my stomach and hugging me hard enough to knock the wind out of me with a small grunt.
“Merry, you should be in bed,” I said, holding still for a second, unsure if I should hug her back. It wasn’t exactly something I was used to doing.
But then a wave of warmth and love washed over me, and I closed my arms around her.
“Love friend,” she murmured. “Worry about friend.” Her words caused an ache inside me.
I wasn’t used to hugs, and I definitely wasn’t used to having someone at home who worried about me.
“I’m here now,” I said. “Safe.”
Merry looked up at me, her blue eyes swimming with tears. “Safe,” she echoed, and I knew that, for her, the word meant much more than I’d intended.
Untangling her arms, I crouched down in front of her and cupped her ruddy cheeks in my hands. Her skin was soft and warm, and she smelled faintly of cookies, bringing a smile to my lips.
“Here, Merry, you are safe,” I said. It was silly to make promises, especially when life had shown me there were definitely no guarantees, but with her, it was vital. I wanted her to know I would keep her safe, or at the very least I would die trying. That thought hit me out of the blue. I barely knew this child, and yet here I was thinking about laying down my life to keep her safe.
Deep down, I knew I felt that way in part because of her power, but there was also so much more to it than that. Something in Merry called out to me, an innocence that I had to protect no matter the cost.
She was important—to her mother, to me, to the world. I knew that deep
in my soul, and it was a knowledge worth fighting for. No matter what it took.
“I promise I will keep you safe.” I had no idea if she completely understood me, but the happy intelligence in her eyes told me she believed me. Trusted me.
She wrapped her arms around my neck and gave me a long hug before releasing me with a giggle and racing back toward her bedroom. She paused in the doorway and looked back at me, throwing a kiss in my direction with wild abandon. I mimed catching it and placing it in my pocket, and Merry’s giggles filtered through the house as she disappeared into the bedroom and slammed the door behind her.
Pushing back onto my feet, I headed wearily for my own bedroom. The sheets were still rumpled from earlier, but that felt like a lifetime ago. After stripping off my clothes, I climbed beneath the covers and fell into a fitful sleep.
Chapter 24
I dreamt that something was pinning me in place, a darkness that held my arms close to my body and pressed its face against my ear, muttering words I couldn’t quite understand. My brain settled on Kypherous; it could be no one else.
Struggling against him, I tried to free my arms, but his grip was too strong. Panic swelled in my chest, solidifying the air in my lungs, making each breath harder than the one before it.
I kicked and thrashed with my legs, but it was no use. His dark form sat high on my chest as his tongue, wet and warm, slithered up over my cheek toward my eye.
I awoke with a start, the warm dampness cooling on my cheek.
The man above me paused, his body silhouetted in the light from the window.
Not a dream.
Kypherous was here.
I tried to raise my arms, but he had pinned them to my sides with his weight. In the darkness, I couldn’t make out his face.
The panic I’d felt in the dream slammed into me once more. Power flared in my veins and spread to my eyes.
He couldn’t be here. I’d killed him, just as I would kill whoever was sitting on my chest.
“Move or die,” I said, my voice hoarse with fear, and I inwardly cringed at the emotion bleeding into my words. I’d sworn I would never again feel so afraid, so helpless.
He laughed. But it wasn’t Kypherous’s laugh. The sound was familiar, though, and I scrambled to place it.
“I didn’t think the great Jenna Faith would be so easily subdued,” he said, leaning down toward me. His eyes were masked in darkness, but the light within them was as familiar as the voice.
“Alex?” I said in disbelief. He was dead. I’d seen him in the cave, the rats feasting on his flesh.
“Who’s Ky-for-us,” he said, sounding out the name phonetically.
“Get off me,” I growled, bucking against him, which only made him laugh a little harder.
“Easy, tiger,” he said. “I was only getting a little payback for you tossing me on my ass in Ireland… and, of course, leaving me to die in the caves.” He paused and pressed his face in against my ear the way a lover might. “That really wasn’t nice, you know.”
I pressed my head back into the soft pillow as far as I could and then snapped my neck forward. My forehead connected with his nose with a resounding crack, sending him tumbling backwards onto the floor.
Scrambling up, I crouched near the headboard, clutching the blade I kept beneath my pillow.
“That really fucking hurt,” he said, his voice distorted and muffled as he clutched at his face. “You broke my nose… again!” He climbed to his feet.
“I don’t apologise,” I said coldly. I felt stiff as adrenaline coursed in my veins, heightening my senses. He smelled like Alex, he looked like Alex, he even had the same bad attitude as Alex, but there was no way the thing standing in the middle of my bedroom, clutching his face, could possibly be Alex.
“Who are you, and what are you doing in here?” I demanded, slowly repositioning myself on the bed so he would have to reach much further if he tried to get his hands on me again.
“It’s me, Alex,” he said. “You know, the one you think is a giant pain-in-the-ass child.” When I didn’t respond, he shook his head and let out a sigh. “Maybe this will jog your memory,” he said, dropping onto the bed in front of me. His eyes went wide and staring, and he lay before me perfectly still.
When I still didn’t respond, he groaned. “Come on, give a guy a break. If you turned up in my bedroom when I thought you’d died, I wouldn’t head-butt you out of my bed.” He crawled his fingers across the bed toward me.
I thrust the blade out toward him and rolled off the bed, landing on the floor in a crouch that was vaguely catlike. He eyed me carefully, giving special attention to the blade in my hands.
“If you promise not to stab me, I’ll explain everything.”
“I don’t make promises,” I said.
“You had no problem making them earlier,” he said with a sly smile.
He’d been in my house for some time, that much I was certain of. Had he, or it, or whatever he was, been the cause of the scratching I’d heard?
“Just spit it out.”
“Fine.” He dropped onto the floor, folding his legs beneath him in a sort of half-lotus position, and kept his hands up in an attempt to show me how harmless he was. That, of course, was a lie. The fact that he could get into my house, through the wards spelled specifically to keep out supernatural creatures, told me that whatever he was, he was dangerous.
“I’m like you,” he said, the shadow of his smile hovering around his lips as he studied my reaction.
“And what am I?”
“An immortal,” he said. “I’m thinking a demi-goddess of some sort, maybe even one of the fates, but I’ve got my doubts on that. You’re far too violent.”
His smile widened as my mouth dropped open in shock. He was far too close to the truth. A cold sliver of fear slid down my spine as I tried to gather my thoughts and school my features into something unreadable.
“I’m not a goddess,” I said.
“Ah, I said demi-goddess,” he corrected. “You’re not denying the rest of it, though, so I’m obviously right.”
“I still don’t see how that means you’re like me,” I said. “Alex wasn’t an immortal.”
“That’s where you’re wrong. I am an immortal. The creature just caught me unawares; packs quite the punch, though.” He sounded genuinely impressed.
“Get to the point.”
“Right. I’m just better at hiding what I am; I’ve been doing it longer than you.”
“You’re barely old enough to work for Division 6, so how can you have been doing ‘it’ for longer, whatever ‘it’ is.” I didn’t bother to hide my irritation. He had all the charisma of a fae, and I had a feeling that he enjoyed twisting his words around in knots to throw the other party off the scent of his true intentions.
“Look, I am Alex. Alex is”—he gestured to himself—“an immortal.”
“What sort of immortal?”
“I was worshipped as a god,” he said smugly.
I sighed, and my hand began to tremble. I was either going to have to use the blade or put it down. Neither option sat particularly well with me at that precise moment in time.
Choosing to rest my arm in my lap, I glared over at the man claiming to be Alex.
“I don’t believe you,” I said. “If you were an immortal, worshipped as a god, then when you tried to subdue me in Ireland you should have done it easily.”
“Fine, I wasn’t worshipped as a god,” he said sulkily, running his fingers through the carpet. “But I am the son of one. Well, two gods…”
“And…?”
“Ares was my father, and my mother was Aphrodite,” he said.
“Your father was the god of war?”
“Why does everyone always latch onto that bit,” he said, sounding more than a little aggrieved. “Yeah, he was. He was also a jackass.”
“Why didn’t you tell me this before?”
“So you believe me?”
“I didn’t say that.” I sighed.
Why would he pretend to be the son of two long-forgotten gods? It just didn’t make any sense… though all signs seemed to point to the fact that he was Alex. And if that was true, then there was only one way he got out of the caves.
“You died,” I said finally. “I saw your body.”
“So that’s what that was,” he said. “It was creepy as hell.” I glanced up at him. “Not the dying part,” he added. “I’ve done that before. You didn’t find me in the caves, your magic did.”
I nodded, remembering the way my power had flowed through the cave system, searching for him. The memory of finding him filled my head, and I tried not to gag as an image of the rats chowing down on his dead body played behind my eyes.
“Yeah, that really wasn’t pleasant,” he said, sounding less pleased with himself.
“So if you’re the son of two gods, what can you do?” No sooner had the question left my mouth than I regretted it.
Fear washed over me, swamping my thoughts. My heartbeat sped up until I was sure it would beat so fast it would crash out through my ribcage. The shadows along the edges of the walls seemed to lengthen, reaching toward me with long, skeletal fingers that quickly morphed into Kypherous’s.
I remembered the cruel twist of his lips as he gripped my chin between his fingers and forced my head back so that my eyes met his. The obsidian blade glittered in the lights of the hall as he raised it and then brought it down on my body.
Pain.
Pain.
Pain.
It flared like lightning through my body as strike after strike fell on me.
“You taste of death,” Kypherous whispered against my ear, his teeth closing over my lobe as he bit down. I swallowed back my scream. I wouldn’t give him the satisfaction of seeing me afraid.
He’d taken enough from me. I wouldn’t give him that too.
“Jenna.” The vision disappeared, and I found myself twisted in the bed sheets. Sweat beaded my skin as my breathing came out in pathetic panting gasps.
“Where is he?” I asked, my voice barely recognisable.
“Who?”
Cast in Stone Page 18