“So, you went inside?”
“We couldn’t get inside. The front door was jammed, and all the windows were covered up.”
I nodded. There was only one way in, and you had to know where it was. “So, what did you do?”
She stared at her hands in her lap. “Miles said we should go, but I wanted to keep looking. Then we heard the music.”
“Music?”
She dragged her gaze to my face. “Flute music. We ran to see who was making it, but nobody was there. Then the music came from around the corner. We both got scared and didn’t want to follow, but we did anyway. I couldn’t help it. It was calling to me. We followed it around the house until we came to the kitchen door. The music was coming from inside the hole.”
I knew exactly what hole she was talking about. Shadow Man had led them to it, and for some reason had played the role of the Pied Piper to do it. “So, you followed the music into the house. Did you ever see anyone?”
Her face clouded. “Well, I don’t know. I can’t remember. After that, we were up here, and the door wouldn’t open.”
“You didn’t see anyone?”
“Uh-uh.”
Weird. I knew Shadow Man was behind it, but I couldn’t understand his end game.
“Ashley, in order for me to get you out of here and for me to save Miles, you’re going to see some strange things. They might be scary things. But everybody you see is a friend, no matter what they look like, okay? And you can’t tell anybody afterward. It’s very important. Do you understand?”
She nodded, her face solemn. “I understand.”
“Cross your heart and hope to die, stick a needle in your eye and may a lizard eat your gizzard?”
She dragged her finger over her chest in the traditional way. “I swear.”
“Okay, then.” I reached over her head and opened the window. “Let’s get all of us out of here.”
She scurried out of the way while I pulled Miles closer. Almost immediately, a shushing of mothy wings filled the air, and the enormous bulk of Darius in full mothman form hovered on the other side of the window.
I spoke in a low, careful voice, knowing how terrifying Darius could appear. “Ashley, this is my friend Darius.”
The poor kid looked like she was going to have an aneurysm, but she swallowed hard and tried to be polite. “Hello.”
I knew Darius was smiling because I’d known him for so long, but he honestly didn’t have much in the way of facial features. “Hello, Ashley.” His voice was deep and rumbly. “You’re going to be okay.” He reached through the window and gathered the limp Miles in his arms, then dropped out of sight.
Ashley yelped and ran to the window, peering after them.
“He’ll carry you down next,” I said. “Will you be okay?”
“What is that thing?” She sounded breathless, more awed now than frightened.
“He’s called a mothman. And he’s saved my life a time or two.”
She didn’t make a sound when Darius reappeared and held his arms out for her. Ashley climbed over the sill and clutched his chest, trusting him not to drop her. They dipped out of sight.
I glanced around the room, shining my phone light into the empty attic.
“I don’t know what your game is, you bastard, but it’s not cool. Messing with kids is not acceptable.” I had no idea if Shadow Man could hear me, but I spoke to him anyway. I should have been afraid at the idea that he could be hiding in a corner. Anger overshadowed any lingering fear. My voice was strong and didn’t shake. “I know you think you’re coming for me, but you’ve got it all wrong. I’m coming for you.”
When Darius came back for me, he cradled me to the ground and deposited me on feet. “You are in so much trouble,” he said.
“So I’ve heard.” I glanced over at Riley, who was bent over Miles. “I did what had to be done.”
“I know.” Darius’s voice rumbled in his chest. “It’s hard for him to accept, though. Be gentle with him.”
Right. I was supposed to be gentle with Riley. He was the one who was probably going to bite my head off when this was over. Still, he was all business now. At least I had a reprieve.
Riley was busy putting his EMT skills to work on Miles, a first aid kit beside him. Across from him, Mom sat in the dirt, legs crossed, hands splayed over Miles’s chest.
I’d never seen Mom use her supernatural skill before. All Aegises had some sort of gift—mine, of course, was being an empath. Mom was a necrofoil.
Necrofoils could hold off death until help came or, in extreme cases, until the body healed itself enough for medical attention to finish the job. Since Mom had joined us, we’d seen a lot of death, but nothing she could have stopped. A necrofoil was useless when death was sudden. A life snuffed out is gone forever. She wasn’t a necromancer. She didn’t bring back and control the dead. She held off imminent death.
A sick boy on the edge of dying—that was her specialty. And so she sat in the dirt, keeping Miles alive while Riley tended to the bite and waited for medicine to arrive.
Nearby, Ashley stood huddled against a tree, scanning the clearing. I felt the panic rolling off her and followed her gaze. Sara, in all her demon glory, stood guard across the clearing, her gaze directed out into the trees, watching for anything threatening. Kam stood on the other side doing the same, while Darius watched from a perch on the roof of the house.
I kneeled next to Ashley and took her hand in mine. “That’s Sara,” I said. “She’s my best friend in the world, like Miles is yours.” I pointed. “I promise, she won’t let anything happen to you.”
Her panic receded a little, but she kept a wary eye on our less human members while we waited.
After a few minutes, there was movement at the hole in the back door. I tensed and, feeling my tension, Ashley squeezed my hand. When she saw what crawled out of the hole, I had to hold her tightly so she wouldn’t bolt.
“Shh, it’s okay.” I stroked her arm. “That’s Maurice. He’s here to help, too.”
I felt a twinge of guilt. This poor kid was going to need so much therapy. Try explaining to anyone that the good guys were a demon, a mothman and a closet monster.
“I’ve got it!” Maurice ran into the clearing, waving something in the air.
Riley gave a sigh of relief and took the object from him. “Was it hard to find?”
“The antivenin was easy to find. Grabbing it and disappearing into the janitor’s closet without a nurse seeing me is what took me so long.”
“You did a good job, Maurice.” Mom never took her eyes off Miles.
Riley gave Miles the injection, and it wasn’t long before Mom was able to remove her hands from him. “He’ll be okay,” she said.
We had no choice under the circumstances but to make an anonymous call to the police to let them know where the kids were. Darius stayed hidden where he could keep an eye on the kids until the police came for them. Maurice took Sara home through a closet in the Corning House, the same way they got there in the first place. The rest of us walked.
Ashley was a smart girl. We all tried to make suggestions for a cover story she could tell, overcomplicating things as adults usually do. In the end, she shut us down.
“I can just say I don’t remember how we got out.” She smiled, exhaustion settling over her. “That’s what happens in ghost stories. They say they can’t remember, even if they do.”
Everyone looked to me for a decision, and I nodded. It would have to do. There was no explanation that would cover two kids lost in the woods, getting medical care, then left there with an anonymous tip to the police. It was absurd. Better to leave them guessing. Miles never saw anything anyway.
So, the remaining four of us trudged home the long way. Mom and Kam led the way, and I was left to face the music with Riley.<
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He was quiet for a long time, I didn’t want to be the one to break the silence. It wasn’t easy. A million apologies and excuses sat on the tip of my tongue. Finally, he let out a weary sigh and stopped walking. I turned to face him, and he took my hands in his, though he stared at the ground as he gathered his thoughts.
“You really scared me.” He stopped, his brow wrinkling.
“I—” I didn’t get to finish the thought.
“No. Let me say this first. I trust you with my life. And I know you trust me with yours.”
I nodded. “Yes.”
“I don’t trust you with your life.”
I frowned. “Okay.”
“I know that doesn’t make sense. I’m saying this all wrong.” He pulled his gaze to my face. “I’m angry with you for going in there. And I’m angry with myself because I know I didn’t give you any choice. And I’m terrified you’ll get yourself killed in a million different ways every day because you barge into things like a rhinoceros, even though you don’t have any offensive skills or powers.” His hands shook in mine. “And I’m terrified that we’ll all die if you don’t save us.”
I let out a lungful of air. “That’s...that’s a lot.” He was right. I barged. I didn’t think. And every time I put myself in danger, I risked everyone else. I could have waited for backup, and bolting on Riley had been selfish and irresponsible. We’d been through so much together—weathered a breakup and nearly lost each other, only to come back together stronger and more open and honest in our relationship. What I’d done was in direct opposition to all that we’d learned.
He nodded. “Yeah. So, here’s the deal. I won’t kick your ass for bolting in there if you won’t kick mine for telling you what to do.”
I gave him a small smile. “That seems fair.”
“And from now on, we’re a team, okay? We act together. With a plan.”
My smile widened. “I think I can do that.”
He pulled me into his arms. “God, Zoey. I thought...I thought he was in there waiting for you. I tried all the windows and doors. I couldn’t fit through the hole you went through.” His voice cracked and dropped to a whisper. He held me tighter. “And you wouldn’t answer your phone.”
I pressed against him, taking in the comforting smell of him. “I shut the ringer off. It’s the first thing you should do in a horror movie.”
He laughed and buried his face in my hair. “I don’t know why I didn’t think about that.”
We stood like that for a while, right in the middle of a side street several blocks from my house. If people looked out their windows and saw us, I didn’t care. Let them think what they wanted.
After a few minutes, we drew apart, both comforted in the knowledge that our relationship wasn’t broken. Last year, this probably would have ended things between us permanently. But we’d already tried living without each other, and it had sucked. We’d learned that avoidance didn’t solve problems. Relationships couldn’t grow stronger when problems were ignored. We dealt with things head-on now. But it didn’t mean we couldn’t hurt each other sometimes. It just meant we had to mend that hurt before it festered.
Shortly after we made it home, Darius dropped onto the porch and came in to let us know the kids were all right.
“The police were there in a matter of minutes.” He chuckled. “Ashley heard them coming and lay down next to Miles, pretending to be asleep. She was quite the little actress, faking disorientation. She’ll be okay.”
That night, I slept fitfully, tangling my legs in the covers, caught between waking and sleeping. My dreams were filled with the glowing eyes of a raccoon staring at me from the darkness. I woke with a scream wedged in my throat and couldn’t shake the vision of those eyes staring at me through my bedroom window.
I blinked, and they were gone. I turned over and went back to sleep to the sound of crickets chirping.
In the morning, I looked out the living room window and saw Sara and Maurice standing outside, brows furrowed in worry. Maurice had his hands on his hips, and Sara squatted, examining something on the ground.
“What’s going on?” I stepped out on the porch, still wearing my nightgown.
Sara stood and brushed her hands off. “Nobody was here last night,” she said. “We left the house unguarded.”
Confused, I looked at Maurice. “So? Not like anybody could get in and rob us or anything. We’ve got the fairy ring.”
“That’s just it, Zo.” Maurice’s enormous yellow eyes were wide and frightened. “There is no fairy ring.” He pointed at a section of blackened circle I hadn’t noticed. “We didn’t notice it when we got home. The fairies aren’t here. The fairy ring is gone.”
Chapter Ten
Ashley and Miles had, apparently, been a decoy to get us all away from the house.
We followed the charred remains of what had once been our greatest protection around the house, through the woods, around Mom’s cottage, back through the woods and around the other side of the house. The circle was an unbroken line of charcoal. There were no fairies anywhere around who we could question, either. It was as if they’d deserted the premises.
It looked like Shadow Man had scared them off and destroyed their work.
At least, I hoped that was all that had happened. They were dear to me, even without being my tiny protectors.
There weren’t any bug-sized bodies in the grass, or even small traces, like torn wings, stray pieces of clothing or drops of blood. They’d vanished completely. I knew from previous experience when poachers had entered my woods and harmed some of the fairies that they could mobilize quickly and get themselves to safety.
Wherever they’d gone, I hoped they were safe and would come back soon when the danger had passed.
Even more chilling than the demolished fairy ring, we found footprints outside my bedroom window. And crickets.
I shivered. “He was watching me sleep.” It took everything in me not to have a full-blown panic attack. “He stood outside my window last night and watched me sleep.” My breath came in deep, hitching gulps. “We’re totally defenseless. He can just come in anytime.”
I was perfectly happy to issue a challenge to him. I was primed and ready to go after the bastard. I was not at all prepared for him to waltz up to my house and knock on the door. Or come in.
Riley looked stricken. “I shouldn’t have slept. I should’ve stayed watch.” He put his arms around me.
Anger rolled off Darius. “We sleep in shifts from now on.” He wrapped his massive hands around Mom’s shoulders from behind her. “We won’t give him another opportunity to come that close.” He kissed the top of her head, and the set of his jaw showed his determination to keep her—us—safe.
“I don’t understand.” I dragged my toe through the charred grass. “What is he doing, exactly? Is he after us? Or is he after children? What’s the point?”
Riley sat on the porch steps and pulled me down next to him. “Well, both times, he appeared to one of you, then went after the kids. It’s as if he’s taunting you.”
I frowned. “Or maybe warning us. Like maybe he’s telling us it’s our fault.”
Mom shook her head. “I refuse to believe his actions are our fault.”
“I have another theory.” Maurice stuck his hands in his pockets. “I think he’s confused.”
I snorted. “Confused. Sure.”
“No, really. Shadow Man is a recent creation of humans. It usually takes generations of storytelling for a Hidden to be birthed from the ether. And then the new creature evolves on its own from there. Shadow Man forced himself out. He’s got his own agenda—kill the Aegises to break the Covenant and rule the new world. But it’s all confused, you know? He’s his own guy, but he’s also un-evolved, so he keeps reverting back to the behavior dictated by the stories humans invented.�
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Darius’s face lit up like he’d had an epiphany. “He’s kidnapping children because the human stories he adopted as his own were that way. Without having properly evolved from those stories over time, like other Hidden, he’s compelled to follow the prototype set out for him.” He grinned and gave Maurice a fist bump. “Well done.”
Maurice shrugged. “The theory isn’t perfect. It doesn’t explain the flute music or the gingerbread smell. That’s just weird.”
Kam brushed a stray hair away from her eyes. “He’s glitching.”
Darius blinked. “What?”
Her face was animated and she paced across the yard. “He’s glitching. His story is new. He doesn’t have the generations of rich history most Hidden are born with. So, he’s borrowing from other stories. The Pied Piper. Hansel and Gretel. He’s not stable because he’s not a fully realized creature. He’s filling in the holes himself by instinct.”
I sighed. “Excellent. Another unstable bad guy to defeat.”
Riley laced his fingers through mine. “Of course, this is all only a guess. He could just be evil.”
I squeezed his hand and gave him a tired smile. “I hope you’re right. Pure evil would be so refreshing compared to all the crazy we keep getting.”
Honestly, I didn’t think we were dealing with pure evil. For one thing, I didn’t truly believe in it. As an empath, I couldn’t. People always had reasons behind the things they did, and bad guys were no exception. No matter how distasteful I found someone’s actions, there was always an explanation. An uncontrollable hunger. A difficult past. A broken mind. A burning need to open a portal and create a brand new world to rule.
Greed was also a possibility with some folks I’d run into—the Leprechaun Mafia, for instance. While greed is certainly an ugly motivator, a top seven deadly sin and not at all nice, I wouldn’t call it pure evil.
If it were, none of us would make it off Santa’s naughty list, and he could retire permanently. We all had our moments.
Phoenix in My Fortune (A Monster Haven Story Book 6) Page 10