Zachary lunged forward and roughly grabbed her throat. When he spoke he was so close his rank breath fanned across her face.
‘Then why don’t you enlighten us?’ he hissed angrily.
‘Zachary’ Nathaniel snapped, ‘that’s enough.’
‘Let me have her Nathaniel’ he begged. ‘I will wring the truth from her.’
‘I am well aware of your skills’ he answered calmly, ‘however, I wish to question her myself. I need you to deal with Theodore Beckett.’
‘I thought you had no interest in him?’ he glared at him accusingly.
‘I don’t, but if what the girl says is true, he may become a problem for us.’ He leaned back against the desk tapping his fingertips against the wood thoughtfully. ‘Kill him, and the younger version of him just to be sure.’
‘If you touch him I will destroy you,’ Olivia growled as she struggled so forcefully against her bonds that the chair slid across the floor.
Zachary smiled cruelly, sensing that they’d touched a nerve. He leaned down over her until they were almost face to face.
‘Would you like me to bring you back a little keepsake Olivia?’ he whispered provocatively. ‘Tell me, which body part would you like me to bring you as a gift? His head? His heart? Something else?’
‘He’s going to cut you to shreds’ she hissed, ‘then we’ll see who’s missing body parts.’
‘She’s a spirited little thing isn’t she,’ Zachary turned and grinned at Nathaniel. ‘Don’t use the needles on her until I return, I wouldn’t want to miss that.’
‘Oh I’m sure we’ll have plenty of time with this one,’ Nathaniel’s mouth twitched in amusement. ‘Something tells me she won’t break easily.’
Zachary turned towards the door throwing her one last smirk before disappearing.
Once they were alone Nathaniel turned back to the desk and carefully unwrapped the dark velvet covering. Slowly and deliberately he peeled back the edges revealing a book she was very familiar with.
Hester’s Grimoire.
She glanced at the book impassively before looking up at him.
‘Do you know what this book is?’
‘A Good Housekeeping Guide?’ she shrugged.
The slap cracked hard against her cheek, snapping her head to the side. Nathaniel smoothed his coat and readjusted his sleeve calmly before returning to his perch on the desk.
‘Try again Olivia.’
‘Is it a copy of Macbeth?’
Crack.
Her head whipped to the side again. Ignoring the sting of his palm across her reddened cheek she turned her defiant gaze back on him.
‘No?’ she queried, ‘is it… a copy of a Thousand and One Arabian Nights in the original Arabic?’
Crack.
This time she tasted the metallic tang of blood in her mouth. Spitting it out unceremoniously onto his expertly crafted rug she looked back up at him.
‘Wait...wait, I’ve got it,’ she smiled through bloodied lips, ‘it’s a discourse on Meditations on First Philosophy by Descartes.’
‘I knew you were going to prove troublesome’ he breathed and with a mock sigh he turned and retrieved a roll of coarse material from a nearby cabinet. He unrolled it carefully on the desk making sure she could get a good look at it. Her stomach clenched when she saw it contained dozens of cruel looking implements.
‘I can see we’re going to have to do this the hard way.’
She straightened in her chair, stiffening her spine as she glared at him with hate filled eyes.
‘But first,’ he leaned over her and yanked open the neck of her shift. ‘Where is it?’ he growled seeing her bare throat.
‘What?’ she asked innocently.
‘You know exactly what,’ he hissed in her ear, ‘where is my brother’s compass?’
‘Ohhh,’ she exhaled theatrically, ‘you mean my compass?’
His jaw clenched tightly.
‘I traded it,’ she shrugged.
‘You did what?’ he replied slowly.
‘Yeah,’ she smiled smugly, ‘to a peddler…for some magic beans…’
This time his hand balled tightly in anger as he smashed his fist into her jaw. She bit her lip to stop herself from crying out in pain, determined not to give him the satisfaction.
Fighting to get his anger under control he turned back to the table. ‘Now’ he said, allowing himself a moment as he perused the selection thoughtfully, ‘do you have any last requests before we begin?’
‘Yeah,’ she growled through her rapidly swelling jaw, ‘untie the ropes.’
He stared at her for a moment almost as if trying to judge if she was serious or not. Clearly sarcasm was lost on him. Choosing to ignore her comment he turned back to the assortment and selected a wicked looking pair of metal pincers.
‘Right then,’ his smile was sharp as ice, ‘shall we begin?’
The pale spectral light of dawn had begun to break over the tree line, trying to burn back the fog which still filled the orchard and rolled over the ground surrounding the house.
‘Any luck?’ James called to Theo as he reappeared from the orchard.
‘Nothing,’ he growled.
‘Come back into the house’ he told him, glancing at his clothes. He still wore only his breeches and thin shirt, long woolen stockings and leather shoes. ‘You’ll freeze to death out here.’
Scowling Theo stalked silently back into the house, with James limping along behind him trying to keep up.
‘Theo,’ James began but Theo slammed the door and headed straight for the bedroom returning moments later with his jerkin and cloak. ‘What are you doing?’
‘What does it look like?’ he snapped. ‘I’m going to look for Olivia.’
‘It won’t do any good until the fog burns off, you’ll just end up wandering around in circles throughout the orchard.’
‘She isn’t in the orchard.’
‘You don’t know that,’ he replied pointedly. ‘From what you told me about the last time you saw this kind of mist, it lured her out into the woods while she slept. She didn’t realize she’d left her bed. You can’t be sure the same thing hasn’t happened again, nor discount the possibility of her leaving of her own free will.’
‘She wouldn’t do that. There is no way she would have climbed out of the window in the middle of the night, half dressed, in the freezing cold and not said anything to me.’
‘She would if she’d been sleepwalking.’
‘It wasn’t sleepwalking last time,’ he dragged his hands through his hair in frustration. ‘Last time she was lured out into the woods, she didn’t know what was happening.’
‘How do you know the same thing hasn’t happened this time?’
‘Because Olivia is a lot more powerful and aware than she was last time. She knows how to protect herself, protect her mind from outside influence. The one thing you can say about Olivia is she never makes the same mistake twice.’
‘So where does that leave us?’
‘Someone took her, and I’m going to get her back.’
He threw his jerkin on and tightened the belt before slinging his cloak around his shoulders and heading towards the door.
‘Theo wait!’ James limped after him, grabbing his own cloak which was hung by the door. ‘Theo will you just wait a minute and think this through.’
He followed him into the stables and watched as he began to saddle one of the horses.
‘You have no idea where to start looking,’ James pointed out.
‘I have a pretty good idea,’ Theo said darkly, ‘and believe me, by the time I’m done with Nathaniel he’s going to wish he’d never crawled out of Hell.’
‘You don’t know for certain it’s Nathaniel. It could be her mother or the Nathaniel she brought with her.’
‘No,’ Theo shook his head, ‘Isabel is too single minded. She wants the book which means she wants Hester. All her focus right now is on finding the
Wests, she’s not interested in Olivia other than keeping her from interfering.’
‘And the other Nathaniel?’
‘Isabel has him bound up tightly with magic. He can’t do anything without her say so, besides when she raised Nathaniel from the devil’s trap the body she bound him into was sealed with blood magic. Not only her blood but she used Olivia’s as well, which means as long as he’s trapped in that body he can’t harm her.’
‘But that’s not true of the other Nathaniel?’ James replied slowly, ‘he can still cause her harm?’
‘He is in his true form, he has no restrictions. He can do whatever he wants,’ Theo growled.
‘But why go after Olivia?’
‘There are so many reasons,’ Theo shook his head tightening the cinches on the saddle and adjusting the foot straps. ‘He knows she has possession of the compass which not only belonged to his brother Seth who is imprisoned in the Underworld by Hades, but Hades himself gave the compass to Olivia.’
‘’Hades?’ James eyes widened.
‘Look,’ Theo’s gaze locked on his father’s, ‘the night we left, he saw her conjure Hell fire, something apparently no other human has ever been able to do. Add into that her tie to Hades and to his brother, and he wouldn’t be able to resist. He’d want answers, answers she has and you know he’ll torture her to get them.’
James’ face hardened as he reached for the other horse and began to saddle her quickly and efficiently.
‘What are you doing?’ Theo frowned.
‘I’m coming with you,’ he replied matter of factly.
‘The Hell you are’ Theo swore, ‘you’ve been too exposed already because of us. You can’t go up against Nathaniel again, this time he’ll kill you.’
‘Theo,’ James’ face softened at his son’s obvious concern for him, ‘Olivia is my daughter now. Do you really think I would risk any less for her than I would for you? Witch or no Witch she’s my family and I love her. There is no way I am letting Nathaniel do to her what he did to me.’
After a brief moment’s internal debate Theo finally nodded in agreement.
‘We have to hurry,’ he watched as James finished up and they led their horses out into the chilly morning. ‘He’s already had her for hours. God only knows what he’s done to her.’
‘I’ll take you to his house in Salem’ James replied, ‘but we have to be careful Theo. You said yourself that time has already been changed. We can’t risk damaging it any further.’
‘I’m going to get Olivia back, even if I have to tear Salem apart brick by brick.’ Theo swung up easily into the saddle his eyes flashing dangerously, ‘and I don’t give a damn about the timeline.’
It took longer than he would’ve liked and Theo bristled at the delay, but they were riding old working horses, used to pulling a wagon at a slow laborious pace and delivering casks of cider. By the time they arrived in Salem they’d lost another couple of hours. They tethered the horses and continued on foot hoping to blend in with the crowd and draw less attention to themselves. Through the winding streets, past street vendors and beggars they ducked and weaved. Past the briny scent of the docks and the incessant screech of gulls they made their way into the wealthier section of town.
They ducked down an alley, stepping around piles of waste and passed by a faded green door with no markings as they headed towards the other end. When they reached it, the alley opened out into a wide street and on the opposite side were several houses.
‘There,’ James pointed at the large house directly opposite them. ‘That’s Nathaniel’s house.’
‘I see he’s done well for himself. Last time I was here he was lodging with the Alcotts’ Theo murmured, his eyes narrowing as he took in the details of the two storey house.
‘He is very highly regarded by the selectmen and the clergy,’ James glanced at the house darkly, trying not to remember the last time he had been within its walls. ‘Although he makes a point to never expose himself too much to the public eye, never underestimate the level of his influence nor the full extent of his reach.’
‘None of that matters right now’ Theo frowned, ‘all I care about is getting Olivia back in one piece.’
‘It’s too exposed,’ James looked around noting the number of people on the street. We can’t break into the house without someone seeing and we can’t exactly walk up to the door and knock.’
‘If I have to, that’s exactly what I’ll do,’ he replied tightly, ‘but for now let’s get closer and see if there’s another way in.’
Letting out a deep frustrated breath, James finally nodded his agreement.
‘Okay then, let’s go.’
Theo took a step forward out onto the street but suddenly felt himself grabbed roughly and dragged back into the alley. Spinning around he was shoved against the wall and pinned by a large tall body.
Theo’s eyes widened as his gaze fell on the one face he’d both missed and loathed and not in equal measure.
‘Logan?’
‘Shush,’ Logan hissed quietly, ‘we can’t stay here, it isn’t safe. You need to come with me.’
‘I’m not going anywhere,’ Theo’s eyes flashed back to Nathaniel’s house, ‘I have to…’
‘I know about the girl,’ Logan interrupted him. ‘If you want to save her you have to come with me.’
‘Where?’
‘Somewhere we can talk,’ his eyes flicked to James, ‘it’s not far.’
‘Theo’ James spoke softly, ‘we need a better plan if we are going to get to Olivia. He’s one of the people closest to Nathaniel, he may be able to get us in. We should at least listen to what he has to say.’
Theo cast one last longing glance towards the house where he was certain Olivia was been held. So close and yet so far away. Knowing that he needed help if he was to have any chance of getting out of that house alive with her, he turned back to his brother and nodded reluctantly.
Logan released his grip on him and started back down the alley towards the same nondescript door they’d passed by earlier. They followed him curiously until he stopped and rapped hard on the door three times. The door slowly creaked open. A pair of beady blue eyes set in a ruddy face appeared, studying each of them in turn until returning to Logan. Nodding his head, the man opened the door fully and stepped back.
All three of them stepped into the small cramped low beamed room. Rough tables and benches filled the space, and a large fireplace was set deeply into the far wall and burning weakly to ward of the chills and draughts of the poorly maintained building. A bar was tucked at one end of the room surrounded by kegs and casks and beside it was a set of stairs that led upwards.
‘This is an inn?’ Theo asked warily. There had been no signs or anything by the door.
‘Of sorts,’ Logan replied. ‘Welcome to the Salted Bone.’
‘The Salted Bone?’ Theo’s head snapped up in surprise as his mind was cast back to Jackson’s pub in Mercy which bore the same name.
‘Aye,’ Logan nodded. ‘This is Thomas; he runs the place.’
‘You wouldn’t be a Murphy by any chance would you?’ Theo asked curiously.
‘How did you know?’ Thomas confirmed suspiciously.
‘Lucky guess,’ Theo replied, relaxing slightly. ‘So this is an inn then?’
‘I’ll explain that later, for now come with me.’ He led them past the bar and up the stairs but paused and turned back to Thomas. ‘Our friend will be here shortly, please send him up when he arrives.’
Thomas nodded and they continued up the stairs.
‘Who is coming?’ Theo asked. ‘What is going on Logan?’
‘In here,’ he indicated an open door.
They stepped inside noting the small wooden chair and the dresser upon which stood a wash basin and jug. A small bed was tucked against one of the walls and a fair sized window looked down onto the street below and gave a completely unhindered view of Nathaniel’s house.
Theo turned away from the window to look back at his brother. The brother he’d loved so desperately and looked up to as a child, yet also a man who’d betrayed him and sent so many innocents to their deaths at the end of a rope. The man who, the last time he’d seen him, had tried to kill him and then left him to die in a burning barn.
So many conflicting emotions crashed in on him, he didn’t even know where to start. This was a man he couldn’t trust, a man that should be his enemy. He was Nathaniel’s shadow. How was he supposed to believe anything Logan had to say? For all he knew he was using his relationship with Theo to delay him so Nathaniel could torture Olivia. That thought alone should have had him walking out of the room but there was something in Logan’s expression, something in the way he looked at him. He was not the same bitter and angry man he’d left behind the night Sam had pulled him forward in time and dropped him in Mercy. No, he seemed different somehow, softer, more like the Logan from his childhood, the Logan he had loved.
‘Theo,’ Logan stepped towards him slowly, his voice low. ‘We have much to discuss.’
He wasn’t sure if he could trust this man. Everything in him told him he shouldn’t, everything he knew, everything he remembered screamed that he was dangerous, that he would betray him, but Olivia’s words kept coming back to him.
‘Theo, we’ve changed the timeline, you said it yourself things are different. He may not be the same man you remember.’
‘I think you’d better start talking,’ Theo replied curtly.
Logan sighed, knowing this was not going to be easy.
‘Theo,’ he began, ‘I know about Olivia. I know she is a Witch and I’m here to help you get her back.’
‘Why?’ he frowned in confusion, ‘I don’t understand why would you help us?’
‘Because…’ Logan reached inside his coat and pulled out a tattered book that Theo instantly recognized. It was their mother’s journal.
‘I know everything…’
Chapter 18.
Olivia’s breath caught in her throat, the pain so intense she couldn’t breathe, as she was thrown roughly to the hard ground of the cellar. She heard the door close as she lay motionless, unable to move. The room was dimly lit by a candle but it didn’t make a difference, she didn’t want to move. Every tiny movement caused an excruciating pain to shoot up her arm, through her shoulder and across her upper back, and from the way her arm hung limply at her side like a primate she was pretty certain her shoulder was dislocated.
The Guardians Complete Series 1 Box Set: Contains Mercy, The Ferryman, Crossroads, Witchfinder, Infernum Page 142