The Kingdom

by Amanda Stevens

  She merely laughed. “Do you really think I’m afraid of an old cripple? He only thinks he’s still in control.”

  I sensed someone moving above us, but I didn’t dare take my eyes off Luna.

  “If I’m such a threat to you, why did you bring me here? Why did you put me in the Covey house?”

  “Oh, that was all Pell, and I admit he still has a few tricks up his sleeve. I had no idea you were alive. I thought the old fool merely wanted to restore the cemetery before his time came. That would be like him. It was only after you arrived that I figured it out. As for the Covey house…” She gave a low laugh. “I can only assume he thought it would keep you safe until the deed was done.”

  The deed was done… .

  I shuddered.

  “Once you produced an heir, he would have had no more use for you. Not with your unfortunate lineage. No doubt he would have taken care of you the same way he handled Harper and Thane’s mother.”

  I inched back. “What does Thane’s mother have to do with this?”

  “He thought if he eliminated Riana, Edward would come back to him. So he arranged a hit-and-run. Poor thing never knew what hit her.”

  I tried not to succumb to the horror of her words as I clung to the rock wall. I wanted to believe the gap between my ledge and hers offered a modicum of protection, but I knew better. She was toying with me now. She had me right where she wanted me, so she could afford to take her time.

  “Did Edward know?”

  “He must have suspected, but there was nothing he could do. He did manage to have his revenge, though.”

  “How?”

  “He committed suicide, and had his body cremated before Pell could claim him and bring him home.”

  I remembered what Thane had told me once about Edward. He wanted to break free of the Asher shackles. He just never quite managed.

  “If he hated Pell that much, why would he leave Thane with him?”

  “He didn’t leave Thane. Pell took him. Edward was too weak to fight him.” She thumbed the moonstone at her throat. “That’s your family, Amelia. That’s your legacy. That’s who you are. Not that it matters now… .”

  The Drudenfuss was right above us, the open end over Luna’s ledge, a closed point over mine. I don’t know what I hoped to accomplish. I suppose I was still acting purely on instinct and adrenaline, but I grabbed a loose stone and began to chip away at the closed point, trying to blunt the end.

  “No!” Luna screamed.

  She leaped the distance between the shelves, easily clearing the edge. But there must have already been a fissure in the rock—or perhaps I’d created one—because I heard a crack that sounded like a gunshot. Even so, she might still have saved herself if Angus hadn’t appeared in the shadowy recesses of one of the crevices. He growled viciously and lunged. Caught off guard, Luna stumbled backward with a stunned cry. For the longest moment, our eyes clashed, both of us frozen, and then her hand shot out to clamp onto me and we were free-falling.

  Somehow, I grabbed onto the ledge, feet dangling, and clung for dear life. A split second later, I heard a thud as her body hit the ground, then a great roar—the flap of a thousand bird wings as a murder of crows descended into the glade.

  I heard Thane call out to me as he climbed down to the ledge.

  He stood over me. “Take my hand!”

  Even with the rock crumbling away beneath my fingertips, I hesitated.

  Something flared in his eyes, anger…hurt… .

  It was gone in a flash as he grabbed my arms and pulled me up. The shelf was already giving away. Angus darted back into the cave, and with a heave, Thane propelled me up the wall. I climbed without hesitation, groping for holds.

  The birds had gathered over Luna’s body, and I heard her scream. As I reached the top and turned to give Thane a hand, I caught a glimpse of Tilly standing at the edge of the cliff, gazing down into the glade.

  Thirty-Seven

  “Tilly, Tilly, are you all right?” I rushed toward her.

  “I’m all right, girl. Are you?” she asked anxiously. She looked tiny standing up there on that cliff. Tiny but stalwart.

  “I’m fine. I was just so worried about you. I went by your house and saw all that blood in the bathroom… . I thought the worst.”

  “I had one of my spells and dropped a glass. I nicked my finger and didn’t take time to clean up the mess because I knew you were in trouble. I had to come looking for you.”

  “But…I was looking for you. When Catrice told me what happened to Freya—”

  Tilly’s eyes went cold. “Where did you see the Hawthorne woman?”

  “She followed me to your house.”

  “You let her into my house?”

  Her tone took me aback. “I didn’t let her in. She just showed up there.”

  “I should have planted more rosemary,” Tilly mumbled.

  I looked at Thane. He stood off to the side, allowing us our reunion. He looked tall, dark and handsome in the moonlight. Stalwart in his own right.

  “What did that woman want?” Tilly asked.

  “She said she was worried about you because my being alive proved that Freya didn’t die in the fire. Oh, it’s a long story,” I said on a breath. “You know most of it, anyway. She told me you were in danger and we couldn’t get the police here fast enough, so I came to…rescue you,” I finished lamely.

  Her eyes darkened as she gazed up at me. “That was a mighty foolish thing to do. You could have been killed.”

  “So could you. But it doesn’t matter now. We’re both safe. And I know everything,” I said softly.

  She took my hand and squeezed it, then turned her attention to Thane. “How did you know she was up here?” she demanded.

  He turned, and I caught a glimpse of the scratches I’d left on the side of his face, reminding me all too vividly of the darkness that had enthralled us both at Thorngate. The same darkness that had been Luna’s downfall.

  “I saw her car in the cemetery,” he said. “I went all through the laurel bald calling her name, but she never answered.” Was that a hint of accusation in his tone? I wondered.

  “What would you have done if you’d found her?” Tilly demanded.

  “Whatever it took to save her life.”

  “Even if—”

  “Yes.”

  Tilly nodded. “Well, you did save her, didn’t you?”

  Suddenly, there was a knot in my throat, and I couldn’t speak. I looked at Thane, but he wouldn’t meet my gaze.

  Tilly grabbed my arm. “Come away from the edge of that cliff, girl. It feels like it’s about to come down.”

  She was right. The rim was eroding even as we spoke. I heard a distant bark, and my heart sank. Angus was still in the cave. If the walls came down, he’d be trapped.

  I whirled back to Thane. “You said there was a path somewhere. Can you show me?”

  “This way.”

  We went down at a breakneck speed, and when we rushed through the arch, my gaze went to Luna’s body. Then I turned quickly away. Tilly had no such compunction. She shooed away the birds and stooped to yank the silver chain from the corpse’s neck. I saw the glow of Luna’s moonstone as Tilly held it up to the light.

  “You shouldn’t touch the body,” Thane warned. “We’ll need to get the authorities up here.”

  Tilly said nothing. She continued to stare at the moonstone as if bewitched.

  I tore my gaze away and screamed for Angus.

  “I’ve been through that cave dozens of times,” Thane said. “I never knew it connected to the other caves. If Angus found a passageway, then he can surely find his way out.”

  And at that precise moment, he bounded out of the cave and rushed to me, nuzzling his cold nose against my hand. I was still puzzled by his earlier behavior, and I didn’t want to believe that darkness had somehow entered him. If he’d meant me real harm, he would have followed me into the laurel bald. Instead, he’d chased me away from the killer and maybe away
from himself.

  Tilly’s eyes were lifted to the cliff now, to the Drudenfuss with the newly damaged point. I saw her lips move, but I couldn’t hear what she said. Then she flung the moonstone toward the star, and as it shattered against the rock wall, the earth trembled.

  “Get out!” Thane grabbed Tilly and pulled her out of the clearing as the ledges gave way and crashed to the ground.

  A few minutes later, we were hurrying through the woods to the cemetery. Thane had taken the lead, and it was all Tilly and I could do to keep up with him. He’d said very little, and his silence was starting to worry me. He’d heard what Luna had said about his mother and Harper, and as I watched him put distance between us, I knew he was headed for Asher House.

  I left Angus with Tilly and went after him. I’d seen enough of his temper to worry about what he might do if Pell actually admitted to his crimes. So I ran after him through those dripping woods, and when we got to the cemetery, I went straight to his car and climbed in.

  Thorngate was softly aglow in the tenuous moonlight. I could see the Asher angels towering above the other monuments. Proud, defiant, almost godly. I shivered as I recognized some of my own features in those faces now.

  Thane slid behind the wheel and slammed his door. “What are you doing?”

  “I’m going with you.”

  “You don’t even know where I’m headed.”

  “To see your grandfather,” I said. “But shouldn’t we call the police first?”

  “We can’t. There’s no signal.”

  “How do you know? You didn’t even try.”

  “I tried earlier. The nearest towers have been taken off-line due to the flooding. We’ll have to call the police from Asher House.”

  “But that’s not why we’re going there, is it?”

  He ran a hand through his wet hair. “You should just go home with Tilly. This won’t be pleasant.”

  “I don’t think you should confront him alone.”

  “I won’t kill him if that’s what you’re worried about. Although I think I could with very little effort.”

  I put my hand on his arm. “He’s not worth going to prison over. And what if this isn’t you? What if you’ve let it in again?”

  He started the engine and turned the car without a word.

  As we reached the main highway, the moon disappeared and the countryside darkened. I could barely see the outline of the pine trees against the tapestry of mountain and sky. Raindrops splattered the windshield and strained the already-full ditches.

  Thane drove fast despite the wet roads. I turned to study his profile. His anger was a tangible thing, an unwelcome passenger that goaded a flirtation with danger. He took a curve that made me catch my breath and clutch the seat.

  He slanted a glance. “You heard me looking for you in the laurel bald, didn’t you? Why didn’t you answer me?”

  This wouldn’t be pleasant, either, I thought. “I was afraid.”

  “Of me? Why?”

  “Because of something Catrice told me.”

  “What did she say?”

  Absently, I rubbed a hand up and down my arm. “Do you remember that day I gave her a ride home? I told you I thought they’d all gathered at her studio to observe me. And I couldn’t shake the feeling that I’d been brought to Asher Falls for a reason.”

  “I remember.”

  “That same day, when we were sitting on the back steps, you looked at me as if you’d seen a ghost. You said that you must have had a waking dream because for a moment I looked like someone else.”

  He frowned at the road. “What about it?”

  “Who did you see when you looked at me?”

  A pause. “Edward.”

  “So you did know.”

  “I guessed. You had this faraway look in your eyes and you held your head a certain way. For a moment, you were his spitting image.”

  “Do I look like him now?”

  “Maybe not at this particular moment, but I’ve noticed the resemblance before. That day in the cemetery when we were talking about the angels…one of the faces reminded me of you. But I never thought much about it until later and then I started to put two and two together. Your uncanny resemblance to my stepfather. Your insistence that you’d been brought to Asher Falls for a reason.”

  “You didn’t know that day on the ferry?”

  “I recognized you from a picture in the paper,” he said. “But I didn’t make the connection to Edward until later. Why?”

  “Catrice told me that you knew. She said you were in league with your grandfather, that he had brought me here so that you could seduce me. Because I was his last hope to continue the bloodline.”

  His face looked pale and grim in the dash light. “And you believed her?”

  “I didn’t want to, but I was scared. Tilly was missing and Catrice had just told me about Freya’s murder. It was a lot to take in and I wasn’t thinking clearly… .” I trailed off. “Surely you can understand how her accusation might have given me pause.”

  “What did she say?” His voice was very tight, very controlled.

  “I already told you—”

  “I mean exactly. Word for word.”

  “She said that you would do anything to solidify your position in the Asher family. That you’d cut off your right arm to be the one to give Pell Asher an heir.”

  “I see.” He was still staring straight ahead, speaking very softly. “There is a certain plausibility in that, I don’t deny. But for you to think that I would hurt you…that you would hesitate to take my hand on the cliff…” He drew a breath. “That’s hard to accept.”

  “I’m sorry.” I turned back to the window, watching the night shadows fly past me. “But maybe it’s all for the best.”

  “Why?”

  “Because of who I am.”

  Another pause. “This is about the other night, isn’t it? You said you were the one who had let it in.”

  “It seems it all started on the night of my birth. Freya Pattershaw was my mother.”

  “So Freya and Edward…?”

  I faced him, my gaze going again to the marks I’d left on his cheek. “There’s a lot I still don’t understand, but this place is very dangerous for me. And I’m dangerous to the people who get close to me. Whatever is out there…whatever you and I felt that night…it’s coming for me.”

  “How do we stop it?” he asked, the dangerous edge in his voice making me shiver.

  I closed my eyes. “I don’t think we can stop it.”

  Thirty-Eight

  As we came around a curve, the police flashers took me by surprise. Obviously, someone had managed to get a call through. Then I wondered if there’d been a bad accident. Not unusual in this weather. But as Thane slowed, I saw the yellow hazard lights on barricades that had been pulled across the road.

  He rolled down his window as one of the policemen approached.

  “What’s going on?” Thane asked.

  “Flash flood washed out the bridge,” the officer said, water rolling off the brim of his hat as he bent to glance inside the car. “You won’t be able to get across tonight. Creek’s too high.”

  “We need to get up to the house,” Thane said. “My grandfather is an invalid.”

  “He’s not up there alone, is he?”

  “I don’t know if anyone is with him or not. That’s why I need to get up there.”

  “If the rain stops, the water should recede in a few hours. At least by morning.”

  Another cop approached. “What’s the problem?”

  “No problem,” Thane said. “We’d like to get home, is all.”

  “Not going to happen tonight. You try to go across now, you’ll get swept downstream. My advice is to find someplace warm and dry and wait it out. And keep away from these bluffs. We’ve got reports coming in from all over the county of mudslides. People claim they’ve seen boulders the size of cars crashing down on highways. You get enough rain and sooner or later these ridges will st
art to cave.”

  “Thanks.” Thane reversed the car, turned in the road and headed away from the barricades. As soon as we were around the curve and out of sight, he pulled to the shoulder.

  “Why didn’t you tell them what happened?” I asked anxiously.