The Kingdom

by Amanda Stevens

  “Because I didn’t want to get waylaid with questions and statements. I’m going up to the house,” he said. “You can tell them after I’m gone or you can go home and wait for me. Do whatever you want.”

  “But…how do you intend to get across the creek?”

  “There’s a foot bridge about a half mile downstream. I’ll go across there.”

  “Thane, that’s crazy. Why don’t you just wait until morning to talk to him?”

  “It’s not about that.” He tapped a restless finger on the steering wheel as his gaze searched the darkness. “I know it’s crazy. I could kill him with my bare hands after what I heard tonight. The man took everything from me. But I don’t have it in me to leave him up there in that chair.”

  “What are you going to do? Sit up there with him until the storm passes? With everything you found out tonight? That’s a terrible idea. And what if the flooding gets worse? You could be trapped for days.”

  “Which is why I have to get him out. There’s an old four-wheel drive he used for hunting. If things get too bad, we’ll come downhill in that.”

  “But you heard what the cops said. The water’s already too high. You won’t be able to get across even in a four-wheel drive.”

  His eyes glittered angrily. “Then I’ll bring him down as far as I can and carry him the rest of the way. I don’t expect you to understand. I don’t even understand it myself.” He fell silent. “Just go and let me do this.”

  I glanced back. I could see lights twinkling in Asher House, and I could imagine Pell Asher up there, master of his kingdom, as the hillside crumbled around him. I hated myself for it, but I didn’t have it in me, either, to leave him up there. “I’ll go with you.”

  “No,” Thane said adamantly. “It’s too dangerous. Just take the car and go back. This doesn’t concern you.”

  “Yes, it does. And, anyway, if no one else is up there, you’ll need my help. You can’t get him down that hill by yourself, and you know it. So let’s just go.” I opened the door and got out. He came around the car and took me by the arms, staring down into my rain-soaked face.

  “Are you sure about this?”

  “Yes. Let’s go and get it over with.”

  The surrealism of that whole night would strike me later, and I would replay the events in my head over and over trying to make sense of what happened. Why I agreed to put my life at risk for a man who had never shown me the slightest regard until he’d needed something from me. A man who had destroyed lives and been all too willing to cover up a young woman’s death in order to protect his son and the Asher name. A man who had flooded a cemetery and opened a terrible door. A man who had invited evil into this town and into my life with wide-open arms.

  And yet there I trudged, head bowed against the torrent. Without rain gear we were drenched to the bone, our shoes caked with mud. I felt weighed down from that mud and from the storm and from my own bleak thoughts. I was glad when Thane picked up the pace, and I had to concentrate on keeping up with him. All around us, the woods were dark and gloomy. Over the drumbeat of the rain, I could hear my own ragged breathing, not so much from exertion, but from nerves and pent-up emotions. Too much had happened too quickly. I felt pummeled and assaulted from every direction.

  Thane glanced over his shoulder. “You okay?”

  “I’m fine.” I moved up behind him, my gaze going now and then to the light at the top of hill. I imagined again Pell Asher at that window, regal and defiant and unrepentant even as he reaped the bitter fruits of what he had sown.

  Thane pointed ahead. “The bridge is just down there.”

  We slipped and slithered our way down the treacherous bank, and my heart jumped when I got my first look at the bridge, nothing more than a few wooden planks and a flimsy guardrail. The water was only a foot or so from the bottom, and as we walked across in single file, the icy spray made me catch my breath. I didn’t want to consider how easy it would be to lose my footing and get swept away by the swirling foam or bashed against the rocks. So I concentrated on not slipping.

  Once across, we scrambled up the bank and headed over the rocky hillside to the road. The going should have been easier on the tarmac, but the incline was steep and we were climbing into the wind, so even here the trek was a struggle. I was anxious to have this over and done with so that I could go home to a hot bath and a warm meal. This hellish night needed to be behind me.

  As we approached the house, I heard a pop that sounded like gunfire.

  I caught Thane’s arm. “What was that?”

  “I don’t know.”

  As we stood gazing up at the house, another crack sounded. And then another. I had a momentary image of Pell firing down at us from one of the upper balconies until Thane said, “Jesus. The house must be shifting off the foundation. The beams are snapping.”

  He took my hand, and we sprinted up the drive and across the lawn. Two cars were parked in front.

  “Bryn and Catrice are here,” he said. “I wonder if they’re waiting for Luna.”

  “They’re in for a surprise, then,” I said grimly.

  The steps had separated from the porch and the whole structure seemed to shudder as we leaped across the gap.

  Inside, the sounds of the storm mingled with the creaks and moans of centuries old timbers. Rain poured through the roof and seeped down walls to puddle on floors that had already buckled from old leaks. The power flickered, and I could hear an electric sizzle as fissures appeared in the ceiling and water dripped from light fixtures. Thane and I stood in what had once been an elegant and opulent foyer and stared in amazement as the house started to come apart at the seams.

  Then Thane called out to his grandfather—my grandfather—as we searched the rooms one by one. The house creaked and moaned like a living, breathing entity, and I could feel the weight of some dark emotion pressing down on us.

  “If you see a pentacle, destroy it,” I said.

  “You have my word.”

  A ceiling tile had loosened, and a steady stream of water poured down upon the long mahogany table where we had sat at dinner and I’d told them about the hidden grave in the laurel bald. That seemed like a lifetime ago.

  “Grandfather!” Thane shouted

  “We’re in here!” Hugh called back.

  They had all assembled in the parlor where we’d had drinks only a few nights ago and where, even then, Pell had been scheming.

  He’d rolled his wheelchair to the window just as I had pictured earlier, and he didn’t turn when Thane threw open the double doors.

  I followed him into the room and heard a gasp. Shock and fear fleeted across Catrice’s face before she glanced away. Bryn looked defiant and angry. Hugh, at the fireplace, stared morosely into his drink.

  “Where’s the staff?” Thane said. “We need to get them out of here. The house is coming apart.”

  “They left hours ago,” Hugh said. “It’s just us.”

  “Why are you still here?” I asked.

  “Where else would we go?”

  “Someplace safe.”

  He shrugged. “We’ve always been safe here.”

  “Not anymore,” Thane said.

  Catrice took an anxious step toward him. “We tried to leave earlier, but we waited too long and the bridge washed out. How did you two get up here?”

  “On foot.”

  “Then you’re stuck just like we are.”

  “Not quite,” Thane said. “I’m taking Grandfather down in the four-wheel drive.”

  Hugh’s head came up. “The four-wheel drive? It hasn’t been started in years. The battery will be dead.”

  “I took it out for a drive not too long ago,” Thane said. “The battery is fine, so we’re leaving. I don’t care what the rest of you do.”

  “But you can’t just abandon us!” Catrice cried.

  “You can come with us,” Thane said. “But I should probably warn you first that the county sheriff’s deputies at the bottom of the hill will likely have
heard what happened by now. You all have a lot to answer for regarding Freya Pattershaw’s murder, so you might want to prepare yourselves.”

  “If you’d just keep your mouth shut, none of this would have to come out,” Bryn snapped.

  “It’ll come out once Luna’s body is recovered,” he said.

  Catrice buried her face in her hands and turned away.

  Hugh downed his drink.

  Bryn glared at me with utter contempt. “Luna was right. You’re a threat to us all. None of this would have happened if you hadn’t come here.”

  Thane crossed the room in a flash and grabbed her arm. “Don’t blame Amelia. You all brought this on yourselves. And I intend to see that every last one of you is charged as an accessory to murder.” He turned to Pell. “Including you, old man.”

  Pell didn’t even bother to turn.

  Thane walked over to the window and stood over him. “You had my mother and then Harper murdered because they dared interfere with your grand plan.”

  Pell gave a dismissive wave. “Gutter trash, the pair of them.”

  Thane’s jaw clenched. “You dare say that to me?”

  Pell’s head jerked up. “How dare you take that tone with me? You’d be out on the streets if not for my kindness.”

  “Kindness? You killed my mother and my fiancée and you call it a kindness?”

  “Edward was better off without her. She kept him from his home and family for years. She made him hate me.”

  Thane’s expression was passive now, as if the old man’s rage had somehow calmed him. “That wasn’t her doing. That was all on you.” He leaned in, twisting the knife. “You should have heard the way Edward spoke your name… I’ve never heard such loathing.”

  “Shut up!” Pell screamed. “You shut your mouth, boy. What I give I can just as easily take away.”

  Thane straightened. “And you never let me forget it, did you? But if I was so inconsequential, so beneath the Asher name, why take Harper from me? Why did you care who I married?”

  Another indifferent wave. “That girl was nothing but trouble. She would have made your life miserable.”

  “So you had her killed?”

  Pell Asher paused, something sly fleeting across his face. “I never said that, did I? The girl’s still alive.”

  My gaze shifted to Thane and I saw his disbelief a split second before an explosion of white-hot fury made me take a step toward him. Before I could reach him, he jerked the wheelchair around so that Pell had to face him. “What are you talking about? Answer me!”

  “You heard what I said. Harper Sweeney is still alive.”

  Thane reeled back as though he’d been struck. “You’re lying. Her body was identified. There was an autopsy, a funeral. She can’t be alive. Not after all this time. I would have known.”

  “You know nothing,” Pell said in disgust. “You accepted everything I told you without question. A real Asher would have insisted on seeing the body for himself.”

  Thane gazed down at his grandfather, breathing hard, hands balled into fists at his sides. “I don’t believe you. I don’t believe any of this. You had her killed and now you’re trying to cover your tracks.”

  “She was no use to me dead, but alive…” Pell’s gaze slid to me.

  “You could use her for leverage,” I said.

  His eyes glinted approvingly.

  “Leverage for what?” Thane demanded.

  “To make you do whatever he wanted.” I stared down at my grandfather. “Isn’t that right?”

  His smile made my skin crawl.

  “We’re not your possessions,” I said angrily. “You can’t control what we do or how we think or who we choose to be with.”

  “I already have,” he said.

  “If she’s still alive, then where is she?” Thane asked quietly. The hush in his voice worried me more than his temper.

  “Someplace where you’ll never find her,” Pell said.

  “Where is she?” Before I could stop him, Thane lunged and grabbed his grandfather by the neck. Catrice screamed and I heard Hugh swear. He was suddenly at my side, trying to help me pry Thane from the old man’s throat.

  “Thane, stop it! Let him go!” I cried.

  It took a moment for my voice to penetrate, but then Thane’s hands dropped and he staggered back. His eyes were wild, almost demented.

  “Get him out of here!” Pell shouted, his hands clutching the arms of his wheelchair. “Leave now, all of you! I need a moment alone with my granddaughter.”

  “Like hell you do,” Thane said. He was gradually starting to regain control. “I’m getting Amelia out of here. This whole place is about to slide down the mountain.”

  “Asher House has stood on this land for over two hundred years,” Pell said imperiously. “And it’ll be here long after you and I are dead and gone. Now get out.”

  “It’s okay,” I said to Thane. “Let me talk to him.”

  After the others had gone, I stood in front of his chair. I wouldn’t give him the satisfaction of kneeling.

  “Where is she? You can’t keep him from her. You have to tell him,” I pleaded.

  “Are you that anxious to send him into the arms of another woman?”

  “I care about him. I want him to be happy.”

  He sneered. “How noble.”

  “Don’t you see what you’ve done? You’ve taken everything from him. Even his peace of mind. He’ll never stop looking for her.”

  “He won’t find her.”

  “Then why tell him at all? Just to torment him?”

  Pell reached for a book on the table beside him. It was the leather-bound volume he’d been holding the first night I met him. He traced the emblem on the cover with his fingertip. “I’ve watched the two of you together. The attraction is palpable. But you won’t let it happen, because you can’t let go of the past. You can’t forget about that Charleston cop.”

  I gasped. “How do you know about him?”

  “I know everything about you, my dear. I’ve kept track of your every move for years.” He handed me the book. “Take a look.”

  I thumbed through the pages in horror. He hadn’t been kidding. Every stage of my life had been meticulously photographed and cataloged. I saw pictures of me in Rosehill Cemetery. Pictures of me with Papa. Pictures of me with Devlin. I looked up, trembling.

  “You’re the last of the Ashers,” he said. “The bloodline depends on you.”

  “What does that have to do with Harper?”

  “You hold the key to her freedom.”

  I clutched the book. “What do you mean?”

  “On the day you produce my first grandchild, Harper Sweeney will be set free. Not a moment sooner.”

  I said on a ragged breath, “You make it sound as if you’re holding her somewhere, but I don’t believe you. You’re bluffing. Even you can’t be that unspeakably cruel.”

  “You said yourself that you care about Thane. You want only his happiness. Or were those words empty?” he taunted.

  “You think you can play God with people’s lives, but you’re wrong.”

  “We’re Ashers,” he said. “Here, we are God. We’ve always been one with this land. You know what I’m talking about. You’ve felt it. It’s already there inside you. Accept it.”

  “Like you did? Like Luna did?”

  “Luna.” He all but spat her name. “Good riddance, I say. The other two parasites can meet her in hell for all I care. But you…” His hand reached out to grip my arm. I tried to move away, but his grasp tightened until I could feel the pressure of his bony fingers through my wet sleeve. “You have more power than the lot of them. You have the chance to start a new dynasty.”

  I wrenched away. “No, thanks.”

  His eyes hardened. “The legacy won’t end with you, girl. Your children and your grandchildren will be Ashers. They’ll be drawn to this place just as you are. They’ll be connected by blood and by land just as you are. They’ll feel it in the wind as Ash
ers have for generations. And one of them will embrace it.”

  I shivered. “And if I don’t have children?”

  “You must, for Thane’s sake and for Harper’s. And for your own. It’s your destiny.”

  Thane appeared in the doorway. “We have to go.”

  I looked down at Pell Asher.

  Silently, he turned back to the window.

  * * *

  Thane brought around the four-wheel drive, and I climbed in beside him. We both turned to stare at the façade of the house, and my gaze lifted to the upper balcony where I had seen Pell Asher staring down at us the night Thane kissed me. He had known who I was even then. He must have been so pleased that his plan appeared to be working.