The Kingdom

by Amanda Stevens

  I clutched the book to my chest. “What about the others?” I asked.

  “It’s their choice,” he said. “Stay here or face the police.”

  “That’s not much of a choice.”

  “It’s more than they deserve.”

  And no sooner had he said the words than the power line running into the house snapped, and the live wire danced across the wet pavement in front of us. A moment later, the windows in the house exploded.

  The hillside gave way beneath us. The truck shifted sideways, and I gripped the seat in terror as Thane fought the wheel and we thundered down the drive. I glanced back just as the house separated from the foundation and started to slide.

  “Thane…”

  He glanced in the rearview mirror. “I see it.”

  “Can you go faster?”

  I knew we could outrun the house. That wasn’t the problem. It was the idea of that house—of Pell Asher—pursuing us down the hill.

  “Hold on!” Thane yelled a split second before we slammed into a boulder that had landed in the road in front of us. I flew toward the windshield only to be yanked back painfully by the seat belt.

  Thane reached for the ignition and tried to restart the vehicle. It wouldn’t turn over.

  The house loomed behind us.

  “Oh, God…”

  “Jump!”

  We bolted from the vehicle and scrambled across the wet hillside. By the time we reached the creek, the rushing water had flooded the footbridge. The flimsy structure swayed and creaked, and the water sucked at our feet. I clung to the guardrail—and Grandfather’s book—and didn’t draw a breath until we were all the way across.

  And then we turned in unison to watch Asher House collapse at the bottom of the hill.

  Thirty-Nine

  Hours later, Thane, Tilly and I stepped from police headquarters into a glistening, deserted town. We’d been there for hours answering questions and giving statements to the two state police detectives who had commandeered Wayne Van Zandt’s office. Wayne had gone off to join the search-and-rescue team, but not before I’d noted a satisfied gleam in his eyes when he’d heard about Luna. I wondered if we’d ever know the truth about what had happened to him at the falls. Maybe his amnesia was a blessing.

  Thane had been questioned first, and while Tilly and I waited, she cleaned up my scratches and doctored the superficial cut on my back with antiseptic she’d plundered from a first-aid kit. I asked her about my mother as she worked. She reminisced softly, and I could see Freya clearly in my mind, so lonely and tragic and desperate to fit in. A girl who had once found solace in a graveyard.

  “What about Edward?” I asked.

  “I won’t talk about him,” Tilly said.

  “Why not?”

  “Maybe he didn’t have a hand in what happened to my girl, but he didn’t do anything to help her, either.”

  “I think he must have been a weak man,” I said. “And probably terrified of his father.” And of the evil, perhaps.

  “That don’t make it right.”

  “I know.” But a part of me wanted to believe there’d been some good in my birth father. I didn’t want to think of Pell as my only Asher legacy.

  Tilly put her gloved hand on my shoulder. “Don’t dwell, girl.”

  “I won’t.”

  But, of course, I would. How could I not?

  “Did you know that Luna was the killer?” I asked Tilly.

  “I knew they were all involved, but she’s the only one I dreamed about.”

  “But you kept it to yourself. All these years you knew…”

  “I had no proof. And besides…I didn’t want anyone finding out about you.”

  “You burned your hands to keep me safe.”

  “I did what I had to do.” She closed the first-aid kit and set it aside. “I’ll give you some remedy when we get home,” she said.

  “Thank you.”

  She sat down beside me.

  “Why did you take the necklace off Luna’s body?” I asked.

  “It had a drude’s foot on the back,” she said. “I meant to destroy it.”

  “Like the one on the cliff?” I asked anxiously. “It had an open point?”

  She nodded.

  “There’s another one at the library. Sidra showed it to me.”

  “Tell me where it is.”

  I glanced at her suspiciously. “Why?”

  She clasped her gloved hands in her lap. “You ask too many questions.”

  * * *

  After we dropped Tilly at her house, Thane and I sat out on the back steps of the Covey house for a while. It was a quiet night now that the rain had stopped. There was no mist to speak of. No hovering ghosts. Just moonlight dancing on the lake and sparkling from the wet treetops.

  “How can the night be so beautiful after everything that’s happened?” I asked in wonder.

  “Maybe it’s over,” Thane said. “Grandfather is dead. Luna’s dead. Hugh, Catrice, Bryn…they’re all gone. Maybe they took the evil with them.”

  I very much wanted to believe that, but living with ghosts had made me cautious.

  Still, the air had a lightness I hadn’t noticed before. The breeze felt different, too. Soft and cool and fragrant.

  A shadow intruded. “I’m worried about Sidra. She shouldn’t be alone tonight.”

  “She’s with Ivy.”

  “How do you know?”

  “One of the detectives mentioned it.”

  “Because you were worried about her, too,” I said.

  He shrugged. “She’s just a kid. It’s hard losing your mother.”

  Even a mother who had been dead when you were born, I thought. But I was lucky because I still had Mama.

  “What will you do now?” I asked Thane. “You don’t even have a house to go home to.”

  “Don’t worry about me. I’ll make do.”

  “You can always sleep here if you need to.”

  He stared down at me for a moment, and I wondered what he was thinking. “Thanks.”

  I looked up at the mountains, where starlight glittered over the peaks. Something unspoken lay between us. We hadn’t yet had a chance to talk about Pell’s revelation. “Do you think he was telling the truth?”

  “About Harper? I don’t know. I’m almost afraid to believe.”

  “He can’t be holding her somewhere against her will,” I said. “Not after all this time. Even Pell Asher couldn’t get away with that.”

  “There’s an alternative. It’s possible she left on her own.” He paused. “Whatever the reason, if she is alive, I have to find her.”

  “I know.”

  “But it doesn’t change how I feel about you,” he said quietly.

  “It will, though. Eventually, it would have to.”

  He rubbed the back of his neck. “I don’t even know where to start looking. Asher House is gone and with it whatever clues Grandfather might have kept there.”

  I took his hand in mine. “Then sift through the rubble. Do whatever you have to do, Thane. Just find her.”

  I thought of everything Pell had told me earlier, but I wasn’t yet ready to share that conversation with Thane. Pell’s machinations only complicated matters.

  “Someone else must know,” I said. “He didn’t engineer that accident alone. He paid people off…the cops, the coroner, maybe even his attorney. You have the Asher fortune behind you now. You can make them talk.”

  Thane shrugged. “Who knows what provisions Grandfather made in his will? Besides, you’re the true Asher. You have a legal claim to the estate.”

  “It’s yours. I don’t want any part of it. This place…” I trailed off on a shiver. “Better you have Pell’s legacy than me.”

  “Meaning?”

  “Maybe you can do some good here.”

  I saw the ghost of a smile. “Restore it, you mean.”

  I looked out over the lake where a mist had started to rise. “If it’s not too late.”

  “I
t’s never too late,” he said, and kissed me.

  * * *

  I didn’t expect to rest at all that night, but it was one of those times when the body ignored the mind and I drifted off quickly. Thane had left some time ago to join the search-and-rescue team. I’d made him promise to come back when he needed to sleep, though.

  I don’t know how long I’d been out when I heard Angus get up and trot into the hallway. I had no idea of the time, but moonlight still shimmered through the bedroom window. I lay very still, listening to the quiet, until Angus whined to go out.

  “Seriously? This time of night?” I muttered.

  He whimpered again, and I dragged myself out of bed, slipping a sweater over my nightgown as I padded down the darkened hallway and into the kitchen where he stood waiting at the back door.

  I peeked out the window. There was mist on the lake, but no ghosts.

  Pulling my sweater around me, I crossed the porch and pushed open the screen door, then followed Angus down the steps. He ran to the edge of the woods and barked excitedly as if he’d treed something in the shadows.

  “What’s out there?” I asked with a shiver.

  He ignored me, but I knew he hadn’t gone far. I could still hear him barking. Then I could have sworn I heard a voice and a moment later Angus fell silent.

  Alarmed, I started toward the woods only to freeze when I saw a shadow emerge. I thought it was Sidra at first. She wore a dark hoodie pulled low over her face and I called out to her before I realized that the silhouette was too tall for Sidra.

  “Ivy?”

  She pushed back the hood and let her dark hair fall around her shoulders as she crossed the yard to the porch.

  Instinctively, I backed toward the steps even though I had no reason to fear her. “Where’s Sidra?”

  “How should I know?” she said sullenly, but there was an edge of excitement in her voice that worried me.

  “Isn’t she spending the night with you?”

  “Then I guess she’s home asleep.”

  “What are you doing here?” I asked in confusion.

  “I came to see Thane.”

  Now I felt a trickle of real fear between my shoulder blades as she moved in closer and everything Thane had said about her came rushing back. There’ve been some incidents.

  “He’s not here,” I said, trying to keep my voice even.

  “I know. I watched him leave.”

  “Where were you?”

  “Over there.” She gave a wave toward the woods where I’d last seen Angus. Where was he?

  “I saw the two of you together,” she accused. “I saw you kiss him.”

  I drew a breath to calm my racing heart. “It’s not what you think.”

  “It’s exactly what I think!” Her sudden explosion of temper rocked me. Her eyes narrowed as she took a menacing step toward me. “You’ve been after him from the moment you showed up in town. I told you to leave, didn’t I? I told you he would never choose an outsider. Why didn’t you listen?”

  “Ivy—”

  “We belong together,” she said. “He knows it, too. He just can’t admit it because of what my father would do. But as soon as I turned eighteen, it won’t matter. No one can stand in our way, least of all you.”

  “Ivy, listen to me,” I said firmly. “Where’s Angus? What did you do to him? Did you hurt him?”

  “God.” She rolled her eyes, suddenly looking very young in the moonlight. “That stupid dog is the least of your worries. But, no, I didn’t hurt him. I gave him a tranquilizer, just like before.”

  “What do you mean, just like before?” Then something clicked in my foggy brain. “You’re the one who set those traps in the clearing.”

  “It had to be done,” she said. “You weren’t going to leave on your own.”

  It was eerie how clearly I could see her in the moonlight. The gloss of her dark hair. The contemptuous curl of her lips. The gleam of madness in her eyes.

  Thane was right. Ivy wasn’t like other girls. She was lonely and needy and because Thane had probably shown her some kindness, she’d spun a fantasy that had eventually become her reality.

  If she lived in another town, she might have outgrown her infatuation. But here in Asher Falls…who could say if Evil had played on her weakness? Who knew if even now she was driven by a rage far greater than her own?

  A wave of terror washed over me because now I understood. There would always be someone greedy and power-mad like Pell and Luna, someone lonely and needy like Ivy, waiting to invite Evil in. It wasn’t over. So long as I remained in Asher Falls, it would never be over.

  I drew a shuddering breath. “What kind of tattoo do you have on your ankle? A pentacle with an open point?”

  She glared at me in the moonlight. “I warned you, didn’t I? I told you to go home that day you gave us a ride. You should have listened.”

  I glanced down where a curved blade, much like the ones I’d seen in Luna’s office, now glinted in her hand.

  I eased farther back and felt the porch steps against my heels. I could try to fight her off. I was strong. I’d had years of physical labor to build up my muscles, but the knife gave her the advantage.

  I began to sift through possible scenarios in my head. I couldn’t get on the porch without turning my back on her. I might be able to outrun her to the woods, but once inside the trees, she’d know the terrain far better than I. And I felt certain she’d set traps all over the place.

  The only other means of escape was the lake.

  I stood with my back to the porch, facing down the stepping-stones. If I could make it to the water, I could lose myself in the mist… .

  She advanced on me even as I calculated my chances. I heard something in the woods, the trample of brush near the tree line, and I thought of Tilly. Ivy heard it, too. She whipped around, and in that split second that she was caught off guard, I bolted for the lake, keeping my balance on the slippery rocks only by some miracle. The mist crept over the pier as I sprinted toward the end, my bare feet thundering on the wooden floorboards.

  I’d had some hazy notion of making it to the boat, somehow unmooring and launching toward the far shore. But I could hear Ivy behind me, and as I reached the end, I ducked under the railing and slid into the lake.

  Stunned by the chill, I went under, my arms flailing in panic. I fought back the terror and as my head broke the surface, I had a new plan. I’d swim out a few yards from the pier and head toward the near bank. But the mist had condensed, and I found myself disoriented. I put out a hand, trying to find the pier, but I’d already drifted away from it.

  I glanced around. Nothing in any direction but that white, floating wall. It was almost as if the mist had thickened to give me cover, but the notion was hardly a comfort.

  I heard Ivy’s muffled voice calling to me, and I swam out several yards, letting the haze and that silence swallow me. My breath was already ragged, my limbs numb from the cold. The cotton nightgown was weightless, but the thick sweater felt like an anvil on my shoulders. Now I didn’t have the strength to drag it over my head.

  For what seemed an eternity, I listened to the silence. I heard something scrape against the wooden pilings and then a wave lifted me. I thought at first Ivy had jumped into the water, but then I realized she’d launched the boat. I heard the lap of water against the oars, and I kicked away from the sound and circled back around to where I thought the pier should be.

  My shoulder bumped up against one of the pilings, and I put out a hand to balance myself only to find the side of the boat. A light came on in my face, and as I pushed off, she swung an oar. The blow dazed me, and I sank like a stone in the water.

  Down, down, I drifted. My arms floated over my head. Moonlight shone through the water and I could see Thane’s angel reaching out for me as the bells called me to the fold. There were other angels, too, alabaster faces veiled in algae. The bottom of the lake was strewn with broken wings, with toppled monuments and exposed coffins, and deep wit
hin a forest of wavering reeds, the statue of a child beckoned. The underwater garden was eerily beautiful, and it came to me that I might already be dead. Maybe that was why I could see everything in such detail—the Gothic spires of the mausoleums, the half-buried headstones. I could even see some of the names: FOUGERANT, HIBBERD and, etched into three tiny markers, MOULTRIE.