I looped his arm over my shoulders. It hung limp and heavy. “Try to stand.”
He rose and fell to one knee. Nick took my hand, steadying himself. He looked down, looked up, looked down, as if to confirm he was upright and kneeling before me. He smiled, lopsided. “I love you when you’re bossy.”
I gasped a laugh. “Tell me when you don’t have a head wound.” I tugged him to his feet, tucking myself beneath his arm. Was this more than a head wound? Had he been drugged?
He leaned on me. “Wanted to tell you the day we met,” he slurred.
“That I’m bossy?” I shuffled him out the door. “That would have gone over well.”
“How I felt. Would have scared you.”
“You might have been surprised. Come on. Keep moving.” I grunted, and we staggered into the hall.
“Where?”
“Front door, I think.” I didn’t care who saw us leaving the house. Not now. Nick needed medical attention. We struggled out of the room.
Nick sagged, slamming my shoulder against the wall.
Pain rocketed through me, and I smothered a yelp.
“Sorry.” He pulled away from me, and his knees buckled. “Hurt you.”
“I’m fine.” I adjusted myself beneath his arm. “We can do this. Come on.”
“Dangerous.”
I steered him into the living room, past furniture covered in sheets. “We’re almost there.” I tripped on a chunk of brick, fallen from a gap in the fireplace. Escape was within reach. I grasped the doorknob.
“Don’t move,” a voice said behind us.
I froze, panting.
Nick slid from my grasp and collapsed to the polished, wood floor.
I turned.
Sunny Peel stood beside the fireplace. She held a gun.
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
I felt the blood drain from my face. “I’d hoped you wouldn’t return so quickly.”
“A hope crushed.” Sunny’s gun did not waver. “How did you find him?”
“As the realtor, you had a key to Ground,” I said. I glanced at Nick. He lay on the dusty floor, his eyes closed, his breathing shallow. I resisted the urge to kneel beside him and smooth his brow. “You had a copy when you leased the place, and you kept it, even though you weren’t supposed to. Have you kept keys to all the places you rent?”
She grinned. “And the ones I sell.”
“And you killed Alicia. The police will figure it out.”
The barrel of Sunny’s gun didn’t waver. “I doubt it,” she said. “I’m lucky that way. Always have been. In fact, that’s what brought Alicia to me. Her article on luck.”
“She wasn’t writing an article on luck.” I surveyed Sunny’s delicate frame, clad head to toe in designer black. For once she’d ditched the heels, opting for black tennis shoes. Sunny had come prepared, and I didn’t want to think for what.
“Yes, she was.” Sunny’s eyes flashed. “I should know.”
“She lied to you.” I had to keep her talking, needed time to figure a way out. There were no weapons at hand. No nearby exits. And even if there were, I couldn’t leave Nick. I had to keep cool, play it safe. “Sure, Alicia was interested in your luck. Who knows? Maybe she would have eventually gotten an article out of it. But that wasn’t why she interviewed you.”
“You have no idea what you’re talking about.”
A black cord tinged with yellow flowed from Sunny’s chest. The curse, or the fairy, had been good to Sunny. Had Alicia figured that out too? “Don’t I? It’s obvious why you killed Alicia. You want Brayden.”
“Want him?” Her face reddened. “I love him! Brayden was too good for Alicia. He deserved better. And he deserves better than your slutty sister. I knew she’d be the first person he ran to when Alicia died.”
“So that’s why you killed Alicia in Ground,” I said. “What I don’t get is how you lured Alicia inside when the café was closed. You aren’t strong enough to have dragged her there. And people saw you leave Antoine’s hours before Alicia.”
“It was easy. I waited outside the bar. By the time she left Antoine’s, she was plastered. I had zero trouble getting her to do what I wanted. She hated your sister. I suggested we play a joke on Jayce, and she went along with my program.”
“And since your husband was in the hospital, he didn’t know you were out all night. Tell me, is he there due to natural causes, or have you done something to him as well?”
She smirked. “Nothing the doctors will ever find.”
Nick moaned.
“What did you do to Nick?”
“He found me in Ground and wanted to talk about the management company behind Jayce’s lease. I knew what he was after. There isn’t a management company. Just me. So when he wasn’t looking, I dumped a load of Valium into his coffee.”
“And you always carry Valium in your purse?”
“Being self-employed is very high stress. You only eat what you kill. You should know that, being self-employed yourself.”
“Don’t compare us.”
“Trust me, I wouldn’t compare myself to a lawyer who has so few clients she has to rent a temporary office. What sort of impression does that give?”
She was insane. “At least I haven’t killed anyone.”
“Do you want to hear this or not?”
I nodded. Of course Sunny would talk. She was compelled to tell everyone how wonderful she was at every opportunity. Maybe I could use that against her. “Amaze me.”
“I told Nick he’d have to walk and talk, because I was on my way here. Of course he came along. Nick was dying to get me alone to hit me with his little theory and see how I reacted.”
“You’re wrong,” I said. “If I know Nick, he didn’t want to believe he was right. Not after you worked so hard to find his sister.”
She shrugged. “Whatever. He did keep going on about other people — workers — who might have had the key to Ground. The Valium didn’t work as fast as I’d hoped, so I had to listen to quite a lot of his stupid theories.”
“So you hit him with something to hurry things along.” Keep her talking.
She glanced at the fireplace, and the tumble of loose bricks. “He shouldn’t have turned his back on me.”
“And Ely Milbourne?”
“Who?”
“The man you killed in the alley.”
“Oh. That creepy homeless guy? He saw me let myself out of Ground’s rear exit after I killed Alicia. I should have taken care of him then, but he ran off before I could react.”
“But you found him later,” I said. There had to be a way out of this, a way to distract Sunny, disarm her.
“Unbelievable, right? Who could have thought he’d be dumb enough to return to the scene of my crime? What luck! Even better, I got to leave his body right beneath your sister’s window. I’m surprised the sheriff waited as long as she did to arrest Jayce.”
“And what now? You kill Nick and I? Do you really think the sheriff will overlook two bodies in one of your homes for sale? That will point straight to you, and the cops will figure out as realtor you had a key to Ground.”
“If I wanted Nick dead in this house, he’d be dead. You gave me a better idea. Lucky you came along.”
“Yeah,” I said. Lucky me. “So what’s your grand plan?”
“The forest. People disappear in it all the time. Why not two more hikers? Now you’re going to tape Nick right up and then yourself, and then you’re going to come with me like the good girl you are.”
A wave of heat rushed from the base of my spine to my scalp. Good girl. I’d die a good girl, playing it safe.
My vision tunneled to Sunny. Sunny’s unwavering gun. Sunny reaching into her purse. Pulling out a roll of duct tape.
“Now,” Sunny’s voice hardened. “Tape his feet.” She tossed the duct tape to me.
I caught it one-handed and hurled it at Sunny’s face.
The realtor ducked.
The gun blasted, deafening.
&
nbsp; Something shattered, and I was moving, muscles tight with fury. I plowed into Sunny and swung my foot, catching the back of Sunny’s heel. “Have a safe trip, you bitch!” Pivoting, I drove her into the fireplace.
I dove, grabbed Sunny’s gun hand.
Sunny clawed at me. We scrabbled, panting.
A brick thunked to the floor.
The gun thundered again, Sunny’s wrist bucking in my hands.
I lunged forward, slammed my elbow into Sunny’s neck.
Sunny gasped, her eyes rolling up. She dropped the gun. Her hands flew to her throat.
I grabbed the gun. Running to the front door, I flung it open and screamed.
Men raced up the street towards the house. Men I knew.
I sagged against the doorframe.
Steve Woodley hurtled up the porch first, his bald scalp gleaming. “Put down the gun, Karin.”
“Oh.” I set it on the balcony railing and stepped away. “It’s not mine. It’s Sunny Peel’s. She’s inside. She attacked Nick.”
“Nick?” Woodley slipped the gun into his blazer pocket and peered past her. His mouth flopped open. Sunny lay gagging on the floor. Nick sprawled on the opposite side of the room. “What on earth…?”
“Sunny Peel killed Alicia Duarte and tried to kill Jayce’s lawyer.” I stepped aside and pointed at Nick on the floor. “She slipped him an overdose of Valium. Please, call 9-1-1.”
He pressed a phone to his ear. “On it.” He stepped inside.
Sunny rolled on the floor, coughing.
“Good God,” Steve said, “she’s blue. What happened to her?”
“I hit her in the throat. She had that gun.”
Brayden pushed through the doorway, shifting me roughly aside. He dropped to Sunny’s side and began to work on her.
I knelt beside Nick. His breathing was labored, but at least he was breathing. Let him be okay. I took his broad hand between mine. “Nick? Help is on the way.”
A brick thunked from the fireplace.
And then another.
There was a cracking sound.
Brayden swore. Grabbing Sunny’s shoulders, he hauled her backwards.
The fireplace collapsed.
I shielded Nick’s head, crouching over him. Clouds of dust billowed around us.
“Nick?”
He didn’t respond.
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
The funeral was over.
The sun had set.
The guests had left Ellen’s house.
Nick handed me the last dish, and I wiped it dry, set it in the green-painted cupboard.
He laid his hand on the small of my back. “How are you holding up?”
Throat tight, I wrapped my arms around him and laid my head against his chest. His heartbeat thumped, a steady beat. “It’s over.” In the fight, I’d damaged Sunny’s windpipe, but the realtor had survived. Sunny sat in a jail cell now, out of luck. Her husband’s illness had mysteriously begun improving once he’d left her care. The police were testing for poisons.
There was a knock, and we turned toward the kitchen door.
Jayce stood in her black dress, her face pale. She smiled briefly. “Sorry to interrupt, lovebirds. Karin, you said you wanted to talk to us?”
“Yes.” I swallowed. “Can we talk upstairs? In the attic?”
Jayce raised a brow. “I’ll get Lenore.” She turned and vanished into the hall.
“I’ll go.” Nick pressed a kiss to my forehead. “Let you take care of family business.”
“No, please stay. You’re a part of this. And if you want to run screaming when I’m done talking, it’s better we know now.”
He pulled me to him. “I’m not going anywhere.” His voice rumbled through me, and I caught my breath. I’d thought this house was my true home. I’d been wrong. Nick was home.
I led him upstairs, to the attic. The windows were open, and a breeze flowed across the exposed beams. I’d cleaned the attic and set out three chairs in a circle, facing the antique secretary. A topographical map of the area and a map of Doyle were pinned to the wall.
My sisters emerged through the trap door.
Jayce looked a question at Nick but said nothing.
“You found something,” Lenore said. Her black dress leeched the life from her fair skin and hair.
“Yes,” I said. “Nick knows bits of it, and you two know others, so I’m going to have to be a little repetitive. Bear with me.” I explained about the curse, the missing hikers.
“And you think Belle was a fairy.” Jayce rubbed her bare arms. “A fairy.”
“No,” I said, “Not was. I think she is a fairy. She’s still here, in Doyle. And she’s been messing with us and with others. There are so many weird, fairy things happening in Doyle. After what happened with Sunny, I had time to research fairy signs. The signs are everywhere — like the way the fireplace in that empty house collapsed for no reason. Collapses like that are a sign of fairy activity. So is the gift — or curse — of good or bad luck. Sunny was blessed with good luck. Darla’s stuck with bad — and I don’t think it’s a coincidence her bad luck started the night she puked into the fairy spring.”
Jayce turned to Nick. “What do you think?”
“I may not be a witch,” he said, “but I can tell when something’s wrong. This town is too perfect, and a fairy makes more sense than UFOs.”
“UFOs?” Lenore asked.
“Fairies,” I said. “Everything that’s been going on is in the fairy literature. The disappearances every seven years. The way the trails shift in the woods. The strange lights people have reported in the sky.”
“How do the UFOs fit into it?” Jayce asked.
“They don’t,” I said. “It’s fairies. The marks on Ellen’s face before she died — those are called fairy marks.”
Jayce looked away, her fists clenching. “Don’t tell me a fairy killed Ellen.”
“I’m not. But I am saying Belle exists.” And yes, I knew exactly how ridiculous it all sounded. Fairies were even less believable than vampires. But their activity shared some of the same traits – like the way they drained energy from people.
Jayce’s expression tightened. “But how can you be sure?”
“Because I can see the curse. Ellen told us she can see auras. Since she unbound my magic, I’ve discovered I’ve got a similar talent. I can see the energy lines that attach us to each other.”
I saw them now, a triangle of blazing energy linking me to my sisters. Another, gold cord linked me to Nick. And more — a dizzying array of colorful tracks and three chill, black lines. “The three of us have dark cords attached, and I’m willing to bet they all lead to the fairy spring. We can test my theory, if you’ll come there with me.” I tapped the topographic map. “Darla has a dark attachment too. I think that’s the cause of her bad luck.”
Jayce rose and paced the attic.
“You don’t believe me,” I said.
“No, I do believe you. That’s what scares me.” Her laugh was shaky. “I mean you’re the skeptic. You’re the clear-headed one, the logical sister. To hear this from you…”
“What else?” Lenore asked.
“Fairies are known for kidnapping people,” I said, “and they usually stick to a schedule.”
“Every seven years,” Nick said.
“Right,” I said. “But two of the people who disappeared have returned. Ely Milbourne and that old woman I found in the woods, Dante Cunningham. Both are dead.”
Nick leaned forward. “Why do you think they returned now?”
“I don’t know,” I said. “Maybe Ellen was right, maybe something is changing.” My brow furrowed. I knew what he was thinking — he could get his sister back — and I didn’t want to raise his hopes. But he had to know the truth, or at least what I believed was the truth. I took his hand.
He squeezed it lightly. “It’s all right.”
I swallowed. Maybe it was because we were in that new, gooey, life-is-beautiful part of ou
r relationship, but I believed it would be all right. The world had changed, and Ellen was gone. But I’d changed as well, and I’d get through this. We all would.
“The returns may be the hole in my theory,” I said. “Ely hadn’t seemed to have aged at all. But Dante was thirty-six when she disappeared, and she came back an old woman. If she’d lived, she’d be a hundred and forty today.”
“So if they were both taken by fairies,” Lenore said, “why did one age and the other stay the same?”
“The fairy literature varies,” I said. “In some legends, people disappear into fairy world, and when they return, they’ve aged. In others, they don’t. The point is, if I’m right, two people have… escaped at the same time.”
“But how can you be sure the man was Ely? Or the woman was the right Dante Cunningham?” Jayce asked.
“It was Ely,” Nick said. “They matched dental records.”
“But maybe he’s been in hiding, on the run from the law,” Jayce said.
“He hadn’t aged,” I said. “He should be fifty-seven. That man in the alley was nowhere near that old. You saw him.”
Jayce bit her bottom lip.
“Jayce?” Lenore asked. “Is she right?”
“He was pretty dirty,” Jayce said.
“But?” Lenore asked.
“He wasn’t fifty-seven.”
“Ellen said that we could beat this,” I said. “I think she’s right. We have something our ancestors didn’t. We have each other. There are three of us now, and maybe the fairy wasn’t counting on that. Maybe our existence, our coming into our magic, is weakening Belle’s hold.”
“That’s a big leap,” Lenore said.
“And there’s something else. The rose rabbit.”
“Rose…?” Lenore looked to the blackened windows.
“Both Dante and Ellen mentioned a rose rabbit,” I said. “They used the same words too: Tell the rose rabbit. I don’t know what the rose rabbit is — believe me, I’ve researched.” I’d seen a rabbit carved into the base of the fountain beneath the spring, but it hadn’t been rose. Perhaps the rabbit was just a rabbit. I shook my head. “But the fact that Dante Cunningham and Ellen both mentioned it—”
“It means something,” Jayce said.
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