Valley of Fire (Valley of the Moon Book 2)

by Bronwyn Archer

  “Alexander is hurt. He needs to get to a hospital.” The look when her eyes met mine stopped my mouth from moving.

  “He won’t be needing a hospital, dear. He’ll need a morgue.”

  I frantically reviewed my options. It was a short review, since I didn’t have any. I was unarmed, outnumbered, and out of time, and my so-called godmother was apparently no longer interested in helping me.

  Of course, I did have the truth on my side. I braced my shoulders back and called out to her. “Hey, Ramona! I know your secret.” I said. My heart was beating so fast it bottomed out and for a second I thought I’d black out.

  Ramona ignored me and checked her watch. “It’ll be dawn soon. Time to roll, Wade.” She turned to talk to Jenner, who was leaning against the van watching me.

  “Did you hear me, Ramona?” I spoke louder, with more urgency. Every time his heart beat, Alexander was losing more blood. I didn’t have much time. “I know what happened on the bridge. My mother didn’t jump—you pushed her!”

  The words dropped out like they’d been waiting years to be spoken. Jenner stared at me silently.

  Ramona froze, and then slowly turned towards me. Her face was a pale mask. I didn’t care if I died—at least I’d confronted my mother’s killer. It wasn’t justice, but it was all I had. Charlie Bernardo would bring down the hammer once I was dead. He’d know who my murderer was. Knowing that made me utterly fearless.

  “Did you hear me? She didn’t jump! You killed her so you could marry my father. You let me live for ten years with the pain of that lie! So go ahead and kill me! Because what you don’t know is that there was someone ELSE on the bridge that day, and he saw everything. If anything happens to me, he’ll tell the police everything.”

  I smiled triumphantly through my tears. No matter what happened, Charlie knew her name, and she didn’t know his. When he found out I was dead, he’d know what to do.

  Her face was like stone. Then she slowly arched one eyebrow. “I see someone has been talking to Charles Bernardo.” I gasped. My mouth went dry and my exhausted brain tried to understand the implications. How could she know? How had she tracked him down?

  She gestured for Jenner to come closer. My muscles itched to run, to flee as fast as I could—but Alexander was in the van. I couldn’t abandon him. I was in a state of shock, my mouth dry as dirt.

  “Yes, Lana. I know about Mr. Bernardo of Walnut Creek. The only thing that kept him alive all these years was the fact that he didn’t know who I was.” She unleashed a grim, terrifying smile. “Oops.”

  I stammered, “How . . . how do you know his name?”

  “He dropped his wallet on the bridge that day. Too dumb to live, really.” She pulled a folded piece of paper from her jacket pocket and unfolded it. I recognized it as stationery from my dad’s car shop, with the Valley Imports letterhead. She smoothed it out and handed it to me, along with a pen.

  “Sign at the bottom, please.”

  “What is this?”

  “Sign it at the bottom or Jenner will take you back to the van and . . . convince you.”

  I signed my name.

  “Now go to the top of the paper and write exactly what I say.”

  My cheeks burned with rage. “Why should I do what you say?”

  Ramona sighed. “Wade, you have your knife?” He nodded. “Go get part of the boyfriend and bring it out to me.”

  “What part?”

  Ramona smiled. “Use your imagination.”

  Jenner hauled one of the van’s back doors open. “No, wait!” I screamed, but my voice was a raspy whisper. “Please don’t hurt him.”

  She held up her hand and he stepped obediently away from the van. “Now write: ‘Dear Dad, please forgive me. It’s not your fault. Alexander and I are in love but we can never be together. I am going to go be with my mother. The Ambrose curse is real and it ends with me.” I turned to stare at her.

  She was going to fake my suicide—just like she’d faked my mother’s.

  “You’ll never get away with this. I have a new will! It’s too late! And the police are already looking for you.”

  But they weren’t. I hadn’t wanted to rat her out. And it was too late.

  Ramona narrowed her eyes. “No so smart after all, are you, Lana? You didn’t sign that new will—and your dad will never see those divorce papers—so once you’re both gone, it’s all mine. By tomorrow, Mr. Bernardo won’t be around to tell anyone anything.”

  I realized with horror that she was going to win.

  “My lawyer will never let you take my inheritance.”

  She shrugged. “I don’t make the rules, Lana, I only play by them.” She shook her head in disgust. “Tanith—that ungrateful bitch. She had no idea what I had to do to survive when I was your age. But wonderful, perfect Tanith was too good for the Ambrose money. Your mother deserved what she got!” Her lips pulled up away from her teeth and she hissed, “And so do you. Now finish the goddamn note!”

  My trembling fingers scrawled the words. The paper shook as I handed it to her.

  She passed it to Jenner. “Put it in her car. The keys are inside it.” He tossed my suicide note into the Ferrari. “Now get the boy out here.”

  Jenner opened the van door and peeked in. “He’s still out cold.”

  “Please,” I begged. “You want me—not him. Let him go.”

  She stared at me for a beat, then called out to Jenner, “Leave him for now. We’ll have to hurry.”

  Jenner picked up his flashlight and Ramona gestured for me to walk in front of her. Alexander was slowly bleeding to death and I was being marched to my fake suicide. I reached under my shirt and gripped the dove pendant in my hand and prayed furiously to Georgette. I still had faith in her.

  The flashlight lit the path ahead—a narrow, muddy trail that curved downhill away from the forested peak and bit into the side of the cliff, heading west. Stray shafts of moonlight escaped from thick clouds and glittered on the sea below. I stopped to look around. City lights twinkled in the distance. Which meant we were somewhere high on the far edge of the Marin Headlands, home of sheer cliffs, steep drops to the sea—and no one around to hear me scream.

  Then I realized I knew where I was. Point Bonitas—with that tiny lighthouse perched on a rocky spit of the Marin Headlands. It jutted into the Pacific ocean at the northern edge of the peninsula, just west of the Golden Gate Bridge. Steep cliffs crashed down on either side to narrow rocky beaches.

  I was familiar with those beaches. It was where my mother’s broken body had washed up.

  “Keep moving,” Ramona hissed. Wade grunted behind us. My sneakers slipped on the steep path. The sharp air was heavy with sea salt and a biting wind whipped through my hair. The path dipped steeply until we reached a low gate. A sign streaked with rust said NO TRESPASSING. Ramona ordered me to climb over it.

  To my left, the lights of the city glowed under thick cloud cover. The spire of the Transamerica Pyramid blinked red. Further east the Golden Gate Bridge was a long string of lights stretching across the Bay. I stepped gingerly down the last few steps onto a flat ledge that hugged the cliff wall. The ground was sandy and littered with broken beer bottles.

  At one end, rusted, round metal barrels were built into the rock wall. One was stamped PG&E PUMP. Narrow pipes jutted out of the exposed rock. A trickle of water fell from one of the pipes, soaking the sand below.

  In the middle of the ledge, a thin finger of land extended about a dozen feet out, in a narrow, arrow-shaped point.

  Like a plank off a pirate ship.

  Inescapable dread closed in on me. Ramona and Jenner hiked down the last steps of the trail and stepped onto the ledge behind me. Jenner’s flashlight swung wildly around and then he set it on the ground pointing up.

  Ramona approached me with purpose in her stride. I prayed desperately, my lips moving and whispering. Her eyes flicked down to my chest, where the Dove of Justice glittered on the end of its platinum chain.

  She tu
rned to Jenner. “I thought I told you to search her!”

  He shrugged. She turned back to me. “Is that the real one?”

  My hand flew up and clutched the dove. She narrowed her eyes. “It is.” She speared my shoulder with a talon-tipped finger. “You still don’t understand. Everything is mine now.”

  Without a word, I took off the necklace, balled it up in my hand, and pulled my arm back like I was going to toss it over the edge.

  Without warning, a fistful of heavy wet sand hit my eyes. Blinded, I fell to my knees.

  Her boot crushed my hand and I screamed. She reached down, pulled the necklace out of my throbbing fingers, and slipped the delicate chain over her head.

  In my delirious state, a few words of random verse popped into my head.

  My dove in the clefts of the rock,

  In the hiding places on the mountain side.

  Show me your face, let me hear your voice;

  for your voice is sweet, and your face is lovely.

  It was the Song of Solomon verse engraved on my grandparent’s pale granite headstone. I whispered the words under my breath. Had Georgette already left me? Was her work in this world finished? After all she’d done, had she really left me to die at the hands of my mother’s murderer?

  “Shut up, Lana!” My ribs exploded in pain and I rolled over, moaning and clutching my side. Ramona put her heavily booted foot on my stomach. “BE QUIET or I’ll kick you again!”

  I screamed for help but the crash of waves against the rocks below muffled the sound of my voice. Ramona glanced up at Jenner, who held a finger to his lips and pointed to the top of the trail.

  “Goddammit, get your gun ready, you idiot!” He felt around his belt for his gun, then looked up at Ramona slack-jawed. “Well? Where is it?”

  He looked at her. “It . . . must have dropped out of my pocket in the van,” he lied.

  Ramona gritted her teeth. “Then get rid of her now, before whoever is up there comes down here.”

  Jenner stormed over to me, clamped a hand over my mouth, and lifted me off the ground. I kicked and struggled to break free as he dragged me towards the edge.

  “Georgette!” I screamed. She’d hear me—she had to. Her supernatural whispers could transmit real information. Her ability to move physical objects was real. She’d told me the phone number for Nastia’s son. Which car key to steal the terrible morning I was stuck at Cressida’s in my bloody prom dress. She’d made the knife fly into my hand at the Valley of Fire. She’d pushed my snow globe off my dresser.

  She’d opened the windows in the Vanquish as it sank.

  Cinderella’s godmother made her a ball gown out of rags and turned a pumpkin into a carriage. Could my fairy godmother kill for me? What if she could appear—show her face? Scare Jenner? Was it possible?

  Show me your face.

  Show me your face.

  I recited the words like a magic spell. The toes of my sneakers dug into the sand to try and slow him down. The fall would be quick. A few seconds. Then I’d see her face. Her lovely face. Show me your face, let me hear your voice. For your voice is sweet, and your face is lovely.

  “PUT HER DOWN!” A raspy voice sliced through the damp air.

  “What the fuck!” he yelled. He froze just a few inches from the edge.

  Cressida stood at the end of the trail pointing Jenner’s gun at Jenner. He dropped me and I scrambled away the relative safety of the cliff wall.

  She was in the same clothes I’d seen her in hours earlier—the oversized hoodie and tiny jean shorts. Her hair had dried into a frizzy mass of white blonde curls that wafted and waved in the around her head. Her skin shone pale gray in the dim light. Deep black shadows under her eyes gave her the appearance of a ghost.

  Ramona shrieked, “PUT that down, Cressida! Are you OUT of your mind?!”

  Cressida extended her arms. “Let her go, motherfucker, or I will drop you.”

  How had she found us? I’d last seen her getting into a Sonoma County sheriff’s car, hours ago.

  If she had the gun, that meant she’d been in the van.

  Cressida staggered and almost slipped on the wet rocks at the base of the trail.

  “Cressida—” Ramona held out a hand to her. Cressida recovered and wiped her nose with the back of one hand, leaving a streak of blood from her nostril across her cheek.

  “Shut up, Mom, or I’ll kill your stupid boyfriend.” Ramona hesitated. “This is what you were doing all last week when I couldn’t get you on the phone? I was in a police station all alone tonight and you were totally MIA! You’ve LIED to me for the LAST time!” Tears streamed from Cressida’s red-rimmed eyes. “Eden’s gone. She moved in with Dad and you weren’t even there to say goodbye to her! I had to pack all her stuff! You NEVER cared about us. You only cared about this bullshit! About Lana’s money. This is all it’s EVER been about.”

  Ramona shifted on her feet. For the first time, she looked unsure of herself. “Put the gun down, and I’ll explain everything, darling. Please don’t make this worse. I’m going to get you the help you need.”

  Cressida’s hands shook as she held the gun. “Lana, what did she do to you?”

  “She made me write a suicide note,” I said slowly. “She wants my inheritance after she and Wade kill me.” Cressida’s mouth twisted in disgust. “The guy in the van—is he alive?”

  “He’s fucking passed out in there and there’s blood all over the floor.”

  “Did you call 9-1-1?”

  “I tried. Phone doesn’t work up here.” I scrambled to my feet and watched the tense standoff between Cressida and Jenner. She didn’t take her eyes off Jenner. “Lana, go help your friend. He needs to go to the hospital.”

  “Wade has the keys to the van,” I said. Jenner stood pinned at the edge of the cliff, held in place by the point of his own gun.

  “Give her the keys, asshole!” Cressida said. Ramona’s eyes slid to her daughter and she inched closer to her.

  “Now Cressida, don’t believe her,” Ramona purred. “Lana and her father embezzled hundreds of thousands from my uncle. Wade and I just need her to agree to pay it back. He was just trying to scare her—my uncle won’t be as forgiving. I’m trying to help her!”

  Cressida’s eyes met mine. It was time to drop my next bomb.

  “Your mother knew about you and Wade,” I said in a clear voice that rang out. “He threatened to leave her if she did anything about it.” Cressida’s chest heaved. The clouds cleared and bright moonlight illuminated the ledge. Ramona’s eyes flashed and her hands clenched into fists. “What a filthy little liar she is! Cressida, you don’t actually think I knew about that, do you?” Ramona shot Jenner a ferocious look. He stood stock still at the edge of the point with his arms up.

  Cressida’s eyes flew wide open. Her arms trembled and lowered the gun. “About ‘that’? Sounds like you’re not surprised, Mom. Did you know? Did you, Mom?” Her voice broke and she started to cry.

  Ramona’s eyes never left the gun. She was only a few feet from Cressida. “I misspoke, darling. I had no idea, I swear.” She turned to Jenner. “What did you do to my daughter? What is she talking about?”

  Jenner’s jaw went slack and his eyes darted wildly around. “I . . . don’t know.”

  “She hid a nanny cam in my old room,” I said to Cressida. “There’s a video of Wade with you. And now the police have it.”

  Cressida’s arms seemed to melt. They fell to her side, and the hand holding the Glock dangled loosely.

  “He . . . he told me he loved me. Told me I was beautiful. I was flattered. I loved the attention. But then . . . he wouldn’t stop.” Her voice broke and she wiped her runny nose with her sleeve. “He’d come to my room at night. He’d get me high and do whatever he wanted.” Her huge, pale blue eyes looked alien, glassy and red, with the pupils so small they were invisible. “And you knew! Just tell me the truth! For once, mother.” Her raspy voice faded to a whisper.

  Ramona stepped closer to her
daughter. “Darling, darling. I swear I didn’t know. It makes me sick to hear this.” She clapped a hand on Cressida’s thin shoulder. “He is going to pay for what he did to you.”

  “I-don’t-believe-you,” Cressida whispered in a sing-song voice.

  Jenner yelled, “She’s lying, Cressy! She knew. What we had was special. Don’t shoot, okay?” Cressida’s face crumpled and her shoulders shook.

  In one smooth movement, Ramona snatched the gun out of Cressida’s hand, pointed it at Jenner, and fired. The sharp crack echoed off the cliff wall. I clapped my hands to my ears. Cressida screamed.

  Jenner clutched at his neck and made terrifying gurgling noises. Dark rivers of blood gushed down his chest. He staggered backwards, and without a word, dropped away into darkness.

  Ramona lowered the gun. “See, darling? I do believe you. And I’ll kill anyone who hurts our family. Including this little thief.” Ramona slowly turned to me.

  “Mother, no!” Cressida screamed. Ramona whirled around and slapped Cressida in the face. Cressida seemed to crumple. “She just saw me kill Wade! Do you want to visit me in prison? If not, shut up and let me finish this!”

  Ramona cocked the gun and waved me toward the tip of the ledge. She called to Cressida, “Go home now, honey. Go home and pretend you were never here.”

  I held my hands up and took a step backwards. “Cressida, wait! How did you find us tonight?”

  Cressida was hugging herself and shivering. Her voice was a barely audible croak. “I was at the police station and there was a . . . pad of paper on the desk in front of me. It was blank one second and the next . . . there was this.” She reached into the pocket of her hoodie and took out a crumbled piece of yellow paper, the kind from a legal pad. “It’s the directions to this place. It said my mom was here.” She stuffed the paper back into her pocket. “So I left and got in a cab.”

  Ramona cursed. “Wade must have told someone at the station where he’d be. I knew he’d double-cross me.” Cressida stared at her.

  “Let Lana go, Mom.”

  She shook her head. “I’m sorry, darling. But I’m doing this for you. For us. For Eden.” I took another step backwards with my hands up. Ramona took aim at my chest.