Awe filled Avery when she saw Lila standing on her own for the first time in a month. Whatever this world was, it didn’t play by the same rules as hers.
It’s them I have to remember, she realized. And Reid. How could I have forgotten them? How could I have forgotten him?
Shame crashed over her; she’d let this man, this stranger, kiss her. She couldn’t meet Reid’s gaze as a blush burned her cheeks. He would never forgive her for this, and she couldn’t blame him for it because she would never forgive herself.
She wanted to tell Reid that what he’d seen was wrong, but the words clogged in her throat. Not so long ago, he told her he was falling for her, and she’d said the same to him. Then she’d ended up kissing some asshat a short time later. Or at least she believed it was only a short time later, she had no idea how much time had passed since the séance.
She’d never considered herself fickle or insensitive, but that’s exactly what she’d been, and she hated herself for it. If she could, if Reid would let her, she would make it up to him somehow.
The man rested his hands on the railing and smiled in a way that reminded her of a shark before its jaws clamped shut on a seal. Avery realized the vast power he emanated was more than the rest of them had combined.
“You’re in my world now,” he said to the others. “I control you.”
Avery’s heart sank as she realized this was what he’d intended, but why? What did he want with them?
“We know how this works. We came willingly. We leave willingly,” Reid replied coldly, and his eyes flickered toward her.
Avery winced involuntarily when the man pointed at her. “She is mine. I brought her here, and she will not be leaving.”
“Who are you?” Landon demanded.
The man’s gaze remained fixed on her friends as he stepped down. A pit of despair formed in Avery’s stomach. Somehow, a primal part of her already knew who he was before he spoke. She had to resist clapping her hands and shouting like a two-year-old throwing a tantrum to block out the words he was about to utter.
“I’ve gone by many names over the course of my vast life, but you can call me Regan,” he said.
Avery cringed at the name, and she realized he was what her mother had been talking about when she warned of impending evil. Maybe her mother hadn’t exactly known what was coming for them, but it had arrived.
“Well, Regan,” Landon said the name as if it amused her, “we don’t know what you want with Avery, but you can’t have her. She doesn’t belong in this world, and if she stays here, it will destroy her.”
Oh crap. Avery wanted to believe this day couldn’t possibly get any worse, but she had a feeling it was about to take a sharp decline.
“I’d be willing to give her back if you do something for me first,” Regan replied slyly. “Otherwise, I might just keep her and screw the consequences. It does get awful lonely here.”
“What would you want us to do?” Rosie asked.
Regan leaned his hip against the banister. Though his posture was relaxed, Avery felt the malicious glee running through him.
“You’d just have to play a simple game,” Regan said. “And if you make it through, you can have her back.”
“What kind of game?” Reid demanded.
“Hide-and-seek,” Regan replied.
Her friends exchanged a quick look. Then their gazes landed on her, and she realized she was just sitting here while her life and the lives of her friends was being discussed. Placing her hands on the railing, Avery pulled herself to her feet.
“Why can’t I leave?” she demanded.
Avery’s hackles rose when Regan smiled at her like she was a recalcitrant child. “This is my world, and I brought you here, which means only I can open a portal to send you back. Unless your friends agree to play my game, I’ll keep you here, and because this isn’t a mortal realm, it will eventually destroy you,” he said.
Avery struggled to process what he was telling her. One minute he’d been kissing her, and now he was telling her that he would destroy her unless her friends agreed to play whatever twisted version of hide-and-seek he planned for them. And it would be warped, she did not doubt that.
“Can they leave?” she asked.
“They came here willingly and through their own portal. They can leave through their portal if they choose, but you cannot. I can do whatever I want with you.”
She gawked at him. “The hell you can!”
“Avery,” Landon said in a warning tone of voice.
Avery kept her attention focused on the grinning stranger, who oddly enough, wasn’t a stranger. Somehow, she knew him. “Where are we? What is this place?” she asked.
“I told you, it’s my world,” Regan replied.
“It’s a spiritual plane,” Landon said.
“And you’re a spirit?” Avery asked Regan.
“I am what I need to be, when I need to be it,” he replied flippantly.
Something about the vagueness of his answer was terrifying. “But—”
“There are no buts,” Regan interrupted. “You can’t leave if they don’t play my game, and win.”
“There will be no game!” she declared.
Gathering her courage, Avery released the railing and skirted around Regan. She despised everything about him, but she didn’t dare touch him again, she had no idea what would happen if she did. She almost flew down the last two steps and across the hall to her friends, but she wouldn’t give Regan the satisfaction of seeing her bolt like a rabbit.
Instead, she kept her head high and her shoulders squared as she strode forward with a confidence she didn’t feel. Regan’s cold laugh sent a shiver down her spine, but she ignored it as she reached her friends.
“How did you get here?” she demanded of them.
“They can leave, but you can’t,” Regan reiterated.
Avery gritted her teeth against giving him the finger; pissing off the powerful spirit claiming to hold her captive didn’t seem like the wisest of ideas. When Reid met her gaze, the distress and anger blazing from his eyes revealed the truth; she was trapped here.
“What are the rules?” Reid asked with his eyes still fixed on Avery.
“No!” Avery cried. “I can’t let you do this!”
“The rules,” Regan said, ignoring her protest, “will be explained as soon as everyone agrees to play.”
“I agree,” Reid replied.
“Same here,” Landon said.
“I’ll play,” Lila volunteered.
“Me too,” Karen said.
“I agree,” Tina said.
Avery doubted her friends knew what they’d agreed to. She was sure Landon and the others had explained something to them after Avery vanished, but it wouldn’t have been enough to prepare Tina, Karen, and Lila for what was to come.
“Count me in,” Alex said.
“I’m all in,” Rosie said.
Avery’s heart sank into her toes as Rosie uttered the last agreement. Slowly, she turned to look at Regan as he rubbed his hands together like a praying mantis getting ready to feast. Avery stepped closer to Reid.
“I can’t let you guys do this,” she said to her friends. “You know his game will be twisted and unfair.”
Reid grasped her hands and squeezed them. “This is the only way we can get you out of here, and we are not leaving you.”
She couldn’t believe he was willing to touch her after what he’d witnessed. Avery clung to him as the heat of his body finally melted the last of the ice from hers.
“There must be another way,” she whispered.
“There’s not, but it will be okay,” he assured her.
“The rules are simple,” Regan said. “You hide, and Avery seeks.”
“Wait—”
Avery’s protest became a startled gasp when a rush of cold air replaced Reid’s hands. In the blink of an eye, her friends all vanished as if they’d never been there. She spun in a circle as she desperately tried to locate them, but
they were gone.
She turned on Regan, as he stepped onto the marble floor once more and studied her with unnerving intensity. “Bring them back!” she yelled.
“Only you can bring them back. The game has begun, Avery, and it is for you to locate and save your friends. Before you start, there is one more rule you should know. You cannot leave the house, at all. Do not even attempt it, but they’re all still in here. Good luck; you’re going to need it.”
He vanished as suddenly as her friends, and she found herself alone and slack-jawed in the large sitting room. The crack and pop of the fire sounded like gunshots in the silence hanging over the place. The power Regan possessed was terrifying and more than she would have imagined possible, but what was he trying to accomplish here?
She didn’t have time to stand here and try to figure it out; she needed to find her friends and get them out of here.
Wherever here was.
CHAPTER 21
Avery’s eyes darted toward the stairway. Regan had told her not to go up there, and she had no intention of doing so unless there was no other choice. There had been plenty of rooms to search along the hallway; she would start there.
Striding out of the sitting room, she headed back to the hall she’d entered after waking. Dismay filled her as she stared at the seemingly endless doors stretching out to either side of her.
Take it one room at a time.
It was all she could do as otherwise it would be too overwhelming. Turning to her left, she grabbed the knob and shoved open a door. She poked her head into a small, dimly lit den with an antique mahogany desk against the far wall. A large leather chair sat before the desk, bookshelves lined the walls, but there were no books on them, and there was nowhere someone could be hiding in the room.
She closed the door and gazed down the hallway. “Who is Regan, and why is he doing this?”
No one responded to her, but the tiny voice that whispered to her the night of her awakening reared back to life inside her head. The answer niggled at the back of her mind and tugged at her soul, but she couldn’t quite grasp it.
Shoving the voice aside, she squared her shoulders and moved on to search the next rooms. She came across a library, a study, two bedchambers, a room resembling an art museum, and a nursery that officially creeped her out as there was a baby doll lying in the antique crib. When she leaned over to look at it, the toy squeaked, Mama. Avery nearly lost control of her bladder before she fled the nursery.
All the rooms she searched were empty of her friends, and she became more desperate and forlorn with every one she went through. Had Regan lied about her friends being in the house?
Nearing the end of the hall, she shoved open another door and froze when she saw the large, hideous trophy room. Heads of elephants, wolves, bears, and tigers lined one wall; their dull black eyes stared lifelessly at her.
In the corners of the room were a full-sized tiger, bear, and wolf posed in different attack positions. Their open mouths revealed their large, lethal teeth. Those teeth gleamed wickedly in the flames of the white candles set in the brass holders lining the red velvet walls.
But no matter how disturbing and destructive they looked, they were nothing compared to the other creatures in the room. One of them stood about three feet high; it was purple with green spots dotting its mangy coat. Another was five feet tall with two snake-like heads rising from its footlong neck; each of those heads had six yellow eyes bulging from them.
However, those things weren’t the worst. No, the worst was the dozens of small critters that looked like a cross between a rat and a scaly, foot-high dinosaur. Standing on their hind legs, their foot-long arms had three-inch claws at the ends of their skeletal fingers and their razor-sharp teeth made a piranha’s look friendly. Brown tufts of hair stuck to their leathery skin, and she swore their beady black eyes followed her when she stepped into the room.
Making sure to leave the door open for a quick escape, Avery kept her back to the wall and her eyes on the room as she tiptoed toward a large closet. She couldn’t shake the unreasonable feeling that if she made a sound, they would all pounce on her.
Arriving at the closet, she edged open one of the doors and chanced taking her eyes off the room to glance inside. So afraid of the creatures in the room, she looked away again before her mind registered what she’d seen. Avery’s head shot back to the closet.
Rosie’s sky-blue eyes met hers as she cried out against the gag in her mouth. She lay in a ball on the floor of the empty closet. Forgetting all about the room, Avery flung both doors open and fell on her knees in front of Rosie.
“Are you okay?” she demanded as she pulled the gag from Rosie’s swollen lips.
“Yes.” Rosie’s voice cracked. “Are you?”
“I’m fine.”
“Have you found anyone else?”
“No.”
Rosie turned in the closet to reveal the hands tied behind her back. Avery leaned forward to undo the knots.
“Did he have any more rules?” Rosie asked as she rubbed her wrists together while Avery started to untie the rope binding Rosie’s ankles.
“I can’t leave the house, but he said everyone is in here.”
“Good,” Rosie said.
“What happened to you guys? One minute you were there and the next you were gone.”
“I don’t know. It was so strange,” Rosie replied dazedly. “I went from being with the rest of you to waking in this closet. Whatever Regan is, he has a lot of power.”
“Too much,” Avery mumbled. “And I don’t understand what he wants or is trying to do with us.”
“Unfortunately, I think we’re going to find out. What’s outside of these doors anyway?”
In her excitement over finding Rosie, Avery had forgotten about the room. She glanced back to make sure nothing was stalking closer, but all the critters remained in place. “A trophy room,” she said.
“With animals?” Rosie squeaked.
“Yes.” Or at least some of them are animals.
“I hate trophy rooms,” Rosie whispered morosely.
“Who doesn’t?”
Rosie brushed back the strawberry-colored hair clinging to her face with a trembling hand. “I mean, I really hate them. When I was five or six, we were having dinner at the house of one of my dad’s clients and he had a trophy room. I went into it and immediately started to cry. For years after, I had nightmares about being trapped in that room and the animals came alive to attack me.”
Foreboding crept over Avery’s skin, but she shoved it aside. The room was creepy but harmless. The things inside it were not going to come alive. She repeatedly told herself this, but she found herself listening for claws clicking against the hardwood floor.
Rising to her feet, Avery took Rosie’s hand and helped her rise. “Don’t worry. It’s awful in here, but they’re all dead.” She tried to sound reassuring, but the words sounded false even to her.
Rosie cast her a wary glance before exiting the closet. “What are those?” she cried and pointed at the little creatures Avery disliked so much.
“I don’t know.”
Eager to escape the room, Avery started pushing Rosie toward the door. Before they reached it, the door swung shut with a bang that reverberated off the walls. Avery jumped before lurching forward to grasp the knob. She jerked and twisted the knob before placing her foot against the wall and using all her strength to try yanking open the door, but it refused to budge.
“Hey!” she yelled as she dropped her foot and started pounding on the solid oak door. “Let us out of here!”
“Avery,” Rosie whispered. “Something’s happening.”
Scrape. Tick. Scrape. Tick. Tick. Tick.
Avery’s breath froze in her lungs; a cold sweat coated her body as she realized the tick, tick, tick was claws on wood. She couldn’t move as more scraping, ticking, and creaking came from behind her. Then a low growl broke her paralysis and she spun to face the room.
She flat
tened herself against the door when she discovered the animals had come to life. The eyes in the heads on the walls swiveled as gurgled cries erupted from their mangled throats. The wolf stepped off its stand and stretched leisurely before yawning to reveal all its teeth.
Why, Granny, what big teeth you have.
All the better to eat you with, my dear!
Once Little Red Riding Hood popped into her head, it was all she could think of while the wolf licked its muzzle before baring its fangs at them. Its vivid blue eyes focused on Rosie and Avery as bloodlust emanated from it.
With chattering cries, the small, ugly creatures leapt off their mounts. They edged forward with their furry heads undulating on their necks while they hopped up and down. Their long, scaly tails thudded on the floor while their claws ticked against the wood. The double snake-headed monster, and the purple polka-dotted one moved off their stands. The snakes hissed, and their red tongues flickered in and out.
Rosie plastered herself against the wall, and her hand clenched on Avery’s arm as the creatures all edged closer. All the color had drained from Rosie’s face and lips. Avery wrenched her arm free of Rosie’s death grip and spun back to the door.
“Help!” she screamed as she pounded on the door. “Let us out! This is not part of the game, Regan!”
“Yes, it is,” Rosie whispered.
She grasped Avery’s arm again and yanked it away from the door. Her nails dug into Avery’s flesh as she pulled her closer. “This is the game, Avery. You didn’t think he would make it easy for us, did you?”
No, she hadn’t expected it to be easy, but searching through endless rooms wasn’t exactly simple, and something like this had never crossed her mind. “I didn’t expect to be eaten,” she retorted.
“Neither did I,” Rosie whimpered.
“I… I can end this by agreeing to go with him,” Avery whispered in a choked voice.
“Don’t even think it, Avery. I mean it. This is bad, but if he wins, something far worse will come of it. I know it will.”
Nightmares (The Coven, Book 1) Page 12
