Only the Devout

by Amanda M. Lee

  That wasn’t my concern at present. “We need to track down Sandy.”

  “Has she been hanging around the aquarium?” Griffin asked.

  “I don’t think so. It’s possible. I haven’t seen Titus interact with anyone and thought it could be a spouse.”

  “Then maybe she’s dead, too,” Braden said. “Maybe she served her purpose by getting the spy in place and Titus killed her. You said you think he’s working blood rituals. Maybe she was one of the victims.”

  “Or maybe she was posing as Olive,” Aisling suggested, bouncing Lily, who appeared to be enjoying the ride.

  “There are too many maybes,” I complained. “We need to come up with some facts.”

  “Well, we’re not going to do that here,” Braden said. “We need to get back to Belle Isle.”

  “Which means Aisling is going back to Grimlock Manor,” Griffin said, firm. It was as if he was bracing himself for an argument. “I don’t want Lily near the gate. I’m sorry if that upsets you, but ... .” He trailed off.

  “It doesn’t upset me,” Aisling reassured him. “I agree that Lily shouldn’t be near the gate. I kind of wish I’d left her with Dad. I don’t want to miss out on the fun of figuring out what’s going on with the Weavers, and Olive — and all the other freaks hanging around out there.”

  “That’s the price of motherhood,” Griffin said.

  Aisling heaved out a sigh. “I guess.”

  “You could leave her with me,” Maxine suggested, taking everybody — including me — by surprise.

  “No.” Aisling immediately started shaking her head.

  “Thank you for the offer, but Aisling wants to keep Lily close,” Griffin explained.

  “Although ... .” Aisling pursed her lips. “Lily would be safe here because the freaks in the robes are focused on Grimlock Manor. And whatever is going down will happen at the aquarium.”

  “I thought you wanted to keep her with you,” Griffin protested.

  “I want to keep her safe.” Aisling cocked her head. “You know what? She can stay here a few hours.” She plucked Lily out of the carrier and handed her off to Maxine without another moment’s thought. “There are bottles and diapers in her bag. She’s due for a nap in thirty minutes.”

  Maxine accepted the baby with a small smile. “Okay.”

  “I can’t believe you’re going to leave our baby with someone you hate,” Griffin complained.

  “I don’t hate her.”

  “You said you did.”

  “When?”

  “When we walked through the door not twenty minutes ago.”

  “Oh, that.” Aisling offered up a dismissive wave. “That’s not real hate. It’s exaggerated hate. I want to see what happens with all the cult freaks. You can’t cut me out now. Lily will be fine here.”

  Griffin looked to Maxine for confirmation.

  “I’ll protect her with my life,” Maxine promised, stroking the baby’s soft hair. For her part, Lily seemed fine being left with an absolute stranger. “Just keep in touch. If Olive has been a fraud all this time, I’d really like to know who was working for me — and why.”

  “That makes two of us,” I said, moving toward the door. “Titus has a lot of questions to answer.”

  “Then let’s make him cry until he answers them,” Aisling said, a wide smile in place. “Is it wrong that I’m looking forward to this?”

  “Yes,” Griffin and Braden answered at the same time.

  “I was talking to Izzy.”

  Twenty-Eight

  Griffin was still griping about my aunt serving as babysitter when we reached the employee parking lot behind the aquarium.

  “Seriously, you just handed off our baby to a stranger.”

  Aisling shot him a withering look as she stood next to Braden. “She’s hardly a stranger. We’ve known her forever.”

  “Yes, but you don’t like her.”

  “I don’t dislike her.”

  “Um, I’ve listened to you give entire sermons about how much you hate her,” Griffin persisted. “You’ve told me endless stories about how you think she’s really an evil witch who wanted to entice you to eat a poisoned gingerbread house when you were a kid.” He shot me an apologetic look. “No offense, Izzy.”

  I was more amused than offended. “None taken.” I flashed a smile for his benefit. “Honestly, Aunt Max will take care of her. She watched me all the time when I was a kid — at least that’s what she says, because I can’t really remember it — and I’m still alive. I almost lost a limb only once or twice.”

  It was meant to be a joke, but Griffin didn’t look amused in the least. “That’s my baby.”

  “I thought I was your baby,” Aisling countered.

  “That’s different. We have an actual baby — and you just left her at a magic store.”

  “I thought it would be wrong to bring her to this,” Aisling argued as we rounded the corner to the front of the building and gazed at the circling cult members. The crowd had grown again. “Do you want Lily around these people?”

  Griffin frowned. I could tell he was doing the math in his head. “Where did the new people come from?”

  “He’s probably scooping up people from the parks,” I replied, frowning when I saw a flash of bubblegum pink. I leaned to the left so hard I almost fell, and Braden had to grab my arm to keep me upright.

  “What are you doing?” he asked. “You’ve already had one head injury this week. I prefer you didn’t risk another one.”

  “I thought I saw ... .” I scanned for the pink hair and came up with nothing. Then, when a tall blonde in a halter top moved to the front of the circle, the woman in question looked directly at me, smiled, and dropped her glamour for a split second. It happened so fast I would’ve thought I was imagining it under different circumstances. “Luna.”

  “Where?” Aisling craned her neck, excited. “I liked her. I have a few questions about her hair dye regimen. I’ve been considering a change.”

  “No, you haven’t,” Griffin shot back. “Your hair is perfect the way it is.”

  “I think you just fear change,” Aisling argued. “My hair didn’t always look like I this. In fact, I added the white streaks not long before we met.”

  “So, maybe they’re magical,” Griffin suggested. “I mean ... they brought us together. Why would you want to risk that?”

  Aisling’s eyes darkened. “Are you saying the only reason you fell in love with me was my hair?”

  Griffin immediately started shaking his head. “No. I fell in love with you because of those pants you wore when we played softball with my work league. Your ‘I won’ dance didn’t hurt matters either.”

  She smirked. “You did like those pants.”

  I glanced between them several times, anger building. Then, on a whim, I grabbed both of them by an ear and directed their attention to me. “Listen up,” I hissed, keeping my voice low. “Cormack may put up with this mouthy crap on an op, but I’m not him. He thinks you guys are funny, but you’re more irritating than anything else.”

  “You tell them,” Braden said on a grin.

  “Did you just say ‘op?’” Aisling asked, wrenching her ear from me. She didn’t appear bothered by my admonishment. Of course, she felt very little shame about anything. That was simply her way.

  “That’s what this is.” I refused to back down. “We have a real problem here. There is something bigger happening than an attention-seeking cult.”

  “Yeah, but we don’t know what,” Aisling argued. “Isn’t that why we’re here? We’re trying to figure out the big plan. There’s no rule that says we can’t have fun while we do it.”

  “You know, she does have a point,” Braden said.

  I switched my glare to him. “Seriously?”

  “Of course, you’re the most beautiful and intelligent woman in the world, so I should clearly be listening to you,” he added hurriedly.

  Aisling snorted and made the sound of a whip cracking as she fl
icked her wrist. “When did you get so whipped?”

  “I learned from watching your husband,” Braden shot back.

  “Hey!” Griffin was understandably affronted. “What did I do? I’m just standing here obsessing about my baby.”

  I glared at all three of them in turn and then turned back to study the cult members. “Do you see the blondes?”

  “There’s a blonde right there,” Aisling replied, pointing toward a glamoured Luna.

  “That’s Luna.”

  “No. She’s, like, a foot taller than Luna.”

  “It’s her.” I was quickly running out of patience. “She showed me it was her.”

  Aisling looked dubious but nodded. “Okay, so why is she here?”

  “I don’t know. Unless ... .” I focused on the crowd. “Those three blondes aren’t here.”

  “The ones you met yesterday?” Braden asked. Apparently he sensed my distress, because he’d completely dropped the snarky side of his persona.

  I nodded. “I can’t find them.”

  “That doesn’t necessarily mean anything,” Aisling pointed out. She was suddenly all business, too. The Grimlocks had a very annoying ability to completely drop the crap and put their game faces on in the blink of an eye. “Maybe they didn’t come back after you warned them to stay away.”

  That was possible, but it didn’t feel right. “No. The money was too important. I think she believed me and knew to leave before dark, but that doesn’t mean they were allowed to leave.” My stomach did a long, slow roll. “I should’ve checked on them last night. I should’ve made sure they got away.”

  “You don’t know that anything happened,” Braden countered, sliding his arm around my waist and tugging me to his side. “You can’t just assume that something bad happened because you’re feeling defeated.”

  That wasn’t the word I would’ve chosen. “I’m not feeling defeated. I’m just ... .” I searched for the correct words.

  Surprisingly, Griffin stepped in. “You can’t out-think every enemy,” he said quietly. “I know you can’t help wondering about ‘what if.’ I do that all the time. What if I’d seen the domestic violence report before someone was murdered? What if I’d seen the warning signs between the warring drug dealers? What if I’d realized the real danger Aisling’s mother presented before Aisling and Braden were almost killed? You can’t live your life worrying about ‘what if.’”

  His eyes were soft as they probed my face. “You can only do what you can do, Izzy. You’re not infallible. You’re not omnipotent.” Aisling opened her mouth to say something, but Griffin pressed his index finger to her lips and kept talking. “You’re not omnipotent either, Aisling, despite what your father taught you throughout your life. No one has absolute power.”

  Intellectually, I knew what he was saying was true. It made sense. That didn’t dislodge the huge ball of regret building in my stomach. “We have to look for them.” I was adamant. “They might still be alive.”

  Griffin nodded without hesitation. “We’ll look for them. We’ll break into teams. Can you describe them?”

  “They’re all blonde.”

  “That’s not much of a description,” Aisling pointed out.

  “They’re young, too.”

  “Well ... .”

  I pinned her with a quelling look. “Really?”

  “We’ll just look for any blonde we can find,” she reassured me, linking her fingers with Griffin’s and edging closer to him.

  “I’ll call Dad and have him get the others out here,” Braden said, amusement curving his lips. He clearly enjoyed watching Aisling be silenced. “Everyone keep in contact via text. If we’re lucky, it won’t take us very long to find these girls.”

  “Looking for any blonde I can find,” Griffin mused. “That’s kind of what my life was like before I found you, Aisling.”

  His wife shot him a dark look. “Obviously you want to sleep alone tonight.”

  He snorted. “Please. We have a tempestuous baby. We fall asleep wherever we land at eight o’clock. Don’t pretend we have a choice.”

  “Yeah, yeah, yeah.”

  I THOUGHT IT WOULD BE A RELIEF to be free of Griffin and Aisling’s verbal foreplay. I was wrong. I found I missed them talking over my frazzled nerves as Braden and I headed toward the park.

  “I don’t want to risk getting my head torn off, but what do you expect to find?” Braden asked as we hurried in that direction.

  I slid him a look, confused. “What do you mean?”

  “I mean what do you expect to find? How does this end in your mind?”

  “I expect to find those girls and save them. I expect to figure out what Titus is up to — and I guarantee it’s no good. I expect to save the day.”

  “That seems like a tall order.”

  “And yet I have faith we can do it,” I replied. “That wasn’t what I meant, though. What do you mean about getting your head torn off?”

  “Oh, that.” He sent me a rueful smile. “You’re crabby. I don’t like it when you’re crabby.”

  I slowed my pace. “And I’ve been snapping at you.” I debated what to say. Finally, I went with the only thing that felt right. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to be cross with you. It’s just ... I have this feeling.”

  He stood directly in front of me and studied my face. “Tell me what you feel.”

  “I don’t know if I can put it into words.” I grabbed his hand and pressed it to the spot over my heart. “Do you feel that?”

  He looked confused but nodded. “Your heartbeat? Yeah. I feel it. I’m used to it. I feel for it every night after you’ve fallen asleep.”

  The words were both touching and absurdly romantic. “Wow. I can’t believe you just said that. You’re going to get really lucky tonight — if we survive.”

  “Oh, don’t say that.” He wagged the index finger of his free hand. “We’re totally going to survive.”

  “How do you know that?”

  “Because I have faith. You and I have only begun to love one another. I won’t let our time be cut short.”

  And there it was again. He was so solid, so sure of himself, that I could do nothing but nod. “I need more of that. It’s hard for me to have faith sometimes.”

  “It’s really not,” he countered, leaving his hand on top of my heart and shifting closer. “You’re doubting yourself right now, which isn’t normal. When Aisling was trapped on the other side of the gate, never once did you let doubt dissuade you from what you knew was necessary.

  “I begged you not to cross, but you did it anyway, because you felt it was the right move,” he continued. “I know you’re convinced you’re missing something on this one. That’s why you can’t commit to a plan of action. Tell me why.”

  The uncertainty was there. He was right. It was more, though. “There’s a big picture here. I feel it, but I can’t see it.”

  “Okay.” He lowered his forehead and rested it on mine. “If you feel it, then embrace that feeling.” His voice was barely a whisper. “Close your eyes.”

  “What? This isn’t the time for games.”

  “Shh,” he admonished, his breath warm on my face. “Close your eyes.”

  I did as he instructed, though it felt like a monumental waste of time.

  “There are answers here, Izzy,” he murmured. “You already know them. That’s why you’re so edgy. You know the truth. You just won’t let yourself see it.”

  Even though I knew he meant for the words to bolster me, frustration bubbled up. “If I could see it, don’t you think I would’ve already come to that conclusion?” I snapped.

  “Shh.” He refused to let me pull away, keeping one hand over my heart and cupping the back of my head with the other. “Let it go. Feel what you want to feel. Don’t let your head get in the way.”

  “I ... .” There was nothing to say, so I sucked in a calming breath. He wasn’t trying to be irritating. This was his attempt to help. I had to give him the chance. “Fine.” I pr
essed my eyes shut and focused on my breathing.

  In and out.

  In and out.

  In.

  Pictures started flashing through my mind. The first was the gate.

  Out.

  Men who had disappeared through the gate long before I was even born reappearing on our side of the gate.

  In.

  A creature attacking out of the darkness.

  Out.

  Revenants with the faces of people who had been alive twenty-four hours before crossing the road in an attempt to kill Aisling and me.

  In.

  Aisling being sucked through the gate.

  Out.

  Following Aisling over to the other side.

  In.

  Meeting Cernunnos.

  Out.

  The cult appearing in the parking lot.

  In.

  Knight’s shallow breathing as he tried to protect his wound.

  Out.

  The blondes.

  In.

  News that Olive Westborn had been dead long before she supposedly started working for my aunt.

  Out.

  Titus Weaver’s smug smile.

  The images replayed in a continuous loop.

  “Oh, geez.” I took a step back and lifted my eyes to Braden. “I know what this is.”

  “See.” He beamed at me. “What is it?”

  “The revenants.”

  Whatever he was expecting, that wasn’t it. “I ... no. I don’t think this has anything to do with the revenants.”

  “Of course it does. Cernunnos said that they’d tried to cross multiple times and their attempts would only grow bolder. They need bodies to cross over in. The parking lot is now full of bodies.”

  He shook his head and dropped his hand from my heart. “How could the revenants be responsible for this?”

  “They need people to do their dirty work on this side,” I replied, my belief that I was right growing with every word. “It’s not about the cult. It’s not even about the bodies. It’s about a distraction.”

  Bewildered, Braden held out his hands as if to ask the gods why I’d suddenly lost my mind. “What distraction?”