by Kayleigh Sky
Otto smiled weakly. Jessa’s innocence left him with an oddly frail feeling. He wasn’t up to it. Wasn’t strong enough not to break Jessa’s heart. The minute he told him…
All the joy in Jessa’s life was an act of a different kind of faith than the Adi ’el Lumi knew. He’d fought back from death and struggled through years of sickness.
Rune cherished him. Doesn’t he?
The crowd on the platform thinned, and the people in the car sat, and the train lurched. Jessa drew in a breath.
“You’re going to be bored before you know it,” Otto said.
“I don’t get bored.” Weird and matter-of-fact. Jessa smiled. “It’s beautiful outside.”
It was. Thin silver and plum-colored clouds bounced back shadow and light. A few minutes after the train chugged ahead, eucalyptus trees surrounded them. Jessa settled into his seat, head tipped back, eyeing Otto from under his lids. A smile played on his lips.
“Something’s going on,” he murmured.
“Like what?”
“You tell me. I can see you thinking.” His smile broadened. “I have a feeling I don’t want to know what you’re thinking about. You look sad. Is it about us?”
Otto worked his tongue over his teeth, buying time. Jessa wasn’t usually blunt. Otto had a feeling he’d often been told things weren’t going to go well for him and had grown tired of it. He’d defied it instead. But this… This was the ruin of his family.
“I’m not sad.”
Jessa was quiet for a moment while he looked outside again. It was dark under the trees and the shade of the leaves flashed across the glass. He touched the window with a fingertip, then dropped his hand and faced forward again. “Are we eating on the train?”
“We’ll be home before lunch. Are you hungry?”
“I need to feed soon.”
A shiver of desire he didn’t want to think about ran through Otto. “We’ll be home in a couple hours.”
“Is it about us?” Jessa said again.
Otto bit back a groan. “I have to bring Brillen’s killer to justice, Jessa. That’s my job.”
“Making us about that is a lie. I felt you change.”
“What?”
“This morning. You felt different to me.”
“Letting murderers go free just isn’t something I can do. I’ve given years of my life to hunting this one down.”
Jessa frowned. “What are you talking about? Maisie? You really think this is the same killer?”
The words left his mouth, quiet and heavy. “I know it is. I think I’ve always known. Jessa—” But now his voice failed.
The train rocked, and Jessa gripped the seat on either side of him. “Tell me what’s going on.”
“I read the book. I think there are messages in it about the treasure.”
“The Adini Treasure? It isn’t real. At least not anymore.”
Otto shook his head, letting his gaze rest on the shape of the necklace under Jessa’s shirt. “The Letters of the Revelatory Passion unlock it.”
“Where is it?”
“I don’t know. I think the Adi ’el Lumi are trying to find and locate the keys.”
“The keys?”
“In the necklaces.” He nodded at Jessa’s chest. “The letters are the key.”
Jessa laughed, a hand to his chest. “But these are nothing. Reproductions.”
“The real ones exist. I think that one is real.”
Jessa tugged his out. Shook his head. “Rune gave—”
He stopped, and horror dawned the moment he understood. His head moved to the side. Back again. He shook it harder, pushing back into his seat as if to get as far away from Otto as possible. “You can’t take the easy way out just because solving this is hard. Or because you want to break it off with me. Just because Rune was at our father’s side, or because he bowed to Zev for my sake… You think he’d kill people out of… Out of what? Revenge? To get rich? And do what? Go where? No vampire would accept him.”
“The Adi ’el Lumi would. They want power back. For vampires.”
“They’d kill me.”
“Not if that was Rune’s price.”
“For power? For riches? To save my life again?”
Otto sat forward, and Jessa scrunched back further. “Guilt and shame are terrible things to live with,” Otto said softly.
Jessa’s face hardened and seemed to age twenty years. “Rune is honorable. Zev honors him.”
“Zev bought him.”
“With my life,” Jessa said bitterly.
“Your family was brought low.”
“We are still royal.”
“Listen to me. Throw a stone and you’ll hit a vampire connected to the jewelry or art trade. I got distracted by that. Brillen was a sleaze. He preyed on humans by pretending to be a drainer. He knew what he was doing when he went to Wen, but Wen didn’t know him and turned him away. So Brillen hooked up with a blood whore. Maybe he didn’t mean to drain him. That would bring too much attention. But he was followed and killed for the necklace he wore.”
“What necklace?”
Otto’s imagination had taken a massive leap, but he was sure of himself now. “He had a scratch on his neck. It seemed like something he might have gotten in a struggle. Now it makes sense he got it when the killer ripped the necklace off of him.”
“You’re guessing.”
“The blood whore got away. We thought it was Mateo, Isaac’s friend. And, at first, it just seemed like a coincidence Isaac was in the kitchen during the first robbery at Comity House, but I don’t think it was. They wanted information and thought Isaac would have it.”
“They? They came after me. Who are you talking about?”
“I think it’s possible Rune is with the Adi ’el Lumi. Maybe you were just a distraction too. You weren’t hurt. Wen was there to protect you.”
“So Wen was working with them too. A conspiracy now?”
Otto’s lips twitched with a smile. “It is a conspiracy, so yes, it sounds outrageous, but listen and it all fits together. They finally got to Mateo. I’m guessing they’d been watching the center. Wen got in the way. I think he was on the periphery, a hanger-on. He didn’t know enough, but he wanted status. He would’ve been easy to manipulate. They took Wen’s body and—”
“Left it at Solomon’s.”
“I doubt that was the plan. I think taking him was an attempt to muddy the waters, otherwise there was no reason to, they could’ve killed him and left him there. I think Solomon was interrupted—either by the clerk coming in or something else. I think they planned to dump the body somewhere that would lead the investigation in the wrong direction. For years Rune has been searching for the treasure. He has the perfect job for it. And maybe while he’s been doing his job he’s been collecting the real necklaces. For some reason he gave you one.”
“I told you why. I was sick. I... I liked it.”
Otto nodded. “And you would keep it safe for him. I don’t know how much time we have before he’s ready to make his move. I wouldn’t be surprised if he knows how close I am.”
Jessa laughed. “This is crazy. Rune is working. He doesn’t know anything about this. He blows glass in his spare time. Or sculpts. Or paints. I know Rune didn’t do this. I know it, Otto.”
“How, Jessa?”
“In my heart.” His face twisted. “In my heart. Where I also know you’re too afraid to love me.” He got up.
“Jessa.”
“No, I—”
He tilted.
And suddenly Otto flew across the train and crashed into the ceiling. Screams and screeches of metal rent the air. Otto rolled with the motion of the train. Glass shattered. The edge of a seat careened toward him, and a burst of light flashed in his eyes, and everything suddenly went dark.
48
Broken Ties
Oh God.
A high-pitched keen tore through Jessa’s head. It ricocheted inside with a jangling sound of its own. Groaning, he clenched hi
s hands into fists. Dirt and gravel ground into his knuckles.
He was outside.
Heat baked into his back and pierced an eye with its glow. The sun. He peeled his eyelids partway back. He lay on an expanse of gravel. Bodies littered his field of vision. Some were moving, but others…
He swallowed.
A few people were carrying the injured away on blankets and coats while other people crawled out of giant blocks of metal. What were those? He frowned, trying to remember how he had gotten here.
Somebody touched him, a woman hurrying by, glancing over her shoulder at him. “Okay?”
He nodded.
The sun on his back seeped into the gravel all around him, and the desire to sleep dragged at him like a weight. He didn’t want to think about—
What?
A shriek rent the air. “Heeelp!”
Blinking rapidly, Jessa pushed at the ground, got to his feet, and swayed. Somebody waved an arm from inside one of the metal boxes. “Heeelp!”
The box was silver blue. Other, similar boxes lay in disarray across the open field.
“Heeelp!”
Jessa headed toward the voice. A couple sat on the ground, a woman dabbing at a man’s bloody face with the hem of her shirt.
“Are you okay?” Jessa asked.
She gave him a bewildered gaze. “I think so.”
“What happened?” he asked.
Her mouth opened, and for a moment nothing emerged. “An earthquake,” she answered tentatively, as though maybe it had been something else.
“Oh.”
Jessa staggered on. He helped somebody else off the ground and went on toward the nearest box.
Train.
It was a train. He’d been on a train. With—
“Otto!”
He started to run toward the mass of cars strewn pell mell across the weeds.
“Heeelp!”
The car with the waving arm was on the opposite side of the tracks with a few others. Staggering over, Jessa dragged himself onto the side of the car, now the roof. A woman stood inside, holding onto the edge of the broken window with a bloody palm. He recoiled as she fixed a cold, flat stare on his, until a second later panic filled her eyes and she whispered, “Oh my God. Please help us.”
She released the broken window, reaching for him.
Jessa trembled, a wave of dizziness breaking over him. The blood scent drowned him and stole his air. It wasn’t Isaac’s scent or the sweet spice he’d detected under Otto’s skin, but his teeth ached, protruding past his incisors, reminding him of his hunger.
“Please,” said the woman again.
Then she ducked back inside, and Jessa followed her, slid over the edge of the window like an idiot, and yelped when the glass cut into his skin.
The woman spun back, but he waved her off. “I’m okay.”
She turned away, crawling over the broken seats, leading Jessa to the far end of the car. When his gaze fell on the guy lying there, he wanted to cry. He’d been impaled by the leg of one of the seats and nailed to the floor.
“Can you get it off him?” the woman asked.
Jessa worked numb lips. He wasn’t sure how much time passed before he made words. “I-I… I have to get help.”
The woman grabbed his arm. “No. You can’t go. That’s what the others said, but nobody’s come back. You can’t leave us.”
Oh God.
He wanted to cry again. The pounding in his head sounded like thunder.
Go. Find Otto.
The order rolled through him like a gentle wave. He guessed it was his own voice, but he wasn’t sure. It didn’t sound like his.
He retreated, bringing the woman with him. “We can’t get it off him by ourselves. We need help.”
“You help. Don’t go.”
“I promise.” He let his fangs drop, and she took a step back. “I promise on my family’s honor, I won’t leave you. I promise.”
She squeezed her hands together and clasped them under her chin. The shine in her eyes made them look like rocks. He shuddered and staggered again, catching himself on one of the seats before he scrambled from the car.
Now some of the people on the ground had shirts and blankets over them. Somebody running toward the biggest collection of cars knocked into him. He spun at the impact but followed.
“Otto! Otto!”
His call joined a dozen others. He stopped at a small crowd and helped a few passengers clamber from another part of the train. After they stumbled off, he slipped between the couplings of another pair of cars and froze as the ground rumbled underneath him. Screams rang out. Somebody sobbed nearby. But then the ground stilled again. On a road below, two vehicles roared out of the trees, and a few seconds later, the occupants tumbled out and rushed to the wreckage.
Where was Otto?
Jessa turned away. Purple-slate clouds piled on the horizon. A wisp of fog floated through the trembling eucalyptus. Jessa shivered in the growing coolness and headed back the way he’d come.
Somebody pointed down the hillside, and the others carried the injured. Jessa swept his gaze across the activity but didn’t see Otto. His heart sped, and bile soured his stomach. All of a sudden he was afraid to look at the bodies on the ground. Please don’t be Otto. Please don’t be Otto.
The woman’s voice rang in his head again—Don’t leave us—and he began to run.
The clouds winked out the sun, and shadows raced across the field. At the car where the woman waited he looked back again and spotted him. Otto!
He opened his mouth.
Jessa.
He spun around. “Rune?”
But there was nobody there. He glanced back, but this time he’d lost Otto in the crowd. A laugh rang inside the car, giddy, almost shrill. Startled, heart trip-hammering again, Jessa climbed on top of the car and peered in through the broken window.
Rune stood in back, smiling faintly at him. And beside him… The guy. Standing on his two feet now. He wore a T-shirt smeared a garish black with blood. The woman—his mother?—stood with her hand on his shoulder. He was blond. Golden even in the darkness. Short, as though trying to tame its curls. Healthy and whole.
The woman fixed her stare on him and laughed again. “It looked so awful. So much worse than it turned out to be.”
Jessa made a move to jump down, but Rune shook his head, looked at the woman and the guy and said, “What are your names?”
The woman spoke. “I’m Louise Lytton. This is Emek.”
Rune’s smile widened. “Perhaps we will meet again.”
Then he walked away.
“Rune,” Jessa said. “I don’t—you aren’t supposed to be here.”
“I was on my way home. I sent Uriah on ahead of me.”
Jessa slid back down the car, and Rune followed, catching Jessa’s wrist as he started down the embankment.
“I saw Otto,” Jessa said.
“Wait. Remember Emek’s name and tell Zev.”
Jessa frowned, chilled under the sunless sky now, Otto’s voice floating in his head. It’s Rune, Jessa.
But that was a lie he’d never believe.
“Rune, I—”
But now Louise and Emek jumped down from the top of the car beside them, Louise’s stare fixed on them, a small smile on her lips. Inexplicably, Rune hissed, lifted his hand and brought it near Jessa’s face, lowering it slowly, shadow following his fingers until darkness covered Jessa’s eyes, and he fell.
49
Gearing Up for a Fight
The clouds loomed ominously, the air tangy with electricity.
Otto ran through the shadows flying across the field, coming to a stop at the last car and looking back again.
Otto!
Goddamnit. “Jess!” The voice was loud in Otto’s head, but it wasn’t coming from nearby. Otto had caught a glimpse of him between the cars, but now he was gone. More trucks and cars arrived at the edge of the field. Otto plowed back down the hillside.
One of the
cars had a light bar on it.
When he spotted the uniform, he pulled out his badge and showed it to a gray-haired woman in a small group of civilians. “I need a car.”
Her eyebrows rose. “Well, you can’t have mine. How about a truck? You can take my nephew’s.”
A young guy nearby glanced over and frowned but tossed him his keys. Otto caught them, and the guy pointed to a beat-up blue Ford.
“Thanks.”
“That’s a loaner!” the gray-haired cop yelled after him.
He waved as he ran over the clumpy ground. A minute later he was on the road. Otto wasn’t much of a believer in fate, but right now all he had to go on was the image of a mountain on a postcard, and the hope Rune was going home to whatever treasure was buried there.
50
Back at the Castle
Mal let go of the doorframe and looked across the kitchen. Bettina held her hands in front of the cupboards as though she planned to catch them if they flew off the wall.
“For God’s sake, Betts. Next time get under the table.”
“Says the woman standing inside a sliding glass door.”
True. She glowered. “You might show me some respect.”
The older vamp guffawed. “Earn it.”
“Jesus,” Mal muttered. “I’m checking on the others.”
The temblor this time had packed a punch though it hadn’t lasted long. Mal glanced back at the wall of clouds that had driven her inside. Her gaze fell on the water lapping against the edges of the fountain on the veranda.
“Find out the epicenter for me if you can.”
Bettina’s dark eyes turned sharp. “Is everything alright?”
Was it? Rune was hundreds of miles away. Jessa closer. “I’m sure it is,” she said.
But her skin prickled with uncomfortable heat. She met Fritt in the hallway leading to the receiving room.
He halted in front of her. “Malia.”
She gritted her teeth and forced a smile that probably made her look like a skeleton. “I was just coming to check on you.”
“I’m fine. So are Hod and Elssa. I was on my way to see to our guest.”
