The Kingdom

by Amanda Stevens

  “You think he’s a hermit?”

  “I think some weirdo with a little red wagon is the last thing you need to be worried about in these hills.” His pleasant voice was now edged with something that sounded very much like a warning. Or was it a threat?

  “What do you mean?”

  “The woods around here are full of wild animals…” He let his words trail off, a deliberate lingering as he traced a finger down one of his scars.

  “What kind of wild animals?”

  “Mountain lions, coyotes…” Another hesitation. “Been a lot of black bear sightings this year, too.”

  I glanced at his facial scars. I couldn’t help myself. “Black bears don’t normally attack humans, do they?”

  “Animals are unpredictable. You ask the experts, they’ll tell you wolves have been gone from this part of the country for decades, but they’re still out there. I’ve seen them.”

  I thought about that eerie howl I’d heard last evening. “Speaking of animals,” I said, “I’m staying in Floyd Covey’s house. A stray came out of the woods last night. He’d been horribly abused. Luna called him a bait dog.”

  “She did, did she?” He stroked another scar. “Best you forget what she said. Best you forget about that stray, too.”

  “I can’t forget about dog fighting,” I said indignantly. “I assumed if it’s going on in your jurisdiction, you’d want to know about it.”

  He shrugged. “I’ll ask around, see if I get wind of any kennels. About all I can do. People tend to be closemouthed about that sort of thing around here, even if they’re not directly involved. They don’t want any trouble. And they don’t cotton to a lot of questions, especially from strangers.”

  The warning note in his voice was unmistakable now. “I’ll remember that,” I said coolly.

  “In the meantime…” His gaze swept over me. “You want me to come out there and take care of that problem for you?”

  “What problem?”

  “The stray.”

  “Take care…you mean put him down?” I asked in horror.

  A muscle twitched at the corner of one eye. “Think of it as a kindness.”

  I wanted to tell him that Angus didn’t need his brand of kindness, and how would he like it if someone had tried to do the same to him?

  But I kept my mouth shut because I didn’t trust Wayne Van Zandt. Not in the slightest. It was instinct, like an animal’s hackles rising when danger was near.

  “Thank you, but that won’t be necessary,” I said. “I’m sure that dog is long gone by now.”

  Seven

  On my way home, I stopped by a small market I’d spotted earlier to stock up on fresh produce for me and dog food for Angus. There wasn’t much of a selection for either of us, but we’d just have to make do until I found time to take the ferry across the lake to shop.

  When I came out of the store, I saw Sidra and another girl standing near my car. They were dressed in identical school uniforms, but the resemblance ended with the plaid skirts and navy blazers. The other girl towered over Sidra. Her hair was dark and sleek and she eyed me with sullen curiosity through a long curtain of bangs. I nodded and said hello as I went to put my bags in the back. When I came around the car, she was leaning against the fender, smoking. I noticed then the smudged liner around her eyes and the pale lip color on her sulky mouth. It looked very dramatic against her tanned skin. Despite the prim uniform, she looked cool, edgy and bored, the kind of girl that would have terrified me in high school had I not been so preoccupied with ghosts.

  “Can you give us a ride?” she drawled, releasing a cloud of blue smoke that curled up into her thick lashes.

  “Sure. If you don’t mind putting that out.”

  She discarded the cigarette with a deliberate flick.

  I glanced at Sidra, who seemed to shy away from her dominant companion. She didn’t look intimidated or cowed, but her demeanor was definitely anxious, as if she wanted to extricate herself from an awkward situation but didn’t know how.

  “Where do you want to go?” I asked.

  “You can drop us at Sid’s place.”

  “I already told you…my house is out of her way,” Sidra said.

  “I really don’t mind.” It wasn’t like I had a clock to punch or someone to go home to. Besides, the company of two teenagers might be just the thing to dilute the bad taste left by my visit to the police station. “Hop in.”

  “Merci beaucoup.” The dark-haired girl sent me a treacly smile as she strode around the car and climbed into the front. Sidra reluctantly got into the back, and as I slid behind the wheel, I glanced in the rearview mirror, hoping a smile would reassure her that a lift wasn’t a problem. But she’d turned to the window and sat motionless, making me wonder yet again if she could see something outside that I couldn’t.

  I started the ignition. “I’ll need directions.”

  “Head north, take a right at the first intersection and then keep going until I tell you to stop,” the dark-haired girl instructed. “I’m Ivy, by the way.”

  “Amelia.”

  “I know who you are.” She turned to give me a frank assessment between narrowed lids. “Sid says you work in graveyards or something.”

  “I’m a cemetery restorer.”

  “Sounds…interesting.”

  I smiled politely. “It is to me.”

  “You don’t get spooked?”

  “Sometimes. But mostly I find cemeteries peaceful. Some of the really old churchyards were built on hallowed ground.” I shot a look in the mirror to gauge Sidra’s reaction, but her eyes were still riveted on the window.

  “Thorngate isn’t,” Ivy said. “Built on hallowed ground, I mean.”

  “How do you know?”

  “Because it’s built on Asher ground and everything that family touches is cursed.”

  “Ivy.”

  The warning note in Sidra’s voice startled me, but Ivy just shrugged.

  I gave her an uneasy glance. “What do you mean by cursed?”

  She waved a hand toward the window. “Look around you. See all the boarded-up buildings? All those caved-in roofs? And that stink in the air? That’s the smell of the damned,” she said with calculated nonchalance as she unzipped one of her boots to examine what appeared to be a fresh tattoo on her ankle.

  When she saw that I’d noticed—which I had a feeling was her intent—her smile turned smug. “You don’t know what that is, do you?”

  “I can’t really see it from here.”

  “It’s one of the symbols carved into the cliff at the falls. No one knows where they came from or what they mean, but I think this one makes a pretty cool tat, don’t you?”

  She didn’t give me a chance to respond.

  “I had to sneak over to Greenville to get it. Mother would have a cow if she knew. Which is so hypocritical since she has one herself. But she thinks I’m too young and I think she’s too old.” She admired the ink for a moment longer before rezipping her boot.

  I glanced in the mirror, startled to find Sidra staring back at me this time. What was she thinking? I wondered. And why had she tried to silence Ivy about the Ashers?

  Ivy fell back against the seat. “Personally, I find the whole idea of hallowed ground laughable.”

  It took me a moment to redirect my train of thought. “Why?”

  “How can a place be sacred just because people died there or because some priest sprinkled a little holy water over it? If you’re really into spiritual places, you should go up to the falls.”

  “I hear it’s really beautiful up there.”

  “It’s more than beautiful. People say it’s a thin place.”

  I turned in surprise. “A thin place?”

  “Don’t tell me you don’t know what that is, either.”

  She seemed to enjoy her superiority, so I allowed her to keep it. “Why don’t you tell me?”

  She lowered her voice. “It’s where the living world and the dead world connect. It’
s where…well, never mind. Anyway, people used to go up there because they hoped to catch a glimpse of heaven. Now they stay away because they’re afraid of—” She broke off and turned to glance at Sidra in the backseat. I watched the girl in the mirror and saw her shake her head.

  “They’re afraid of what?” I pressed.

  “Nothing. Speak of the devil,” Ivy muttered as she sat up in the seat.

  I followed her gaze to Thane Asher’s car parked at the curb. He was hunkered in front of the rear wheel well changing a flat tire, and my mind shot back to the library. I could still hear those animalistic moans in some back recess of my mind.

  “We should stop,” Ivy said.

  “I thought you said the Ashers were cursed.”

  She slanted me a withering look as she lowered the window and called out to him. When he glanced over his shoulder, there was nothing I could do but pull up beside him and stop.

  He rose and came over to the car, bending slightly to glance in the window. He wore a dark green shirt that deepened his eyes to moss and a brown leather jacket that had cracked and faded over the years. His car also showed signs of wear and tear that I hadn’t noticed on the ferry. Looking past the dazzle of metallic paint, I could see a dent here and there and the odd speck of rust.

  “Hello,” he said.

  “Hello,” I responded with a noncommittal smile.

  Ivy gaped at him. I suspected she had a crush, which explained why she’d so easily tossed aside the notion of a curse. I could empathize. Hadn’t I done the same thing with Devlin? Thrown caution aside for passion? And Thane Asher did look ridiculously attractive in that leather jacket. Not darkly handsome like Devlin, of course, but there was something about him that I could appreciate. For one thing, he didn’t have ghosts hovering nearby. That was a definite plus. But then I reminded myself that I couldn’t know whether or not he was haunted until I saw him after twilight.

  “Having car trouble?” Ivy drawled.

  “A flat. Must have picked up a nail somewhere.”

  “We thought you might need a ride.”

  “Thanks, but I’ll have it changed in no time.”

  Ivy tossed her hair over her shoulder and gazed up at him through those thick, curly lashes. “Are you sure you don’t need help with the lug nuts? They’re always so hard to get off.”

  I didn’t know how she managed to pack so much sexual innuendo into two simple sentences, but she did.

  Thane looked bemused…and wary. He glanced at his watch. “Shouldn’t you girls still be in school?” His tone was devoid of inflection, but I had a feeling the question was a conscious attempt to put Ivy in her place. A valiant effort, but one that seemed to sail right over the girl’s head as she twirled a dark strand of hair around one fingertip.

  “We left early,” she said. “We had better things to do, right, Sid?” The two exchanged another glance, and Ivy grinned.

  Thane’s gaze was on me, those green eyes gleaming with something dark. Something just for me. I didn’t know how to feel about that look. I was just as wary of him as he was of Ivy but for a very different reason. “And what part did you play in these shenanigans?”

  “None at all. I’m just giving them a lift home.”

  “Let’s hope the truant officer sees it your way,” he said ominously, but his eyes were still teasing. “How goes the cemetery restoration?”

  “I’ve hardly begun. It’s only been one day.”

  “Maybe I’ll drop by sometime. I haven’t been up there in years.”

  Ivy’s grin faded, and she gave me a hard stare. She wasn’t the type of girl who would be comfortable sharing the spotlight, let alone relinquishing it to someone like me. “What is so fascinating about a bunch of old headstones?” she asked with an eye roll.

  “It’s history,” Thane said. “How can you know who you are if you don’t know where you come from?”

  How strange that his question should mirror the doubts and the uncertainties of my adoption that I’d pondered just last night. The insight made me uneasy.

  I put a hand on the gearshift. “We should let you get back to that tire.”

  His eyes lingered as he nodded. “You ladies take care.”

  He stepped away from the curb, and as I drove off, I refused to look in the mirror. But I had a feeling he was staring after us. I was almost certain of it.

  Ivy whirled. “How do you know Thane Asher?”

  “I don’t really know him. We met yesterday on the ferry.”

  “Why didn’t you say so earlier?”

  I shrugged. “There was no reason to.”

  She folded her arms. “I wouldn’t go getting any ideas if I were you. Thane would never choose someone like you.”

  “Someone like me?”

  “An outsider,” she said with disdain.

  “I guess it’s lucky I’m not here to socialize, then. I just want to finish my job and go home.”

  “You should do that. Go home, I mean.”

  The whole conversation was starting to make me feel very uncomfortable. I couldn’t wait to drop them off and drive back to the Covey house. Although at that moment, I would have liked nothing more than to heed Ivy’s advice and head home to Charleston.

  Something was seriously amiss in this town. I’d felt it the moment I crossed Bell Lake. The shadows seemed deeper, the nights longer, the secrets older. Even the wind felt different here. And I couldn’t forget the repugnant man in the cemetery who had mimicked my worst fears or the ghost who had somehow let me sense her confusion.

  According to Ivy, Asher Falls was located near a thin place. Could that explain the bizarre nature of the town and the people who inhabited it? Maybe there was hyper supernatural activity in the area. I’d have to ask Dr. Shaw next time I went home. He ran the Charleston Institute for Parapsychology Studies and usually had answers for all my questions, whether or not they were the ones I wanted.

  With an effort, I turned my attention back to the road. As we passed a gray stone building shrouded in vines, I noticed several girls dressed in the same uniform as Ivy and Sidra ambling out a side door.

  “Is that your school?” I asked.

  “Oh, damn!” Ivy slid down in her seat. “Hurry and get past before someone sees us. We’re supposed to be home sick.”

  “Both of you?”

  “There’s a bug going around. They were sending kids home all day. We left after lunch.”

  “Pretending to be sick?”

  “It’s easy enough to fake illness when the school nurse is half-blind.” She laughed at her own cleverness.

  “So where did you go?”

  “We’ve just been hanging out. But if Sid’s mother finds out we didn’t go straight home, we’re dead.”

  “She probably already knows,” Sidra said gloomily. “I can’t believe I let you talk me into leaving school, much less going up there—”

  “Shush.” Now it was Ivy who issued a warning look. “At least you won’t get expelled.”

  “I almost wish I would,” Sidra muttered.

  “Why would one of you get expelled and not the other?” I asked.

  “Sid’s mother is the headmistress at Pathway,” Ivy explained. “A real witch, if you know what I mean. She’d like nothing better than to get rid of me. I’m such a bad influence and all.”

  “And you left school, anyway? That was brave.” I glanced in the mirror to gauge Sidra’s reaction to such a harsh critique of her mother. She looked agitated, but I didn’t think the name-calling had much to do with it.

  “It wasn’t brave, it was stupid,” she said.

  Ivy shrugged. “No one twisted your arm. And, anyway, I don’t care if I do get expelled. I’ll just call my father. He’s a very important man. One of the most powerful lawyers in the state.” The last was said for my benefit, I was certain.

  “Pathway is a private school?” I asked.

  “Private and très exclusif,” Ivy said. “The local kids who can’t afford the tuition have to ride
the ferry across the lake and catch the bus into Woodberry.”

  So there was no public school, no veterinarian clinic and no supermarket in Asher Falls, but the withering town could support a private school for children of the privileged. The place was getting stranger and stranger by the minute.

  We rode in silence after that until Sidra said from the backseat, “That’s my house on the corner. The white one.”