“Pamela, you came back.” He couldn’t move with all the leather holding him down. Leather that was there, and yet it wasn’t.
I dropped the sword with a clatter and moved to sit on the side of the bed. “Tim, you know you are dead, don’t you? You can leave this place now.”
“I can’t. They tied me down. But you can untie me, can’t you?” His eyes searched my face. Eyes that had peered through the tiny hole between our bedrooms, hands that had held mine whenever we’d had the chance. He’d been older than me with his straw-colored hair and gray eyes that had always seemed so sad. I knew he wasn’t the only one who’d died here.
I knew it.
I’d seen them all. The ghosts of the children not strong enough to survive what Boomer and Harriet had thrown at them.
“I’m going to try, Tim.” A part of me knew that releasing him would lose me any chance of gathering his tears. Though that was something I didn’t understand anyway. How did you gather the tears of a ghost? Impossible. Raven had given me an impossible task, that damn book had given me an impossible ingredient to bring back.
But I could free Tim, couldn’t I?
“Oka, how much do you know about ghosts?”
“A little. If you’re wondering how to free them, there is a surefire way.” She hopped up onto the bed as she eyed up Tim.
I nodded. “Yes. Let’s free them. We’ll figure out the rest . . . after.”
She put her front feet on my chest and butted her head into my chin. I draped an arm around her. “So, how do I do it?”
“They are tied to the house. It is what holds them.”
I thought for a moment. “So if I burn it down?”
She blinked once. “Yes. Fire cleanses.”
Tim looked at me. “You are going to burn the house?”
“It’s the only way to free you, Tim. Do you trust me?” I couldn’t bring my voice above a whisper. The pain of the place we sat was too great, the past too heavy for raised voices now that Harriet and Boomer were dead.
He gave me a smile, showing me where two of his teeth had been knocked out. “I trust you.”
First, I had to check the other room. Boomer and Harriet had said there was another one, like me. I went to the last door and cut through it as I’d cut through Tim’s. There, strapped to a bed was a girl with filthy dark brown hair and brilliant green eyes that had been dulled with pain and fear. She rolled her head to look at me. “Are you going to kill me, too?”
My heart clenched and I shook my head. “No, I’m here to save you.”
She didn’t smile; she didn’t cheer and I knew why. I’d been there. How long had it taken for me to trust Rylee’s word that she would protect and love me? Years. Even now I had moments of doubt.
I went to the side of the bed and crouched. I undid the straps on her legs first, tried not to look at the bruising, the cuts in her skin, the places they’d beaten her. I couldn’t stop the tears trickling from my eyes. There was a strange sensation, like I was unlocking my own bindings to this place.
I moved up the bed and undid the leather strap on her hand, and then the other. She just lay there and stared at me. “What’s your name?”
“Bonnie.”
Her name resonated with me. “And you are a witch?”
“I am.” She still lay there. She was not much younger than me, but they had hurt her so badly. I held my hand out to her.
“I’m going to take you to your mother.”
She didn’t lift her hand so I took it in my own, and thought about Meghan. About the witch I’d saved, the same witch who’d killed my birth mother. If I’d been raised by my birth mother, I would have gone down a dark path. I knew it.
Meghan had saved me.
I pulled Spirit through us both, focusing on Bonnie’s mother.
The scene flicked and we were back in the forest I’d taken Meghan to, the park. A small fire glittered and Meghan was there.
She stood and stared at us. “What are you doing back here—” Her words cut off, and she put a hand to her throat. Bonnie finally moved from my side, letting me go.
“Mom?”
There was a cry and then Meghan flew to her daughter. Gathered her in her arms, touched her face, stroked her hair, kissed her. The reunion was so sudden and intense that I took a step back.
I had to leave. I had things to do. I called Spirit up, and was gone before any words were spoken. I didn’t need them.
There was a brief moment once I was back in the troll house where I just knelt on the floor of the bedroom I’d come back to with my eyes closed. Oka pressed against me, forcing me to gather her in my arms. I clung to her, sobbing.
I didn’t even know why I cried. I’d done the right thing.
Maybe it was because I knew I would never have a mother like that. One that crushed me to her in an effort to keep me safe. Oka’s paws went around my neck.
“I will always be here, Pamela. I will always be here. You are not alone.”
The sobs slowly subsided and I made myself brush the tears away. So much of my past coming to haunt me.
“Let’s finish this.” I put her down. “We need to finish this.”
I stood and made my way downstairs, unable to see past the stream from my eyes. The smells overwhelmed me once more, and took me back to the place I wanted nothing more than to forget. I stumbled through the house until I found the back door, blinded by memories and pain.
In the backyard, it took me a moment to realize that rain fell hard around me, soaking me through my clothes. I didn’t care. I turned back to the house, lifted my hands and flicked my fingers at the dreadful place that had stolen so many lives and dreams.
The tears and the rain fell as the flames ate up the lower levels of the house. I fed the flames with my sorrow, pushed my emotions and grief into it. At some point, Oka leapt up and put herself on my shoulder, but she said nothing.
In the distance came the sounds of the firetrucks as they raced our way.
“It has to burn white hot in order to release them, Pam.”
I redoubled my efforts, letting my body be a funnel for the power that came from a place I was only beginning to understand. A well of power that began in the earth and fed upward through the five elements, a well that could not be emptied.
We are here, child; do not let the fear consume you. The voice was gentle, kind, and soothed away some of the panic in my heart. I would trust the mother goddess.
I held my hands out and the flames rose, they burned high about the top of the three-story house as they flickered through the spectrum of colors until there was nothing but a white flame that swallowed the building whole. It crumbled in on itself with a thunderous crash, emptying the world of one more place of death, freeing those who’d not been as lucky as I to escape.
I dropped my hands and went to my knees, exhausted. From the still burning wreckage, the children appeared. Slowly at first, and then faster and faster. I counted as they went by . . . twelve girls and five boys. They passed by silently, their eyes on me, and their hands raised in goodbye. I didn’t recognize any of them, but they gave me their gratitude.
But no Tim stepped from the burnt ashes of the house.
I was about to go to my feet, to search for him when he emerged. Of course, he would be the last, as he was the last to die. He approached me as the rain fell harder and a bolt of lightning broke the sky above us. When had night fallen? The thought was random, and I knew I was going into shock.
Tim crouched beside me and lifted a hand. “You saved us, Pamela. You freed us from that place.”
“I could have come sooner.”
“You didn’t know.” He shook his head. “No one knew.” A tear slipped down his cheek and I raised my finger to it. The rain fell through his form as he cried. I cupped my hand and the tears of a ghost pooled in my palm.
“Be well, Pamela. And always be brave. It is who you are.” He faded as I stared at him, going translucent and then turning to mist and then he was gone.
I curled my hand to my chest and cupped the tears to me. “Oka, can you get my cloak?”
She bounded away and was back in a flash. I curled her in tightly to me with my free hand and clung to the cloak. I didn’t think to go back to the mansion.
I thought only of going straight to Raven, to take him the tears.
That was both my mistake and my saving grace.
CHAPTER 16
I OPENED MY EYES, my hands still cupping Tim’s tears, the tears of a ghost that had once been my fellow prisoner. But I was away from that house now, away from that place of darkness.
I stood outside the library door inside Jack’s home, still wet from the rain, but the warmth of Jack’s home quickly slipped through my clothing.
If I was here, then Raven hadn’t left. I took a step and raised my foot to boot on the door, to announce myself, to gain his help to contain the tears that had cost me so much to find.
Oka stuck me with her claws. “Wait, I hear voices.”
I lowered my foot and leaned in, putting my ear against the crack in the door. “Sylphs?” I whispered and Oka shook her head.
“I don’t know.”
I stilled my breathing and strained my ears. There were two voices besides Raven’s. A woman and a man.
The man’s voice was a deep timbre that made me shiver. “You are going about this wrong, Raven. She won’t be manipulated. We all have seen that she’s too strong.”
“Besides,” the woman said, “we are doing it for the betterment of our people. All of them. You agreed to our plan, you—”
There was a sound of a hand slamming onto something. A table maybe. Raven’s voice was hard. “I will do what I must. There is no cost too high, and you both know it. Even if it means Lark dies, I will go forward with this.”
“It is not a matter of if,” the man drawled, “her death is assured no matter which path you try to force her down.”
I jerked as if I’d been slapped. The tears sloshed over my cupped hand and all I could think about was what did it matter if I could bring someone back from the dead if I didn’t try to save a friend who still lived?
I backed away and down the hall, waiting until I was far enough away that they wouldn’t hear me. I hurried with my hand cupped, all the way to the kitchen. Once there I dumped the tears into a glass tumbler. There wasn’t much, but it would have to do. If I even got that far with Raven.
If I even stayed to learn how to use it.
I paced the kitchen back and forth, Oka swaying on my shoulder.
“You have to warn her,” she said. “Even I know the stories of the Destroyer. She will save our world, and they are planning to kill her.”
“I know, I know. But Lark . . . she isn’t easy to find.” I stopped where I was in the middle of the room. “I could go right to her.”
I made my way out of the back side of the house and onto the lawn.
I closed my eyes and tried to get Spirit to take me to Lark, tried to ride it all the way to her. But something held me back. I opened my eyes and stared at the ground. The soil and grass had wrapped itself around my boots. No matter that I might want to go to her, to warn her.
It looked like I wasn’t supposed to.
And something was stopping me. Something or someone?
“Pamela, why do we not go?” Oka’s eyes narrowed in concern.
“I don’t know. It’s like . . .” I couldn’t shake the feeling that I needed to let things play out. That warning Lark wouldn’t work the way I hoped. My lungs filled with the night air, bracing and cold with the after-effects of the rain. I kicked off my shoes and my feet sunk into the mushy, water-saturated ground.
“What do I do?” I spoke the words, but pushed them with the power of the earth.
Child, you are a fast learner. The voice of the mother goddess spooled around me and a sigh slipped from my lips. Oka sucked in a sharp breath. “I hear her.”
“Lark is being threatened. I could go to her and warn her,” I said. “I should warn her. She is my friend.”
Larkspur’s path will cross with yours. She is aware of those against her. Your warning will do nothing but take you away from your own path, which is here with your father.
That last word hovered in my mind. “My . . . father?”
The mother goddess was gone and I couldn’t catch my breath. I couldn’t breathe. I put a hand to my forehead and all the pieces fell into place. He’d saved me as a child. He’d not punished me when I’d gone back to Rylee to help them. He wanted to train me. He knew my mother. He knew my history.
Raven was my father.
I think perhaps I suspected it, deep down in my heart. When I looked at him, when he smiled I saw my smile. I saw the shape of my eyes in his. I felt something in him that resonated in my own soul.
And I saw the struggle between right and wrong, the light and the dark in him as I saw in myself. “Oka.”
“Your parents have nothing to do with who you are now.” She jumped down so she could stare up at me. When had I gone to my knees?
She put her paws on my folded legs. “Pamela, maybe Raven is your blood, but it is not your blood that makes you strong. It is your heart. Who has influenced your heart?”
“Rylee.” I said her name without hesitation and it was like a wind blew away my fears. “Rylee is my . . . she’s my sister, my mother, my friend.”
Oka bobbed her head. “Then you don’t have to be afraid of him. Maybe he will still try and kill you, but you know things now. You know who he is to you and the mother goddess was clear. Your path, right now, is here with him. For whatever reason. We can see this through. We must because it is your path we walk, no one else’s.”
I scooped her up and hugged her. Her tiny paws went around my neck and she buried her nose under my hair.
“We should go back inside.” I let her go and she bounded across the lawn and peered in the back door.
She looked back at me. “All clear.”
I grabbed my boots and slogged through the mucky mess and into the mansion once more. Jack would have thrown a fit if he could’ve seen the muddy footprints both Oka and I were leaving in our wake. The thought made me smile. I missed Jack and his cantankerous nature, his potty mouth and strange quirks. I missed all my friends we’d lost along the way to saving the world from Orion and his demons.
“Now what?” Oka leapt to the island in the middle of the room and began to groom herself.
I dropped my boots and took a hand towel from the drawer. I brushed off my feet and then walked across to the only phone in the house. “I’m going to call someone. I think . . . maybe I just need to hear a voice I trust.”
She sniffed and narrowed her eyes. I smiled at her. “I trust you, Oka. But you and I are both young. There are others who’ve lived this supernatural life a hell of a lot longer.”
I picked the phone up off its cradle and stared at the rotary dial. Old school, it was the only thing that would even attempt to work around the vibes that supernaturals gave off. But that wasn’t why I paused.
No, I knew the real reason. I’d seen Rylee, gotten her blessing in a way to keep on this path. I didn’t want to worry her. Which didn’t leave me a lot of options in terms of who to call for advice. Because while I trusted the mother goddess, it didn’t change that I had a second choice in front of me. Did I stay or go?
The number I finally chose was one I wasn’t sure would even be answered. Would he be awake? What was I saying, he was always awake. He was a daywalking vampire. One of only two that I knew existed.
The click of the phone going through international lines and then there was a second click before it rang through and on the third ring was picked up.
“This better be good, Pamela.” Doran’s voice was a welcome sound, but I’d never admit it to him.
“Doran, I need some . . . guidance.” I clutched the phone and turned so I could see the doorway through the kitchen into the rest of the house. The last thing I needed was for Raven to sneak up on me
when I was talking about him.
“Little witch,” he yawned, “it is very early here. Make it snappy.”
“I’m with an elemental who is training me, and he is making plans to hurt and maybe kill Lark, but he is also the only one who can teach me things I need to learn.”
There was silence for a beat. “Are you sure?” All the sleepiness attached to his words was gone in a flash.
“Yes. I heard him speaking with someone else and they said that no matter what path they sent her down, she was going to die.” I knew I was mucking it up a bit, but I bloody well couldn’t remember the exact words. I tightened my hold on the receiver. “I have been advised not to warn Lark by the mother goddess herself. But . . . so do I stay here with the elemental? Or do I go back to Rylee?”
“You have very little information, Pamela. If you go now, you may lose your chance to learn the plans this elemental has for our Lark. You have a chance to find out more; take it as long as you can and learn all you can while you are there.” His words made sense and they backed up what the mother goddess had already suggested. Okay, suggested wasn’t exactly how I’d put it, but still. I swallowed, the door into the kitchen opened and Raven strode in.
His eyes met mine and I saw myself in him. Saw the lines in my face that echoed his. I cleared my throat. “Thank you, I’ll have my father check the furnace right away and if it needs cleaning we’ll be sure to call you.”
I hung the phone up before Doran could get even a single word in. I didn’t know how good Raven’s hearing was.
His eyes flickered. “Your father?”
I shrugged and looked away. “Young girls are not supposed to tell strange men they are home alone. I didn’t know you were here.”
Lies, they were heavy in my mouth but it was all I could do not to stare at him. To try and see what parts of him were reflected in my own skin. In my own bones. I shook my head, mostly at myself, but he saw.
“What is wrong, Pamela?” The kindness in his voice was too much.
Tears sprang to my eyes. “I got the tears of a ghost.” I waved at the glass on the island.
“Was it difficult?”
Pamela (The Rylee Adamson Epilogues, Book 3) Page 13
