A Darker Shade of Grey

by S E Holmes

Jace woke flat on his back on dewed grass, ears ringing and vision strobing. His skin was scorched charcoal in places and the long gash on his arm throbbed in fiery agony. He hacked convulsively, lungs tortured by every inhalation. He spat a sooty mouthful of bile. Maybe the trick was not to move at all, every muscle a world of hurt. Some horrible emotion gnawed consciousness, but Jace wasn’t ready and willed it gone.

  “You’re awake!” said a sweet voice he couldn’t identify.

  A slim hand gripped his. A face appeared in his prone view of evening sky to blot a smattering of stars. He blinked and squinted. Laini? She was a fine substitute for heaven.

  “Wha --” he wheezed, throat gored.

  “Best not talk just yet.”

  “How?”

  “Yes. I suppose you deserve an explanation.”

  Laini positioned his head in her lap, fingertips stroking his cheek. She smiled down at him and Jace decided she was definitely angelic, as opposed to the other. She wore a lacy, white smock, which seemed a fitting tribute to purity and goodness.

  “It sounds kooky, I know, but I’ve always had the gift. And like everything, the greater the advantage, the higher the price. I did not learn that lesson early enough.” Jace clutched at every word, fading in and out. “The ambulance is on its way. And the Police also. Better late than never, I guess. I’m sure you won’t be blamed. Incendiaries are not permitted in suburbia. And it’s clear your brother’s motives were less than trustworthy. I am sorry you lost them.”

  The twins’ mention brought a pang of grief. “If you open your mind too far, others may slip through the cracks. I found that out the horrible night of my sister’s death.”

  Jace endeavoured to swallow and it felt like razors in his chest. Laini tilted his head and he took a sip of the water she offered, not much of an improvement. “How did you get away from here?”

  She grinned. “Sen let me drive home after every recital. I’d been learning for months.” The smile faltered. “But Lady Grey didn’t give me a chance to bring help. As soon as she died, I felt her infecting my spirit with her malevolence. I’ve been fighting to break free ever since. But such hatred is mighty powerful and I was not strong. The battle took a heavy toll on my body. Especially if I briefly won. By the time I got home, she’d stolen my speech. Then control over my hands. And... well you saw the rest. Granddaddy knew only that I was profoundly disturbed, thinking it the stress of disease.”

  “All along you were trying to tell them about Sienna,” Jace rasped.

  She nodded, curls bouncing. “I wasn’t certain what happened. But I felt her pain and suffered her loss when she said goodbye. Of course, the authorities combed Grey Manor and found nothing except broken glass and a morbid collection.”

  “Blake asked for a divorce?”

  “Oh no!”

  “No?”

  “Blake was going to kill her. Aimed to smother her with a pillow in her sleep. One murderer recognises another. She got him first.”

  And there it was again. “How?”

  “The Major bought a yacht before discovering he suffered from dreadful seasickness. He was prescribed meds and Lady Grey figured their value immediately. They increase suggestibility, you see. She drugged Blake via a skin patch and he walked to his own death as meek as a lamb. Even put the noose around his neck and stepped off willingly. The wicked old witch liked to replay it in my mind for fun. Her photo album is something to see.” Laini shivered, thin arms goose-bumped.

  “Wow.” It was the only response left.

  Later, after weeks convalescing in Noel’s home tended by the ever watchful Myra (they were now equally happy to blame him for Laini’s miraculous awakening), it occurred to ask how Jace was liberated from the conflagration. Laini smiled her beautiful smile.

  “I saw you coming. You’ve been living in my heart for a long while. And so, I practised living in yours. It seems Lady Grey taught me a few things about possession.”

  And she refused to say more on the subject. Jace didn’t mind. He remembered swearing his hatred for this village and all its residents. He still loathed the place, but maybe not everyone in it.

  Around the same time, a fire investigator sifting the rubble of Grey Manor made a miraculous discovery of his own. Scanning to check no-one saw, he dipped to pluck half a diamond-encrusted cameo from ash. Its condition was perfect. As his fingers brushed its surface, an unpleasant tingling started in his flesh. The vile stars aligned, relieving the final Bateman of their adverse charms to shine down upon another. A thief who’d earned their attention.

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