by K. A. Fox
“When I was waiting for you, hurting and praying you’d come back, a man came to my room one night. He promised that if I told the doctors what they needed to hear, he’d make sure I was released. He’d help me get better. And that’s what he did.”
“What man?” I asked. “Are you talking about the man in Angel Falls?”
Brett twitched, like my question bothered him. “No, no. Can’t talk about the man. But my friend. Yes, you killed him.”
“I don’t understand.”
My words just made him angrier. “What don’t you understand? You killed my friend. Now, I have to do this all on my own.”
Worry sparked but I had to follow this through. I made my voice soft. “What do you have to do? Maybe I can help you?”
“You can’t. You can’t help with this. I’ll finish this and then you’ll come with me.”
“But what if I can help? You won’t know until you talk to me. I’ve learned a lot since we’ve been apart.”
He shook his head, his lank hair flopping. “I’m not telling you anything until I know you’re going to stay with me. That no one came with you. That you’re mine.”
“Brett, I’m here with you now. Just you and me. I’m not running away. But you know me so well. You know I’d never be able to stay if something happened to the woman you’re hiding.”
He knelt in front of me, down on one knee. A crazed joy lit his face as he looked up. The twisted image of him as a hopeful groom made me nauseous. He grabbed my left hand tightly, bruising the skin and grinding the bones together painfully. He shoved a metal circle onto my ring finger and the icy bite of it burned my flesh, its coldness quickly penetrating. My hand cramped in reaction and the sour tang of the magic in the ring coated my tongue, making me gag.
“Now,” he said, his voice choked with emotion as he gave me a jubilant smile, his eyes shining. “Now you’re really mine! The man promised and made me learn, but now you’re bound to me. Just like I’ve been bound to you.”
I didn’t have to fake my confusion. “What man are you talking about and what exactly is this? It really hurts, Brett. Do you want to hurt me?”
I tried to keep my voice soothing, but inside my mind was whirling. Someone who knew something of binding magic had told him to do this, had given him a token he thought would tie us together. Already I could feel the magic trying to burrow its way inside me, to take control, but all the time I’d spent shielding myself from others was proving useful. At the moment, I was winning the battle. Exactly how long I could hold out was questionable and depended a lot on things I didn’t know. How strong was the magic woven into this piece of metal? How long could I divide my attention before my shields started to slip?
Brett’s eyes were narrowed, watching me like he didn’t fully believe what I was saying. A shard of pain shot through my left palm and I gasped, my hand convulsing in his grip. The grimace on my face must have communicated the truth of what I was saying, and his face became concerned.
“It’s not supposed to hurt. It’s just to help you love me. That’s what I was promised.” He seemed almost childlike, trying to puzzle through the problem before him.
“Brett, you don’t need this to make me love you,” I said, whispering to him, his face so close to mine that I could kiss him if I wanted to.
As he watched me, I let my eyes fill with tears, feeling him search through our old connection until he found something that satisfied him. I stayed silent and still, letting him examine me inside and out, believing in the words I’d said because, at some level, they were true.
Eventually, he nodded and gave me a smile, one that reminded me of the boy he’d once been. The boy who’d held my hand and given me the same grin just before my very first kiss. He tugged on the ring and pulled it off my finger, and I heard it hit the wood planks of the floor and roll away. The cramping pain in my hand relaxed and the metallic taste in my mouth tapered off. I let him pull me up off the couch and into an embrace. Ignoring the smell of him, I laid my head on his chest. He began to rock back and forth, humming a song I didn’t know.
“Please, Brett, it’s time,” I said. “We need to let Maggie go home. Where is she? You know, her family is missing her just as much as I missed you.”
He nodded, and dropped his arms, grabbing my right hand to pull me down the hallway and up the rickety stairs. Some of the boards were loose and I stumbled over one as I tried to keep up with him. On the second floor, he led me into a bedroom, a crumpled body on the floor.
The girl at my feet was wearing a dress I knew instantly. I gasped at the sight. I’d donated it when I first came to Hazelwood, needing to purge myself of the things that reminded me of what had happened before.
Brett nodded, a satisfied look on his face after seeing my astonishment and recognition. “She’s wearing your dress. She shouldn’t be wearing that. That’s why I took her. I wanted you to have it back. You’re the only one who should ever wear this special dress. You remember, when I asked you to go to prom with me? I was so nervous and you kept teasing me, asking me what was wrong. I’d never been so happy as I was when you said yes that day.”
It was too dark for me to see if Maggie was breathing so I knelt carefully down beside her, resting my hand on her chest, reassured when I felt the shallow rise and fall. She was still alive. There was blood on her face and what might have been a large gash above her right eye, but she was alive. That was all that mattered to me.
“This is good,” I said to Brett, turning to him with an attempt at a smile on my face. “She can go home and we can start over.”
He shook his head in response, standing over me, hands fisted at his sides. “No. We can’t let her go.”
“Brett, we can’t keep her here. She has a family that loves her. She lives with her parents and her younger brother and sister. They’re waiting for her to come home. They need her to come home.”
He looked confused. “But, I kept her here for you. So we can do this together. Prove how much you still love me.”
Something twisted in my chest, a knife sharp bite of pain making it hard to breathe. I didn’t want to have to make this choice. “Brett, we don’t have to do this. We’re not killers. We can forget about all this and go back to who we were before. I’ve missed you for so long, how kind you always were. We can leave here, together, if you’ll let Maggie go.”
He was conflicted, his eyes flitting between me and Maggie on the floor. In the near darkness, I’m sure we looked a lot alike. He finally relaxed, and I felt like I’d won her freedom.
He reached for my hand, pulling me up with him. He leaned in and I let him kiss me despite his rancid breath. When we broke apart, I didn’t wipe my mouth as I longed to do. He gazed down at me, almost happy, but then his eyes narrowed again. Madness reappeared.
“No, she can’t go. She’s seen me. If she tells anyone, they’ll take me away from you. And it’ll be like before. It will be even worse.”
I tried to calm him. “Brett, I can make her forget you. I know how to do that. She’ll never know who you were. They won’t find us.” The words fell out of me, lies I tried to cover with soothing magic. I hated deceiving him, but I wasn’t willing to sacrifice Maggie. She had to survive this.
He spun away from me, ignoring my attempt to find the words that would ease his fears. “No!” he screamed. “I won’t let them tear us apart again. She’ll die and then we’ll start over.”
Keeping my body between him and Maggie, I didn’t try to keep the shaking out of my voice this time, didn’t hide the tears that were starting to fall. “Please Brett. Please. I can’t let something happen to her because of me. You don’t have to do this.”
He prowled toward us, intent on the unconscious woman on the floor. I knew I couldn’t wait anymore. I had to do what I’d been afraid of all along, what I’d promised myself I would never do. I’d left everything I loved behind and isolated myself to make sure this never happened. But he left me no other choice. I grabbed h
im as he tried to step around me and pulled him off balance. He grasped my arms in an attempt to steady himself, but I pressed forward with my offense. I pulled his head down, kissing his lips fully and dropping my shields completely at the same time. The blackness inside him roared into me. I gave in and welcomed it, letting it coat my insides with a slimy filth that made me want to retch. There, in that empty shell of what was once a home, with what might be a dying girl at my feet and a man I might have been able to love if things had been different, I drained Brett of every bit of energy he had, gulping down his life with every swallow. He fought me at first, but I held on, never breaking contact with him. I held on against his every attempt to push me away, to wrench his lips from mine. I held on until he sagged against me, until I could feel that his heart no longer beat, and his skin began to chill under my fingers.
When I was sure he was truly gone I gently laid him down on the bare floor, next to the woman he’d wanted to kill. Tears streamed down my face as the pain of not being able to save Brett hit me. I crawled over to the corner and vomited until there was nothing left inside me. That’s how Angus found me, next to a pile of stinking sick, my knees drawn up and sobbing.
Chapter Thirty·Nine
I woke in my own bed, flannel sheets and heavy blankets a cocoon of warmth. The wind was howling outside, grumbling thunder came and went. Uncle Newt sat in the cozy chair across the room, a soft light on next to him. Even with his stillness, I knew he was awake and watching me. When I tried to sit up, he stood and came to help me, propping me with pillows. I felt faded, but realized I was at least clean. Someone had bathed me and wrestled me into a soft shirt and sweatpants.
“Glad you decided it was time to wake up,” Newt said, patting my cheek gently. “We’ve been worried.”
“Was I out for a while?”
“It’s been a full day since Angus brought you home.”
“What about Maggie? Brett’s body?” After everything I’d done to try to save her, I was afraid it hadn’t been enough.
Newt nodded. “Maggie is fine. The sheriff’s office received an anonymous call with the location of where she was being held. She was treated at the hospital for exposure and a head injury, then sent home with her family. She doesn’t recall anything after stopping outside Hazelwood when she saw a young man trying to help an injured dog. She said they talked for a minute, he asked about a vet because he felt bad for hitting it with his car. She remembers giving the young man directions. That’s it. When her parents got to the hospital, she told them she was just trying to be nice.”
“And Brett?” I asked.
“His body was next to her, right where you left him. According to the coroner, he had a weak heart. He was malnourished and dehydrated. All of that, and the stress of what he’d done, was too much for his body. His heart simply gave out before he could kill her. That’s the official version of things.”
I couldn’t bring myself to look at him. “You know that was me. I did that to him.” I tried to keep my voice strong, but it wavered anyway.
Newt pushed his way into my line of vision, sitting down next to me on the mattress. “I know that. We all do. We also know you only did it to stop him from hurting anyone else. But Hells, you were in bad shape when Angus got you back here, Laney. Not to mention, I thought your father was going to tear the world apart when he realized what you’d decided to do. You can’t put yourself and everyone else at risk like that.”
I couldn’t meet his eyes, so I stared at the top of the blanket covering me, twisting my hands in its softness. “I did what I believed was right, Newt. I hoped you at least would understand that.”
His hands stopped mine, gripping them kindly but firmly, forcing me to look at him. “I do understand. That doesn’t mean I agree with you. I know how afraid you are, down deep, that someone might suffer because of you. I know you feel you have to prevent that at all costs.” I sat silently, nothing to offer, no argument to be made. He was right.
“Forget everything you think could happen for a moment. Just let all that go and think about what the world would be like for each one of us without you in it. You matter to people. Whether you believe me, or you don’t, I don’t care. You matter.” When I tried to interrupt him, he silenced me with a familiar look. “No. No arguing. You matter to people. I know you’ve tried very hard to avoid that, to prevent that from happening. But what’s done is done. People care about you. Not because of some irresistible magic spell or power. It’s because of who you are.”
I couldn’t stop the unexpected sobs when they broke free of my control. My shoulders were shaking as tears rolled down my face, snot running out of my nose.
Uncle Newt waited, letting me cry for a while. When I finished, he handed me tissues and stayed silent while I wiped my face as clean as I could. He watched me, a sad smile on his worn face. “And if you won’t believe what I’ve told you, then remember this. There is ruthlessness in your father. Darkness. It’s been held in check since he met your mother, since you were born. But it’s still there. And it truly will be Hell on Earth if anything happens to either of you. Stop making yourself a target.”
I froze at those words. I didn’t know the part of my father he was describing but I clearly remembered the nightmare I’d had. “By the way, where is Angus?” I asked. “I expected him to be here yelling at me, maybe even threatening me with a warm, cozy room in a Hell of his choosing.” I was trying to joke, to make light of things, but we both knew it was a feeble attempt.
A flicker along his jaw worried me. This was the stoic face I’d seen every time he had bad news to share. “Once we could see you were safe and going to live, he had to leave. There are troubling things happening Below and he’s got to be there to maintain the upper hand. That’s what he’s had me working on so much. That’s why he sent you the Hound and Callum.”
“Really? I thought they were just here to be my babysitters since you weren’t available.”
Newt shook his head. “No, they’re here to protect you. Angus hoped you’d develop a bond with them, that you would be less lonely having them here. But ultimately, their job was to protect you. Whether you wanted them to or not.”
I’d done exactly the thing my father had been trying to prevent. “Are Cal and Moose in trouble because of me?”
The silence between us was tense, making me afraid of what Newt had to tell me. “You left the evidence of what you’d done to them in clear view, so they won’t be punished.” Newt’s voice changed, warning me. “But I don’t think you’ll find it so easy if you attempt it again. You hurt them when you did this. You might want to start with an apology. And don’t expect them to be so willing to eat whatever you make for them in the future.”
All I could do was nod. I’d betrayed my closest friends. I had to find a way to make things right with them.
“You need to understand their job is bigger than just keeping you from getting into trouble. There are beings in this world that see you as a tool to be used against Angus. Now, with the power you displayed when you decided to save that woman, they’ll see you as a valuable weapon. Callum and the Hound have been assigned the job of keeping you from anyone who would try to use you against your father.”
I swallowed. That sounded ominous. “To what extent? Are we talking death? My death?” I had been so prepared to sacrifice myself and almost welcomed the end when I’d thought it was my choice, but the idea of someone else scripting it for me had me on the edge of anger. Anger tinged with fear.
Newt walked away from me to lean against the wall where the shadows gathered. I couldn’t see his face, but his voice was sure and strong. “Your father loves you very much. But what you did, the way you put yourself in danger has made him rethink things.”
“What do you mean?”
“If you’re going to be in the middle of everything, you need to be more prepared. Cal will be training you full time now. There will be no more working for the Foundation. You must be able t
o defend yourself against whatever is coming. Those are your father’s orders.”
He stayed quiet, watching snow fall outside my window, as I absorbed all the information. I’d already been told that my very presence in this world would destroy it. Now I was being told that if something happened to me, the very thing I’d been trying to prevent would happen anyway. And Angus was already trying to fight a battle for control of Hell—he didn’t need to be worrying about me while he dealt with that.
But there was a bigger problem looming over us all. Brett’s death hadn’t really solved anything.
“Newt?”
He turned to me. “Yes.”
“Brett wasn’t working alone in this.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, when I went to the farmhouse, he was so weak and scattered; I couldn’t believe he’d orchestrated all these things. The Proles demon that attacked me here, the different women that were killed and displayed to look like me. Then he mentioned some man visited him in the hospital and told him what he should do so we could be together again. They’d been working together all this time. He even had a ring with binding magic in it that he put on my finger. If you hadn’t taught me to shield, I think the magic would’ve forced an even stronger bond.”
“Binding magic built into a ring? That’s rare.” He sounded concerned, even though I knew he was trying to hide it.
“The question is, who would have known to come after me by using Brett? I never told anyone about him or what happened.”
Newt was following my train of thought. “The case received a lot of publicity. Your name, the ties back to Angus. It was all over the media for a long time. Your mother handled that as best she could while you were with us Below.”
“But how did they find him at the hospital? And why?”
“I don’t know. But it’s something worth checking out. If I find anything, I’ll let you or Cal know.” He kissed me on the forehead, handing me a heavy case. “You should open this. Then you have some work to do around here.” He moved away to the far wall, stepping back into the tunnel he’d opened, the heat ruffling my hair and the bed sheets before the opening snapped shut.
