Chapter Thirty-Three
Lenora
Iblink and scan the crawling shadows drifting lazily along the damp walls and soaking across the floor. The filmy light pooling against the filthy windows has a faint, red tinge that bleeds with the lingering indigo from the multicolored bits of glass.
In the distance — too far to be real given the room is barely large enough to hold more than a handful of people — liquid drips.
Drips.
Drips.
Little plops that echo much too loudly in the stagnant silence. A silence faintly disturbed by the whisper of metal chains clinking together.
I stand my ground and stare into the curling shadows along the far wall. My hands have reflexively moved to cover my stomach. While I don’t believe they would hurt me, I’m not stupid enough to let my guard down.
“Stop hiding,” I mutter. “Show yourselves.”
The puddle of darkness groans like a beast finally stretching his legs. The twin figures emerge from its folds as grotesque and terrifying as the last time I’d seen them.
“You’re quite a ways from safety, little human,” the one with no skin purrs, crimson eyes a vicious red in the dimness.
I don’t understand how they look like this when Veyn is so beautiful. How can they be nothing like him when they were made from him?
“What do you want?” I demand instead.
“We’re curious,” he drawls while his companion stands still and mute next to him. “We haven’t been let out of our cage in millennia. So much has changed.”
“That’s why you took the door away?”
“We just want to talk,” he says with a lifting of his shoulders. “Our brother has taken such an interest in you, and we wanted to see why.”
I glance from one to the other, disbelieving the flimsy explanation.
“You could have simply asked him.”
The creature chuckles a wet, sticky sound of someone choking on blood. “He is not forthcoming. A bit of a liar, our dear brother. Will do and say whatever it takes to get what he wants.”
The unease is a cold whisper against the nape of my neck. An uncomfortable scuttle that almost makes me shudder.
“This has nothing to do with me. Let me out.”
“Aren’t you even curious?” he interjects, ignoring me entirely. “Why you? You’re not an Usher. Not really. You have no power. Nothing he could possibly need. Yet, he chose you.”
I tell myself to ignore the goading. To put my foot down and demand they let me out.
“What are you implying?” my mouth says instead.
The creature ambles a single step closer.
The other one remains where he is. Stone still. Too watchful with those endless voids.
“I’m sure nothing, but what do you know about him? How do you know you can trust him?”
I blow out a breath and give him the best frown I can muster. “Move out of my way. Bring back the door.”
“It’s fine if you don’t want our help—”
“I don’t,” I snap before he can finish.
But he continues, “But think of the baby.”
My blood goes cold. The hold over my middle tightens even when I will myself not to react.
“What about the baby?”
It’s obvious that they’re trying to get under my skin. I know they’re manipulating me. There is nothing wrong with the baby and I know Veyn would never hurt me. Yet, I can’t shake my unease.
“Why do you think we’re here?” He gestures to the room, but I know he means the manor. “We’re trapped. Bound to these stones. We need the blood of our captors to be free.”
I roll the information around in my head and still don’t understand.
“Are you talking about the Ushers?” I hazard, guessing.
“Their great, great, great grandfather found our shrine. He stole our talisman, binding us to his bloodline. Without that effigy, we are bound to this place, but only an Usher can find it and free us.”
I frown. “Why are you telling me this?”
The creature moves with slow, shuffling ambles around the casket, leaving a thick trail of bloody footprints across the stone. I have no desire to turn my back on the other one, but he’s less threatening than the one circling the room.
“Because he chose you. It could have been the final Usher upstairs, but he wanted it to be you.”
“Why?”
He pauses, long, talon-tipped finger extended in my direction. “That is an excellent question, isn’t it? Why you? Perhaps it has something to do with the new Usher inside you.”
I recall Veyn’s hand on my stomach, his dark eyes warm when he promised that my baby would be cherished.
“Let me out,” I bite out, refusing to listen to anymore.
“You can’t free him,” the demon warns, making a full circle to stand before me. “He will end the world if given a chance. It’s why he was bound to that talisman. To protect humanity. You need to find it and destroy it.”
“Won’t that free him?” I mutter.
The creature shakes his head. “That is what’s keeping him bound to this mortal plane. Without it, he will be cast back to hell. Think of your baby,” he adds when I hesitate. “Are you prepared to give him your soul now that you have that life growing inside you?”
The truth plummets into my gut as cold and vicious as a chunk of ice. It paralyzes me of all thought, except … he’s right. I’ve given Veyn my soul. I did so before I knew I would have this baby, but now…
“Why are you telling me this?” I bite out. “Doesn’t destroying Veyn also destroy you?”
He sighs and straightens. The almost skeletal hollows of his features draw into one of deep contemplation.
“It’s time,” he mumbles at last. “Rase and I have been here for so long. We have watched our brother destroy life after life, causing chaos and death for centuries. Men, women … children. No one was safe from his brutality.” Dark, red eyes pivot in my direction.
“You have seen what he is capable of. The torture and pain.” He shakes his head slowly. “We’re tired. We just want to rest.”
I hate that I understand. That I know exactly what he means. I hate that I believe him even while a tiny voice seems unbothered by the facts.
I know what Veyn is.
I know what he is capable of.
Maybe not fully, but he’s never pretended not to be … well, a demon.
“Let me out,” I say again.
Something like anger flares behind his eyes. A flash of crimson before it’s gone.
“I hope you will reconsider before it’s too late.”
He motions over my shoulder with his chin and I spin, expecting the other creature to attack, but the door is back like it had never vanished.
Without waiting, I hurry towards it only for him to call me back.
“The talisman is inside the dais, should you change your mind and save us all.”
I don’t wait to hear more.
I hurry down the corridors in the direction of the main part of the house. My head spins wildly, a top whirling with more information than I know what to do with.
Of course, Veyn isn’t perfect. He’s a demon. By definition that makes him evil and a liar. And I made a promise to him. I willingly offered him my soul for revenge, but that was before I was given this gift. I can’t die now that I have a second chance.
“Linny.”
I yelp and spin at the sound of Marcus’s voice.
He’s charging towards me from the opposite end of the corridor, strides wide and angry.
“I’ve been looking everywhere for you.” He stops when he’s practically on top of me. “Where did you go?”
“Chapel,” I murmur. “I … I went to tell the boys.”
There’s no point hiding the truth from him. It’s only a matter of time he realizes my stomach is only getting bigger.
But he doesn’t ask me to explain. Doesn’t ask what I told them. Isn’t even curious.
“We should have a doctor look you over,” he states instead. “And we should talk about what this means.”
“It’s the boys’,” I tell him firmly, making it clear from the start that he doesn’t have to worry about being responsible. That in no way is he betraying his sons’ memories by having impregnated me. “I’m too far along for it to be yours.”
I think.
I honestly can’t be sure of anything, but that’s what I choose to believe.
“Christ,” Marcus breathes, stuffing five fingers back through his hair. “Last night … did … did I hurt you?”
I shake my head. “I promise you didn’t.”
Deep down, I am already done with this conversation. There are so many other more important matters I need to concentrate on, but I’m also trying to be sympathetic and understanding of his concerns.
“I’m going to the greenhouse,” I tell him, needing time and space to iron out all the colliding thoughts.
Thoughts I can’t share with Marcus because of his bias towards Veyn. There isn’t a doubt in my mind that the second he learns that there is a way to destroy Veyn he won’t immediately try. And if he’s caught, Veyn will kill him.
I also have to figure out how I’m going to ask Veyn not to take my soul right away. To wait a few years so I can see my baby grow up. I don’t have anything else to bargain with. Nothing more to offer. He may not even accept another offer. After all, he’s held up his end of the bargain.
How did things get so complicated?
“I don’t know what to do. I…”
I break off when I lift my head and get struck by the muggy heat of wilted plants and moldy soil. Darkness presses into my eyes, but I am surrounded by the familiar weight and scent of my greenhouse.
Though, I have no recollection of getting here.
What’s more, it’s night painting the grimy windows which means I have been here for hours.
Carefully, I turn, assessing my surroundings, gauging my distance from the door. All around, dead foliage brushes my cheeks. Dry, brittle branches claw at my clothes. Brittle clusters of dirt press beneath my naked feet, collect between my toes.
A weak sound escapes me.
Not afraid, but disorientated. There is only a sliver of dull blue creeping in from the windows overhead, but not enough to guide my way.
“Marcus?” I call out, hand extended, feet shuffling forward a step.
No one responds.
Not that I thought anyone would; the greenhouse is tucked in the opposite end of the house, away from everyone.
But how did I get here?
I’m still wondering that as I find my way through by touch alone. I locate the door and hurry through. My feet slap across damp carpet as I hurry in the direction of the main foyer. The passage is equally shrouded by darkness, and I have to feel my way with a hand along the wall.
Until I round a corner and come across a brightly lit candle.
I stop.
I study the candle with the single wax stick and dancing flame. Its little halo extends along the walls and spills across the floor.
The sight of it has my thought process spiraling. Has me doubting my mental stability.
Mrs. Pym hasn’t been around. Had Marcus left me the candle so I could find my way back? Had I left it? Where is Marcus? Why hasn’t he come to get me?
The cold iron presses into my palm as I lift the slender holder. With it, I continue onward, determined to find Marcus, or Veyn.
Out of habit, I pause in the doorway to the solarium.
The cluster of abandoned easels sits alone and forgotten against the shadows and I wonder if the baby will have a love of art the way Eliah had.
If it will love sunshine and the smell 0f fresh paint.
Or if it’ll be like Ames with a passion for fitness and bad jokes.
It hurts.
The knowledge that I will have this baby, and the boys will never see it. It will never know them. I can never truly describe how amazing they were.
A fresh wave of grief follows me along the path that leads from Eliah’s studio to Ames’s war room. Momentarily forgetting why I was downstairs at all.
“Lenora.”
I turn to find Marcus in the corridor behind me clad in his sleeping trousers. Topless. My candlelight reflects in his cool eyes as he moves closer.
“What are you doing down here?”
I gesture in the direction of the greenhouse.
“I think I fell asleep. I woke up and it was dark.”
He stares at me, brows scrunched in confusion. Concern. His gaze drifts over me, taking me in and stopping at my feet.
“Were you sleepwalking?” He inches even closer. “You were in bed.”
I blink. “What? No, I…”
I trail off when I glance down at the pale nightgown slipped over me. My fingers tremble when I reach down and touch the shiny material.
“I don’t remember,” I whisper faintly.
“Hey, it’s okay.” His touch is warm on my arms. “You’re under a lot of stress. It happens. Come on. Let’s go back.”
I let him take my hand and lead me to bed. The entire way, I stare at the candle, the tiny sliver of wax nearly at the end, and I swear, it had been longer when I picked it up only minutes before.