Chapter 25
“ O h no,” I whispered, gut twisting in shock, followed by sadness.
There was a pile. So many bodies that they’d been stacked on top of each other like chunks of wood.
Dried-up arms and legs intertwined amongst each other, and the faces…
twisted and frozen in a final scream that no one would ever hear.
Tris came up behind me and wrapped his arm around my waist. “Fuck.”
“Yeah,” I agreed. That about summed it up. Fuck.
Kaelan shuffled over to the bodies, silent tears falling from his eyes.
One by one, he looked closely at them. First, he lifted the arms, searching for something.
Then the head. Most of them still had their hair, so Kaelan skipped over the redheads and blondes.
And focused on the ones with dark curls that matched my own.
I stepped closer, wanting to help but unsure of what to do.
Crouching down on the opposite side from Kaelan, I reached out to touch one of the bodies with a long, red braid and a gold bracelet on her wrist. Brushing a piece of hair out of her wrinkled face, I couldn’t stop the tears.
Such a waste of a life. No one deserved to be killed in this manner.
Those halflings were the most horrible people, sucking the life out of one so they could have a chance to see Ashtabulah.
Despicable and disgusting. I wept for them all, and no one in the room told me I shouldn’t.
Kaelan was making noises and mumbling curses as he looked for Gil.
It was a mix of shock and relief each time he flipped a body over and didn’t find the one he was looking for.
Distracted by watching him, I hadn’t realized I was resting my hand on the dead woman’s head until Wylen crouched down next to me.
“Sosie?” he breathed. “Look.”
I followed his gaze to my hand, where a faint glow of light was radiating from my palm. I yanked my arm away and looked at him. “What is that?”
“Interesting,” he breathed, ignoring my question.
“Why? Why is that interesting?”
He never answered me. Instead, he looked closer at the woman and then suddenly sucked in a breath. “Oh no.” Gently lifting her arm, he focused on the gold bracelet…and then slid it off her wrist.
“Wylen!” I shouted. “You can’t steal that.” But then I saw his face. Sad and broken, he was crying for this woman.
“I know her family,” he whispered solemnly.
“How?”
He lifted the bracelet and let his fingers trace the intricate golden knots. “This is her family’s symbol.”
“Like a coat of arms?”
He nodded. “Similar, yes.” He let out a deep breath and squeezed his eyes shut. With them still closed as though lost in a memory, he continued. “I was with her once. A long time ago.”
Tris shuffled up behind me and placed a hand on my shoulder. He always knew when I needed his touch. “What was her name?” I asked. Kaelan was watching us now, too, cheeks stained with tears.
“Orlaigh,” he said with a sad smile. He’d pronounced it like Orla .
“That’s a beautiful name.” I grabbed Wylen’s arm and squeezed. He was still holding the bracelet tight in his grip and against his heart. “I’m really sorry. You should take the bracelet home to them.”
He bobbed his head ever so slightly before asking Kaelan, “Is Gil here?”
“No.”
“What are we going to do with all of these bodies?” Tris asked.
I shook my head, trying to come up with a plan. “Call the Special Investigator?” I suggested.
“How are we going to explain this?” Tris asked. He had a good point.
“Maybe some kind of cult?” Kaelan suggested.
“Wylen, are these fae who have been living on our side for a while?” He looked at me, so I saw the moment it clicked.
“Orlaigh had left years ago. So yes, for her. And while I don’t know who the others are, I would have to assume the same.”
“What are you thinking, Sosie?” Tris asked.
“I like Kaelan’s idea. Perhaps we can inform Investigator Caldori that we were following a lead regarding a cult and a missing person? Maybe we can tell him we were looking for Gil?” Everyone opened their mouths to speak, but I stopped them. “We can say Gil was my informant.”
“That might work.” Tris glanced around the room again. “Why are there so many plants in here?”
“To hide the smell?” Kaelan offered.
With a shrug, Tris held out his hand to help me off the ground. And once I was up, he did the same for Wylen. Seeing me watch him, he smirked. “What?”
“Nothing.” I smiled back. “We should see if we can find any evidence that Gil was here before we call Caldori.”
Everyone agreed and instantly spread out around the room. It wasn’t much bigger than the living area upstairs, but with all the plants and the shelves and the bodies…it was probably better to divide and conquer.
I stayed with the bodies. There was no logical explanation for it other than feeling like this was where I was supposed to be.
I rested my hand on each one, the light glowing from underneath a marvel I couldn’t explain.
It was almost like the energy that the symbols took from me was now flowing back to them.
Unfortunately, though, it was too late to do any good.
Most of them had been stripped of their clothing and jewelry. It reminded me of pictures I’d seen of one of our darkest times in human history, and my heart broke at the way the beautiful lives of these fae were snuffed out with little regard to what the consequences might be.
I counted fifteen bodies. That meant Ashtabulah was missing more fae than they knew about. There were also fifteen symbols etched into the wall behind them. Fifteen. Not sixteen, which gave me a small amount of hope that we may still find Gil alive.
Suddenly, there was a thump from upstairs, and we all froze. Looking up as though we could see through the ceiling, we listened and waited. Something large was being dragged across the floor, our heads following the sound.
“What is that?” Kaelan whispered.
“I don’t know,” I breathed. “But we should?—”
The door to the basement crashed down the stairs, the explosion making all of us drop to the ground.
I protected my head when shards of wood rained down on us and the potted plants started falling to the floor.
A pair of heavy footsteps ran down the stairs, and I heard Kaelan scream a second before his body slammed into the wall behind me.
The blocks cracked under the impact as he fell on top of the dead bodies, where he didn’t move again.
“Son of a bitch,” Tris shouted. He was fighting with Donald, the halfling with the telekinesis.
A gift that was much stronger than it should be, thanks to the amount of pure fae blood he must have been consuming.
But Tris was fast. Despite being sore and bruised from last night, he still managed to duck and dodge away from the candles and pots Donald kept throwing his way.
Finally, Tris hunched forward, and much like Razi did to his knee in their fight, Tris rolled on the ground and slammed into Donald’s shins.
The older man screamed out in pain when Tris took his feet out from under him.
And the moment he fell, Tris jumped on his back.
Yanking Donald’s arms behind him, Tris shouted to Wylen. “Find me something I can use to…” He started to cough. “Something…I…can…” Sucking in fast, shallow breaths, Tris looked over at me in a panic. He fell to the side of Donald and grabbed his throat. “I can’t…I can’t breathe.”
And then I saw Brodie sauntering down the stairs.
With his arms out in front and his fingers moving in a pattern, I knew he must be the one sucking all the air out of Tris’s body.
Wylen was checking on Kaelan, muttering words I couldn’t understand and didn’t have time to contemplate.
Brodie was hurting Tris, and I couldn’t sit back and do nothing about that.
I jumped to my feet, yelling like a banshee and running straight at him.
Brodie had to choose, and he’d picked the bigger threat.
My tiny body smashed into his, making him drop his hold on Tris and turn his attention to me.
We stumbled into the concrete block wall, knocking over a tray of plants and falling into the water heater.
I screamed as my arm touched the hot metal, but Brodie was spitting blood from his mouth where he’d just split his lip open. I smiled at that.
“You little bitch,” he growled, whipping his hand up and creating a wind that started to blow my hair around.
“Stop!” I shouted at him, willing my black fog to slam into his body. For a moment, I thought it worked. The wind died down, and he stared at me in surprise. But then his gaze shifted to the stairs, and a wicked smile began to grow across his pointy face.
That’s when I felt the vine wrap around my ankles and lift my feet into the air.
I was going down and going down hard. There was no stopping it. As if in slow motion, I saw Brodie and Donald attack Tris simultaneously, while Wylen helped Kaelan back to his feet.
As stupid as it was, I put my arms out behind me to try and stop my fall.
But it was my upper shoulders that hit the ground first, followed by the back of my skull, and then my hands.
Stars flitted across my vision a second before the pain hit.
It radiated out from the back of my head to my ears, making them ring and filling them with heat.
Was that blood? Had I just cracked my skull open?
A wolf howled outside somewhere near the window. A howl that was cut off with an ear-piercing whelp and a round of whimpering until there was nothing but silence.
Blinking several times, I tried to focus on something. The room was spinning with dark shadows and bright bursts of light. I thought that was from the fighting happening right over top of me, but I couldn’t be sure. Someone was yelling at the top of the stairs, a woman. Arelis maybe.
I could turn my head just far enough to see the opening where the door used to be.
The formidable vampire general stood in the opening, her hands gripping the sides, her head bowed.
Her bright white fangs caught the light, and the growl coming out of her beautiful mouth was enough to intimidate almost anyone.
And then I heard the crunch of breaking bones and watched in horror as Arelis collapsed to the floor, blood pouring out of her head.
She’d missed the hallway, so now her body started tumbling down the stairs and straight toward me.
Bouncing around like a rag doll, Arelis’s head or shoulder smacked on every single step.
When she finally reached the bottom, she groaned and tried to push to her hands and knees, just inches from my face.
I shuddered in fear when I saw the intention in her black eyes.
Holding an arm across her ribs, Arelis stumbled forward and threw herself into the fight Tris was losing badly.
I heard the vampire grunt as she tossed someone to the ground.
Donald. It was Donald. I knew this because Donald slammed into my side as he skidded across the floor, and I could see the empty stare in his now-glassy eyes. Had Arelis just killed him?
Tris thanked the vampire a second before he twisted behind Brodie and wrapped him in a chokehold.
Brodie tried to use his power of air manipulation to yank the breath out of Tris, but Arelis stalked forward, grabbed the halfling’s hands, and broke his arms at the wrists.
My stomach churned at the hideous sound of breaking bones.
It echoed throughout the basement, and even the sound of someone walking down the creaking stairs couldn’t drown it out.
Tris slowly lowered Brodie to the ground, knocking him out…I thought. Arelis shuffled over to Kaelan, whose face was dripping with blood and who was holding his arm like it was broken. “Malakai?” Kaelan asked.
“Your werewolf is dead.”
The man on the stairs smirked. He was the driver. This was also the man at the meeting who seemed to have power over that invisible force that had pushed me into my seat. Glancing down at me, he shook his head. “You shouldn’t have come,” he scolded.
Then, without any warning, he threw his arms out toward those in our group who were still standing and blew them backward into the concrete wall.