Chapter 39 #2
I wanted them to be gone already. I hated that what he felt whenever he looked at them was guilt.
“I didn’t even want to keep any secret from him anyway. By the way, did you see Winifred? Since, you know, you ratted him out.”
She glared up at me. “Who do you think got him help?”
I smiled, relief washing through me in an unexpected wave, loosening the tight knot in my chest. “Oh, that is so lovely of you.”
Then I walked out of the chair, turning towards the door, the faintest smile lifting the corners of my lips.
One.
Two—
“Sit down.” Her voice ground out behind me. I had anticipated getting to the door before I heard those words. She seemed more desperate to live than I expected. “Aren’t you here to make a deal? Sit down.”
Smiling, I turned and settled back in the chair with ease. “Now that we’re on the same page—”
“We’re not even in the same book.” Her tone was venom.
“You’re benefiting from this, and you know it. This is a rather small request for keeping your life.”
“So you didn’t tell him about Merton and I because you want to get info behind his back.”
I nodded, even knowing how wrong it was. “Yes, behind his back.”
She smirked, savouring my admission like it was a small victory. “Would he not be pissed if he found out what you’re doing?”
“Shall we find out what would piss him off more?”
Her jaw clenched.
I leaned forward, voice low, the question that had gnawed at me since the warehouse finally spilling free.
“Tell me, Amelia. What were you planning on doing with me? Seeing how you’re scared of death, I don’t think you planned to send me back to Thrax after getting all the info you need from me.
And I’m not going to even think you’re capable of killing me.
So what was your plan? Just injecting me daily for a month before sending me home on the train? ”
She sighed, shoulders shifting. Talking about her own failure was clearly not her favourite thing.
“Firstly, I’m not scared of death. I just have a list of things I need to complete in this lifetime so I can face my ancestors with my chin up.
Secondly, you’re right. We weren’t planning to get our hands dirty by killing you. Nimorran would kill us for that.”
“So what was the plan then?”
“Putting you to sleep,” she said simply.
“After getting everything we could possibly get from you, we’d put you in a coma while still making sure your connection with him was severed.
And then, we’d send you to the train on the last day, but you won’t have any recollection of what happened in the warehouse.
” She shrugged casually. “Let’s say you won’t be normal.
Merton is still trying to perfect his skills so whatever we give you might have a really huge side effect on your body and brain. ”
What. The. Fuck.
I stared at her, brows pinched so hard they ached, and for the first time, she let loose that deranged smile.
She got off on my misery.
I guessed I’d have to thank Winifred the most after all. If he hadn’t dragged me out of that place, Thrax wouldn’t have known anything, and by the time I got to my mother, I’d have been half-mad already.
“You’re sick,” I spat.
And that only widened her grin. “Thank you,” she said sweetly. “Now ask me what you want to hear.”
Taking a deep breath, I leaned closer. “Can his curse be broken?”
She shook her head without hesitation. “I haven’t heard or read that in my life.”
I narrowed my eyes on her.
“Do you want me to swear on my brother’s life?
I have never come across that thing in my life.
None of our ancestors did, they’d have recorded it otherwise.
And in case you didn’t know, Merton and I were trained to read every scrap our line left behind.
We were getting taught different old languages before we could even walk.
So growing up, we read all their records, research, and even diaries, just to know where one stopped and the other began.
Therefore no, I haven’t read a single thing about how his curse can be broken or if it can even be broken in the first place. ”
I leaned back, studying her face for any flicker, any lie buried in the cracks of her expression. She might be lying, and she might not.
“You mean you guys stalked him for centuries without knowing that?”
“Maybe because there is no such thing as that.”
I arched a brow. “Really?”
She opened her mouth, then stopped, her gaze fixing on me as if the pieces of a puzzle she hadn’t even known existed suddenly clicked into place. Her expression shifted, hungry for information I didn’t have. “What do you mean by that? The Soulless Man’s immortality curse can be broken?”
Of course. To her, discovering something not recorded in history books would be better than gold, the best thing that could ever happen to a researcher.
As I watched her drag her fingers through her hair, eyes flickering like storm-light as she mentally ransacked everything she’d ever read, I knew I’d just struck a dangerous mission inside her mind.
“Who told you this?” she demanded. “The Soulless Man? I am not questioning everything I know if you got this from an unreliable source.”
I wasn’t about to tell her. Not when she was this starved for answers. Instead, I shifted. “Have you guys really been to the cave?”
“Answer my question first—”
“It’s like you’re forgetting I’m the one asking the questions here.”
She rolled her eyes, falling back in her chair with all the arrogance of someone unused to being told no. “Ugh.”
“So? Did Merton lie about going there?”
“Yes. No one must step foot in its perimeter. Except the Soulless Man, of course.”
“Then how does Merton know what the cave rock looks like? Was he lying about that one too?”
She shook her head. “No. My grandpa had taken a photo of it from a distance forty years ago. The cave only got deadly, I think, twenty-something years ago. Presently, if you stand where my grandpa had stood, your legs will rot in an instant. I don’t know what the Soulless Man has been feeding it, but it’s gotten insanely dangerous since he started visiting. ”
I frowned. “What?”
She rolled her eyes again, displeased at letting her hard-earned knowledge slip so easily. “There was no record of him being spotted there until I was born. He’s been going to the cave for more than twenty years now. And that was when the cave started emitting strange energy.”
Damn.
I would have never thought he’d been at his “unfinished business” for more than twenty years. What exactly was he doing there?
I looked up, only to find Amelia’s eyes locking on mine at the same time, the same wheel spinning in our heads.
Did it have to do with breaking the curse?
Was it also connected to the cut he always had on his palms? He was always back with healed scars, and it made me wonder if he’d been tearing himself open in the cave.
“Show me the picture,” I told her. I needed to confirm if it was the same with the one in the dream.
Sighing, she fished out her phone from her pocket, checking through her gallery before standing to retrieve Merton’s instead. She passed it to me and slumped back in her chair.
On the screen was a photograph of a photograph. And on it—
The cave.
The. Exact. Same. One.
My breath stuttered as I stared at the cave’s mouth. It was the same. Only this time, the rock glimmered faintly in the sun.
Merton had been right, it did look kind of shiny. But the one I’d seen in the dream hadn’t.
Also, in the photograph, trees were around the cave. Over the centuries, they had grown on the barren land I’d seen.
So the same cave Thrax frequented now, he had been lying there over a thousand years ago.
Why?
I wouldn’t know unless he told me. And the chances of that happening was slim.
Dropping the phone, I rose to my feet.
Amelia stood up. “That’s it? You’re leaving?”
“Why? You want to chain me here?”
She scoffed. “I wish.” Then she walked to her desk, circling it and pulling open a drawer. When she looked up, she held my bag and my phone, setting them down with a flourish. “You can’t say I’m not the sweetest person you know. I even kept these for you.”
A dry chuckle slipped out as I picked them up, powering my phone back on. “Your thoughtfulness is bringing me to tears.”
The second I unlocked it, notifications erupted like an alarm—messages, missed calls, stacked one after the other. All from my mother. All from her neighbours.
When the storm of alerts finally died down, I lifted my gaze to Amelia and Merton, who stood silently behind the desk.
“I know you already did your research. You know when I was born, where I school, who my family is.” Amelia’s brief eye-roll confirmed I was right.
“You have my number and my email. So send me every tangible thing you know about the Soulless Man tonight.”
Merton looked at Amelia, confused and uncertain. She laid a hand on his, a silent reassurance passing between them.
“And you promise to give us feedback on anything you learn?” she pressed.
“Why would I do that?”
She glared in irritation. “You’re no fun. Bet they don’t invite you to parties.”
I gave her a lazy wave as I turned for the exit. “Yes, because they know I don’t like parties.”
The sky had dimmed further when I walked outside, cold biting into me as I pulled out my phone, texting Thrax.
Me
What are we having for dinner?