Chapter Eighteen #3
Except, that wasn’t true. There were different stages of the paintings. All of them, then just Duncan, Ciarán, and Callum.
Then, just Duncan and Callum.
“No, the waterfall.”
She glanced over.
“Duncan pointed at these, and we thought he wanted them put back up, but what if he was pointing at the waterfall? That’s the ONLY constant in them, other than Duncan. Callum grew up. Catherine was excluded from them, and then Ciarán died. The waterfall has to be what he was trying to tell us.”
When the room door slammed shut, they all jumped.
Well, holy shit.
“There’s nothing there but a waterfall,” Graham admitted. “Under it, there’s a place to lay on some rocks and take a nap, but that’s it.”
But then, it hit him.
“This corridor points directly toward where the waterfall is located. Do you think that’s what he wants us to know?”
Finn shrugged.
“I mean, maybe the corridor, but Gabby and I were skinny dipping in it. There’s nothing under it. We were just there a month ago. Under the falls is solid rock like the cliffs.”
Slowly, the door began opening, and slammed again, as if it was trying to make a point.
Okay, then.
They couldn’t exclude it.
“We should divide and conquer,” Gryphen admitted. “It’s going to be dark in an hour. The last thing anyone needs to do is be on the grounds after dark. You heard what the witch psychic said. It’s malevolent energy, and it’s not going away until we get a handle on the curse.”
He had a point.
Michael knew what they needed to do.
“I’ll take Graham and head to the waterfall,” Michael offered. “He knows the grounds the best, and I’m not letting my new husband do this without me.”
And no one blamed him.
“Do we have any flashlights?” he asked.
Graham grabbed a few from the same room they were in, and then handed one to the other group.
“You guys do the inside recon that is the corridor. We’ll call you if we find anything. Be careful.”
Oh, they would.
Bet.
On.
That.
With Michael by his side, Graham and he jogged up the hallway and to the kitchen in the castle. Heading outside, Graham pulled him toward the horses.
“We’re better off on horseback. It’ll be quicker.”
That it would be.
They took the time to prep the two horses, and grab a grain sack from the wall of the barn.
Just.
In.
Case.
Then, they both mounted the horses and headed toward the pasture where the painting had been done.
Once there, they dismounted so Romeo and Juliet could graze, and they could check out the waterfall.
“This would be romantic if we weren’t looking for bones out here,” Michael admitted. “I don’t mind seeing my husband nekid in the water.”
Graham laughed.
“Well, yeah. Maybe we can come back another time and skinny dip,” he said, grinning wickedly. “I wouldn’t mind seeing that a few times.”
Michael winked at him.
As they moved toward the waterfall, Michael knew they were going to be getting wet.
Call it a hunch.
The only way to get under the waterfall was to go through it.
Taking off all of their things, except their underwear, both men waded into the water.
Oh, and it was not exactly a hot spring.
“Well, there goes my dick and balls,” Michael said. “They just went and hid by my colon.”
Graham laughed.
“I bet I could find them,” he admitted.
Well, that was something else to do later.
Bet.
On.
That.
This honeymoon was far from over.
When they got to their waists, they held hands, and went under the water, moving below the crashing of the falls. As they did, they surfaced on the other side, still holding hands.
Climbing out of the water, they both climbed the rocks to where people could lay—or hide things. The ground beneath their feet was solid stone.
Nothing was buried in here.
Well, it looked as if Finn had been right. There was no way the bones were under this stone.
“I mean, this would be romantic if we weren’t trying to break a curse,” he admitted.
Yeah, it kinda was.
“I wouldn’t mind a picnic under here,” Graham admitted. “Maybe we have sex in the water and on this stone…”
Say less.
Michael would make that happen at some point—maybe when the water was warmer.
“Let me see if the bones are in the water. Maybe Duncan dumped them in the water, knowing no one would look there.”
Graham didn’t like that.
“If I don’t see your bubbles, I’m coming in.”
Oh, well, he hoped so.
Diving back in, Michael went to the bottom of the wading pool, and then looked around. There were stones, a little silt, and fish.
No bones.
When he went to head up, he saw something off to the side. He could have sworn something moved in the opening.
With the flashlight on, he shined it toward the dark area, and got the shock of his life.
There was a face staring back at him.
Ciarán’s face.
Well, fuck.
He surfaced, breaking the water and gasping for air. As he did, Graham was kneeling on the side of the wading pool.
“What? Are you okay? All the bubbles came up at once time!”
He told him.
“Ciarán is down there. Well, the ghost of him. I just saw his face. I think he wants me to follow him into the opening.”
Graham did NOT like that.
Not.
At.
All.
“What if it leads nowhere and you get trapped or die?” he asked. “I don’t know if that’s a good plan.”
Michael was aware.
But what choice did they have?
This curse wasn’t getting removed on its own, and they needed to find Ciarán and Catherine’s child to at least make the castle less haunted.
Would he be okay if he trusted the dead man?
That was the big question.
* * * The Ravensmire Castle * * *
Inside The Castle
The Corridor
Same Time
They were carefully moving through the tunnel, using the lights that they’d used before, and the one flashlight.
As they did, they found lots of things.
Spiders.
Cobwebs.
And a mouse or five.
What they didn’t find was any bones or rooms. This appeared to be a wild goose chase of sorts.
With Gryphen leading, and Finn keeping Gabby and Ian in front of him, they moved deeper into the darkness.
It smelled damp.
Like after a big rainstorm.
“There has to be water nearby,” he admitted. “I think I hear it.”
Gryphen was excellent with directions and where he was at any given time, so he reminded him. “That waterfall is east,” he said, “and Graham was right. We’re heading toward it. You probably smell that spring water. I think we’re under the pasture.”
They had to be deep. This slope told him they were moving down deeper underground.
When a mouse ran across his boot, and toward Ian, he jumped and practically climbed up his man’s back.
“Ian!”
He wasn’t having it.
“The black plague started over here. I’m not getting that before my wedding!”
He laughed.
As his man wrapped his legs around his waist and his arms around his neck, getting a piggyback ride, he kept walking.
“Want me to carry you?” Finn asked Gabby.
“What? And be a pussy?” she asked.
Ian gasped.
“HEY! I resemble that remark!”
Only, she laughed.
Despite this leading them nowhere, Finn was grateful the people he called friends, and new friends, were helping his fiancée get through this.
Gryphen came to a stop.
“Well, I have bad news.”
Everyone stopped behind him.
“What?” they asked.
“It’s a dead end. There’s another wall here,” he said, pushing on it as Ian stayed on his back like a sexy, fiancé backpack.
“It moves slightly. This isn’t part of the normal rock. Someone put this here. I’m betting it’s the same people who put the other wall up.”
Could it have been Duncan?
Or maybe another descendant?
Someone had ripped the journal of letters apart, scattering them. Had whoever was trying to hide the truth also put up two walls to make sure no one ever found out the truth?
Was that who tucked away the journal entries, and hid them all over to leave a path if someone knew where to look?
Maybe they wanted the truth to come out after all of them were gone.
After all, Catherine had been a killer.
Duncan killed Catherine after she betrayed them.
And the church had done them all dirty by killing Ciarán.
There was a lot of death here that would mar the memory of this family.
“How sturdy is it?” Ian asked.
He pushed again.
“I mean, we can take it down,” Gryphen admitted. “I can probably sledgehammer my way through it.”
Finn pointed one thing out.
“Uh, and if the whole place comes down in the process as we’re deep underground?”
He glanced over.
“I mean, it’s not a good idea,” he admitted. “But it’s a plan.”
Yeah, how could this go wrong?
It looked as if they were going to find out.
* * * The Ravensmire Castle * * *
The Waterfall
Same Time
Well, this was either the bravest thing or the stupidest thing—and Michael wasn’t quite sure which.
Only, he had to trust that Ciarán wanted his remains found more than he wanted to kill someone else for the company on the other side.
So, he took a few breaths, getting his lungs ready, and he nodded at his husband before sinking back into the water.
Quickly, he swam toward the opening where he’d seen Ciarán’s face, and moved through it.
Oh, it was definitely opening up, and big enough to get a person, and body through it.
Staying calm, he was counting in his head, knowing how long he had before he was out of air.
With plenty to spare, he was through the opening, and headed up to the surface of water.
When he broke it, he was in complete and total darkness. Turning on the flashlight, he was grateful it was waterproof. If it hadn’t been, he was going to have to feel his way out to get a light.
As he waded in the water, he felt something touch his leg, and it freaked him the fuck out.
Was the spirit trying to pull him down again?
When it goosed him on the ass cheek, he knew it wasn’t a dead man.
It was a very living one.
His man.
His husband.
“What the hell?” Michael asked, laughing. “I thought the dead were copping a feel. That was terrifying.”
Graham just shrugged.