35. Kayla
Pleasant murmuring and clinking glasses fill the air around us. I glance around the room while a waitress sets down four wine glasses on the table before us. I have to give it to Lionel, he did pick a beautiful bar for our celebration.
Round tables made of dark wood dot the floor across the entire room leading up to the small stage at the front. Glittering chandeliers hang in the ceiling, filling the space with warm light. And there are candles on every table.
“Well then, boys and girls,” Aurora says as she picks up her wine glass. There is a bright smile on her lips as she looks between me, Jenn, and Lionel. “Here’s to our ridiculously successful silent auction!”
We all raise our wine glasses as well. Jace is standing a short distance away, and I’m suddenly struck by the feeling that he should be here too. At the table. After all, he is the one who secured all of the items for me. And also because?—
“To our ridiculously successful silent auction,” Jenn and Lionel echo, cutting off my train of thought.
I quickly repeat those words as well while we all clink our glasses together.
Aurora drinks deeply before letting out a contented sigh and leaning back in her seat. “We’re definitely going to get a fantastic grade on this assignment. Did you hear what they said about our organizational skills and time management?”
“Yeah.” Mischief glitters in Jenn’s eyes as she jabs her elbow into her sister’s ribs. “Not that you contributed much to the time management part.”
She gasps dramatically and mimics clutching her pearls. “You wound me, sister.”
Both of them start laughing. I smile too, but my fingers still drift to my watch and I fiddle with the strap. As the main Ashford heir, my brother was supposed to get this watch when he turned thirteen. Now, I got it instead.
Pain slices through my chest.
Normally, I can function every day without thinking too much about it. But after that unexpected trip to the yacht on the river, those old memories have been surging up more and more. Those old hurts. Not just for the fact that I lost my brother that day, but also because I lost any chance at a normal childhood. A normal life. A normal family.
I don’t think I’ve truly realized until now, until I saw Jace interact with his brothers and their girlfriends, how much I desperately yearn for that too. Yearn for the feeling of belonging. Of being a part of something.
My hand falls away from my watch as I glance towards where Jace is standing a short distance away. He gives me a small smile that makes butterflies erupt in my stomach.
It eases the pain in my soul.
“So, what kind of show is it?” Jenn suddenly asks.
I flash Jace a quick smile before returning my attention to the conversation around the table.
“You said it was a drinks-and-a-show kind of place,” Jenn continues, and gestures towards the small stage ahead. “What kind of show is it?”
“Oh, uhm,” Lionel replies after swallowing his gulp of wine. Setting down his glass again, he scratches the back of his neck. “I’m not actually sure. I’ve just heard that it’s good.”
“I think we’re about to find out,” Aurora says, and nods towards where a man in a dark blue suit has just walked onto the stage.
A round of applause sweeps through the room, and everyone stops talking and instead turns towards the man.
“Welcome,” he says as he comes to a halt at the front of the stage. With a conspiratorial smile on his face, he spreads his arms wide. “To a night of mysteries. A night of miracles. A night where we breach the veil between the living and the dead.”
I suck in a sharp breath. Oh God. No. Don’t tell me this is a?—
“My name is Caesar Ordell and I am a bridge between our realm and the place where our loved ones are waiting,” he continues. “I can help them speak to you from beyond the grave.”
Ice spreads through my veins.
On my left, Jenn shoots Aurora a pointed look, which she replies to with an eye roll. I could probably have understood what that look meant if my brain had been working properly, but right now, all I can focus on is how cold my chest suddenly feels.
“Let’s see who we have here with us today,” Caesar says as he drops down from the small stage and starts walking between the tables. “Who the spirits want to talk to today.”
People look towards him with bright eyes, as if they’re hoping he will come to them. Wrapping my hand around my wristwatch, I squeeze it hard while desperately hoping that he won’t come to our table.
Caesar stops at a table halfway across the room and starts talking to a woman about her grandmother. Jenn and Aurora whisper to each other and Aurora rolls her eyes again as Jenn nudges her in the ribs. On my other side, Lionel just watches with mild curiosity. None of them seem to have noticed my panic.
I can feel Jace’s eyes burning holes in the side of my head, but I don’t dare to turn and look at him. Because if I do, this calm fa?ade that I somehow still manage to present to the rest of the world is going to shatter like broken glass.
“I’m feeling another connection,” Caesar says.
My heart leaps into my throat as he starts moving in our direction. Blood pounds in my ears as he stops right in front of our table and locks eyes with me.
“From a brother,” Caesar says, his blue eyes firmly on mine. “Victor.”
I suck in a short breath.
Both Jenn and Aurora turn to stare at me, shock pulsing across their faces. They didn’t know about Victor. Nobody does. Because I never talk about him.
“I see… water,” Caesar says, his eyes compassionate as they search my face. “A lake.”
I stare back at him.
“No, a river,” he amends.
I swallow.
“You were both very young.”
My throat starts to close up.
Caesar gives me a look of sorrow. “He says that the current was too strong.”
Shock pulses through me. How could he possibly know that?
“He knows that you tried to save him.”
I have to press my mouth shut to stop my bottom lip from trembling. Panic tears through my soul, and my gaze darts around the room behind Caesar. Oh God. How can he know all of this? Is Victor actually here? Please don’t tell me he’s really here. I don’t want to?—
“He wants me to tell you that it was not your fault. He says that he would have gone in anyway.”
My eyebrows draw into a small frown.
“He would’ve jumped in anyway,” Caesar says, holding my gaze.
A sob rips from my throat.
Shoving my chair back from the table, I shoot to my feet and rush towards the door.
I can’t be here. I can’t. I don’t want to hear this. I don’t want them to hear this.
Tears blur my vision as I race through the room and towards the door.
Lionel must have shot to his feet and left at the same time because he is at my side immediately, placing a gentle hand on my elbow and leading me towards the back door.
“I’m so sorry,” he says, his voice breathless. “I didn’t know. I didn’t know that this was a… that your brother had…”
Another sob escapes my lips without permission. I want to yank my arm out of his grip because I don’t want anyone to touch me right now. I just want to be left alone. But I can’t find the strength to do it, so I just stumble along as he quickly walks us towards the back door.
“Let’s go outside,” he says gently. “The alley out here is usually empty, so no one out here will be staring at you if you want to… take a second to compose yourself.”
I shake my head.
I don’t want to compose myself. I want to cry my eyes out. I want to go home. I want a hug. And comfort food. And someone who will let me break down without making me feel like I’m embarrassing myself.
Lionel grabs the handle and starts pulling the door open.
Before he can even get it halfway open, Jace slams his palm against the door and shoves it shut again with a bang that reverberates through the air. Lionel lets out a yelp as Jace grabs him by the collar and yanks him away from me. The force of it sends Lionel stumbling backwards and crashing into the wall hard enough to rattle the paintings along the corridor.
“What the hell are you—” Lionel snaps, his voice furious. But then he cuts himself off when he straightens and finds Jace standing between me and him like a murderous demon. Shooting Jace an angry glare, he instead says, “I was trying to help her!”
“You’ve done enough,” Jace growls. Violence pulses from every inch of his carved body as he stares Lionel down. “Now, get the hell out of my sight before I snap your fucking neck.”
“I didn’t know!” Desperation bleeds into Lionel’s voice. And it pulses on his entire face as he looks to me, his eyes pleading. “I didn’t know that this was a psychic reading. I didn’t know that your brother drowned and?—”
“Get. Out.”
Lionel flicks his gaze back to Jace, who looks to be one second away from pulling the gun that I know he always carries concealed in his clothes.
I still haven’t said a word. I just can’t muster enough energy to open my mouth. So all I do is to look at Lionel, silently begging him to just leave. Fine, he didn’t know about the psychic and about my brother, but I still don’t want to talk to him right now.
Anger flickers in Lionel’s eyes, and he shoots another venomous stare at Jace. Then he spins on his heel and stalks away. He throws open the front door on the other side of the corridor and then disappears out into the night without a second look back.
I slump back against the wall.
My heart is still pounding in my chest.
Resting the back of my head against the wall, I stare up at the light in the pale ceiling above. The air conditioner hums faintly into the suddenly pressing silence.
“How could he have known all that?” I whisper. To Jace or to the ceiling or to no one at all. Pain clenches my heart. “He must be a real psychic. There is no way he could’ve known that. Which means that Victor was really here and…”
A sob rips from my throat before I can finish the sentence.
“No, he’s not.”
I snap my gaze down from the ceiling and turn my head to look towards the sound of the new voice. Jace has spun around as well.
Jenn gives me a sympathetic smile as she and Aurora walk down the hallway and approach us.
“No, he’s not psychic,” Jenn repeats.
“But he knew about Victor,” I protest as they come to a halt in front of me.
Jace has moved so that he is standing beside me, but he looks much less inclined to throw Jenn and Aurora out than he did Lionel.
“He probably saw on the guest list that you were coming and researched you,” Jenn explains. Her eyes are serious but also lined with sympathy as she gestures between me and the main room down the hall. “He probably thought that making a grand impression on you would be great publicity for his show, so he checked you out.”
Next to her, Aurora nods. “We didn’t know about your brother, but now that we knew what to search for, it only took us a couple of tries to find it.”
Holding up her phone, she shows me an old news article from the local paper where our summer house was located. I glance away from the picture of Victor it shows.
“But that only says that he drowned,” I argue. “How could he possibly have known that it was a river? That he jumped in? That I was there too? That I tried to save him?” Dread and pain sear through me, and I slash my hand through the air. “He couldn’t! Not unless Victor was…” I choke on the words.
Jenn and Aurora share a look. Embarrassment, but also immense empathy, blows across Aurora’s face as she turns back to meet my gaze.
“Look, I…” she begins, pushing her blonde hair back behind her ear. “I was really close with our grandpa. And when he died, I… Well, long story short, I became really into this.” She shoots Jenn a serious look. “And I still believe that true psychics do exist.”
Jenn just nods, as if she won’t argue with that.
Aurora turns back to me. “But most people, and especially the ones who do these kinds of shows, are con men.”
“But how could he know?” Emotions claw at my chest like sharp talons. “There is no way for him to?—”
“He did what’s called a cold reading,” Jenn interrupts. Her voice is firm but not unkind. Holding my gaze, she raises her eyebrows. “Remember what he said? First, he said that it was a lake. But then you scowled at him. Just a little. And he said river next. That’s when you swallowed.”
I blink at her in confusion and surprise.
“I was watching you closely,” she explains, and her eyes dart towards Aurora. “I learned all I could about these kinds of cold readings so that I could explain it to Aurora and break her out of her…” Clearing her throat, she shifts her gaze back to me. “Anyway. He didn’t know about the river and the current and all that. He guessed, and then used the micro expressions on your face to determine if he was right. If you swallowed or if your mouth dropped open a little or your eyes widened a fraction. Or if you frowned or scowled or pulled back.”
Disbelief tumbles through me. And for a few seconds, all I can do is to stare at her. “He… He guessed?”
Both Jenn and Aurora nod. Jenn looks determined while Aurora is looking at me like she understands exactly how I felt back in that room, and exactly how I’m feeling right now.
Rage burns through me. Hot enough to torch this whole building.
“He guessed,” I repeat, fury seeping into my voice. “He pretended that my brother was here, talking to me from the other side? He pretended.”
“Yeah.”
Another wave of rage roars through me. He put me through all of that pain and hurt and emotional upheaval for a show? He exploited my grief for money? For publicity?
“I want to kill him.” The words rip from my soul with enough force to make me taste blood. Fury flickers like lightning strikes through my body as I look from Jenn to Aurora to Jace, who is watching me in silence. “I want him dead. Can we make that happen?”
God, I can’t believe I went through all of that shit, all of those emotions, and it wasn’t even real. It was just a scam. People like that don’t deserve to?—
“Well, yeah,” Jace replies. There’s a casual expression on his face as he motions vaguely at himself while glancing between me and the Carlisle sisters. “I could… I’m a… You know.”
And a broken and yet full laugh rips from me at the sight.
God, where has this absolutely extraordinary man been all my life?