Chapter Seventeen
Minutes Earlier
Raven and Bex’s Home
Saturday Noon
The witch’s home was calm, peaceful, and silent. Well, it was all of those things if you couldn’t see the dead. If you could see them, you knew that it was pure chaos going on with all of them.
They were pissed.
One of the things about the dead were they didn’t like to be trapped. When you could go anywhere, see anything, and do anything you wanted, being put in an invisible box was irritating.
So now, Jake was trying to punch through a wall.
Agatha was crying, and the captain…he was smoking his pipe in a corner.
If that wasn’t annoying enough, Mary Ann was praying for their souls, as Mary Beth was hopscotching all around the room.
And Trey was twitchy.
As he paced, Bethany sat on the coffee table, staring at him.
“My love, you’re anxious.”
Oh, he was.
“Can you feel it?” he asked. “That darkness is there. I can feel it moving closer to our family. I have to get out of here.”
She moved toward him, and he stopped to hold her against his body.
They were all in their death states.
Why?
Because Raven was making sure they couldn’t get the hell out of there.
They.
Were.
Weak.
“I swear to God I’m going to haunt his Subaru,” Trey stated, making Bethany laugh.
“I can’t wait to see that,” she admitted.
When he took her face in his hands, Trey stared into her eyes.
“I love you. If for some reason, this gets me…”
She stopped him.
“I’m going with you, Trey. I’m not living out my eternity without you. Promise me that you’ll take me with you if it gets you. Please don’t make me live forever mourning you.”
He rested his forehead against hers.
“Baby.”
She didn’t care.
“Please. I’ve never asked anything of you. I’ve accepted our fate, but don’t make me accept this, Trey. I need my husband.”
He kissed her softly.
In that moment, there was so much love and tenderness.
Yes, he joked around, a lot.
Yes, he busted Julian’s ass.
Mostly, the annoying behavior was an act because the man was twitchy around the dead. Now, though, he was worried that he would lose them all.
“No, Bethany. If it’s taking me, you have to let it. I need you to stay and take care of my sister and Julian. They will need you. If I’m going to purgatory, I’ll be okay. I’ll find a way out, and I’ll get Wynter.”
She had tears in her eyes.
“Trey.”
He kissed her.
When he broke the kiss, he ran his thumb over her lip. In that moment, he memorized her.
“You’ve been the best thing that ever happened to me. Loving and finding you, Bethany, has been my salvation. I was lost, but you found me.”
She touched his freckled cheek.
“What do you need me to do?”
He knew.
Just as he was about to tell her, the whole house shook with a wave of power.
It could only be from one person.
ORACLE.
They all heard her.
I’m opening the spell to help you get out. It’s coming for Lucian, and then, it’s coming for the other psychics in your family. It has bought the medallions, and it’s preparing. Get ready to save them.
There was a bright tear in the spell, and only the dead could see it.
Trey knew what he needed to do.
“The Captain, Jake, and I are going. Bethany, you stay here with the women, and don’t let on that we’re missing. I need you to cover for us if the witch gets suspicious.”
She didn’t like this.
“Okay, Trey.”
He focused on an angry Jake, and a bewildered Captain.
Oh, this was absolutely going to go to shit. He could feel it in his balls.
“Men, suit up. We’re going to war!” he said, as he morphed into fatigues.
Stay hidden until we need you. When I call for you, you’ll know what you need to do. Hurry. I can’t keep the spell open for long.
Trey heard Oracle, and the three men hustled to the crack in the spell. When they stepped through, they disappeared.
Only, Bethany wasn’t listening.
Fuck that.
“Ladies, we’re going to go save the men because they can’t do anything without us!”
The four women had just enough time to slip through the tear before it sealed shut.
Again.
Now, they would make sure that when the war started, it wasn’t only the men fighting.
No.
The women would too.
Against this darkness, it would take everything.
And Bethany wasn’t losing her soldier.
Oh.
Hell.
No.
* * * L I T T L E M O O N * * *
The Monroe House
Twenty Minutes Later
Getting there was a lot more difficult than Lucian had anticipated. After coming out of the static, his energy was absolutely drained.
It sucked not having Ridge in the static with him, because then, he’d be able to pull power in to keep himself safe.
Going into the static without his tuner was dangerous—almost as dangerous as when Beckett didn’t have Claire to pull him out.
Still, what choice did they have?
Parking in the garage, he saw the vehicle he’d let the Marines borrow, and that told him that they were back to roost.
Well, at least his wife was safe here with them sleeping in one of the rooms.
Heading inside, he couldn’t find her, and he kept looking for Bishop. It was when he found her sitting on the side of the bed, a bed they’d all woken up in earlier, that he felt the dread.
Oh, Jesus.
What was this?
“Baby?” he asked, closing the door.
Instead of speaking, she patted the bed beside her and left him no choice but to park his ass in it.
This.
Was.
Bad.
Why did he feel like he was the guest at his own execution? Why did he feel like his wife was about to drop some horrible news on him, changing their lives?
“I’m sorry, Lucian.”
He lifted a brow.
“For?” he asked, sitting beside her.
When she looked over, there were tears in her eyes. Immediately, that scared the shit out of him.
“Oh, no. What?”
She knew they were going to have to do something incredibly distasteful—like ruin Ridge’s life, and it was weighing on her.
“If you knew something devastating, and you could hide it, but if it came out later, it would be worse, what would you do? Hiding it would save feelings now.”
Uh-oh.
“Are you divorcing me?” he asked.
She lifted a brow.
“Uh, no. Just answer me.”
Well, what choice did he have?
“If it’s going to be worse and ruin lives, it’s better to just do it and deal with it now. I don’t like putting shit off if I can handle it before it’s a million times worse.”
That’s what she figured.
Honestly, on her way over, she was weighing the options of not telling Ridge to save his heart.
It just felt…wrong.
“What is it, Bish? Are you sick? Is the baby okay?”
She went there.
“Wynter was seeing a therapist, and when I say ‘seeing’, I mean getting naked with him on Fridays. That’s why she was on the birth control pills.”
The second she said it, his flabbers were ghasted.
In fact, he stared, mouth open.
She continued.
“From what it looks like, it was a hot and heavy relationship where she was getting her exit plan in order to leave him. Apparently, the sex in the static was too much for her. She told the man she was shagging that her husband took a gay lover, and she was evening the score.”
Oh.
Holy.
Fuck.
Still, he said nothing.
“So now, we have to decide to devastate Ridge while he’s already been kicked in the balls, or let him recover and risk him finding out that we didn’t tell him—only to have him kick us in the balls.”
Jesus.
This was a bad place to be.
“Are you sure?”
She nodded.
Bishop showed him the infamous text that made them all go down the rabbit hole.
“Why would she meet him at a different…?”
And there it was again.
“Oh, for fuck’s sake.”
Yeah, pretty much.
“So, she cheated on her husband to get even with him for having a relationship in my mind while we went into the static?” he asked.
She nodded.
Only, Lucian went there.
“We asked permission,” he said. “We came to you guys in advance before it progressed, telling you. We didn’t keep it a secret for this reason.”
Oh, she knew.
“We told you guys to come to us if it bothered you. We let you watch us to make sure nothing happened on this plane.”
She was to the point.
“I guess it’s a good thing she didn’t find out what happened between the two of you in the meditation shed.”
Oh, shit.
Now, he had to wonder.
“Did she find out?”
Bishop shook her head.
“I don’t think so. We found out that the therapist put a move on her, and she didn’t stop him.
Then, she booked the hotel room where they would go hook up.
The shrink prescribed her the birth control after going bare in her.
Apparently, Wynter got some thrill, some revenge, being wet with another man’s cum after the fact—like it was the ultimate revenge against an unsuspecting Ridge. ”
Lucian closed his eyes.
That was three days beyond cruel. That was meant to deliver a blow to his ego.
“Oh, Ridge is going to fall apart. We can’t tell him that last part. Ever.”
Bishop went there because she wasn’t done.
“She was getting ready to take Sophia and leave him. Leon Kenyon said they were in love, and there’s nothing to say he’s lying.
She went to the questioning with Honor, and told him and his assistant to play dumb.
Then, she went to the square, where someone had to slip that necklace into her pocket, and then to the hotel, where she had sex with him. ”
He was appalled.
“On the day she died?”
Bishop nodded.
“Bodhi did a full autopsy. I know you told him to get her ready for burial, and he kept it simple for Ridge, but we had to cover our bases in case Leon Kenyon is behind this.”
He.
Got.
Mad.
Bishop could feel that anger in him.
“Calm down,” she said. “You can’t go beat him up. You have to sit your ass down and help me figure this out. Because whether we like it or not, she saw the static as the end of her marriage. That’s on all of us.”
He was trying.
Lucian was literally vibrating, so his wife said that one word.
“Control.”
Yeah, well, that was easier said that done, so he was honest.
“Without my tuner, I’m low on control,” he said. “We came out of the static, and I’m drained. Punching a douchebag in the face is absolutely going to happen.”
She put her hand on his knee.
“You can’t. Ridge is going to need us to get him through this. Trust me. I wanted to beat the ever-loving stuffing out of the dude.”
Lucian sighed.