Seven devils, p.12
Seven Devils, page 12
The clothes bothered me for some reason. It was an oddly specific detail that didn’t often stick out at me.
“And you’re always seeing it from here?”
I nodded slowly, double checking my memories. “Yes, always here.”
“Interesting. How often do you dream the same dream?”
“Often enough.”
“What happens after Shoshanna and the darkness hang out?”
I suppose that’s what they were doing. That was puzzling as well. I swallowed down and pushed forward. “Then she’s alone and the darkness closes in.”
“Is the darkness different? I’m not sure I understand. You said she’s surrounded by it, but then she interacts with it? And now it’s surrounding her again?”
I wished I could broadcast the images from my mind to his. It was so hard to describe everything I saw and felt. I shook my head and tried again. “When it starts, the darkness surrounds us. And…I guess it’s not the same energy. It’s separate. Whoever or whatever comes to meet Shoshanna is not the same as the darkness surrounding this area.”
“That never goes away?”
I shook my head slowly. “No.”
“And the darkness is aware of Shoshanna?”
Cold slid down my spine. “It’s watching her. It wants her.”
“It waits for her.” Seamus said.
“I think so. When she’s alone it surrounds her, pins her in. Tortures her.” My voice broke. “It doesn’t follow our rules.”
“It takes what it wants.” Seamus understood.
“And then it pulls her heart from her chest. She’s still alive,” I whispered, “Then another part of the darkness takes an arm, a leg, the other arm, the other leg, and finally her head. They left her on display there.”
“And does the darkness leave immediately or linger?”
How was his voice so steady? I just described a murder. A horrific murder. “It moves around the area and then leaves.” The clothes changing still bothered me. Plus there was something about Shoshanna’s murder that bugged me, but I wasn’t sure what. Seamus gave my hips a squeeze and took a few steps closer to the scene. “Good job, babe. It helps me understand better.”
“Why do you think I always see it from here?” My feet were still glued to the ground. I couldn’t move forward and I couldn’t look away.
Head, body, two arms, and two legs.
When I looked up Seamus was on my right instead of my left. How had he moved that quickly? “Seamus?”
“Hmmm?”
“Did you hear me?”
“I’m sorry. What was the question?”
It was almost as if I’d zoned out for a few minutes and only asked the question in my head. Weird. “Why do you think I always see things from right here?”
He immediately looked away. Shit. That wasn’t good at all.
“Seamus?”
He sighed. “I think you were seeing everything through the eyes of the darkness.”
I touched my own lips to keep from gasping. “No.” I didn’t want to be that close to anything that evil. Didn’t want my mind touching anything it touched.
A head, a body, two arms, two legs…and her heart. I kept forgetting her heart. Relief that I figured it out washed over me, calming me just a little, not that calm was really a state I could be in right now.
“What do you keep murmuring?”
“Hmmm?”
Seamus dipped down, examining my eyes with a frown. “You keep mumbling…something about twos?”
He really was tuned into me. “Oh, I just seem to be stuck on the way she was murdered. We found her in pieces. A head, a body, two legs, two arms, and her heart.” There was something to that. I thought the killing was a ritual, but since I was barely samhain I didn’t know what that ritual might be.
“Seven,” Seamus said softly.
“What?” My skin pricked and another shiver raced down my spine. Uh oh.
“She was broken into seven parts.”
A head, a body, two legs, two arms, and a heart. Seven parts. “Does that mean something?”
“Seven means a lot of things.” He glanced out at the mist lakes to avoid looking at me.
“Okay, but you think it means something in particular, don’t you?” The shivers grew worse.
Like the Plane was warning me I didn’t want to know this.
“The spear…the heart. You were right, Florence. It’s a ritualistic murder, but who the fuck would want this?” He yanked on his beard and growled low. “Are you sure it’s one murderer?”
I only ever felt a presence. The one that loomed did the killing. But was it one or many? I didn’t know. “Why does it matter?”
“Because if it was one then I’m wrong.”
I gulped down a steaming pile of dread. “And if it was more than one?”
He looked away. “The Seven Devils haven’t been free in three hundred years.”
Seven. Another shiver. “What are the Seven Devils?” Seven body parts. Seven sacrifices.
“The beginning and the end of the Underground.”
I staggered backwards, the world spinning just a little. Everything came back to the Underground. Whatever happened, whatever we were missing, that was the piece we needed to find.
Seamus gave me a sad smile but instead of coming closer to comfort me, he stayed away. Ivy and Knuckles came back into the clearing and I jerked my gaze to them, hoping for answers that would distract me from the hell in my mind.
“Anything?” I called out.
“How are you doing?” Seamus asked beside me.
I jerked in surprise. Why was he moving so fast this morning? It wasn’t like him to jump from place to place. And when I looked into his eyes, that soft, loving look was back and the wary one from a moment ago was gone.
Going back into my dreams must have me losing it because I could have sworn Seamus just whipped between two personalities in the space of a moment, not to mention locations. “I’ll be okay. I’m more interested in what Ivy and Knuckles have found.”
Seamus frowned. “Yeah. Hopefully they find something.”
“They’re right…” I turned and pointed to where they’d just stood, but they were gone.
“Babe, you okay?” He put a hand on my shoulder.
“They were just there. Didn’t you see them?”
“Not since they left.”
Great. I was definitely losing it. I rubbed my forehead trying to stop the headache forming. I was seeing things, there was something called Seven Devils, and Shoshanna had been murdered. It was no wonder my head wanted to explode.
Seamus wrapped his arms around me. “It’s a lot.”
Understatement. Especially combined with the fact that I had his arms around me. Talk about emotional overload. Twenty-four hours ago I would have punched him in the face for touching me. Now I was here, and he was him, and I was…overwhelmed.
I kept rubbing that spot between my eyebrows because the throb just wouldn’t quit. “Nothing makes sense. Normally my dreams at least make sense! I’m dreaming about this and symbols and now I’m seeing things.”
“You’re just tired, babe.”
I half-smiled up at him. “I don’t hate it. The nickname.”
“It’s not a nickname,” he grinned right back. “Princess is a nickname. Firecracker. Fig.” He made the same sour face he usually made when he used the name everyone else used. “But babe is who you are to me. Darlin’. Florence.” He kissed the top of my head. “I’m glad you like it. I certainly like saying it.”
I should be scared. I should be throwing insults and making him mad. But I just couldn’t do it anymore. I had to know. Either Seamus really was the guy who was going to prove there were good guys out there, or he was going to show himself. I couldn’t keep up the act any longer. In three years he hadn’t stepped out of line except that once.
And I should have forgiven him a long time ago.
I heard movement behind me but didn’t turn my head because if it was real, Seamus would let me know. Plus I’d rather rest against his chest as long as I could.
“Anything?” Rever asked.
“They’re good,” Knuckles replied. “But not good enough. Or just too confident.”
“There’s not a trace for half a mile at least,” Ivy said.
“And then?” Seamus asked.
“Tracks. Guess they figured by the time someone found Shoshanna they would have disappeared.”
“How many?” Seamus asked.
I tensed, waiting for the answer. Ivy probably shook her head. “At least one. Possibly more. We’ll have to study the tracks more before we know.”
“Whoever did this has to know Midnight Manor,” Rever said. “How to get in, how to get out, and how to avoid detection.”
“They picked this spot because it was remote.” Ivy locked eyes with me as I turned around. “I believe it was their hope no one would discover her for weeks, if not months.”
“Maybe never,” Rever muttered.
But I threw a kink in that. My stomach churned.
“How many people did you approach about your dreams?” Seamus asked. He’d gone rigid beside me. Another mood swing.
I thought of all my failed attempts at warning the House of Gatlin. Instead of feeling useless and dismissed, now I felt watched, cornered. Every single one of them could be hunting me now. “Bernard. But he dismissed me outright. When I dreamt it again I tried talking to Lorraine. When she ignored me I went to Rain who suggested I take it straight to Shoshanna.” Her rejection was the most confusing.
“Wait, Shoshanna knew?” Seamus spun me to face him. “You told her? And she sent you away?”
“Yes. She listened carefully, told me she'd look into it, and then dismissed me. When I dreamt it again, her assistant told me that Shoshanna wasn’t concerned with the dreams of a mostly-human. I tried both Bernard and Lorraine again. Rain tried as well.” All of them cast me aside like trash.
“Who did Rain talk to?”
“The same people, as far as I know, but I can’t be sure.”
“Did anyone see you when you came here?” He asked Rever.
“I’m not a shadow dealer but I am Gatlin Guard. I know what the fuck I’m doing.”
“So that’s a no?” Seamus demanded.
Rever rolled his eyes. “Yes, asshole. That’s a no. We’ve got bigger problems than you doubting my abilities. At least three people know Fig had a vision. If this shit gets out, or whoever did this realizes the body is gone, the first person they come looking for is her.”
I wanted to shrink into Seamus, but I held perfectly still.
“We need to talk to Rain and then we need to disappear,” Seamus said.
“No.”
Seamus froze. “Florence.”
“No. I’m not being locked up again! Not happening!” Everyone always decided what was best for me and I was done with it. “No one is telling me where to go or what to do anymore. Especially you.”
His face crumpled. “Florence.”
“I’m not mad. I’m just stating facts. We will go to Rain. I’m on board with that. But we’re not disappearing.”
“Florence,” he tried again. It was a really good strategy. My name on his lips twisted me up like nothing else.
But on this, I was firm. “First Rain. We go from there.”
His gaze flew between my eyes looking for any way to change my mind. When he saw I wouldn’t, he nodded once.
Then my headache came roaring back, throbbing between my eyebrows. Only this time it grew much, much worse. My head began to ring and my vision shook. I grabbed my head in my hands and sank to my knees while Seamus split into two, then three, then four. So did Rever, Ivy, and Knuckles. The sky was night and day depending on where I looked and the loudest sound I’d ever heard pierced the air.
And then it was all gone. I still stood in front of a very upset Seamus and knew that no one but me had just experienced whatever the hell I just did. I gulped. “Seamus. You need to get me out of here.” The sense of inevitability seized me. “Now.”
He lifted my chin. “Babe?”
“Now,” I whispered, feeling the tingling sensation that signaled another event. “Now!”
“Follow me,” Rever stormed past, “if we shift over these woods we can slip down the mountain to a portal that’s currently out of rotation. Ivy, I’ll be back.”
“We’ll miss you,” she called, taking Knuckles’ hand.
My vision began to blur and the ringing returned. Whatever was happening was far beyond my control. “Now, Seamus.”
His eyes widened a split second before he swept me into his arms and everything went black.
CHAPTER 15
Fig
Somewhere
Now
My head pounded. Worse than any hangover, any illness I’d ever had in my life. It felt like my skull was cracking open. My mouth was dry, my eyelids heavier than rocks, and my body hurt. Everywhere.
Great.
I wanted to sink back into the darkness and hide from it all, but something nagged at me. There was something I was supposed to be doing. Something with…
Seamus.
I’d been with him. Somewhere. Green. Water. Midnight Manor. I’d let him kiss me. And we were looking for clues to…something. My head pounded some more and I remembered my vision blurring and splitting. It felt like I was being pulled in four directions at once. He grabbed me just before I passed out.
I sat up in bed—not a great idea—and looked around at the unfamiliar surroundings. Shoshanna. The room was gorgeous. White and dark wood. The bed was enormous and covered in soft white blankets. The windows were open and a cool fall breeze blew through the air.
“Hello?”
Seamus immediately appeared in the doorway. “Fucking finally!” He was as tall and giant as ever, but there was something different about him. He covered the distance in two strides and had me in his arms again, nuzzling me like we did it all the time.
“Where are we?”
He drew back, frowning. “Home. How are you feeling?”
“Like death. My head is killing me.”
His hands immediately went to my scalp and began massaging. I let out a moan because damn that felt good. He leaned me into him and got to work banishing the pain from my body like a magician. “Rain and Kris learned a lot from the body. Wils and Vic are on the way over.”
Home. But which home? I knew all the rooms in the House of Wren and this definitely wasn’t one of them. We weren’t at the cottage either. And we were definitely not at Wils and Vic’s house.
“Did you have any more dreams?”
“Since I blacked out?”
He nodded, his eyes so hopeful, his fingers so damn magical. I thought back through the pain and realized there were memories in there. Jumbled and hard to reach. “I think so but right now all I remember is passing out.”
“What happened?” His voice was so tender. So full of love.
It made my heart swell. This is what I could have had all this time. If I’d just had some courage. It made my eyes sting and I sniffed back a cry fest. We did not have time for a cry fest. “Everything split. You. The sky. Everything. And then it was like nothing happened. Like I imagined it. I moved while things were splitting, but when it all went back to normal, I was standing in front of you.”
“Split?”
“Like there were three of you.” And now that I had time to analyze it, each version of Seamus was different. Different hair lengths, different beards, different shirts. “The sky was day in one version and night in another.”
“No wonder your head hurts.” His hands lovingly massaged my temples, my forehead, my jaw. The pain began to dissipate.
“And I knew it would keep happening as long as I stood there. I felt it coming.”
“That’s why you said we needed to leave.”
“Yeah. You caught me.”
His thumb ran lightly over my lips. “I’ll always catch you, darlin’.”
He said it with such conviction. Like it was the simplest thing in the world. Maybe it was.
The tears came back, but this time I couldn’t stop them. His eyes widened with surprise, and he slid down beside me so we were nose to nose, brushing my tears away. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing! Well, not nothing, but nothing to worry about,” I said between sobs.
“Florence?”
“I’m just…sorry.”
“For what?” His gaze darted between my eyes, his body flush against mine. I’d been alone too long because that was all it took to light me up.
“For all the wasted time.”
He frowned just as a door opened and Wils voice filled the house. “We’re back!”
I shook off the tears and centered myself.
Seamus kissed my forehead. “We’ll get back to this.”
I gave him a nod. I had a feeling I wouldn’t be able to wiggle my way out of any more conversations now that I’d let him in.
“You feeling up to walking or would you like everyone to come in here? I can drag in some chairs from the dining room.”
Whose house were we jumbling up? “I can walk.”
The sound of a child echoed off the walls. Who had a child? Maybe I knocked my head on the way down. Nothing was making any sense. Seamus helped me to my feet and wrapped one arm around my waist while holding my hand with the other.
“I’m not going to faint again.”
“Indulge me.”
I supposed this was better than being carried out into the most gorgeous living room I’d ever seen. There were windows everywhere. The house was made of dark wood with black windows and an unparalleled view of Blood Falls. There was only one place with this view.
“We’re at your cabin,” I breathed. I had never actually been inside, stubborn woman that I was, but I knew that view. Beneath us was another floor with a deck and the exact same gorgeous view.
