AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Miss Davis had paused halfway in and eyed me as if I was trespassing.
“What is it?”
“I will have to request you to wait outside. This could be...del-i-cate.”
Though I half-raised an eyebrow, I nodded. “Sure. I’ll sit here.” I indicated an old rocking chair.
“Make yourself at home. Read if you want.”
A small table was piled with ancient magazines, as well as a few books with tattered covers. The only new magazines were about guns, chickens, and Warhammer—quite the mix.
I gave Val an odd look as he followed Miss Davis in.
The screen door banged shut.
At a bit of a loss, I sorted through some of the magazines, finally settling on a book about ancient symbolism. Hieroglyphics, alchemy, astrology, the Incans—all the bases seemed covered.
I flicked through, my attention snagging on the chapter about alchemy. The first few symbols made my pulse trip, and I sat up. The stitching used by the Cucitrice was a flowing mixture of several of these.
Strength. Power. Infusion. Clarity.
If the symbols actually had a real function, what else might they do?
The revelation astounded me. What would happen if you stitched others onto Val? Might that help him free himself?
It might, it might. Jesus.
The book seemed a mix of research, mumbo jumbo, and theories made up by the author. I needed a purer reference where only what was really used in the past was highlighted. Distortions could be dangerous.
I grabbed my phone and texted Chester.
Can you do some more research for me? I need to know all about the symbols used by alchemists in the past. Not falsehoods or distortions from more modern times. What symbols were there and what do they mean or do? Is that possible? I can pay.
Well, Val could.
I tucked away the phone, a frisson of excitement buzzing inside me. Wait, the shiver up my spine was from something darker—a feeling of impending doom. I straightened.
Fuck, I’d been distracted.
Something was out there. Dark creatures, though most were distant and still as if waiting. Not doom then, just gloom, again.
Long shadows bathed the yard in sinister promises. Wait for long, and this whole, dilapidated, miles away from town, house would be besieged, if the creatures so chose.
I could feel them, and that was new. My body had changed while I did nothing to make it change. Had the Cucitrice been able to sense them too?
An ear-splitting scream came from inside the house.
Before I had time to think, I was on my feet and yanking the door open.
“What are you?” Miss Davis’s shrill voice traveled up the hallway. “What! Tell me or so help me god I will pull this trigger and then phone the cops. Trevor knows me. If I say you and your accomplice attacked me, he’ll throw you in a grave and then help chuck dirt on top of it. Tell!”
I tugged out the Ruger, then half knelt to also pull out the knife and hang the bag over my shoulder again.
Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.
My hands shook as my ears strained to hear Val, but his words were nothing but a low, even rumble.
Opening a knob with no hands...I shifted knife and gun to one hand, cursing silently.
