“How do you know?”
But rather than answer my question, he asks his own, “Do you know how she died?”
My shoulders give an awkward shrug. “Heart attack, I think. The ladies from her church noticed she hadn’t come in and...” A thought strikes me. “She went to church.”
“People can be two things,” he reminds me. “Your aunt was looking for something.”
“All her life, Laura was searching for something she never could seem to find, and the longer she went without finding it, the colder she became.”
Mom’s words sink into my soul with the ferocity of an icy drink getting guzzled too quickly. It chills my stomach.
“Are you saying this place is haunted?” I croak, hating the terror crawling up beneath my skin.
To a fraction of my relief, Kellen shakes his head. “Haunted places are usually the domain of spirits. Ghosts. Poltergeists. This house is beyond that. She has created a stain that nothing short of fire will fix. There is an evil here that has crawled into the walls, and the closer it gets to midnight, the more active they’ll become—”
I clap a stiff hand over his mouth. The difference of our temperatures doesn’t go unnoticed as his heat burns the icy surface of my skin.
“Stop.” I can barely move my lips, but he understands.
His fingers curl around my wrists and he gently tugs my hand down. “Forgive me, little one. I’m not trying to frighten you.”
I was in this house alone, I think, horror scuttling down my spine. I moved through every room and planned to stay the night.
“What happens at midnight?” I ask weakly, desperately not wanting to know, but unable to stop myself.
Kellen must sense how close I am to falling apart when he captures my jaw in one hand. He tips my face up and kisses me with the sweetest gentleness that momentarily warms all the places filled with terror.
“You’re safe, my little love,” he murmurs lightly against my lips. “We would die before we let anything touch you.”
While I believe him with my whole soul, we’re still trapped in this place. We’re still isolated and powerless against whatever is lurking in the shadows. And it’s already eight.
“I want to go, Kellen.” I wind my arm around his neck and press my face into the curve of his neck. “Please. I don’t want to be here anymore.”
He strokes my hair. “As soon as the boys return and we burn the rest of the books—”
A cry and splinter crashes through the house. A deafening explosion of something slamming into wood and collapsing under the weight. There’s another cry and I recognize the voice.
“Lukan!” I gasp, hands already fumbling with the throw.
My legs tangle with the yards of wool and I nearly tumble off Kellen’s lap as I throw myself to my feet. My heart thunders in my ears as I race to the doorway.
“Rina!” Kellen captures me and drags me back. “Stay behind me.”
Frantic, I stare up at him. “Lukan...”
“Behind me,” he snarls, capturing my fingers.
I don’t protest, nor do I slow him down as we hurry in the direction of the sound. Of breaking furniture and bodies hitting the floor. I tell myself they’re okay, but nothing feels okay anymore. Nothing feels like it’ll be okay ever again.
It does register somewhere in the deep recesses of my brain that he could be lying to me. That this whole thing is an elaborate joke they’re playing just to get a rise, but I know that’s not the case. I know everything he said is true. The house has been a vacuum of oppressive darkness since my arrival, and I can no longer pretend I don’t notice all the evil.
At the top of the stairs, Kellen’s fingers tighten around mine. His strides slow. From around his massive bulk, I see the shimmering patch of light seeping through the door at the end of the corridor.
Aunt Laura’s room.
A chill scuttles down my spine and my fingers tighten around Kellen’s. Even while every instinct tells me it’s just the boys, the sour stench of rot tells a different story.
“Do not come inside,” Kellen hisses from over his shoulder. “Whatever’s in there, we will handle it.”
