grasp tightened until I could feel the pressure of his bony fingers through my wet sleeve. “You have more power than the lot of them. You have the chance to start a new dynasty.”
I wrenched away. “No, thanks.”
His eyes hardened. “The legacy won’t end with you, girl. Your children and your grandchildren will be Ashers. They’ll be drawn to this place just as you are. They’ll be connected by blood and by land just as you are. They’ll feel it in the wind as Ashers have for generations. And one of them
I shivered. “And if I don’t have children?”
“You must, for Thane’s sake and for Harper’s. And for your own. It’s your destiny.”
Thane appeared in the doorway. “We have to go.”
I looked down at Pell Asher.
Silently, he turned back to the window.
Thane brought around the four-wheel drive, and I climbed in beside him. We both turned to stare at the façade of the house, and my gaze lifted to the upper balcony where I had seen Pell Asher staring down at us the night Thane kissed me. He had known who I was even then. He must have been so pleased that his plan appeared to be working.
I clutched the book to my chest. “What about the others?” I asked.
“It’s their choice,” he said. “Stay here or face the police.”
“That’s not much of a choice.”
“It’s more than they deserve.”
And no sooner had he said the words than the power line running into the house snapped, and the live wire danced across the wet pavement in front of us. A moment later, the windows in the house exploded.
The hillside gave way beneath us. The truck shifted sideways, and I gripped the seat in terror as Thane fought the wheel and we thundered down the drive. I glanced back just as the house separated from the foundation and started to slide.
“Thane…”
He glanced in the rearview mirror. “I see it.”
“Can you go faster?”
I knew we could outrun the house. That wasn’t the problem. It was the idea of that house—of Pell Asher— pursuing us down the hill.
“Hold on!” Thane yelled a split second before we slammed into a boulder that had landed in the road in front of us. I flew toward the windshield only to be yanked back painfully by the seat belt.
Thane reached for the ignition and tried to restart the vehicle. It wouldn’t turn over.
The house loomed behind us.
“Oh, God…”
“Jump!”
We bolted from the vehicle and scrambled across the wet hillside. By the time we reached the creek, the rushing water had flooded the footbridge. The flimsy structure swayed and creaked, and the water sucked at our feet. I clung to the guardrail—and Grandfather’s book—and didn’t draw a breath until we were all the way across.
And then we turned in unison to watch Asher House collapse at the bottom of the hill.
Hours later, Thane, Tilly and I stepped from police headquarters into a glistening, deserted town. We’d been there for hours answering questions and giving statements to the two state police detectives who had commandeered Wayne Van Zandt’s office. Wayne had gone off to join the search-and-rescue team, but not before I’d noted a satisfied gleam in his eyes when he’d heard about Luna. I wondered if we’d ever know the truth about what had happened to him at the falls. Maybe his amnesia was a blessing.
Thane had been questioned first, and while Tilly and I waited, she cleaned up my scratches and doctored the superficial cut on my back with antiseptic she’d plundered from a first-aid kit. I asked her about my mother as she worked. She reminisced softly, and I could see Freya clearly in my mind, so lonely and tragic and desperate to fit in. A girl who had once found solace in a graveyard.
“What about Edward?” I asked.
“I won’t talk about him,” Tilly said.
“Why not?”
“Maybe he didn’t have a hand in what happened to my girl, but he didn’t do anything to help her, either.”
“I think he must have been a weak man,” I said. “And probably terrified of his father.” And of the evil, perhaps.
“That don’t make it right.”
“I know.” But a part of me wanted to believe there’d been some good in my birth father. I didn’t want to think of Pell as my only Asher legacy.
Tilly put her gloved hand on my shoulder. “Don’t dwell, girl.”
“I won’t.”
But, of course, I would. How could I not?
“Did you know that Luna was the killer?” I asked Tilly.
“I knew they were all involved, but she’s the only one I dreamed about.”
“But you kept it to yourself. All these years you knew…”
“I had no proof. And besides…I didn’t want anyone finding out about you.”
“You burned your hands to keep me safe.”
“I did what I had to do.” She closed the first-aid kit and set it aside. “I’ll give you some remedy when we get home,” she said.
“Thank you.”
She sat down beside me.
“Why did you take the necklace off Luna’s body?” I asked.
“It had a drude’s foot on the back,” she said. “I meant to destroy it.”
“Like the one on the cliff?” I asked anxiously. “It had an open point?”
She nodded.
“There’s another one at the library. Sidra showed it to me.”
“Tell me where it is.”
I glanced at her suspiciously. “Why?”
She clasped her gloved hands in her lap. “You ask too many questions.”
After we dropped Tilly at her house, Thane and I sat out on the back steps of the Covey house for a while. It was a quiet night now that the rain had stopped. There was no mist to speak of. No hovering ghosts. Just moonlight dancing on the lake and sparkling from the wet treetops.
“How can the night be so beautiful after everything that’s happened?” I asked in wonder.
“Maybe it’s over,” Thane said. “Grandfather is dead. Luna’s dead. Hugh, Catrice, Bryn…they’re all gone. Maybe they took the evil with them.”
I very much wanted to believe that, but living with ghosts had made me cautious.
Still, the air had a lightness I hadn’t noticed before. The breeze felt different, too. Soft and cool and fragrant.
A shadow intruded. “I’m worried about Sidra. She shouldn’t be alone tonight.”
“She’s with Ivy.”
“How do you know?”
