The Kingdom

“One of the detectives mentioned it.”

“Because you were worried about her, too,” I said.

He shrugged. “She’s just a kid. It’s hard losing your mother.”

Even a mother who had been dead when you were born, I thought. But I was lucky because I still had Mama.

“What will you do now?” I asked Thane. “You don’t even have a house to go home to.”

“Don’t worry about me. I’ll make do.”

“You can always sleep here if you need to.”

He stared down at me for a moment, and I wondered what he was thinking. “Thanks.”

I looked up at the mountains, where starlight glittered over the peaks. Something unspoken lay between us. We hadn’t yet had a chance to talk about Pell’s revelation. “Do you think he was telling the truth?”

“About Harper? I don’t know. I’m almost afraid to believe.”

“He can’t be holding her somewhere against her will,” I said. “Not after all this time. Even Pell Asher couldn’t get away with that.”

“There’s an alternative. It’s possible she left on her own.” He paused. “Whatever the reason, if she is alive, I have to find her.”

“I know.”

“But it doesn’t change how I feel about you,” he said quietly.

“It will, though. Eventually, it would have to.”

He rubbed the back of his neck. “I don’t even know where to start looking. Asher House is gone and with it whatever clues Grandfather might have kept there.”

I took his hand in mine. “Then sift through the rubble. Do whatever you have to do, Thane. Just find her.”

I thought of everything Pell had told me earlier, but I wasn’t yet ready to share that conversation with Thane. Pell’s machinations only complicated matters.

“Someone else must know,” I said. “He didn’t engineer that accident alone. He paid people off…the cops, the coroner, maybe even his attorney. You have the Asher fortune behind you now. You can make them talk.”

Thane shrugged. “Who knows what provisions Grandfather made in his will? Besides, you’re the true Asher. You have a legal claim to the estate.”

“It’s yours. I don’t want any part of it. This place…” I trailed off on a shiver. “Better you have Pell’s legacy than me.”

“Meaning?”

“Maybe you can do some good here.”

I saw the ghost of a smile. “Restore it, you mean.”

I looked out over the lake where a mist had started to rise. “If it’s not too late.”

“It’s never too late,” he said, and kissed me.

*   *   *

I didn’t expect to rest at all that night, but it was one of those times when the body ignored the mind and I drifted off quickly. Thane had left some time ago to join the search-and-rescue team. I’d made him promise to come back when he needed to sleep, though.

I don’t know how long I’d been out when I heard Angus get up and trot into the hallway. I had no idea of the time, but moonlight still shimmered through the bedroom window. I lay very still, listening to the quiet, until Angus whined to go out.

“Seriously? This time of night?” I muttered.

He whimpered again, and I dragged myself out of bed, slipping a sweater over my nightgown as I padded down the darkened hallway and into the kitchen where he stood waiting at the back door.

I peeked out the window. There was mist on the lake, but no ghosts.

Pulling my sweater around me, I crossed the porch and pushed open the screen door, then followed Angus down the steps. He ran to the edge of the woods and barked excitedly as if he’d treed something in the shadows.

“What’s out there?” I asked with a shiver.

He ignored me, but I knew he hadn’t gone far. I could still hear him barking. Then I could have sworn I heard a voice and a moment later Angus fell silent.

Alarmed, I started toward the woods only to freeze when I saw a shadow emerge. I thought it was Sidra at first. She wore a dark hoodie pulled low over her face and I called out to her before I realized that the silhouette was too tall for Sidra.

“Ivy?”

She pushed back the hood and let her dark hair fall around her shoulders as she crossed the yard to the porch.

Instinctively, I backed toward the steps even though I had no reason to fear her. “Where’s Sidra?”

“How should I know?” she said sullenly, but there was an edge of excitement in her voice that worried me.

“Isn’t she spending the night with you?”

“Then I guess she’s home asleep.”

“What are you doing here?” I asked in confusion.

“I came to see Thane.”

Now I felt a trickle of real fear between my shoulder blades as she moved in closer and everything Thane had said about her came rushing back. There’ve been some incidents.

“He’s not here,” I said, trying to keep my voice even.

“I know. I watched him leave.”

“Where were you?”

“Over there.” She gave a wave toward the woods where I’d last seen Angus. Where was he?

“I saw the two of you together,” she accused. “I saw you kiss him.”

I drew a breath to calm my racing heart. “It’s not what you think.”

“It’s exactly what I think!” Her sudden explosion of temper rocked me. Her eyes narrowed as she took a menacing step toward me. “You’ve been after him from the moment you showed up in town. I told you to leave, didn’t I? I told you he would never choose an outsider. Why didn’t you listen?”

“Ivy—”

“We belong together,” she said. “He knows it, too. He just can’t admit it because of what my father would do. But as soon as I turned eighteen, it won’t matter. No one can stand in our way, least of all you.”

“Ivy, listen to me,” I said firmly. “Where’s Angus? What did you do to him? Did you hurt him?”

“God.” She rolled her eyes, suddenly looking very young in the moonlight. “That stupid dog is the least of your worries. But, no, I didn’t hurt him. I gave him a tranquilizer, just like before.”

“What do you mean, just like before?” Then something clicked in my foggy brain. “You’re the one who set those traps in the clearing.”

“It had to be done,” she said. “You weren’t going to leave on your own.”

It was eerie how clearly I could see her in the moonlight. The gloss of her dark hair. The contemptuous curl of her lips. The gleam of madness in her eyes.

Thane was right. Ivy wasn’t like other girls. She was lonely and needy and because Thane had probably shown her some kindness, she’d spun a fantasy that had eventually become her reality.

If she lived in another town, she might have outgrown her infatuation. But here in Asher Falls…who could say if Evil had played on her weakness? Who knew if even now she was driven by a rage far greater than her own?

A wave of terror washed over me because now I understood. There would always be someone greedy and power-mad like Pell and Luna, someone lonely and needy like Ivy, waiting to invite Evil in. It wasn’t over. So long as I remained in Asher Falls, it would never be over.

I drew a shuddering breath. “What kind of tattoo do you have on your ankle? A pentacle with an open