Darker Days

The man bound to the chair was thrashing. Back and forth and side-to-side. Even plastered to the wall, unable to move, I could feel it. Lukas’ rage was starting to bleed into the room. Either Meredith was immune—or she was just too nuts to be affected.

“But that wasn’t what earned you the reservation. I did stick you in that box because of another man—but it wasn’t who you think. It wasn’t Wrath. He was merely a tool used to get my plan from point A to point B.”

This sucked. Not only was I stuck to the wall like a fly on paper, but I had to listen to this whack-job ramble about her skanky, multiple affairs? I was never going to complain about one of Mom’s punishments again.

Lukas was angry, but he was also confused. I couldn’t blame him. I didn’t get it either.

“He found me outside church that Sunday morning in 1882. I could smell the power long before I laid eyes on him. He made me an offer. Unimaginable power and a chance to win my freedom in exchange for a favor in the future.” She winked at me, then smiled at Lukas. “He saw how trapped I was and offered me a spell. He told me where to find Wrath and said if I accepted his offer, I could not only set myself free, but also make you pay for threatening me. It was the perfect solution.”

“Solution to what?”

“So we could be together, silly.”

“If it wasn’t Wrath you wanted to be with, then who? Who was this all about?”

“Lukas, you silly, silly boy. I’m referring to your father, of course.”

Chapter Twenty-eight

Lukas stood, stone-faced. At his sides, both arms laid flat against his body, rigid. I could see from my spot on the wall that his knuckles were white as his fingers knotted in the fabric of his jeans. Of every possible answer she could have given, that was probably the last one he ever expected. Also the worst. Some of the anger faded —but only for a moment. When it returned, it was ten times greater.

Blood pounded in my ears. My heart beat against my ribs. Every bone in my body—every muscle—pushing and pulling to break free. I’d never wanted to hurt anyone as bad as I did right then. Lukas’ anger. It was affecting me.

“You—you did all this for him? You wanted to be with a monster?” Lukas roared. “You knew how he treated us.”

She smiled. A disturbing grin made of cruel intentions and a side-order of crazy. “I guess it takes one to know one. I needed to get rid of my parents to get their money, and I needed to get rid of you to preserve my good name. Even with my parents dead, I’d still be expected to marry you since they’d gone to all the trouble of arranging it. Society was so closed-minded back then, don’t you think?”

She held her hand out as Lukas started to charge. He froze mid-step, a look of shock on his face. It was like he was a movie and someone had pushed the pause button.

“I was willing to kill you, your mother, and my entire family—which I did anyway—to get what I wanted. If that’s not a monster, I don’t know what is.”

“You—”

“I’m not finished yet.” She pinched two fingers together, and Lukas was silent. She then circled back to the man in the chair. Running a finger down the length of his face, she turned back to Lukas. “Like I said, I was a bit rash. But I’m here to make up for it. Things didn’t work out between your father and me, and I’ve decided to give you another chance. I’m offering to transfer Wrath to him and set you free. You can walk away from the box and never look back. We can finally be together.”

With a snap of Meredith’s fingers, I could speak again. My jaw was sore, and my throat hurt. It felt like I’d been screaming for hours. Every muscle in my body spasmed, and I was pretty sure once I could move, I’d crumble to the ground like a heap of Jessie-shaped Jell-O. “What—what did he do?”

“Not as righteous as your grandfather, are you?” She gave me a knowing grin. “He was a very bad boy. Harrison here has quite a temper. Last week he beat his girlfriend to death and buried her body in the woods outside town.”

She turned to the man tied up in the chair and tweaked his nose. “What was it about, Harry? She didn’t want to go see the same movie as you?”

Under the duct tape, Harrison mumbled something as tears spilled down his cheeks. He struggled to move away from her touch, and I wondered how much of a monster it made me to think that maybe he deserved a one-way ticket into the box. If what she was saying was true, the guy was dangerous, not to mention sick. Who murders someone because of an argument over a movie? A crazy person, that’s who. One who deserved to be punished.

Lukas was pale. He’d collapsed and was shaking, looking from Harrison to me.

I could talk—but I still couldn’t move. Probably a good thing. I would have charged Meredith like a freighter without so much as a second thought. And judging by the way she had the universe at her fingertips—literally—it wouldn’t have ended well for me.

“Well, Lukas? Let me show you the world you’ve been missing.” She leaned forward and ran a finger down the right side of Harrison’s face. “There’s so much you don’t yet know. We could be so powerful together.”

Silence.

“Lukas…”

He didn’t pick his head up, but he tilted sideways, watching me through a curtain of hair. I couldn’t bring myself to say it. Not out loud. But he knew. I could see it in his eyes. And when he finally spoke, voice full of anguish, he proved he was a better person than I was.

“No.”

Meredith balked. “No?”

“No,” he said again, this time with more force. “I won’t do it.”

I couldn’t leave it alone. “Lukas, maybe—”

“NO!” he roared, and if I could have moved, I would have flinched.

Meredith frowned and ripped the tape from Harrison’s mouth. The sound it made tore through the room, making me cringe.

“You bitch. Let me go!” he screamed.

“Okay.” It happened so fast. Meredith’s face twisted into a mask of fury and rage. For a minute, I thought she’d finally been affected by Lukas. Her hands shot out, and with a sharp twist, yanked Harrison’s neck to the right. When she pulled away, he was sitting there, silent. Eyes wide and head hanging at a wholly unnatural angle.

“Never tell me what to do,” she breathed and kicked at the legs of his chair. It wobbled and toppled to the side with a thud. Harrison’s head smashed against the floor, but it didn’t matter. It’s not like he could feel it anymore. “Those days are over. What to wear. How to act.” She turned to Lukas and winked. “Who to marry. Never again.”

With another snap of her fingers, I was free. “Don’t even think about it, Darker girl. I don’t want to kill you. Not yet.”

I could move and I could talk, but that didn’t mean my common sense had returned. “Oh, that’s right. Huge vendetta? ’Cause Simon Darker buried you alive? How was that, by the way?”

I half expected her to launch herself across the room, but she only smiled and shook her head. “Laugh while you can. I told you before. Your number’s almost up.”

That was the second time she’d said that. “Yet here I am.”

“Jessie,” Lukas warned. He was still on the ground but seemed to have gained some control. I could feel it in the air. I was still annoyed but was sure that had more to do with Meredith being, well, Meredith, than Lukas.

“You think you have it all figured out, but you don’t have a clue. Your fate has been arranged for a long, long time.”

“My fate?” I laughed, remembering what Ava had said in the park about destiny. A knot of worry formed in