Widow's Web

Eva’s voice dropped to a whisper, and it took a few seconds for her to regain her composure and continue.

“That night, Owen and Phillip went out. As soon as they were gone, Salina grabbed my arm and hauled me into the bathroom. She said she wanted to give me a bath, but I knew better. She never paid me any attention she didn’t have to. I kicked and screamed and tried to get away from her, but of course I couldn’t. She stripped off my clothes, forced me into the tub, and turned the water on, filling it all the way up to the top. . . .”

“Then what happened?” I asked.

“She stood over me, and she had this—this smile on her face. And then I felt these invisible hands wrap around my arms and legs, like tentacles sucking at my skin. They pulled me down under the water and held me there, and I couldn’t break free of them, no matter how hard I struggled. But the worst part was that I could—I could see her through the water. Standing beside the tub watching me drown—smiling while I was drowning.”

Eva turned her face, trying to hide the fact she was brushing away the tears rolling down her cheeks. She drew in a ragged breath.

“Eventually, Salina got tired of her game and let me out of the tub. I was too scared to even cry by that point. All I could think about was telling Owen when he got home, but Salina must have known that was what I was planning. She got right down in front of me, looked me in the eyes, and told me that this was our new secret game. She said that if I told anyone, anyone at all, that she’d have to play the same game with Phillip—and Owen too. I knew what she meant. That she’d hurt them the same way she had me.”

“So you kept quiet.”

Eva nodded. “The next night when Owen and Phillip went out again, she took me into the bathroom, made me get into the tub, and did the same thing—torturing me with her water magic over and over again. And the next night, and the next night.”

“Oh, Eva, how long did this go on?”

“A couple of weeks,” she whispered. “It could have gone on forever . . .”

“If Kincaid hadn’t gotten suspicious.” I finished her thought.

She nodded again. “I don’t know how he figured it out, but he did. Maybe because I was quiet and withdrawn, and I didn’t want to play with anyone anymore, especially not Owen. I was terrified that if he paid more attention to me than he did to Salina, she would hurt me that much more. Or that she’d hurt Philly and Owen like she’d said she would.”

“So what changed that last night? What happened?”

Eva drew in a couple of breaths and let them out. When she spoke again, her voice was even softer than before. “I was in the tub underwater, watching Salina smile at me, and then suddenly Philly was there. He shoved her out of the way, reached down, and pulled me up and over the side of the tub so I could breathe again. She came at him, trying to shove him into the tub too, and he started hitting her. You know the rest. What she told Owen, what he did to Philly because of her lies.”

I believed her. I believed Salina had tortured Eva with her water magic and that Kincaid had managed to save her. I couldn’t deny that I wanted to believe it, that part of me just wanted Salina to be an evil bitch so she wouldn’t be a threat to me and Owen. But as selfish as my motives were, Eva’s voice, her words, had a ring of truth to them I couldn’t deny. Even more than that, her story added up when what Salina had told Owen simply didn’t.

“I thought my brother was going to kill Philly, but he stopped himself,” Eva said. “I tried to tell Owen the truth, but Salina was there. While Owen threw Philly out of the house, she grabbed me and told me that I’d better keep my mouth shut. She said that if I ever—ever—told Owen what she’d done that she’d hurt him just like she’d hurt me. I believed her, so I’ve kept quiet like a coward and a fool all these years.”

Her fingers clenched and unclenched, like she wanted to rip the arms off the rocking chair she was sitting in. Like she wanted to scream and shout and tear something to pieces—tear Salina to pieces.

“You were a kid, Eva,” I said in a soft voice. “There was nothing you could have done. Salina knew that— that’s why she preyed on you. It’s not your fault.”

Eva’s fingers curled around the chair arms again, so tight that I could see the whiteness in her knuckles from my position on the bed. Then, as suddenly as it had come, the anger drained out of her body, and her face twisted into a disgusted expression.

“Maybe,” she finally replied, bitterness making her voice harsh. “But that doesn’t make it right. So many times, I’ve thought about telling Owen what happened, about trying to get him to forgive Philly, but I couldn’t help but wonder what would happen if Salina ever found out—if she ever came back to Ashland. And now she has, and it’s my worst nightmare come to life all over again.”

I could have told Eva that I was sorry for what she’d been through, but I knew better than anyone else that sorry was just an empty word. It didn’t take away the pain—and it didn’t banish the memories, especially when they crept up on you when you were all alone in the dark of the night. That was why I spent so many nights tossing and turning before waking up with a scream stuck in my throat. Because part of me would never forget the things I’d seen, done, and suffered through—just like Eva would never forget what Salina had done to her.

“I know she probably killed Antonio and tried to kill Phillip just because she could, but I wonder . . .” It took Eva a moment to find her words. “I wonder if she also wanted to teach me a lesson because I was there tonight. I wonder if she wanted me to remember her promise to me. Poor Antonio . . . what she did to him . . .”

Eva shivered again. She didn’t speak for a moment, but then she raised her eyes to mine. Anger and determination burned in her gaze, and her face looked as hard as marble in the moonlight. I’d seen this look on other people before. I knew what she was going to say next.

“I want you to kill her, Gin,” Eva said in a fierce voice. “I want you to kill Salina for me.”

* * *

Tick-tock, tick-tock.

The slow, steady movement of the clock on the wall was the only sound in the bedroom, although the longer the silence stretched, the more the rhythm seemed to change, until it was almost like someone whispering Eva’s words to me over and over again.

Kill her, kill her . . .

Eva kept her blue eyes steady on mine. As I stared into her face, I wondered if she really realized what she was asking me to do—and how her simply asking such a thing would affect her more than she realized.

Finally, I sighed. “Eva—”

“Name your price,” she interrupted me. “Whatever it is, I’ll pay it. I’ll be twenty in a few weeks, and I can access my trust fund then.”

“It’s not the money, Eva, and you know it. The situation is . . . complicated.”

She shook her head. “No, it’s not. Whatever Salina’s come back to Ashland for, why she’s here now after all these years, I don’t know, but it can’t possibly be good. You saw what she did to Antonio and then what she tried to do to Philly. Who’s to say she won’t do the same thing to you or me? Or even Owen?”

I didn’t have an answer to that. If Salina had come back to Ashland for revenge against everyone she’d thought had wronged her, then Eva could very well be on her hit list. Owen too, if the water elemental somehow blamed him for her banishment—or for not trying to stop Mab from murdering her father.

“You know that I will do everything I can to protect you, to protect us all,” I said in a careful voice.

Eva shook her head. “That’s not good enough.”

“And you know that Owen won’t let anything happen to you,” I said, trying a different tack.

She laughed, although the harsh sound seared the air like fire. “Normally I would agree with you, but not when it comes to Salina. Even now, I doubt he would believe that she hurt me back then. Even if he did, if she comes after me again, if she comes after him, he won’t be able to fight back, Gin. If it comes down to Owen and Salina in the end, he won’t be able to kill her—and then she’ll murder him. Without a second thought, she’ll drown him or find some other way to use her water magic to kill him just like she promised me she would.”

The obituary photos of Salina’s dead husbands, the ones who looked so much like Owen, flashed through my mind.

“You don’t know that Owen would let Salina kill him,” I said, even as my heart screamed at the