As if summoned by his thoughts of her, she came racing from the shed at the back of the property. She was in front of him in moments, using that disconcerting, preternatural speed she was capable of.
“Ariana!” she yelled.
Ariana poked her head around the corner of the house. She must have been huddling just out of sight. She joined them but kept her head down, refusing to look either one in the eye.
“Come with me,” Maria urged them. “You’ll want to see this.”
Chapter 19
Ariana thought Maria looked a mix of disgusted and excited, if she could be said to have any real emotions shining through that odd glow in her eyes. Owen couldn’t know for sure that one of the mysterious others that she’d been wary of since they first found the family grimoire was inhabiting Maria. If that was the case, what had become of her?
She barely had a moment to worry about it because Maria turned on her heel and moved almost as swiftly as she’d approached, back toward the shed. Ariana was still shaken from nearly meeting her demise and heartbroken that she’d been betrayed. She felt stupid and embarrased about being so thoroughly fooled as well. She had wanted to confess everything to Owen when she admitted the reason they’d been lied to all along was because of her being so universally despised and murderable. But she felt too pathetic, too unsure. After seeing the hatred in Milo’s eyes for reasons she’d never understand, she couldn’t bear the thought of seeing that emotion in Owen’s for reasons she could.
He adored Maria and she’d ruined that. Maybe. Maybe not. If they could fix her, Ariana vowed to try her hardest to get Maria to forgive her and then work on repairing the idiotic engagement between her and Owen. And she had to stop thinking of it as idiotic. If Owen wanted Maria and she was who made him happy, Ariana knew she had to accept it, no matter what a bitter pill it was to swallow.
“Be prepared for what you’re about to see,” Maria said when they arrived at the shed.
If this little ramshackle building was there in her future time, Ariana had never been out to it.
“Should we be armed with something?” Owen asked, pushing the both of them behind him and squaring off toward the rickety door like it was the threat.
Maria looked disappointed and shrugged sheepishly. “Well, no.”
“If you’re playing games after everything we’ve been through, Maria…”
“Goodness. You two bicker more than my little brothers,” Ariana said, pushing past Owen and nudging open the door. It scraped across the packed earth floor and was too dark inside to properly see anything. Nothing jumped out at her so she shoved it all the way open to get more light. “Oh my God, why didn’t you help him?” she shrieked at Maria as she hurried forward.
Nick lay in the corner, trussed like a pig about to be put on a spit, covered in bruises and cuts. She knelt at his side and gently touched his shoulder, relieved to feel he was still warm. His eyes fluttered and before he recognized her he fearfully tried to scrabble away. He had nowhere to go in the small room and tears leaked out of his eyes.
“Ariana, thank goodness you found me. I thought they’d kill me for sure.”
“What happened?” she asked. She was upside down in her mind on who to trust. Dexter had seemed sure it was Nick who had killed her in that other time. He’d gone by a different name. “Who is Sir Amos?”
He struggled to sit up and she helped him to lean against the wall, but didn’t move to remove his bonds until he gave her some answers. He shook his head, blood and spittle flying in every direction. If he was in such bad condition, could he really be a part of Milo’s plot? She started to waver in her resolve and helped him move his legs to get more comfortable.
“I don’t know who that is. Some of the people at the coven called me that but they were confused. Everything was so confusing, like we were living two different lives at the same time.” Blood oozed out of his nose and he tried to wipe it on his shoulder.
“Why are you here right now?” she asked. Owen and Maria stood in the doorway, blocking what little light there was. She shooed them back. “I’m perfectly safe,” she told Owen who balked at leaving her sight.
Nick gasped, his eyes widening. “But you’re not safe, darling.” Owen hissed at the endearment and she waved him off again, wanting to hear Nick’s version of events. “They’re going to harm you. There’s a faction, or there will be a faction— it’s all so perplexing and my head hurts so much after that Bergen fiend roughed me up. Please untie me, we have to leave this place.”
Maria thundered into the cramped space, fire in her eyes. She leaned over and pointed directly into Nick’s face, pressing her fingertip into the space between his brows. “Tell the truth. All of it,” she commanded in a voice that brooked no opposition. Even Ariana recoiled from it.
Nick’s eyes glazed over and he spoke in a droning monotone. “Milo made me think things that couldn’t have been true, but they were. They were memories of something that hadn’t happened yet. I wanted revenge—”
“Against who?” Ariana interrupted.
“Your mother, except she wasn’t your mother yet. She spurned my advances, humiliated me. When I met you and found out who you were I thought it would be a lark to make you fall in love with me and then break your heart. But there was so much power, so much wealth. And I was in debt. I couldn’t
