Autumn Thorns (31 page)

“You're late—but you're the last, so get a move on. I'll
be right behind.” He was brusque, and gave me a look that made me think, as I had in his shop, that he wasn't all that keen on my presence.

Ellia swept past him, motioning for us to follow. “Come, we don't want to disrupt things any more than they already are.”

She led us to the room on the right side of the chamber. I half expected some secret knock, but she just opened the door and filed through. Bryan and I followed.

The room was smaller than the main chamber, with a long rectangular conference table in the center. Around the table were several people whom I recognized, and some I didn't. I knew Oriel, Ellia, and Ivy. I recognized Frank O'Conner from the police station. Michael Brannon, of course. Trevor Riversong was there. But the others, I wasn't sure of.

A woman, tall and thin, looking very much the rich-bitch soccer mom, stood up and held out her hand. “Kerris Fellwater. Welcome to the Crescent Moon Society. I'm Starlight Williams, and I'm the president.”

As she spoke, Ellia took a chair and pointed Bryan and me to the two adjoining. “I'm sorry we're late.”

“Let's get things moving, then. I know we all have busy evenings. Kerris, Bryan, you know Ellia, Oriel, and Ivy. And Michael, Frank, and Trevor said they've met you. Everyone else, please introduce yourselves.”

They went down the row, each giving their name and a brief introduction, starting with Niles Vandyke, the owner of the garage. He was heavily tattooed and gorgeous, just as Peggin had said. Then, Gareth Zimmer, a hulky biker who looked like he could just as easily gut a person as a fish.

Tonya Pajari was a fortune-teller. Her husband, Nathan, sat beside her—an ex-military man. Clinton Brady, owner of the Fogwhistle Pub, who looked like another old biker. Nadia Freemont, owner of the Mossy Rock Steakhouse. And last, Prague Helgath, owner of the Herb & Essence, who looked so Goth that he could easily pass for a vampire.

As I gazed at the faces, a few of them began to come
back to me. Besides Michael, Starlight and Tonya were around my age, and I vaguely remembered them from high school. Frank and Trevor were a bit younger. Nadia, Niles, Prague, and Nathan were all in their mid- to late forties, I would guess. Oriel and Gareth looked about the same age. And then Clinton, Ivy, and Ellia were in Lila's age group, though Ivy didn't look it at all.

Starlight picked up a judge's gavel and rapped on the table. “If you had trained under Lila, you'd already be a member. As it is, allow me to explain who we are and what we do.”

I detected a note of disapproval in that prim little voice of hers and gave her a long, icy look.

She rapidly cleared her throat. “Yes, well, simply put, the Crescent Moon Society was formed back in 1936, when your great-grandmother first took up her post here as spirit shaman. At first, we were an adjunct group, dedicated to backing her up with whatever she needed, and to counter an organization bent on pushing the spirit shamans out of Whisper Hollow.”

“Cú Chulainn's Hounds.”

“You know of them?” Surprise, and a hint of wariness. And, next to her, I could see the misty form of an older woman, looking a lot like Starlight, shaking her head. The spirit looked vaguely disappointed and turned to me.

My daughter, the prig. But she's trustworthy.

I smiled softly at Starlight's mother but said nothing, simply inclined my head gently. Moving my gaze back to Starlight herself, I patted the binders. “Yeah, and more about that in a minute. I have some valuable information for you. But first, finish telling me about the Crescent Moon Society.”

Starlight frowned. I had the feeling she had rehearsed her speech down to the last nuance in tone, and my interruption had thrown her off balance.

After a pause, she continued. “As more issues came to light, having little to do with the spirits who walk here, we increased our scope in order to take on cases that law enforcement cannot handle. We focus on the other entities that make the forest here their home.”

I nodded. “That's pretty much how I figured it worked. Okay, now let me say a few things. You all know that I ran off when I was young. You know why? Duvall was a bastard—a vicious old man. And I have also found out, as you surely know, that he belonged to the Hounds. What you may not know is that he was president of it—or something like that—and that he had a treasure trove of information on them. Which I am prepared to hand over to you as long as I am totally kept in the loop.” I shoved the binders and the ledger forward.

The collective gasp from the group told me that they in no way expected this. Ellia smiled softly, as did Ivy, who gave me a
good-going
nod.

I pushed myself to a standing position. “Furthermore, I refuse to be treated like a traitor because I had to get away from Duvall. For one thing, evidence proves he's not really my grandfather. And, as Frank has no doubt told you, we just found my mother's remains—and I'm pretty sure Duvall had a hand in killing her. I also expect that one of his buddies is involved. We also found my father's remains. I intend to ferret out his killer, as well.”

The gasp turned into silence as all eyes focused on me.

Starlight chewed on her lip, then let out a little huff. I could see the wheels turning in her head as she frantically tried to regroup. “We have to walk softly, Kerris. There are too many powers at work here to charge in and send things spinning. I can't let you go off half-cocked.”

“Half-cocked? I've got Ankou invading my house, a toxic mist tried to kill me, and I'm trying to sort out why Duvall wanted my mother dead. Hell, I wonder why he even wanted to marry Lila in the first place. He drove off Aidan—I know you have heard about him.” I had already decided to keep the fact that he was in my house under my hat. I didn't like Starlight, and I wasn't sure how much I liked the Society as a whole. They rubbed me the wrong way.

Gareth spoke up. “Duvall was a danger to many people, but he's dead now. I think we can take this on more directly now, Starlight.”

“Duvall was not the only power player in this town! He
is
not
the only danger. There are other powers at work, far more deadly than he was.” Starlight turned on him, her eyes flashing. A sudden flicker of the lights startled me, but nobody else except Bryan seemed surprised.

“Maybe so, but we can serve him up as a sacrifice. We can use him to play on them—get them to think that we're pinning everything on him.” The scarred biker barked out a sarcastic laugh. “Duvall's dead. Unless he decides to rise—and Kerris here can take care of that. We can make him a scapegoat and throw them off track about how much we know.”

“What the hell are you all talking about?” I was getting pissed off by now as I realized with growing apprehension that the Crescent Moon Society was determined to play the puppet master. “My grandfather and his cronies murdered my mother and father. I want to know why, and I want them brought to justice.”

Oriel cleared her throat. “We can answer the
why
—or at least I think we can.”

I stayed standing, so tense I could barely breathe. Had Oriel just admitted that they knew Duvall had murdered my mother and yet done nothing about it? “Are you saying that you know he killed my mother? That you've known she was dead all along and you didn't tell me
anything
?”

“No.” Oriel gave me that cat-and-canary smile again. “I'm saying we
suspected
she was dead. We knew Duvall had something to do with her disappearance, but we didn't know he had actually killed her. But . . . I suppose you might as well know the truth before you go opening a can of worms that we can't slam the lid back on.”

Slowly, I sat back down. Bryan reached for my hand and squeezed it. He was just as angry as I was—I could feel his emotions as clearly as I could feel my own. “Then tell me. Now.”

Without waiting for a go-ahead, Oriel let out a long breath. “Your grandfather murdered your mother because he believed a prophecy that Magda told him. She had a vision that together, Lila, Tamil, and you would have the force to bring down Cú Chulainn's Hounds. He believed it
would take all three of you, so he removed Tamil from the equation, hoping to nix the chance.”

I gasped. “When did he find this out? And how?”

“He believed it before he ever married your grandmother. We know this for a fact—one of the Hounds told us after he managed to extricate himself from the group.”

That would account for my grandfather marrying Lila. If he believed he was sterile, then she would never bear a daughter and the prophecy would be canceled out without any further ado. But he hadn't counted on Lila getting pregnant. “What happened? Tell me more about the prophecy.”

“Duvall and the Hounds got their wires crossed. The prophecy was corrupt. The truth is, Kerris, that the one destined to take down Cú Chulainn's Hounds—at least the branch here—is
you
. And that's why we let you run away. We wanted you out of his reach until we could safely bring you back.”

And with that, the room once again fell very, very quiet.

“What are you saying?” That was the last thing I'd expected to hear. “That he killed my mother because of a
mistake
? And why did he wait so long?”

Starlight rapped her gavel. “Let's have some order—”

“Shut up.” I turned to her. “Just shut the fuck up.”

“There's no need for—”

“Starlight, back off. Kerris, calm down.” Oriel shuffled in her seat and I thought I smelled a whiff of orange and gardenia wafting by from her position. She rubbed her head and the cryptic smile fell away, for once, making her look older and world-weary. “Kerris, this goes back a long way. Ellia, you don't know about this either—it happened long before my time, but I was left holding the information. Now it's time to bring it out in the open.”

Starlight stiffened. “You've been withholding information from the Society?”

“Everybody withholds information from the Society at one point or another. We each have to bide our time till it feels right. I kept my hat on this until now because the signs were not in place.” She was sounding more cryptic by the minute, and everybody in the room seemed restless.

“What is it?” I leaned forward. Her energy flared and a woman appeared by her side.

I jerked. I knew who it was, though I'd never met her. But I had seen photographs. My great-grandmother Mae caught my gaze and nodded with a gentle smile, then placed her hands soothingly on Oriel's shoulders. Oriel didn't seem to notice, but she took a deep breath and let it out slowly, visibly relaxing. I wanted to talk to Mae, to ask her some questions, but now wasn't the time or place. The fact that she was soothing Oriel spoke a thousand words, though.

I forced myself to ease back. “What is it, Oriel? Tell me, please.”

Ellia, taking my cue, nodded. “Yes, we need to hear now.”

Oriel bit her lip, then once more straightened her shoulders. “Here it is, then. Mae told this to my mother, Trudy, the keeper of the boardinghouse before I took over.” She turned to me. “Trudy held my place. She was . . . she guarded Whisper Hollow like I do.”

I nodded, beginning to see that there was a web of protectors strung throughout our little town. “I understand . . . I'm still not sure what you do, but I'm sure I'll learn. Go on.”

“Back when Mae first arrived, Magda worked with the Crescent Moon Society.”

“That can't be—” Ellia started to say, but Oriel held up her hand.

“But it is. And in 1939, the Society hatched what they thought would be a foolproof plan but ended up backfiring in a horrible way. They decided to infiltrate Cú Chulainn's Hounds, to learn everything they could about the organization.”

“Oh, no.” Ellia paled. “They didn't . . . ?”

“Yes, they did. They sent Magda in undercover. She was the only one the Hounds would conceivably believe would be willing to join up with them. Magda's heritage made it all too plausible.”

“Baba Volkov . . .” Ellia frowned.

“Precisely. Mae argued against it, but she was overruled. Until then, Magda fought the way in which her family brought her up. Oh, she was a wild card—that's why Mae
didn't trust the plan. But the Society thought it would work, and Magda wanted to be appreciated. So she sought out the Hounds, told them about her heritage, and they admitted her to their ranks. Then, everything fell apart.”

“Power . . . she loved power and she longed to be accepted.” Ellia's whisper echoed through the room.

Oriel nodded. “Precisely. Once in their ranks, they treated her with the respect the town never gave her. By the time Mae was pregnant with Lila, Magda became the very force Mae feared she would. She told the Hounds everything she knew about the Society and gave them a terrible edge. When Penelope refused to join the Hounds and learn the dark magic of her ancestors, Magda killed her. And when you came along, Ellia, she cursed you for not following her demands.”

Ellia slowly nodded. “I never knew who my father was; Magda never told me. Was it someone from the Hounds? Do you know?”

“No, I don't. It could be one of the Hounds, or perhaps someone else. Penelope had a different father than you, you know. He died early on, when your sister was eight. He was an older man, and had come from the old country along with Magda.” Oriel's gaze darted from Ellia to me. “When your grandmother was ten, Magda had a vision. She told the Hounds that together, Lila, her daughter, and her granddaughter would overthrow them. As I said, we found all of this out when one of their members broke ranks and came to the CMS, looking for help to get away from Whisper Hollow while he was still alive.”

“Did they ever try to kill Lila? To stop the potential destruction of their group? It seems like a natural thought . . .” I was beginning to realize how deep, and how dangerous, the politics behind the spirit shamans and the Hounds were.