Shivers Box Set: Darkening Around Me\Legacy of Darkness\The Devil's Eye\Black Rose (42 page)

She had to get out of here.

She struggled to her feet and the world teetered sideways, vertigo threatening to knock her back on her ass. Hunching her shoulders against the cold, she waited for the queasiness to ease, for her vision to right itself.

“Where’s the other one?” Ruth’s voice from behind her made her jump, and she stumbled a little, nearly falling before she regained her balance.

Ruth glared at her, her eyes hot and furious. A man’s winter coat draped her square frame, and if Brynn were feeling stronger she might have wrestled the other woman for it.

“Where did she go?” Ruth asked, again

“I…I…don’t know who you mean.” Her voice was rough, as though she hadn’t used it in years.

Ruth descended on her, long strides eating up the distance between them. Brynn tried to back away, but her wobbly leg muscles combined with her shoes on the slick snow sent her tumbling back and landing hard on her backside. The impact jarred her body. Her teeth clicked together. Renewed pain shot up her arm from her wrist.

“I don’t know who
she
is.”

Ruth stopped and stared down at Brynn for a long moment.

“It’s all right,” she muttered, slipping her hands into the pockets of her coat.

Brynn tensed. Who knew what needles or knives the woman had tucked away? But Ruth had lost interest in her altogether. The nurse paced back and forth, creating a deep rut in the fluffy snow.

“It can still work without her. It will work. It will.”

Brynn eased back from the woman, pushing with her feet and pulling herself along with her good hand and doing her best to ignore the frigid burn from the snow on her bare skin. She didn’t want to attract attention by standing until she had more space between them. Her head swam with whatever Ruth had shot her up with, her limbs felt heavily, ill fitting, like they belonged to someone else.

If she tried to make a run for it, she wasn’t convinced her body would cooperate.

Ruth faced her. Blank madness filled the woman’s dark eyes.

Ruth was going to kill her. There was no reasoning with whatever insanity was driving her. All Brynn could do was play into the craziness and hopefully buy herself enough time to escape.

“You killed Matthew Langley.”

“I had to. I’d worked here for months and there was no sign of Eleri. People in the village said they saw her all the time, but she never really came back. I knew that if another man died, they’d think it was her. I would finally have justice for Daniel.”

Brynn wrapped her arms around her middle, but couldn’t stop shivering. “But you killed an innocent man. How is that justice?”

Ruth smirked. “He was hardly innocent. Matthew Langley wasn’t even his real name. He was a thief and a con man. I saved more people from being hurt by him. And at least his dying gave his life meaning, a sense of purpose. He’ll help me destroy Eleri for what she took from me.”

Brynn’s insides shriveled. “Is that what you’re doing? Punishing Eleri?”

“They took my child, but I knew I’d find him. When I finally did, your bitch sister had stolen him from me again. I have nothing because of her, and when I’m done she’ll have nothing either.”

Ruth took a step toward her and Brynn scrambled back. She had to keep her talking, keep her distracted, while trying to put more distance between them. Her head was still so thick. If she was actually going to try to outrun this nutjob, she’d need as big a head start as possible. “You’re killing innocent people. Olivia Dodd wasn’t a criminal.”

Ruth’s dark eyes flashed. “She was a slut. Daniel might have come looking for me, we might have found each other. He stayed because of her. He died because of her.”

“Whether you think she deserved to die or not, your plan backfired. You gave Eleri an alibi.”

“I miscalculated.” Ruth nodded slowly. “I had to stay away from the house, so that no one would suspect me when they found your body in the drive.”

Brynn swallowed hard. Listening to this woman describe her plan to murder her so casually iced her blood more than the frigid air ever could. “You claimed to be with your son. I’m sure it wouldn’t have taken a great deal of detective work for Harding to realize you don’t have one.”

“I have a son!” Ruth stormed closer.

Brynn scrambled back. “I know, I meant that he’d died.”

“He was murdered,” Ruth ground out, but she’d stopped moving. “Why would the detective bother checking my alibi? He wants Eleri to be guilty. He and everyone else in the village. They already believe Eleri only invited you here to finish what she started, and I left the necklace. You returned too soon, though, and I couldn’t be sure that it was enough. This time, they’ll
know
it was her.”

Brynn stood slowly and shifted back another step. “If you’re so determined to see Eleri punished, why kill everyone
but
her?”

Not that Brynn was in any hurry to turn a murderer on her sister, but she needed more time, more space between them.

Ruth’s expression hardened. “She took everything from me. I’ll take everything from her. She’ll have to live the rest of her life with nothing.”

Ruth started toward her, and Brynn took a few unsteady steps toward the path, away from the eerily still waters.

“How will you justify killing me?” Brynn asked quickly, desperate to stall her for even a few minutes more. With every second that ticked by, her head cleared a little more, her limbs strengthened. “I had nothing to do with your son. I’ve never committed a crime.”

“Don’t you see?” Ruth asked, moving closer. The lines of her face softened with a strange sort of sympathy. Brynn shifted back, but too quickly. Her vision tilted. She froze, waiting, willing the world to right itself. “This place is evil. You haven’t been here long enough for it to affect you, but it will. It’s in your blood. You’ll turn out just like Eleri. Take up where she left off. And you don’t want that. I’ll save you—save others—you’ll go in peace.”

She took her hand from pocket, a thin hypodermic needle pinched between her fingers. “I can help you. It doesn’t have to go badly, once you’re in the water.”

Brynn’s heart jumped into her throat. She glanced at The Devil’s Eye’s glassy surface and her chest squeezed.

Shit! Shit! Shit!

She couldn’t outrun Ruth. Her only option was to stand and fight.

“I can make this easy,” Ruth said, drawing closer, “painless.”

Brynn locked her rubbery knees, struggled to control her ragged breaths.

“Okay,” she whispered.

Ruth stopped in her tracks, eyes narrowing, mouth thinning, obviously not buying Brynn’s easy acceptance.

“I can’t run,” she admitted, pushing up her sleeve. “And if I’m going to drown, I don’t want to know what’s happening.”

“Good.” Ruth’s shoulders drooped with relief, obviously pleased she wouldn’t have a fight. She gripped Brynn’s bad wrist. Tiny bolts of pain shot up Brynn’s arm. Her eyes started to water.

“You won’t know what’s happening,” Ruth said, her voice smooth and comforting. “You’ll go to sleep just like before, and everything will be fine.”

Brynn curled the fingers on her free hand into a tight fist. As Ruth positioned the needle above the crook of her elbow, Brynn swung. She had surprise in her favor, but her movements were sluggish and awkward. Ruth managed to shift back and lift her arm to block Brynn’s fist from connecting with her face. Instead, Brynn struck Ruth’s hand with a hard
thwack
. The needle flew from her grip, hit the ground and vanished in the fluffy carpet of snow.

“You bitch!” Ruth’s eyes glowed with unholy rage, her skin blotchy and red. She hauled back her arm, and before Brynn could react, the back of Ruth’s hand connected with her mouth.

Pain exploded like a firework. Her head snapped back, lips grinding against teeth and the metallic flavor of her own blood on her tongue. Brynn staggered sideways, legs giving out, and she crumpled to the ground. A high ringing filled her ears, consciousness ebbed.

Oh God, no
. She couldn’t, not now. She squeezed her eyes closed, pressed her hand to her throbbing lips.

Rough fingers tunneled through her hair and yanked. Brynn’s eyes popped wide; she clawed at the hand hauling her to her feet.

“You’re making this harder on yourself,” Ruth growled. She released Brynn’s hair and wrapped both arms around her in a tight bear hug, pinning her arms to her sides and crushing her back to Ruth’s chest.

Brynn tried to twist free, lift her arms to break Ruth’s grip. She even went limp, hoping to slip from the woman’s grasp. But Ruth’s vicelike arms held on, and she dragged Brynn toward the weathered dock.

“It could have been easy,” Ruth grunted, hot breath fanning Brynn’s cheek. “Painless. But you ruined that.”

Brynn’s world spun crazily, but despite the dizzying vertigo she could see the water’s edge growing closer. Blind panic exploded inside her. She struggled wildly, dug her feet in, but the flat soles of her shoes slid over the wet snow, and Ruth managed to haul her onto the dock. The old wood, dark from the wet, creaked and rocked beneath their weight.

“Brynn!”

At the sound of her name, both she and Ruth froze. Had she actually heard that? She must have because Ruth had, too.

Brynn strained her ears, listening for the sound again. She would have held her breath had she not been panting so hard.

“Brynn!”

The sound of Reece’s voice, distant and urgent, turned her muscles soft with relief.

“It’s about time,” Ruth muttered. “He’s looking for you. Answer him.”

So Ruth could kill him, too? No way. Brynn swallowed hard and shook her head, then gave a sharp twist to yank away from the woman.

Ruth held tight, with a muttered curse, then shouted, “She’s here. I’ve found her.”

Brynn’s stomach sank, but before she could do anything more, Ruth gave her a shove and sent her tumbling into The Devil’s Eye.

“Eleri.”

Something was tapping her cheek. Eleri wanted to reach up and swat it away, instead she burrowed deeper into the covers. Rough fabric tickled her cheek. Clean spice teased her nose, and she sighed contentedly.

“Bloody hell,” a harsh, familiar voice broke into her warm bubble. “I’ve had just about enough of this.”

“Eleri, wake up!” The tapping turned harder, just shy of a slap. Her cheek stung and she blinked her eyes open.

Harding’s scowling face hovered over her. Her heart leaped and she tried to scramble back, but the settee cushion wouldn’t let her. Where in the hell was she?

Her gaze darted around the room, taking in the blue and cream walls and the people standing over her. She was in the parlor, stretched out on the settee. Harding bent over her while Miller stood just behind. Mrs. Voyle waited by the door, her thin features tight with worry, and Warlow beside her, his expression unreadable.

“She’s coming around now,” Harding said.

How had she got there? The last thing she remembered was falling. And the shadow stretched out in front of her. Footsteps crunching in the snow.

Could that have been Harding or Miller? As she sat up, a brown suede coat that had been covering her fell away.

“Eleri,” Harding snapped his fingers in front of her eyes. “Where’s Brynn? What have you done with her?”

At the mention of her sister, the fuzziness vanished, cold panic settling in its place.

“You have to help her,” Eleri said, her voice raspy. “She’s at The Devil’s Eye.”

“What did you do to her?” Dark accusation hung heavy in the detective’s words.

Eleri shook her head. “Not me. Ruth. You have to find her. Brynn’ll freeze if you don’t.”

Feral satisfaction blazed in Harding’s light eyes. He thought he had her. At that moment, Eleri didn’t give a damn. She just wanted him to find her sister before Ruth or the elements took her away.

The detective straightened, nodded at Miller. “C’mon. Let’s see what’s happened.” He turned on Mrs. Voyle and Warlow, jabbing a finger at them. “She goes nowhere. You make sure she’s right here when I get back.”

Mrs. Voyle nodded and Warlow followed the detectives from the room. Probably hoping they’d suggest locking her in the pantry until they returned.

She sighed and sagged against the settee. The dizziness from before had gone at least, but she was still so tired. What if Brynn was already dead? The possibility left her cold.

She remembered back to tracking Brynn down, to inviting her here all in the hopes that she would help to clear Eleri’s name. If things could have backfired more spectacularly, she couldn’t guess how.

“Shall I make tea?” Mrs. Voyle’s careful tone broke into Eleri’s thoughts. Whether the odd pity in the woman’s voice or her offer to do something for her surprised her more, she couldn’t say.

“Thank you,” Eleri said, but before the woman left the room, she stopped her. “How did I get here?”

Mrs. Voyle turned slowly, her arms folded tightly to her chest. “I’ve no idea. No one knew where you’d gone. Ruth said she saw you and Brynn go into the woods. Reece went after you, and I called the police. Then you just sort of appeared here.” She lifted her chin at the jacket in a pile at Eleri’s side. “That’s not yours.”

“Does it belong to one of the detectives?”

The housekeeper snorted at her ridiculous question. After all, those men wouldn’t spit on her if she were on fire. Never mind cover her with a coat to keep her warm.

So where had it come from?

* * *

Of all the places, why The Devil’s Eye?

Yet even before Reece had heard Ruth call for him, he’d known Brynn would be there. The one place he couldn’t follow.

Ruth. Eleri. He didn’t know who was killing whom anymore. All he knew for certain was that he had to get to Brynn.

He took another step toward the rusted gate. High buzzing hummed inside his ears, a terrible throb gripping his skull. He lifted his gaze, peering beyond the gateposts. The path leading to The Devil’s Eye was hidden beneath a thin layer of snow.

What the hell was he meant to do? Any closer and he’d be on his knees.
Fuck it
. He had to get to Brynn—even if his head exploded from the effort.

Reece drew a deep breath, backed up a step, then sprinted for the opening. Pain split his skull like an ax blade wedged into the bone. Sheer momentum carried him through the gateposts and sent him sprawling forward onto the path.

Cold, wet snow shoved up the sleeves of his jacket, soaked into the knees of his jeans. The pain in his skull vanished, replaced by a rush of voices crashing into him like surf against the shore. They screamed and pleaded inside his head, too many to differentiate, their words all running together making it impossible for him to understand anything.

He eased back onto his haunches, pressed his hands to his temples. Who were they, the chorus of voices all clamoring for his attention? And why were they there? He didn’t have time to figure it out.

Staggering to his feet, he struggled to shove his blocks into place, but the sheer force of the voices made it impossible. He wiped moisture from his upper lip with the back of his hand. Blood smeared his skin.

“Damn.” He wiped his hand on his jeans, doing what he could to ignore the sick crescendo, and ran down the path.

He had to find Brynn. And he prayed her voice wasn’t among those screaming in his head.

* * *

Brynn hit the water with a splash. Liquid ice wrapped around her, steeling her breath like a punch to the stomach as she sank beneath the glassy surface.

The wild panic gripping her before she fell in vanished almost instantly. A strange calm wrapped around her and her limbs went lax as she sank deeper.

This is it,
a soft voice whispered.
This is what you’ve been missing. This is where you belong
.

Brynn peered up through the dark water toward the surface and the woman standing at the end of the dock watching her drown. But it wasn’t Ruth she saw wrapped in winter twilight. It was Meris, her mother, surrounded by summer green. She looked down at Brynn, her long red hair tousled from the struggle, a smile of grim satisfaction lighting her lovely features.

Breathe. Take a deep, long breath and you’ll be where you were meant to be
.

Brynn’s lungs burned, ready to explode. It would be so easy. Why had she ever been afraid of this?

Something cold and slick brushed her arm. She turned to look into a dead, bloated face. Eye sockets black and empty. A dark slash curved across the neck, gaping like a malicious smile.

Holy God there were dead things down there! And soon she’d be one of them.

Fear pierced her chest, panic slamming into her and pulling her out of her dreamlike state. She flailed wildly, hands digging uselessly through the water to pull herself toward the surface. A white froth formed around her, making it impossible to see. Her lungs ached. Tiny red dots flashed in her field of vision.

She was going to die.

Something wrapped around her middle. Visions of the hideous bloated face, reaching for her with dead white hands, pulling her into the black abyss below filled her head. She swung her arms, kicked her feet, but the arm held tight to her waist.

She burst through the surface, swallowing huge gulping mouthfuls of air.

“Are you all right?” Reece’s panicked voice broke into her thoughts. Her body sagged against his heaving chest.

She nodded, unable to speak while dragging air into her burning lungs.

With long strokes, Reece hauled them both toward the shore. Once her feet touched bottom, she trudged to the bank. Gooey mud sucked at her feet—she’d lost her shoes when Ruth shoved her in—and Reece gripped her elbow to help her keep balance.

“No!” Ruth shouted. She stomped one foot like a toddler having a tantrum. “No. She has to die in the water. She has to drown. Put her back.”

It’s where you belong. It’s how it was supposed to be
.

Brynn stumbled up the bank, eager to be as far from the water as possible. She wrapped her arms around her middle, but couldn’t stop shivering. Her teeth chattered uncontrollably. How long until hypothermia kicked in?

“Put. Her. Back. In!” Ruth’s voice rose with each word. It was almost full dark, and the trees cast long shadows over the clearing, making it impossible to read Ruth’s expression. But as she lifted her arm, Brynn could see the glint of the blade in her hand even in the low light.

“You’re done, Ruth,” Reece said, his voice shaky, his words breathless. He was probably as cold as she was. “Harding’s on his way.”

Ruth took a quick step toward them, waving her knife wildly. “He’s coming for Eleri. You made sure of that. I need him to find
her
in the water, and
you
here.”

Brynn’s stomach churned sickly. She dropped her gaze to the ground, searching the darkness for something to use as a weapon.

“We found your book,” Reece pushed on. “We took it to Harding. He knows all about you.”

Ruth faltered this time, the arm with the knife dropping for a moment only to go rigid again. “He wouldn’t believe you. I heard what you said to Mrs. Voyle. You thought Eleri had done something to her. He’s coming for Eleri.”

“We told him about Judith and Hazelwood,” Brynn added, through ragged breaths. “And Eleri isn’t here.” Snow covering the forest floor and fading light made it impossible for Brynn to find a rock or branch or something to hit the woman with—unless she dropped to all fours and dug through the freezing wet. She hoped Reece hadn’t been bluffing about Harding. “They won’t be able to prove it was her. It’ll be just like Matthew Langley and Olivia.”

“No.” Ruth shook her head vehemently. “It won’t matter. Not with you here. This time they’ll know that it was her.”

“No, Ruth.” Reece stretched his arm in front of Brynn as if to shield her and started walking backward, forcing Brynn to do the same. “This time they’ll know it was you.”

Ruth let out a furious scream and charged. The blade slashed at Reece. He shoved Brynn away and she stumbled back onto her butt. Ruth’s knife sliced Reece’s forearm, and he hissed through his teeth. Tiny, dark drops sank into the snow, and terror burst in Brynn’s chest.

“No!” She scrambled to her feet just as Reece managed to catch hold of Ruth’s wrist. The nurse let out a keening wail and the knife dropped. Brynn darted forward and snatched it up, holding it out, ready to use. But Reece swung Ruth in front of him and wrapped her in a bear hug, pinning the woman’s arms to her sides, the same way she’d held Brynn’s when she’d dragged her onto the dock. Ruth screeched and wriggled, trying to twist away, but Reece held firm.

Men’s voices called from the darkness. Yellow flashlight beams darted between the trees.

Reece had been telling the truth. Relief swamped her, nearly knocking her off her rubbery legs.

“We’re here,” she tried to call out, but her voice scratched as if her throat had been scraped with sandpaper. She cleared her throat and tried again. “We’re here!”

Harding burst through the trees, light hitting Brynn square in the face. She squinted and looked to Reece. He tossed a squirming Ruth aside and the woman sank into the snow, sobbing.

“Good God,” the detective muttered, his gaze shifting between her and Reece. “Are you both all right?”

“His arm’s cut,” she managed through chattering teeth, cradling her sore wrist. She really hoped it wasn’t broken.

“It’s not bad,” Reece said, holding up the arm in question. His sleeve gaped wide. “My jacket took the worst of it.”

The detective nodded. “We’ve paramedics on the way.”

Someone dropped a heavy coat around her shoulders, but she didn’t see who. Police swarmed the area, hauling Ruth to her feet and securing her hands behind her back.

“It’s Eleri. She’s the one,” Ruth sobbed. “She’s evil. She should be punished. Not me. She’s the murderer. And that one. She’ll turn out the same. You’ll see. She’ll turn. The longer she’s here, the darkness will take her.”

The woman’s predictions sent chills slithering along Brynn’s spine that had nothing to do with the cold. The image of that dead, bloated face, empty eye sockets staring back at her filled her head. Her stomach churned. Who was he? How had he wound up in there?

What did it mean for Eleri?

“I need to get her back to the house and out of those wet things,” Reece said to Harding.

“Right, of course. Miller take them back and see that the paramedics check them both over.”

“Right.” The taller detective made his way over, and Reece gripped her elbow to help her back to her feet.

“Wait.” Brynn stepped in front of Harding. His brows pulled together. “When I was in the water, I saw something. There was a man, a dead man.”

His face stayed blank, expression unreadable. “Let me make sure I understand. You saw a body in The Devil’s Eye?”

She swallowed hard and nodded.

A smile pulled at the man’s thin lips, dark delight lighting his face. Brynn’s stomach knotted. What had she done?