Eerie (24 page)

Chapter Twenty-Seven

The Quill

“Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good.”

The Bible, Romans 12:9

Asher held the deadly quill. But what he saw in his hand was the end of his suffering on Earth; he saw a way back into the Aether; he saw his home.

As Hailey convulsed and struggled for breath on his observatory floor, he pulled from his pocket a shiny black stone. That such a small trinket could slice open the great barrier between realms seemed fantastic. He had but to hold onto it for another minute to find out if it would work. That's all it would take for the poison to rob the Earth of his girl. And while she writhed in agony against the floor, no doubt silently pleading for his assistance, Asher hesitated to give it.

The Envoy yearned for his home almost as much as the man he had become yearned for Hailey's affection.

Asher replaced the stone in his pocket and knelt down next to his love. The comfort inside the Aether tempted him still, but the temptress before him commanded his heart. Taking her into his arms, he placed his lips against her forehead and repaired her delicate body, compelling beads of poison to drop from her eyes like tears.

Gradually, her breath came in an easy rhythm, and her heart beat in a slow, effortless cadence. She slept in his arms, and in holding her there, Asher found his home.

Hailey's college career was off to a fantastic start, she despaired as she woke up with a misty-eyed giggle.

At the world's premier school of paranormal studies, she'd already managed to fall out of a Luftzeug, survive a vacuum-glazed in-between, experience a tunneling earworm, live with a roommate from Hell, lose her clothes to a mal-tempered poltergeist, step on a carnivorous splinter, rehabilitate a moaning bookworm, and be shot in the back by a poisonous quill.

And she was only two days into her freshman year.

Before she opened her eyes, a tear escaped, and as it coursed across her temple, she imagined her bedroom in Pittsburgh, with Holly sleeping peacefully in her bed near the window and Uncle Pix cooking up the breakfast bacon. She could almost smell it.

Wait. She did smell it.

Hailey opened her eyes and confronted a splitting headache. Letting out a curt moan, she snapped them shut again and pinched the bridge of her nose to keep her brains from leaking out.

“This will help,” said Asher, who sat next to her.

“If I open my eyes, the light is going to crack my head open.”

Asher tenderly kissed Hailey's forehead and an electric tingle enveloped her face. It was like he'd hit a release valve on her cranium and let the pressure out of her skull.

“That's much better,” she said when he moved away. “Where am I?” As her eyes adjusted to the light, she realized she was in a strange, but richly beautiful house. She sat on a large, plush couch under a vaulted ceiling, facing a grand stone fireplace.

Asher set a plate of fresh fruits, bacon, eggs, and toast on the ornately rough-cut coffee table in front of her.

“You're in my home next to the observatory,” he explained with low volume, which Hailey greatly appreciated. “You're still weak from the poison, but some food will help.”

With arms of lead, Hailey reached for the bacon and nibbled it slowly.

“I must leave you for a while, but I'll return soon,” Asher said getting up. He turned to go but turned to her again with pleading eyes. “You're free to leave this place while I'm away, but I wish you wouldn't. Stay and eat and rest. I'll escort you back to your room when I return.”

“Where are you going?”

“To tend to the one who hurt you.”

“You know who did this?” she asked, and Asher dropped his eyes.

“I knew before the quill hit you,” he confessed.

Hailey dropped her bacon, waiting on the edge of the couch for his explanation. She only spoke when he moved to leave without giving one. “What? How? Why didn't you stop it?”

Asher stood with his back to her. “The human soul is not naturally evil,” he explained. “When a man or a woman begins down a path of bad behavior, it causes a disruption in their energy. It's a lot like discord in music or clashing colors. An Envoy can hear and see it right away if one cares to. I'm always listening to my campus for such evil.” He faced Hailey as he continued. “Joanne had been plotting this for days, and she encourages others with this malevolence.”

“Joanne?” she said skeptically.

“Do you know her?”

“No, not really. I was sitting with Fin when she slapped him . . .”

Asher studied Hailey for a moment. “I've delayed confronting her to see you wake, but I must go now. She will tell me her motivation before I destroy her.”

Before Hailey could process the word “destroy,” he was gone—vanished into the shadows.

“Asher?” she called to the emptiness, but she was alone in his gigantic Alaskan mansion. She finally stood upright and walked twenty paces on shaky legs into his dining room. A chandelier of a thousand sparkling crystals hung over a long oak table with totem-carved legs.

That room shared an all-glass wall with what looked like an atrium of giant trees and lush greenery. Mostly hidden behind an ivy-draped tree sat a tall marble fountain.

“Whoa,” she marveled as she took it in.

On the other side of the dining room, Hailey found a long, window-lined hallway, which led her into another great room. Set up like a gallery with a large, upholstered bench in the center of it, the room also held an oft-used violin and bow on a stand next to the bench.

Lining the walls of that room from floor to ceiling hung pieces of glass masterfully painted and illuminated from behind so that they glowed warmly—one of a beaver dam over a stream near a serene grove of mighty oaks; one of a bluff overlooking a river at the foot of white-capped mountains; one of a lush field in the clearing of a familiar forest.

Hailey recognized them all. They were scenes from her dreams—exact replicas, and Asher had gorgeously painted and illuminated over a hundred of them. As she studied each one, a torrent of memories washed over her . . .conversations in the Aether, confessions she'd made, revelations Asher had shared, and—the black rock. The Envoy Cobon had killed Holly because of it, but it was Hailey's death, not Holly's that would send the Envoys home to the Aether. That's why she was in danger. And Asher protected her from the other Envoys...because . . .

Interrupting her thought was a painting, which hung in the center of the largest wall—a piece of glass that was not an image from her dreams—one that transfixed Hailey: a six-foot tall image of two sisters dancing at an Irish pub—a perfect copy of the photo Asher had repaired and held for her on the day she'd arrived in Bear Towne.

Hands pressed to her chest, Hailey stared at it for several minutes until her chin quivered and a flood of tears filled her eyes.

Asher slid his hands around her waist, and she leaned into him. She hadn't even heard him return. When he brushed his lips over her ear, Hailey tilted her head to them.

“I miss her so much.”

“I know,” he murmured.

“Asher, I don't know who to trust here, and you . . . you were going to let Joanne kill me, weren't you?”

He stepped back, gently turning Hailey to face him.

“No,” he whispered, and a single tear dropped from his beautiful eye. “Hailey, I would not harm you,” he pleaded, and Hailey's heart broke.

She bowed her head, disarmed. She knew Asher wouldn't have done that, but still. There had to be a reason he didn't stop her. Maybe he wanted to find out if he had an enemy; maybe he was testing that stupid rock...

“But you let her attack me. Why?”

“Joanne attacked you, because she coveted the closeness you share with Pádraig,” he explained, tentatively stroking her cheek. “She won't harm you again.”

“That doesn't make any sense, Asher. She would've known that you'd . . .you'd . . .” She couldn't bring herself to say it. “Did another Envoy make her do it?”

Certainly Joanne would not have risked Asher's rage—and her very life—over simple jealousy.

“She believed she acted alone.”

Believed. Past tense.
Hailey swallowed hard. “Jealousy,” she said.

“A savage motivator.”

He would certainly know.

Asher moved to his violin, and Hailey watched him—not technically a murderer, but a killer just the same.

“Why didn't you stop her?” she asked. “And why . . . I watched you look at the black stone as I was dying. For a moment, I thought you wanted me to die.” She hugged herself tight.

“For a moment, I did.” Asher picked up his bow, twisting the tension screw.

“You wanted me to die,” she repeated. “And you let Joanne poison me. And then you changed your mind . . .?” she said slowly, her voice quavering as she exposed Asher's darkness.

“I reconsidered.”

“How can I trust you, Asher?” Hailey said over her shoulder.

“You shouldn't,” he said, and his bow splintered in half.

“Are you jealous too?”

He stood in stiff silence.

“Don't be,” she moaned throwing her hand out. “Fin is just a big flirt. There's nothing serious between us at all. He flirts with everyone.”

Hailey turned to a painting of the river in Pennsylvania, where Uncle Pix had once taken her and Holly rafting. She'd shown that place to Asher after Holly had died, and he'd made her feel so safe there.

He'd always been there for her, in one way or another.

“You know, if you would've just let me go, you could've gone home. Your troubles would be over.” She tried to gauge his reaction, but he revealed nothing. “Why did you save my life?”

“Because I would rather endure the hell of this Earth with you than spend an eternity in paradise without you,” he replied without hesitation.

The fireplace crackled in the next room, and Hailey exhaled. But then she shook her head. “Most of the time, you mean,” she said sadly, as she scratched at a mosquito bite on her neck.

Asher brushed her skin with the back of his hand, and like an eraser, it wiped away the itchy welt.

“I reconsider often,” he confessed, still caressing her neck, and Hailey readjusted her arms, hugging herself closer.

“Should I be afraid of you?” Honestly, she didn't know if she wanted to scream and run or stay and find out if he'd finally kiss her again.

Stroking her arms, Asher coaxed them away from her belly. “I don't want you to fear me.”

Hailey couldn't look at him.

“Fear the others,” he told her. “If Cobon finds out he's killed the wrong girl, he and the others will tear you apart. But they won't touch you as long as I protect you.”

“You mean as long as you favor me over your home,” she corrected him. “And who knows how long you'll want me.”

“Forever,” he murmured.

Hailey bowed her head so he wouldn't see her tears.

“Even when you enrage me with your disobedience, I still choose you over the Aether.” With the back of his hand, he brushed her tears away. “Hailey, you're weak from poison. You should sleep.”

“Are you asking me to stay with you tonight?” she teased.

“I'm asking you to stay with me forever.”

“Oh.” Her heart pounding, she tried to read whether he meant “forever” literally. “In case you change your mind by morning, will you stay up all night and talk to me? Here . . .on Earth?”

“You're exhausted,” he said with an amused half frown, “but I'll stay with you until you sleep.”

“Tell me about DOPPLER. They've been watching us since we were kids,” she said, recalling the photo of their childhood home from Holly's police file.

“They are curious about any human who has dealings with the Envoys. Because of the black rock, Cobon has guarded your family for centuries.”

“Until recently, you mean. What happened the night my parents died? Who started that fire?”

“Adalwolf, I believe.”

“Adalwolf,” Hailey repeated, thoughtfully. That was the name Fin had said. That was the Envoy that had tied his soul. “Where is he now?”

“He's dead, Hailey.”

“An Envoy can die?”

“Not in the sense that you know it. But, an Envoy can be torn apart, effectively destroyed.”

“Who destroyed him?”

Asher studied her.

“You,” he said simply.

“Me?” She shook her head. “No, Asher, I would remember destroying an Envoy. I can't even tear myself away from your gaze.” She laughed, but he seemed quite serious. “Asher,” she said just as seriously, “you're mistaken.”

“It's no mistake. You were quite young, and you don't remember.” Hailey opened her mouth to protest—but Asher cut her off. “DOPPLER is harmless,” he said, steering her back to her original question. “They are an Envoy's pawns. They obey us, and they don't even know it,” he said leading her back to the couch. “Your friend, Tage, for example.”