Secret Worlds (293 page)

The door swung open with a squeak that bounced against the plain, white walls, and the detective from Sheridan’s suicide stepped in. He cleared his throat as he sat down and opened a manila folder.

“Hello again, Ms. Wayne.” His gaze met mine briefly. “I have to say, this is not the circumstances I wanted to meet you in again.”

“Yeah,” I said.

He threaded his fingers together. “So, you want to tell me what happened?”

“I came back to the cemetery and found my aunt dead.”

“And what were you doing there?”

I pulled my hands to the edge of the table, causing the chain to stretch. “I had fainted earlier. I came back for my car.”

“That still doesn’t explain why you were walking in the cemetery.”

“I wanted to give my last respects since I didn’t really get to earlier.”

“And what did you find.”

I ran a hand through my hair. “I’ve already gone over this. How many more times are you going to make me relive it?”

He sighed and tapped his fingers against the pages of the open folder. “The problem is there’s not a lot of your story that adds up. Such as how this fire started and burned the two you claim as responsible for killing your aunt.”

I swallowed again and stared at the floor. “I told you, I don’t know how that happened.”

“You claim not to know a lot.”

I shrugged and twisted my fingers together. Even if he believed I could create fire at will, he would never accept the truth about Moros or the ker. I didn’t even have the energy to come up with a good excuse. All I wanted was to curl up under my blanket at home and sleep forever until the ice inside of me thawed. But here I remained, stuck in handcuffs, staring down a cop who saw through tissue of an excuse.

He continued to stare at me, and I kept averting my gaze. He sighed, pulled out a glossy photograph, and pushed it in front of me. A girl, a few years younger than me, smiled up with hazel eyes in a typical portrait pose. Her auburn hair was pulled into a braid that hung over her right shoulder. I blinked at the picture and gazed up at the detective.

“Is this supposed to mean anything to me?” I asked.

“Do you recognize her?”

“No,” I said. “Do you think all redheads know each other?”

“Her body was found a mile from your apartments last Sunday.”

I shivered as I stared at the picture. “Okay.”

“The funny thing was, the body was showing that of someone who’d been dead for several weeks.”

My stomach churned as my mind flashed to the chunk of scalp and hair burning between Aunt Jo’s fingertips. Aunt Jo had said one of the Boston families went missing and the ker had come in one of them. Poor girl. Had she been fighting daimones or had she just been a bystander? I kept my face as neutral as possible as I raised my gaze to the detective.

“I’m still not sure what this has to do with me,” I said.

“A lot of bodies seem to be turning up around you,” he said.

“Are you accusing me of something?”

He shrugged. “It seems strange. The oddest part was this fire and how you managed to come out unscathed. How did that happen again?”

I gulped as my dulled mind tried to think. What had I said when they asked that question hours ago? It was all beginning to blur together. My whole body trembled, and he smiled at me. He knew he had me.

A knock on the door interrupted whatever he’d been about to say. He turned as it swung open and a man in a white collar shirt that stretched over his belly stepped in.

“We got a witness to the whole fire thing.” The fat man jabbed his thumb over his shoulder. “You wanna talk to him?”

The detective glanced in my direct and back at him. With a snort and the shake of his head, he lifted his folder and stood.

“Looks like you have a reprieve,” he said.

As the door shut behind them, I leaned back in my chair and let out a long breath. That had been way too close for comfort. In the end, it didn’t really matter. Once Aunt Dahlia heard, the cleanup crew would descend within days, including a slew of lawyers. I’d be safe from the state only to be shunted back home to a different prison entirely. Somehow, I couldn’t conjure the fear I’d felt a few weeks ago when Aunt Jo had threatened the same thing. Nothing overcame this void within me. I rested my head on my arms and closed my eyes as the minutes ticked away.

The door opened again, and the detective stared down at me with narrowed eyes. His mouth was pressed in a thin line, and he tapped his fingers against the side of his leg. With a grumble, he walked to my side of the table and unlocked the cuffs around my wrists.

“You’re free to go,” he said in a gruff voice. “The witness has identified a fleeing assailant from the fire.”

I stood, rubbing my cuff marks and licked my dry lips. I kept my head down as I followed him through the crowded, loud station, past the desks piled with papers, and into the front lobby. Hermes stood with his hands in the pockets of his pants. He’d lost the suit jacket sometime since the funeral and his dress shirt was wrinkled and his sleeves rolled up. Still, the jolt of my heart broke through the void as our eyes met.

Oh.

“Mr. Chaplin was kind enough to come forward as a witness,” the detective said. “We may still have some questions.”

I gave the detective a halfhearted smirk. “Is that a hint not to leave the city?”

The detective just gave me a cold stare. Hermes touched my elbow, causing me to jump as I spun in his direction. A tingle raced up my arm from where his fingers brushed my skin, and my heart squeezed in my chest.

“Come on, Cassi,” he murmured. “I’ll take you home.”

I sat in his car with my head against the window and my hands clasped in my lap as he drove through the darkened streets. Everything passed in a blur and all I wanted to do was slow it down, to take in everything I would soon miss.

“Why?” I asked.

“I really was at the cemetery, looking for you,” he said. “The rest I had to make up, to get you out of there. It shouldn’t be a problem. They’ll believe me.”

I didn’t expect anything less from the god of liars. “That didn’t answer my question.”

He sighed. “Because even gods look after the people they care about. Though you and Serenity are driving me crazy.”

“You didn’t look after her mother.”

His lips pressed in a thin line. “Serenity’s mother was stupid, and she pushed things beyond what she could handle.”

“Serenity said she waited for you until she couldn’t take it anymore.”

“It was only supposed to be a brief interlude.” He ran a hand through his hair. “I admit I didn’t handle things the best way. It’s why I’m here to try and make things better with her.”

I stared at my hands as my heart twisted inside in my chest. “Is that how you see things here? Another brief interlude?”

“I told you before, you’re different.”

I closed my eyes as a lump formed in my throat. “None of that matters. We can’t be together. The Fates wouldn’t allow it.”

Hermes raised his eyes with a long sigh. “The Fates have a lot less say than you give them credit for.”

“We’re all bound by Fate.” I rubbed the flaming tail of the fox tattoo on my wrist. “I tried really hard, and it didn’t work.”

What would Aunt Jo think of me now? Would she happy the willful little girl was ready to give in? Would my mother? I closed my eyes and gritted my teeth as a sob tried to tear itself from my throat. Hermes swore softly and pulled the car next to a sidewalk in front of a row of darkened houses. He gripped my shoulders and turned me toward him, sending tiny shocks through me.

“Listen to me, Cassi,” he said. “Fate is what you make of it. We were all given free will. Anyone who says differently is either ignorant or trying to manipulate you.”

Aunt Jo would snort and call him a fool and a lying god. She’d been so adamant about the plans the Fates had for us. I think they were the only gods she trusted enough to give her life for.

I swallowed hard as a chill traveled down my spine. She had given her life, and the ker needed a new body. It wanted one of us, and now, thanks to me, it had a chance. I couldn’t fail my aunt again and let her soul be the devoured by that evil.

“I have to go,” I said, pushing Hermes back and shoving my door open.

“Wait, where are you going?”

He tried to grab my hand, but flames flared up in his face from my fingertip. He pulled back from the heat and met my gaze with wide eyes.

“Don’t follow me this time,” I said.

His face took on a stormy expression, but he held his hands up and bowed his head. I hopped out of the car, slammed the door, and sprinted down the sidewalk with my hands gripped into fists. He would be mad, but this is something I had to do alone, for Aunt Jo, if I wasn’t already too late.

I passed by the darkened windows of the gift shop in the lobby of the first floor of the Southern Methodist Hospital on my way to the elevator. I licked my dry lips as I pressed the basement button and began to descend.

Deep breaths. I could do this. It wasn’t like anyone had paid attention to me as I’d walked through the halls. At this time of night, most people would be in the emergency room, located on the other side of the hospital. I would be in and out a quick as possible.

The doors slid open with a ding. Here was my last change to back out. With another deep breath, I stepped into the hallway.

For some reason, the florescent lighting cast a spooky glow on the eggshell walls and white tile. I followed the gray stripes on the walls that indicated the direction of the morgue. After several turns and a descent down a ram, I came across a man sitting behind a glass window next to the door to the morgue. Great, I needed to get past the gatekeeper.

My gaze fell on the fire alarm down the hall to my left. Perfect. This whole section would have to evacuate, leaving me time to get in and take care of my aunts remains before the fire department showed up. I would even leave them a nice little fire to investigate.

The door handles jangled under my hand as I tested for an open room on my way to the fire alarm. One opened to reveal a dark supply closet. I pulled the switch of the alarm and darted back to the closet as a shrill siren erupted along with a pattern of blinking lights on the ceiling. I knelt just inside, leaving to door open a crack, and counted my heartbeats as I waited. The morgue attendant hurried down the hall without a backward glance at my hiding spot. After a few more counts, I slid out and sprinted to the morgue.

Three walls of square silver doors surrounded two gurneys as well as a door opposite from me. Great. I would have to search through these until I found her. I pulled open the first door to my right and found it empty. The next one held a large woman, her skin a pale blue in the chilled box.

I gasped as my tattoo danced with a searing sensation. The door behind me squeaked open, and I spun around with my fists up. My Aunt stared at me with milky eyes and grinned to reveal a set of sharpening teeth.

I shoved the gurney at her before she could make a smartass comment. I only had a few more minutes to finish this and get out before the fire department showed up along with the cops. Another trip to the police station would push suspicions enough to probably break the lie of a god. The metal table caught her in the midsection and she doubled over in with a rattling groan. I closed the distance between us, hopped up on the gurney, and sprinted across to plant my foot in her face.

Her head snapped back and two drops of thick blood trickled from her nose as she snarled at me. I jumped to the side and off of the gurney as she grabbed it with one hand. She lifted the thing so quickly the wheels whirled in the air. She turned it on its side with the wide part aimed at me as she swung.

I dropped to the ground, pressing myself flat with my heart hammering in my chest. At least a few bones would have been broken if I’d been hit with that. I spun on the ground and brought the front on my foot into the back of one of her knees. She grunted and toppled over.

I leapt on her and sat on her chest with my knees pressed into her inner elbows. Quick like a snake, I struck the points just below her elbows, and her arms went limp. I stared down at my aunt’s face and swallowed the lump in my throat as my fingers hovered over her third eyes. The ker gave a hoarse cackle.

“Can’t bring yourself to hurt your poor aunt?” it asked. “You’ve already gotten her killed.”

“You’re not my aunt,” I said. “I’m going to make sure you never eat another soul.”

It laughed again. “You’re not strong enough to hold me. I’ll rot you from the inside, and once you’ve given in, I’ll take your family.”

“We’ll see about that.”

I pressed my fingers to her brow and opened myself up to take. At first it was as though I was trying to suck a large piece of ice cream from a straw. It was resisting the pull, only allowing small bits of cold energy to enter my body. I narrowed my eyes, sucking in a deep breath, and yanked my all my being. My tattoo flared a bright white, and heat raced up my arm. The pressure exploded, and the ker’s spirit flew into me, knocking me over.

I curled up in a fetal position and gagged at the sludge that clogged my throat and stomach. The world dimmed, as if a death shroud covered my eyes. The ker slithered around the inside of my mind, trying to fill every crevice with its presence. I shoved it into a back corner and imagined an iron box around her, just as my mother had taught me.

I climbed to my feet and gripped the upturned gurney as I took a shaky breath. I had no time to waste wallowing on the floor. I cradled my aunt’s body in my arms, kissing her forehead as the tears I’d bottled up flowed down my cheeks. I lay her on the metal gurney, folded her hands over her chest, and placed a coin over each of her closed eyes.

“I’m sorry,” I whispered. “May you find peace in the Elysian Fields.”

The fire came easily with the ker’s power flowing through me. No need for the rage I’d felt in the cemetery. Within seconds, her body was alit and burning away to ashes, leaving streaks of black scorch marks on the shiny metal gurney.

I sprinted out the double doors into the empty hall and took the emergency stairs two at a time. No one seemed to be paying attention to the stairs on the second floor.