King. You were their king.
He nodded.
My soul ached. The things King knew. The things he’d probably seen. It was all the more reason for him to stay. A living piece of history, filled with three thousand years of knowledge. It explained so much about him—his arrogance and authority, the way he carried himself, like he knew everything. I’d always thought it had to do with his power, but it was so much more than that.
Every fiber of my being now resisted his plan, but if I wanted my dad back, I had to push forward.
I turned toward the two-story Victorian palace with its pristine front yard—neatly trimmed rosebushes and immaculately pruned trees.
“Is any of what I’m looking at real?” Maybe it was all a dream, and I’d wake up in my bed back at my dad’s house. He’d be in the kitchen safe and sound, making pancakes.
“The ward is meant to keep people away and protect the house.”
“So… ‘nothing to see here’ from the front and ‘don’t even think of coming inside’ in the back?”
“Something like that.” He stepped forward, and I grabbed his arm. I wasn’t ready.
“What about the ghosts?”
“You do not need to worry about them. They will do as they are told.”
“Why? Don’t they hate you?” I asked.
“Yes, but they want to be free of this place. And so they shall be if I get my way.” King opened the front door without a key and headed in.
I released a slow breath. The magnitude of what was coming hovered in the air like a toxic cloud. Thousands of paths and dark turns, taken by so many people, were about to conjoin right here in this house.
I followed King inside, noting the foreboding chill in the air. To my surprise, I wasn’t greeted by cobwebs and rodent droppings. The place was clean, untouched by dust.
King appeared and flipped the light switch on the wall. “I turned on the breaker.” The room came to life. Warm recessed lighting bathed the modernist white furniture with clean lines, and the glossy hardwood floors illuminated the space from the ground up.
This was the room from the memory he’d showed me of the day his family died. There were no bodies on the floor, but everything else looked the same.
“Follow me,” he said.
“What happened to the creepy vibe and ice-cold floor?”
“I removed the ward.”
I followed him down the hallway, taking note of the high ceilings and crown moldings. Beautiful. “How long have you owned this house?”
“I lost count.”
I followed him past the kitchen, which connected to the room right off the back patio. It was sparkling clean, and the windowpanes on the French doors were fully intact.
He should bottle that ward. Neat freaks would go nuts for it. And for being as old as it was, the interior didn’t look very dated, including the kitchen. Better than any place I’ve ever lived—stone counters, stainless steel appliances, and beautiful stained glass on the cupboard doors.
“Glad you approve,” he said.
We kept going past several other rooms. He stopped at a narrow door and reached inside, flipping a switch.
A bulb flickered on, dangling on a wire above a stairwell straight out of a horror film.
I leaned forward for a better look but couldn’t see much more than the staircase. The bricks on either side were covered in dry black drippy stuff. Maybe old paint. Fuck. At least I hope that’s old paint.
“You’ll see.” King descended the wooden staircase, his large frame making a thumping sound with each step. It reminded me of an ancient war drum warning of danger.
My shaking knees refused to follow. Something bad was down there. I could sense it.
“They cannot hurt you!” he called out from somewhere down in the basement. “They are long dead.”
“Lovely. Makes it so less horrifying!”
“Death follows you everywhere you go. This is nothing compared to that.”
He had a point, but I wasn’t so sure I agreed about death following me around. I’d lived my entire life and not once felt its presence. Something so powerful and dark wouldn’t go unnoticed.
“Wrong. Death is all around us, Miss Arnold!” His deep voice echoed up the stairwell. “Things die. Each day by the billions. Plants and animals. Now get the hell down here and stop your useless pontification!”
Asshole. “Fine. Coming,” I mumbled. “But it’s not useless. You’ve had thousands of years to process everything. I’ve only had a few minutes.” I slowly took the stairs, trying to ignore the biting chill in the air. I felt them watching, circling my body. Oh God. Go away. Go away.
“They cannot go anywhere.” King appeared at the bottom of the stairs. “They are trapped here. Now hurry up. We have much to do.”
“Can’t wait to find out what that is.”
He shook his head with frustration and disappeared around the corner.
I finished my descent into the big empty basement, sticking near the exit. The brick walls were also covered in something black, and it smelled like death. “Yuck.”