Alex lifted her brows in surprise. “You’re hurt! Let me help you.”
“Just twisted my ankle when I was-” She drew in a sharp breath. “I’ll be okay,” she said, then burst into tears again.
“Come on,” Amanda said as she and Alex each put an arm around her cousin’s shoulders and helped her down the stairs. “Let’s get you back to your brother.”
Alex drove them back in the van. She had brought several guards with her. Rebecca and Amanda sat in the far back, on the mattress, Shade nearby.
Rebecca gave Amanda Tyler’s phone. “Does your eye hurt?”
Amanda reached up to where the phone had struck her eyebrow ridge. “It’s a little bruised, that’s all.”
Rebecca’s voice dropped to a whisper as she said to Amanda, “You really saw them, didn’t you?”
“Your parents?” she whispered back. “Yes. I realize it’s a shock at first, but you’ll get used to it.”
“I remember when you told Brad and me that you had seen them. We ridiculed you.”
“Well, of course you did.”
Rebecca ducked her head. “Yes, ‘of course.’ That’s what I do best, isn’t it? Make fun of you.”
Amanda felt a brief temptation to milk these feelings of guilt for all they were worth, then decided against it. “I’m kind of amazed that you’re seeing them now, too, but it’s also something of a relief, if you know what I mean?”
“I thought I was going crazy.”
“Oh, I’ve been thinking that about myself for years. I have to know-are they wearing evening clothes?”
“No. Tennis whites.” She shivered. “The last thing I saw them wearing.”
“What do you know…” On the whole, Amanda thought, she was glad she saw them looking more elegant.
“This can’t be happening,” Rebecca said.
“You need some rest. I’m sure it’s all been horrible for you. I’m so sorry it took so long to free you.”
“You were…you were really brave.”
“I’m used to the ghosts,” she said.
“Not used to men with guns.”
“No,” Amanda admitted. “But don’t think I wasn’t scared, too.”
By the end of even the short ride back up the hill, Amanda was glad that she could hand Rebecca off to Brad and Ron. She found it unsettling to be around her cousin while she was in this mood. She thought of Rebecca as bold and daring-if often without regard for other people’s feelings. Seeing Rebecca scared and repentant was hard to take in.
“I’ll be up in Tyler’s rooms,” she told Ron and Alex. “Come and see me once you and Brad calm her down and take care of her cuts and bruises, okay?”
As she passed the library, she heard a dog pawing frantically at the doors. She took pity on Wraith and opened them. The dog bounded out of the room but went straight to Amanda, exuberantly circling her, wagging her tail and giving joyful barks. Shade joined in the celebration.
Amanda stood stock-still, momentarily paralyzed with fear-then told herself to relax. These were cemetery dogs. She must think of Wraith in the same way she thought of Shade.
“Well, yes,” she said over the din. “I’m glad to meet you, too. But we have work to do.”
Both dogs immediately grew quiet and stared at her.
She reached out carefully to touch Wraith. The dog’s fur was silky. Shade’s fur was pleasant to touch, but this dog-this dog’s fur was amazing. She felt suddenly that she would never have anything to fear from this dog. She wanted this dog, and if Tyler thought they weren’t going to keep it-why, she’d keep it herself.
She knelt beside Wraith, and the dog breathed softly onto her cheek. Like Shade’s, Wraith’s breath was warm and sweet, a scent that calmed her.
She found an unexpected sense of confidence. She could help Tyler. She wasn’t sure exactly how, but she would find him. Now-how to begin?
To her relief, her aunt and uncle appeared. Both dogs growled but ceased when she ordered them to be quiet. “Thank goodness you’re here,” she told the ghosts. “I’m trying to figure out what to do next. Can you help me?”
Her aunt and uncle both pointed to their wedding rings.
“I need to find the ring?”
Her aunt and uncle nodded.
“Shade,” Amanda said, “I could search the whole house and never find it. You’ve been at his side almost constantly. Do you know where the ring is?”
He immediately trotted into the library. Amanda and Wraith followed. Her aunt Catherine and uncle Jordan disappeared.
Once there, Shade became less helpful. He sat down on a rug in front of the hearth and stared at the fireplace. There was no fire burning now, so she bent to examine the grate. It was solid. None of the bricks was loose. She sighed and decided not to waste time trying to coax him. Feeling like a snoop, she began opening desk drawers. She found the pages Tyler had given her to read, and quickly reread the section in which Adrian had given Tyler the ring.
Adrian had told Tyler that if he accepted the bargain, the dog would always find him.
She looked up at Shade. “You can find Tyler?”
He barked.
“I’ll take that to be a yes.”
She frowned. The ghosts had been clear about needing to take the ring, or she’d urge Shade to take her to him now.
Wraith was staring at Shade.
No, she realized. Wraith was staring at something above Shade.
The mantelpiece.
She moved back to the fireplace. The front piece was a dark wood, carved in an intricate design, a series of Celtic knots into which a dragon was interwoven. She felt along it, looking for a secret latch or other mechanism. She found none.
Then she looked at the left side of the mantel, which faced a wall of books. Normally, no one would see it without coming around to this side and standing in a narrow space between the mantel and the shelves.
The end of the mantel was carved with a winged death’s-head.
“Memento mori,” she said.
The dogs were now looking at her expectantly.
She studied the figure and realized that one of the eyes of the skull looked a little different from the other. Its surface was slightly smoother.
She pressed it, and a drawer slid forward.
She pulled, and it came free, spilling its contents at her feet.
More than one hundred silver mourning rings rolled across the hardwood floor.
48
You don’t need to tell me,” Adrian said angrily as Daniel entered the basement. “Evan is dead.”
“Dead! No-”
“Ah. You didn’t know.” The shell eyelids blinked with a little clicking noise. “And yet you arrive here without him.”
“He wanted to go back to the house and shoot the girl-not the girl you wanted, this one was Brad’s sister. I wanted to hurry up and bring Hawthorne to you.”
“Hawthorne?” Adrian said sharply. “You’ve brought him here?”
“Yes, my lord-I mean, sir.” Daniel winced at this slipup, but Adrian seemed not to notice. “I hope I did the right thing.”
“The right thing? My boy, you have exceeded my expectations! Bring him down here at once.”
Daniel hurried up the stairs, and cautiously approached the man he had left tied up on the kitchen floor. Hawthorne hadn’t moved. His eyes were still closed, his face gray. His clothing was drenched in blood. Daniel almost expected his skin to be cold as he picked him up again, but instead the man burned with fever, a warmth Daniel felt even through the layers of Hawthorne’s clothing. He had never known anyone to get such a high fever so soon after an injury.
Adrian had told them that they would not be able to kill this man, only to injure him so badly they would have time to search his clothing for the ring. But maybe Evan’s bullets had done the job. It was hard to believe a man in this condition could live much longer without medical attention. Daniel found himself feeling itchy wherever his skin had come in contact with Hawthorne’s blood. He told himself to stop being such a wuss.