Page 95 of An Inheritance of Monsters

The darkness that had utterly consumed our lives, and the entire time that Eloise was soaking them for cash, I saw Lincoln constantly.

As though he were asking to be freed, pinned forever in a realm of torment.

“They borrowed the neighbor’s car and went for a drive, leaving me home alone again. I hadn’t eaten much more than a few crackers for days at that point, and I was always hungry. I didn’t expect them to come home for dinner, but… it was the cops that came that night.

“My dad had gotten on the highway, pushed the car to its limit, and he drove into the median of an underpass at nearly a hundred miles an hour. He wasn’t wearing a seatbelt. He was thrown through the windshield, and my mom was apparently… unrecognizable in the wreckage. I suppose the only cold comfort was that they both died almost instantly.

“I was sent to my aunt and uncle outside of Essex. They were my only living family members—my grandma had died, and there was no grandpa to speak of. There was nowhere else to go, even if they didn’t want me.

“But Lincoln followed me to their house. He would show up all over the house, in my room, the bathroom, when I opened my closet… I was fucking terrified of doors for years, because I never knew when I would open one and he would be there, spasming in his death throes in front of me.

“I was sent to hardcore therapy, and over time, I began to think… what if he was more scared than I was? I was twelve when I began talking to the ghosts. I had to do it in secret, because my aunt and uncle were already convinced they were dealing with the spawn of nutjobs, but it helped. Sometimes, after I spoke to them, the ghosts would just… fade. Like maybe they wanted to just speak to someone before they could really leave.

“When I was thirteen, and things were a little better, we went on vacation.” I laughed for real this time, and Voraal gave me a look of faint alarm. “To Innsmouth, right across the bay, for my little cousin Elle’s birthday. And that was the last time I ever saw Lincoln.”

It was Zirin who nodded in understanding.The call of the idols… they must have summoned him.

“Now I understand.” I smiled at him, feeling the poison draining out of me now that the story had been told. “When I saw the Lady leading the ghosts… it all became clear. Lincoln heard the call and he could finally leave.”

I let my head tilt back against Rask, looking up through the open roof at the sky overhead. Every star a soul, each of them peacefully circling towards the next world.

“He found peace. And that’s why I believe that I was always meant to be here. Or why I could see ghosts at all.”

I felt light now, the last terrors of the dream completely gone, the venom seeping out of me.

The mountain had been rolled off my back.

“Juno…” Voraal touched my face.

I ran my fingers over the back of his hand. “It was predestined. Going to college, my paranormal studies, formingSpirit Squad… it was all just a route to this island, where I would find the true answer.”

His face was unreadable. “I believe you, and now you should come with me.”

As if they knew what Voraal was getting at, both Rask and Zirin squeezed me one last time before releasing me into his grasp. “To where?”

The shadow monster wrapped me in his shroud of darkness, and I glanced back at my other mates. Rask raised his hand in farewell as Voraal brought me back to the door.

We emerged through my closet, but he didn’t stop there.

My feet didn’t touch the floor as he drifted through doors and walls with me in tow. I felt spectral, unreal; he drifted downwards, floating into a darkness so complete I couldn’t see anything until his pale fire eyes flared bright.

We were in the library, in the dark warrens I’d discovered our first week.

In the room full of paintings.

Voraal finally lowered me to the floor, and I was vaguely relieved to feel the solid weight of my own body settling on the boards.

“Look at them,” he urged me quietly.

I glanced at the first painting I’d seen: the one of the darkV’uthlithat had freaked me out a little.

Then I started pulling sheets off the canvases, revealing still more.

That sameV’uthlireappeared in several other paintings that clearly depicted the Void, along with twoKleethat vaguely resembled Zirin, except for their humanoid bodies and sharp-boned wings sprouting from their backs.

Then I came across a painting of pale spirits swarming through the sea.

Spirits in halls I recognized from the manor. The lighthouse aglow, white misty figures following the beacon.

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