Page 40 of Possess Me at Midnight
I’m not convinced. I step on the accelerator and move our borrowed car farther up the muddy lane. When the house comes into view, I slam on the brakes.
Sun filters through the clouds, patchy rays of light playing on the battered roof. Age stains and ivy both crawl across the stone facade. The shutters have been closed over the windows. The house seems frozen, as if terrified to even take a breath. Utterly unmoving. Even the trees don’t dare sway with the breeze.
“Bloody eerie,” Ice murmurs.
Indeed. “Do you sense any magic protecting the house?”
Ice pauses, and his frown turns to a scowl. “Nothing. Hardly seems like the actions of a paranoid bloke.”
“My thoughts exactly. We were here a few weeks ago. He had magical protections all over the house, up the lane. Early warning sensors… Now, nothing.”
It worries me.
Gripping the steering wheel, I direct the car to the front of the house. Columns line the wide porch. Elegant plaster bespeaks wealth. The well-manicured garden looks dormant. Neglected. It’s most unusual. I shiver.
Parking the auto, I peer under the eaves and finally catch a glimpse of the shadowed front door. It stands wide open.
Ice curses. “I think we’re too late.”
I fear he’s right. “We’ll have to enter with caution. Maybe…he’s fled? After all, Mathias knew Thomas lived here. Perhaps someone warned him in advance, and he left before he could be slaughtered.”
I don’t believe that for an instant.
The way Ice scans his surroundings, clearly on edge, neither does he. I try to stop trembling, but it’s impossible. Fear permeates me.
“You all right?” he asks, taking my hand in his. Warm. Protective. Engulfing.
I place my other palm over his fingers, grateful for his strength. “Let’s have a look around.”
He shakes his head. “You wait in the car. Keep the motor running and guard Bram. I’ll take a look inside. If it’s safe, I’ll come for you.”
And leave Ice to face the fear and potential danger alone? No. I’m not a coward. Nor am I the sort of witch to let others do the difficult work on my behalf, like my mother. I won’t start that rubbish now.
But as I step away from the car and toward the waiting tragedy I fear lies just beyond that gaping door, I can’t deny I’m terrified.
“I’m coming with you.” When Ice opens his mouth to argue, I cut him off. “You have combat skills, but I know MacKinnett and this house. We’re stronger as a team, and I feel safer with you than sitting alone.”
While the appeal plays to his protective nature, it isn’t untrue. Ice has this air of invincibility about him. At the very least, I know he’ll fight with all his considerable skill and power to ensure the book remains out of Mathias’s hands. I can’t hope for more. And I can watch his back, too.
With a sharp nod, Ice exits the car, places some invisibility spells and other protections around Bram and the vehicle, then begins the trek uphill to the waiting house. It wails in silence, seeps an oddly suppressed violence. It screams distress. What will we find inside?
At my side, Ice squeezes my hand. “I’ve got you.”
I send him a distracted smile of thanks. “Do you sense anyone else here?”
“No one. It feels like a battleground after the fight. Filled with ghosts. Stay close to me.”
He’ll get no arguments from me.
Together, we step onto the porch, past the stately plaster columns, through the open door, into the foyer.
Chaos everywhere. Furniture overturned, walls smashed, glass shattered and littering the stone floor. Evil lingers in the air, bleeds from the walls.
Mathias has definitely been here.
“Oh, god,” I murmur, my heart pounding roughly as I pull the straps of my backpack tighter to feel the book closer to my body.
“Shh. Hopefully MacKinnett escaped. It’s possible he did.”
