Page 38 of Brody

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I just smirked at him, gloating at the fact that I’d gotten under his skin.

Realizing he’d reacted exactly as I wanted, he tried to rein himself back in. “I mean… obviously we know that those stories were just a work of fiction. TheMothers of the Mountainare humans like everyone else. And as humans, they had to come from somewhere. That’s what this all boils down to. Where the three sisters came from before they appeared in Emberwood.”

“And where is that?” I demanded, already getting fed up. “You’re really beating around the bush. After all the buildup you’re giving to this information, it had better be something fantastic.”

I could have been home right now helping Magnus hunt down information about Creed. Or even with Ellis doing… nothing. We would be doing nothing at all together because I’d already decided that getting involved with him was a bad idea.

Even the one night we’d spent together was already going too far.

My gaze instinctively shifted toward the window. The shades were mostly drawn, so I could only see the tail end of my truck. He was still sitting in there, waiting for me.

Hopefully. After the way our conversation had ended, I wouldn’t be surprised if he chose to disappear off into the woods like he’d tried to do before.

A bubble of hysterical laughter welled up in my stomach as I realized Ellis had come into my life in the same way that the Milford sisters had wandered into town.

Well, almost the same. I doubted the sisters ever had a tree dropped on them.

Maybe that was the key to Ellis’s identity. The sisters actually were witches, and Ellis was the reincarnation of one of them.

On the other side of the table, Deputy Hillard never noticed my distraction. He was too lost in his own thoughts as he recounted a story that he cared about a lot more than I did.

“Their origins weren’t discovered until years after theMothers of the Mountainsettled in Emberwood. Before coming here, the sisters were part of a cult on the other side of the mountain.The Tamed Souls. They are a small but fanatical group that are focused on ‘returning to a time of order and innocence by living simply away from the chaos of modern society’. That’s literally a word for word description I’ve seen on their recruiting material.”

A car alarm started going off outside, disrupting the otherwise peaceful atmosphere of the morning. A few of the diner’s customers grumbled, but no one paid the noise much attention.

I barely even noticed as I scoffed at Deputy Hillard. “Ha. They left one cult to create their own. Why am I not surprised?”

“Oh, no,” Deputy Hillard quickly corrected me. “The Mothers of the Mountainwere not willing members ofThe Tamed Souls. They were born to it and weren’t allowed to leave. They eventually managed to escape and hid in the forest, traveling on foot all the way to the other side of the mountain until they eventually ended up here.”

I wanted to scoff again, but I couldn’t bring myself to do it. During my time in the service, I’d encountered several cults and other fanatical groups. The young women raised in these kinds of environments were rarely treated well. It was no surprise that the Milford sisters had run away, and deep down, I was impressed by the fact that they’d managed to successfully escape.

If their actions in the past weren’t interfering with my own life so much right now, I might have even admired them.

The car alarm outside was still blaring.

Why wasn’t the owner shutting it off?

“I’m still failing to see why any of this affects us now.”

“Because…” Deputy Hillard looked around the diner before leaning closer to me and whispering. “The Tamed Soulsare still around, and they claim that theMothers of the Mountainstole something from their leader when they escaped. No one knows what it is, butThe Tamed Soulsreally want it back.”

“The Tamed Souls,” I repeated, staring blankly at him. “So, you’re saying this other cult is behind everything that’s happening?”

“Yes. We aren’t sure how, or even when, they found out about theMothers of the Mountain, but ever since then they’ve targeted us. They’d been silent for a while, until you uncovered that coffin.”

Closing my eyes, I took a deep breath as a feeling of resignation settled over me.

“The locket, the key, and the journal that we found. These wouldn’t happen to be what the sisters stole fromThe Tamed Souls, would it?”

The answer would make sense, but Deputy Milford immediately shook his head.

“No. I don’t know what was stolen but based on the reaction I’ve seen from people who are part ofThe Tamed Souls, these items aren’t what they are looking for. However, they do think that these items might lead to whatever they are looking for, which is why they stole the key and the journal. They’ve even tried to steal the locket, though we’ve managed to keep that one safe, at least.”

That explained who stole the key and the journal, and also why Ellis and I were attacked.

But how had Ellis ended up with the key in the first place?

Was he a member ofThe Tamed Souls?