Page 83 of Haunted Hearts

She’s beautiful.

“Wait, hold on,” Kwil says, holding up his hand. He points to something in the water. “I know that sign.”

My eyes follow his finger to find a billboard along the side of the road.

“How? You can’t even see what it says,” Brock objects.

Kwil shakes his head. “I don’t need to. See how, even from this angle, that the middle of that billboard is bent? It sticks out just there. We passed this sign before. I remember Jonah making a joke about a small plane hitting it since there could be no possible way a car could have caused the dent.”

I look up from the bowl to Kwil who’s staring at me. “Wait, wasn’t that on our way to—”

“Everlast.” Kwil and I say in unison.

“Oh fuck,” Viktor hisses as he looks up from the bowl to look around at us. “Fulton is working with Death Magic around our people.”

“Notaroundthem,” Theo whispers with barely contained rage. “Fulton is workingwiththem.”

We all look towards him. Theo’s grim expression darkens as fury molds his features into sharp lines. His arms come up to cross over his chest as he regards each of us.

“Before theUtikyietook Willow, some of the Elders were trying to capture Willow to use her Death Magic, but even before that, they were working with Fulton, who promised them power if they reached out to another realm, remember?” He looks at me and Viktor. “First, Brock finds their cloak at the hotel, and now the scrying pool is showing us that Fulton is in the general area of Everlast. It’s not just a Ghost or two working with Fulton. The entire Brotherhood is.”

Brock huffs, “I don’t understand how the Fae haven’t learned their lesson with meddling in other realms. They’re notorious for their greed.” He pauses to grimace. “No offense to you guys, of course.”

“No offense taken,” Viktor grumbles. “It’s the truth.”

“You know about the Fae and our past?” Theo looks over to the reaper.

“Those of us who have been here in the Realm of the Dead for a while know quite well about the Fae’s leeching problem, thanks to the mass of souls they send here after they destroy a world.” Brock shrugs. “But I think we’re getting off topic.”

Willow sucks her teeth as her brows come together. “You know, this may be the route to Everlast, but if you look, the road splits and the scrying waters take me away from Everlast to over here.”

We turn our attention back to the bowl. Willow moves the image to show us exactly what she means. She’s right, several miles from that bent billboard, the road forks and the scrying waters take us in the opposite direction of Everlast.

“Fulton Noir,” she whispers again, this time with an edge in her voice.

The water settles on, what seems to be, a random patch of woods. The six of us stare down at it, lost in our own thoughts or to search the image for more clues. Someone hums, deep in thought. My tail comes up to scratch my head.

“Fuck.”

Theo’s shout causes all of us to jump. He steps away from the bowl, his fingers digging into his hair as he turns his back to us.

When he doesn’t say anything else, the rest of us exchange looks with one another. It’s me that finally caves and asks,

“Want to clue us in to what just happened?”

When Theo turns around, his face is pinched with fury.

“I know where Fulton is hiding.”

Chapter26

THEODON

Acold, heavy rock sinks to the bottom of my stomach as I realize just how messed up all of this is. I knew my family’s involvement with destroying realms ran back to nearly the beginning of our race. But to know that they would invest time and resources into a narcissistic, power hungry, and dangerous warlock is beyond fathomable. I know that by the end, my father finally spoke against Fulton, but why wait that long?

The answer is as simple as it is repulsive. It was because my father was evil, just like Fulton. Of course, he entertained the warlock’s evil plans until it wasn’t beneficial to him or his people. That stone grows heavier as I mentally berate myself for never seeing this side of him. I may not have been able to do much as a prince, but I could have at least done something to stop all of this.

Or so I’d like to think.

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