She sent all her data through to Eduardo. He was a genius when it came to this kind of work. And Eduardo would tell her the truth, no matter what it was.
The email she got back from Arnold was worse than she imagined.
I read up on Blaise Chambers. He was a real piece of work. Is he your ghost? Daphne says watch out for him. She thinks he’s the one who attacked her. Ran what they called a Hellfire Club but was more like a cult. Your grandfather says Chambers built a temple under the house.
Under the house? There was only the cellar and that wasn’t that big. A teeny tiny temple then, surrounded by wine bottles.
But the professor thought it was contained, that he had it sealed away. After your father died. But… he says Chambers wanted you back in the house, to wake it again. Pretty lurid stuff here, Alex. You need to be careful.
Arnold still wasn’t finished. Alex read the rest of the message and her throat seemed to weld itself shut.
You may need an exorcism. Remember what to do? I can send a crib sheet.
Oh good, Alex thought. And no, she didn’t need an exorcism crib sheet. She’d seen Arnold do endless exorcisms and blessings. It was all hokum anyway.
Or at least that was what she was going to tell herself.
Her hand strayed to the circle of twigs and flowers that Maeve had made for her. Perhaps she ought to keep it with her permanently. Protection, the girl had said. The wood’s protection. Keeping her safe from the house.
Her own grandfather had been afraid of it. That much was clear from his writings. He blamed it for the loss of his wife, and his son. He blamed it for everything. And yet it had its claws into him as deeply as was possible.
To the last.
And now, Alex was afraid it was working on her as well.
CHAPTER 34
ALEX
As night fell on the house again, Alex could already feel the presences growing. She was more sensitive to them now. Blaise, her ancestors, all those lost souls who had died in the house.
That brought her head up as the realisation struck her.
Theo hadn’t died in here, had he?
Her brother and her father had both been found in the woods, in the stone circle or nearby.
But she had heard Theo. Clearly.
She and Nick had both heard him.
What did that mean?
What happened to someone who died not in the house but in the woods? And why then was Theo coming back? To help her? Then why Theo and not Dad?
She opened the diary again, this time towards the end.
He has but one purpose, one drive, one true desire. He will set them all against all that they have loved, and make them his, body and soul.Omnes contra omnes.They will pour out libations over his head, offerings so sweet and so profane. They will give up all they are to him.
Her grandfather’s words sounded like the ravings of a madman. And yet, they were echoes of other things. Things she had heard in this house. The words on Blaise Chambers’ portrait. Things Blaise had said to her.
If it really was Blaise Chambers.
Living and dead are all trapped here. All our line are forfeit. Those who bound him, and those who guard him still. That is the price they promised and the price that must be paid. We must atone and they must pay their debts. Unto the very last, the two bloodlines combined. And when that last thread is seized or cut, Crom will be free.
Crom? Her eyes lingered on the word. The voice had mentioned Crom, hadn’t it? She couldn’t remember. It slipped through her memories like an eel and her mind shuddered at its touch. And yet they went hand in hand, somehow. Chambers. And Crom.
And she was the last thread of the de Wildes. Grandfather meant her. When he wasn’t raving about bloodlines anyway. He had to mean her.
