Slipping from his grasp, I make my way over to my brother, my heart beating against my chest. Blood drips from the gunshot wound, and the smell of gunpowder hangs in the air.
Fear coats my skin that Ed will not recognise me, but he reaches out for my hand as I come near.
“Ed?”
“Evan.” His voice is just as I remember, soft and mystical, like he has the answers to everything, and the nickname that only he has ever called me because he decided Evangeline was too much of a mouthful sounds so sweet. “I’ve missed you.”
“I’ve missed you too.” Biting my lip, I hold back the tears.
“It’s been so long.”
“Too long.”
His skin is pale, almost translucent, and I feel a sudden fear that he’ll fade before my eyes, disappearing once again into the blackness.
“I have so many questions.”
“I’m sure you do, so I’ll try and tell you all I can. We don’t have long,” he says softly. “I met her when I started working at the casino. She was on the floor one night, dressed in a light sundress, her fingers drifting over the machines as she looked at everything and nothing. She wasn’t a gambler, and I knew she wasn’t staff, but truth be told, I didn’t know what she was—I just knew I needed to find out. So, I went over, introduced myself, and asked her if I could help her with anything. She was a mystery, a whisper on the wind, and I was intoxicated from the moment I laid eyes on her and every night after that.
“It was after I fell in love with her, completely and irrevocably in love, that I learned her name. Annabel Lee, daughter of Adolphe Fortunato. And I saw it, the sadness she was living with, the isolation, how he’d shrunk her world so small, she barely fit in it. She was a fair maiden, destined for greatness but locked in a tower by her cruel father. And I vowed I would help her. I would be her knight in shining armour. I would kill her father and rescue her.
“I told Valdemar what I suspected about the spiked drinks and got him on board with taking out Adolphe Fortunato.
“That part of the story is true. The Raven Hands came to the casino, Jacinta pretended to have had a reaction to the drugs in one of the drinks, and I was on hand to ensure the rest of the plan unfolded, but as you know, things didn’t quite work out as I’d hoped because Fortunato knew. He’d been spying on Annabel, and he knew all about our relationship and our plan to be together. So, he stepped in, his henchmen seizing me, and told Annabel she would never see me again. I’d told her to stay away, but she was never one for following instructions, another thing I loved about her.
“Then Valdemar arrived and drew his gun, and I knew there was only one way this would end, and I wanted it to be by his bullet rather than behind bricks and cement where I would choke on the thinning air and claw at the darkness. I asked him to shoot me, but he couldn’t. The Blood Oath was too strong to allow him to take my life. So, Annabel did, telling me that we would be together in death.
“But that didn’t happen. Hasn’t happened.” Ed stalls as if the pain of all this is too much for him to continue speaking.
I try to help out. “Dr Tem-Pest knocked the gun from her hand. She’s not dead.”
“Yes, he took the gun from her before she could kill herself. After my death, Fortunato had her locked away in a secure unit. Only doctors and nurses were allowed to see her, but one night, I heard her calling my name like she was close but not close enough. It was like she was just over my shoulder. She was looking for me. Through the bond, I asked Valdemar to find out what had happened to her, so he set some Raven Hands off with the task. They told him she’d somehow escaped the hospital and had walked right out into the Maelstrom and kept going until she was fully submerged, her body washing up on the shoreline the next day. My beautiful girl had finally managed to take her life to be with me in death.”
“So, she found you?” I ask.
His face drains, his lips dropping. “No. Because of the Blood Oath, I’m tied to Valdemar, unable to leave his side. She now wanders the unearthly realms heartbroken, calling my name. I hear her, every night, every day, searching for me, but she can’t find me, and I can’t find her.”
My mother pops into my head, how, even in death, she’s always smiling, her face serene like she’s at peace with the world, and I realise this is because she’s not alone. She’s with my father, her one true love. In death, they found each other and are now content in the afterlife, where love knows no bounds.
Ed’s face is nothing like my mother’s. He’s tortured, his shoulders racked with restlessness, his eyes constantly searching. He’s lost.
“How can I help you find her?” I ask. “What do you need me to do?”
“You know what I need you to do,” Ed says, his eyes darkening. “I told Valdemar to ask you to visit him, told him to write you a letter.”
“Oh my God,” I gasp. “Youasked me to kill him?”
“It’s the only way to release me from the Blood Oath. The only way for me to find my love and for me to be at peace. No one else would do this for me. Only you. I’m begging you. You’re my only hope.”
His frame shimmers, fading before my eyes.
“There must be another way,” I cry.
“You are a Raven Hand, Evan. It’s what we do. Now it’s time for you to fulfil your role. And there is no other way.”
CHAPTER FORTY-SIX
The room spillsinto my vision, replacing the darkness where Ed was just standing.
