‘If it weren’t for you, I’d be dead right now.’
She scrambled across the wet grass, already steaming as the sun came back with a vengeance, and covered my body with hers, smothering my face in noisy kisses. ‘You’re amazing and I love you and I will do anything for you forever.’
‘Better think about what you’re saying before you make that promise,’ I replied, trying to laugh along with the twins.
Two lives saved in three days. It was an impressive record, especially given that until I moved to Savannah, I hadn’t had to save a single life in the last sixteen years. I was just as happy as Lydia and Jackson that we’d survived but for whatever reason, I couldn’t shake the growing suspicion that if it weren’t for me, they would never have been in danger in the first place.
Chapter Fifteen
‘Emily, honey, you’re home. We were so worried.’
Catherine was on me the second I walked through the door. She pulled me into a hug, my wet clothes soaking her through, and all I wanted to do was pretend nothing was wrong and stay right where I was. But I couldn’t. We had to figure out what was happening to me before someone got really hurt. I pushed her away so she could see the determined look on my face.
‘I need to talk to you. Something is really wrong.’
Ashley stood behind Catherine, dutifully waiting with a fluffy white towel in her hands. The moment we made eye contact, she scowled.
‘Alone,’ I added.
‘Let me look at you first,’ my grandmother muttered, gripping my upper arms tightly, checking me over for any visible injuries. ‘That storm came in so fast and lit up all creation, there’s not a dry thread on you—’
‘Catherine, stop!’
The sound of my voice reverberated off the silken walls of the foyer and all three of us looked equally surprised.
‘Something is happening to me,’ I said, suddenly tearful and so, so frightened. ‘I need your help before something really bad happens.’
She held me out at arm’s length, two anxious lines carved into her flawless porcelain skin, bracketing her unhappy mouth.
‘Emily, you need to go to bed and rest,’ she said, words wrapped in barbed wire, sharp and pointed. ‘Ashley, make some tea. I’ll bring it up when it’s ready.’
‘Rest isn’t going to help.’ I refused, standing firm. ‘Can’t you see something is wrong? I’m blacking out, falling over, I’m hearing voices, seeing people who aren’t there. I keep having flashbacks to things I couldn’t possibly remember, and whatever just happened in the park, I can’t even begin to explain it. At first I thought I’d caught something from the wolf but that doesn’t even make sense anymore. Nothing makes sense. Catherine, I’m frightened.’
Ashley flinched when I mentioned the wolf, her eyes flicking over to Catherine, who gave a slight nod, and I watched as my aunt scurried away. The foyer filled with a strange sense of peace, waves of soothing energy smothering my panic but not erasing it completely. I propped myself up against the wall as my legs trembled underneath me and the house seemed to sigh contentedly at my touch.
‘Very well,’ Catherine said at last. ‘Come with me.’
She pulled me away from the wall and led me into the parlour, directing me to the loveseat where I sat obediently. The water seeped out of my sodden clothes and into the light-coloured silk but she didn’t seem to care.
‘Before we begin, please remember this; you’re home, you’re safe and nothing can hurt you inside Bell House,’ Catherine said, perched on the edge of the coffee table in front of me. ‘Now, tell me exactly what happened in the park.’
‘I was with Lydia and Jackson when the storm hit,’ I began,trembling as I searched for the right words to paint the picture. ‘We were in Forsyth Park. The rain was coming down so hard, we tried to shelter under a tree but it was struck by lightning.’
‘My goodness,’ she replied, interested but not as shocked as I thought she would be. ‘Then what happened?’
‘The lightning severed this huge branch,’ I said, reliving every moment. ‘It should have crushed us, all three of us. We should be dead.’
It was too fresh in my mind, not far enough away to be safely called a memory. Catherine rested her hand on my arm, holding me in place as though I might otherwise float away.
‘And why is it do you think, that you’re not?’
I closed my eyes, willing myself to speak. It was time to tell her everything.
‘You’re going to think I’m losing my mind,’ I whispered. ‘Because it doesn’t make sense.’
‘You keep saying that,’ she replied, head tilted to one side. ‘How about you let me be the judge of what makes sense and what doesn’t?’
Breathing in deeply, I filled my lungs until I thought they would burst then pushed all the air out in one loud exhalation.
