Bennett’s face contorted with fear. He flung out a hand and gripped Cordelia’s arm as they fell, threatening to pull her down with them. But the staff did not budge, and Cordelia held fast to it as the old man’s fingers slid down her skin, catching at the bracelet. For a split second, he thought he’d found purchase, but the silver band loosened against the blood from her cut, sliding easily off her wrist and hurtling toward the ground below as Bennett and Morna dropped like falling stones.
Cordelia stood gasping, eyes burning and salty, the wind still kicking around her. She forced her trembling feet forward and looked out the yawning window, creaking gently on its hinges.
Beneath them, Bennett’s body had broken against the nithing pole, the sharpened lumber slick with blood as it protruded from his abdomen, cold eyes staring up, his mouth twisted in an open scream.
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONETHEKNIFE
CORDELIA MOVED GINGERLYdown the stairs, one hand on the crumbling brick wall, one on the swollen lump of her belly, which descended a full two steps ahead of her. She’d thought that by the third trimester she would have adjusted to the idea of being pregnant, of fat ankles and indigestion and having to roll to her side to sit up. But her fingers still danced over her growing abdomen with surprise, and every time the baby moved she froze, as if realizing for the first time there was something alive inside her.
Gordon, on the other hand, was a natural father. He rubbed her back and made Eustace cook her gobs of vegetables and read to the baby at night from an old copy ofAesop’s Fableshe found in the library. He rearranged Arabella’s boudoir into a darling nursery, so their little one could be kept close. And he was already stripping the wallpaper from Opal and Theodore’s turret room, so he could paint it sage green to match their daughter’s name.
Sagehad been Eustace’s idea, but Cordelia loved it instantly.
Reaching the bottom step, she took a minute to catch her breath and vowed to have yet another discussion with her sister about spending so much time down here. She realized the growroom was Eustace’s new obsession, but she was getting very tired of traversing these perilous stairs. At least the overzealous LED bulbs Gordon had installed chased the dark to the farthest corners, and the evidence of their family’s past—the wooden shovels and coils of rope and old crowbars—had been relegated to the barn.
Cordelia wound her way through tray after tray of sprouts—bean and broccoli and alfalfa—and tower after tower of microgreens. Along the way, she picked a leaf or two to taste—the radish greens were her favorite, with their sharp, peppery bite. Bunches of herbs and dark, leafy heads of kale and chard lined the walls in hanging planters, and pots of tomatoes and peppers were caged wherever there was a free spot. Eustace figured she could grow just about anything under the right lighting, and so far, she was correct.
Cordelia noted, with a hint of annoyance as much as amusement, that her sister had started cultivating something else in the basement grow room behind the cruciferous vegetables.
When she couldn’t find her among the plants, she made her way to the ritual room, where she found Eustace at the broad farm table on the back wall, pulverizing something that smelled like rotten garlic in the giant mortar and pestle.
Cordelia folded her arms over her bulging belly. “I thought we said no cannabis.”
Eustace turned in surprise. “Cordy! You have got to stop sneaking up on me like that.” She placed a hand over her chest. “You’re like some kind of pregnant secret agent. The bigger you get, the quieter you get. It’s unnatural.”
“You’re just upset you got busted,” Cordelia told her.
“It’s only one plant,” Eustace argued.
Cordelia narrowed her eyes.
“Okay, okay. It’s only one corner of plants. Purely personal. Medicinal, even.”
“Mm-hmm.” Cordelia stared her sister down. “This isn’t Colorado, Eustace. They’re not friendly to cannabis growers here. Not yet.”
“I know,” her sister grumbled.
“What are you grinding up now? It smells like ass and turnips,” Cordelia complained.
Eustace cast her a sympathetic glance. “Sorry. It’s stinkweed. As great for a broken heart as it is heat rash, asthma, or parasites.”
“Is it good for malnourishment? Because that’s what this baby is gonna have if I’ve gotta keep smelling that stuff.”
“I told you not to come down here untilafterbaby Sage is born,” Eustace reminded her.
Cordelia stared at her sister. “Was that for my benefit? Or so you could cultivate illegal botanicals in our basement behind my back?”
Eustace set the pestle down and put her hands on her hips, turning to face her sister. “No one’s going to find out, Cordelia.”
She’d obviously struck a nerve if she was getting called by her full name. Cordelia arched her brows. “Let’s hope not. We certainly don’t need any more legal attention drawn in our direction now that the accident’s behind us.”
The accidentis how Cordelia preferred to think of Togers and his nephews’ untimely demise on their property. She’d been certain they would haul her down to the station once the paramedics and police saw the shaft of bone protruding from the old man’s chest. How could she explain her presence in the tower with him during his fall? She could hardly expect them to believe that the ghost of her great-great-aunt had killed him in revenge for his family’s role in her own death more than eighty years ago. But when she’d scuttled down the stairs and out the back door to see his body arched across the ghoulish nithing pole, she realized the knife had disappeared. And along with it, the oath ring she’d worn, her promise finally kept.
And then there was Han’s body in the stair hall, or what little the bear had left of it. The authorities vowed to trap and shoot the bear within the week. They set their metal cylinders up in several locations around the property, but never found him. It helped that Eustace had driven him all the way to upstate New York, just to be sure. She couldn’t endure his being slaughtered when he’d only done what she dictated.
She’d had to explain to Cordelia in great detail how, when Bennett had his nephews kill Marvel on the nithing pole, the trauma had flung her from the animal. For hours, her consciousness had wandered disembodied and confused, before she began to develop an understanding again of who and where she was, what had happened. But even then, she didn’t know how to get back to herself.
The bear, it turned out, was the nearest and most willing host. Perhaps its previous contact with Cordelia and her had left a mark. She was able eventually to slide into its body. And then it had been only a matter of time, and the fight to drive the bear back to the estate from a few miles off without losing herself to the animal’s instincts along the way. She hadn’t arrived in time to warn Cordelia about the Togerses, but she had shown up in time to help protect her.
