A tear struck down Adela’s cheek. She swiped at it.
“What if he comes back?”
“Then we deal with it. Listen, I don’t care if he’s the second coming of Christ, he sets one foot on my property, he won’t have a damn foot, understand? I won’t let him near you or those kids. You just get your things together, get here, and we’ll sort out the rest, okay?”
Adela’s chin trembled followed by a steady flow of tears that she didn’t bother wiping.
“Thanks, Ma.”
In that moment, I considered asking Veyn to let her see me. It would scare the hell out of her, but I wanted to assure her that Julen Duval would not be bothering her or her kids anymore. That she was free. That I had a fishbowl in the basement filled with five floating eyeballs suspended in resin to prove it. I wanted to assure her that she didn’t have to worry or hide or be scared.
Instead, I turned to the demon standing quietly next to me and asked him to take me home.
Five years later, I am still okay with that decision.
Adela Duval and her kids are safe somewhere, away from that monster and I have my trophies.
I draw in a slow, steady breath and gingerly free myself of the tiny creature sleeping soundly against my side. I tuck her in and kiss her cheek lightly.
On my way out the door, I remind myself that Ella is a child with naturally curious tendency. She’s supposed to ask questions, especially about bringing her fathers back. Her intelligence is remarkable. Even if I’ve never known another five-year-old, she sometimes has this stare, this too adult focus in her eyes that makes me think she understands far more than we realize. But then it’s gone and she’s just a little girl.
Still, the question hangs in my thoughts as I leave her room and find the lit candle in the iron holder. I’ve told Mrs. Pym not to leave them out. Ella might hurt herself. The housekeeper assures me she doesn’t know what I’m talking about, but I’m looking right at it.
Exhaling, I pluck it up and start down the hall. My feet move along the carpet to the stairs. I make my nightly journey fromthe solarium to the war room. Just to check. I’m less convinced that they will be there, but maybe this time…
Warning!
PAUSEbefore you continue.
If you like happy endings,DO NOT GO ANY FURTHER.
This is an alternate ending, and itDOES NOThave a happy ending!
Epilogue 2
Hedidn’tunderstandthesummons, but ignoring it was out of the question, especially when it came after nine in the form of a stone-faced police officer damp from the rain.
So, he pulled on his boots and followed the officer to his cruiser. He couldn’t remember having ever ridden in the back of a police car. His father would have strangled him after his mother was done turning his backside purple.
But he sat quiet in the backseat while the radio crackled random dispatch codes he didn’t understand.
Why would he?
He ran an honest little roadside stand selling fresh strawberries. He wasn’t in the habit of getting in trouble. Even in his fully grown age with two children and a wife, he’d done his part to be an upstanding citizen.
Still, his clammy palm made him a liar. They trembled slightly as he rubbed them up the soft grain of his trousers.
“Can you tell me what this is about?”
The officer, no older than twenty. Practically a kid, stared through the rain splattered windshield and gave a tense, “The detective will fill you in.”
Detective?
He’d seen enough true crime documentaries to grasp that this was a big deal. Something terrible happened and somehow, he was the person they needed.
Even in the dark, in the murky gloom of fog and rain, the monument of a structure dominated the evening dusk. It punctured the heavens with spires and wrought iron rods. Dozens of vacant eyes glowered down from a mossy face of stone and age.
All around it, parts crumbled and were swallowed by growth like the earth itself was reclaiming the land.
