He’s going to fuck you in those woods, her brain whispered.You remember what Jessica said.
Nadine started to fold her arms and then thought better of it. “Are you going to hurt me?”
“No more than I already have.”
Nadine watched him tilt and arrange the hanging pictures. She felt a pulse between her legs at the thought of him chasing her, and then taking her beneath that surging canopy of trees.
“Okay. F-fine. Deal.”
“Good,” he said simply. “I look forward to it.”
“Tell me about Noelle.”
He closed his fingers around her hand. “Are you quite sure you want to know the truth, Nadine? Where ignorance is bliss, ‘tis folly to be wise.”
“I have to know,” she said. “It’s why I came here.”
His eyes were unreadable. “Very well. Come with me—don’t say I didn’t warn you.”
She followed him mutely out of the room. The sunset outside the window was like liquid fire where it was melting on the horizon like an upturned ingot. That felt wrong, she thought. Beautiful things didn’t belong in such a terrible, hideous place.
“My favorite time of day,” Cal said. “’Who dare say the sun false? He and no other warns us when dark uprising threaten, when treachery and hidden wars are gathering strength.’”
“What?”
“Just more pagan nonsense, little sparrow.” She felt his hand on her lower back, moving her into the kitchen. “You went to college. Didn’t you ever study the classics?”
“I took a medieval lit class,” she mumbled.
Cal half-grinned, and the sight of it ripped at her—especially since it faded so quickly as he turned to the door in the wall and pulled it open, muscles bunching beneath his shirt, as he let out a gust of stale, cold air. A dark wooden staircase led down from that black square, fading into nothingness. As she stared into those yawning shadows, he said, “Hold on to me. It’s dark down here and you’ve had far too much wine.”
“No such thing in this place.”
“My mother and brother would agree with you.”
Nadine gripped his bicep and felt him shift a little beneath her grip as he walked slowly down the steps, using his phone as a flashlight. That made he remember that he must still have hers—she’d have to ask for it later.Unless he destroyed it, too.
“Why is it so cold down here?”
“To keep things from decomposing,” he said ominously.
“What kinds of things?”
“Animal flesh.”
Her skin crawled. At the wedding, Cal had told her that they made their own venison in the cellar. He had offered her a tour even then, which she had summarily declined, processing the morbidity of the offer without taking into account what it would really mean.
Now that he’d mentioned it, she could detect a gamey, musty smell. When they passed on from under the eaves and the rafters were no longer obstructing her vision, Nadine could see animal bodies hanging by hooks from the ceiling, suspended in various states of preparation. Some glistened with what looked like crystals of salt and other spices. Others were dulled and matte with exposed gristle and sinew, and raw, red tissue. She imagined that she could hear the faint drip of blood in the darkness, although of course that wouldn’t be the case, would it? Not down here, after all these months of being in the cold, airless dark.
(it’s my nature)
Her eyes landed on a pile of old boxes. The letters on the sides were badly smeared, but as they got closer, she did a double-take. “Are those explosives?”
Cal didn’t respond.
She tried again. “Did your family cause that landslide to keep me here?”
“Do you really want to hear the answer to that?” he asked in a flat tone.
