They were red and scored, his hands, studded with little beads of blood, and looked like they might be infected. When he saw her looking, he closed them into fists.
“Hello, Nadine.”
“H-hi, Ben,” she said nervously.
“Baby Cal was worried you’d sue,” Odessa said. “You should have seen him fussing.”
“Premise liability law doesn’t cover acts of god.” Cal swung to his feet and offered her his hand, and she took it, self-consciously tucking away her bra strap. Looking at his sister, he said, “You know I don’t like to be called that.”
“You’re the one who scared her. Or are you saying you’re a god?”
“I don’t know.” Cal’s fingers tightened briefly over hers. She was not a small woman but shefeltsmall, standing near him, with her hand engulfed by his. “What do you think, Nadine? Would you kneel before me?”
“Stop toying with the girl,” said Ben. “You know you shouldn’t have brought her here.”
“I didn’t. She brought herself here. To me.”
There was a finality in his tone that was alarming, but his words were too confusing and her sister’s voice was still echoing in her head from that dream. Had it been a dream?
“Was my sister here?”
“We’ve been over this,” Cal said. “She’s not here. We don’t know where she is.”
There was a subtle emphasis as he spoke, glancing over at his brother and sister. Odessa looked pitying but insincere. Ben was harder to read.
He saw her glance and his lips parted into a grudging smile. “I’m open to any ideas you have about finding my wife, Nadine.”
The words, and their remoteness, were a harsh reminder that her sister didn’t just belong to her anymore. Now she was a part of this family, too—this strange, beautiful family, who spoke in riddles and traded secrets, and who were as cruel and capricious as the elements that were slowly driving the town to its slow and gradual ruin.
“Did you search the forest?”
Ben let out a bitter laugh. “Those trees go on for miles. They stretch into canyons, lakes, and mountaintops. There are parts that are completely inaccessible and backed up by years of windfall and brush. Where the fuck do you propose we start?”
Nadine blinked and felt the sting of tears. “I don’t know.”
“Don’t talk to her like that, poor thing. She’s going to think that we’re heartless.”
“Depending on who she’s been talking to in town,” said Cal, “she probably already does. Did you speak to Helena Peters, Nadine? I bet I can imagine what she said aboutme. That I have my way with girls and kill them in the woods while they’re still smiling—is that right? You know they say all Cullraven brides bleed on their wedding night, regardless of whether or not they’re virgins.”
Ben went stiff.
“Cal,” Odessa said warningly, the smile fading from her face. “She doesn’t want to hear about our silly old family history.”
“She should know what she’s dealing with, don’t you think?” He glanced at her mockingly and she stared back, paralyzed and unable to think. “You know they call us theKillravens in town. Every death that happens within a fifty-mile radius is laid at our family’s front door. They’ll tell you that to walk into Ravensgate is to walk into the very mouth of hell.”
Ben’s scowl deepened as he glanced at his younger brother. “They’re backwards hicks. Helena Peters has had it in for us for years.”
“She didn’t tell me anything like that,” Nadine said, feeling curiously defensive of the clerk. “Aren’t you friends with the sheriff? His son was at the wedding—the redhead, right? Can I talk to him?”
“Rael,” Cal said, leaning back. “And Gideon’s his father. They’re well aware of the situation.”
So it’s a situation, now.“Can I talk to them? Either of them?”
“No,” said Cal.
Nadine was aware of a great and terrible anger pulsing through her so hotly that it felt as if the sheer force of it might lift her feet from the rug. “And why not?”
“Sheriff Crocker was called out to a pile-up on the interstate,” said Ben. “So he’s not around right now. And Rael’s not here.”
