Page 114 of His Wicked Charm

“You left it so we’d suspect Jasper.”

“As if that stupid man would know what to do with the key.” Vesta snorted. “But when you told me you suspected him, it was perfect. I’d been trying to think of a way to show it to you. I realized that you might know what Virgil was talking about. Of course, I couldn’t just hand it over. You would have been so irritated that I’d opened it. But then—there it was, the perfect opportunity. Things so often work out that way.” She smiled in a self-satisfied way. “Just as it did today. It was fate working, you getting sick, that nice young boy out of the house...”

“Con...” Lilah whispered. “When Con gets back—”

“He won’t. That was too bad, too,” her aunt said regretfully. “I didn’t want to hurt him. Such a charming young man—and one who understands the occult world. I thought I could get it all done before he got here, and nothing would have to happen to him. But he returned too early.”

“You hurt Con?” Fury surged in Lilah, and she shoved herself up on her hands, struggling to rise. Her feet were bound as well, making it difficult to stand. It didn’t help that her head was spinning. She breathed shallowly, fighting her nausea.

“I fear he got a trifle lost.” Vesta smiled to herself as she squatted down to untie Lilah’s ankles.

Con was never lost. Lilah’s fear receded a little. Whatever her aunt had done, Con would find his way back. He would find her. She needed to buy him time; that was all. Lilah raised her hands to her face. She didn’t have to pretend. “I feel sick.”

“Just breathe. It will pass. I did give you too much.” Vesta’s lips twitched in irritation. “It’s so hard to judge these things. Ah, well, I’m sure you’ll still be able to get downstairs.”

“I don’t want to go downstairs.”

“You don’t have a choice. Now, come along, Dilly.” Aunt Vesta put both hands under Lilah’s arm and pulled. Lilah made no effort to help her. “Stop that! Stand up!” She dropped Lilah’s arm and pulled a gun from her pocket. “Get up. I don’t want to shoot you here, but I will if I have to.”

Lilah’s stomach lurched. “You would shoot me? With no more thought than that?”

“I don’t want to. But this is too important. The Sanctuary needs you.”

“Needs me? Don’t you hear how in—” Lilah stopped. Perhaps it was not a good idea to tell her aunt she sounded insane when Vesta was holding a gun on her.

“Now get up.” Vesta waggled the gun at her.

Lilah staggered to her feet with an assisting pull from her aunt. She slumped against the wall, wishing that she didn’t feel as groggy and unsteady as she looked. “I don’t understand.”

“You never did.” Vesta sighed and pulled her through her bedroom toward the hall. “I tried. You cannot say I didn’t try. You refused to see the Otherworld even when it was right there in front of your eyes. And now—now that you can see it—” she shook Lilah hard, making pain radiate through her head “—you want to destroy it!”

“I don’t—it’s dangerish.” No, that wasn’t the right word, was it? If only she could think more clearly.

“It’s not dangerous,” Vesta said impatiently. “Not to me. Not to us. The Goddess will welcome us.”

“Auntie, you can’t.” Lilah reverted to her childhood name for Vesta.

“Don’t tell me I can’t!” Vesta jerked her forward, and Lilah stumbled into the hall. “‘You can’t, Vesta, you’re only a girl.’ ‘You wouldn’t understand, Vesta.’” Her tone changed from bitter mimicry to anger. “I don’t understand, Niles? You’re the fool. It was obvious when Hamilton died that I should take his place. None of them had the talent I had. I told them, but of course they refused to let me. Even my own brother. I knew better than to even mention it to Niles after Virgil passed. He would never let me join. I knew that I would have to do it all myself. Isn’t that always the way?”

“No, it will kill you. Father said...” Lilah’s voice trailed off. Her legs felt like noodles, and the world swam around her. She grabbed at the banister at the top of the stairs, clinging.

“No!” Vesta dragged her down the steps, Lilah holding on to the railing as best she could to keep from tumbling to the bottom. “Virgil was wrong. She won’t hurt me. It belongs to me. We are one. They just didn’t know—they were men. But the power called to me. I finally understood that it was the source of my ability. If I came back, if I entered the Sanctuary, the Goddess would heal me. She’d restore my power. It had to be me alone. I just had to get all the keys.”

“So you stole them from Niles?”

“Only one was Niles’s. The other was Sabrina’s, which he had stolen. And I didn’t steal it. My goodness, I wouldn’t know how. But I’ve met some skillful people over the years.” She frowned. “Though it was most foolish of Sid to tell them to grab you when you were with the Morelands.”

“And you—” Lilah’s brain was operating at a crawl. “You were the one who tried to kidnap me?” Tears sprang into her eyes. Even now the betrayal stung.

“I didn’t want to. They weren’t to hurt you. I told them straight-out that they could not harm you. I wouldn’t have had to do it at all if you would have accepted my invitations. I wrote time and again, asking you to visit me. But you refused to come. You avoided me—after all this time, after all I’ve done for you, you snubbed me.”

“All you did for me! You used me. You used me, then you left me.” Lilah wrenched out of Vesta’s grasp. Off balance, she staggered and fell, tumbling down the last few steps and landing hard, the breath knocked out from her.

Vesta yanked Lilah to her feet. Overbalanced, they reeled against the wall, and Lilah’s head rapped painfully on the corner of a picture. Dizzy and gasping for air, Lilah put up no fight as her aunt wrapped her arm around her and hauled Lilah down the corridor.

“You ungrateful wretch.” Vesta fumed. “I showed you the power. I let you in, let you absorb it. And you took it from me! All those years I was gone, my talent draining away from me, you were here, pulling it into you. Making it yours.”

“I never—never—” Where was everyone? Why had no one come, with all the clatter they’d been making? They had reached the front entry and Lilah realized that in another moment they would be out in the courtyard, where no one could hear her. Dragging in a desperate breath, she screamed.