It was noon by the time we started back. The sun was directly overhead, but dark clouds hung suspended over the mountains, and I could hear thunder rumbling through the hills. The storm was a long way off, though, and I had no idea if it was even headed our way. Still, I felt an electric tingle along my scalp and in my fingertips, and as the breeze died away, the air felt heavy with portent.
The path around the cliff was narrow, so we walked single file. Thane led the way, with me in the middle and Angus bringing up the rear. I wasn’t much in the mood to talk. I was still too preoccupied by what had happened in the glade between Thane and me. And I couldn’t shake the notion that someone—possibly Ivy—had been following us. I found myself glancing back now and then to see if I could spot her.
Thane had gotten a bit ahead of me, and as we neared the forest, he waited for me to catch up before entering the trees. The path widened, and we were able to walk side by side, shoulders brushing. I welcomed his nearness even as I shied away from any physical contact.
He lifted a pine bough that drooped over the path, and as I ducked under, he said, “I need to tell you something.”
I straightened and looked at him. “Yes?”
For a moment, he seemed oddly at a loss, as if he didn’t quite know where to start. “Yesterday, I told you that I’d gone to your website to look you up, but that’s not altogether true. I did go to your website, but I already knew about you. I knew that day on the ferry.”
I was still on edge so my tone sharpened. “How?”
“I remembered seeing your picture in the paper last spring after everything came out about Oak Grove Cemetery.”
“Why didn’t you say anything?”
“I wasn’t one-hundred-percent certain. That’s why I looked you up. I started searching back through some of the internet articles until I found the photograph. You were standing outside the cemetery gates with a man. A cop. He had his arm around you. You were both looking away from the camera, but I had the feeling the photographer had captured an intimate moment.” He paused. “None of my business, of course, so feel free to tell me to go to hell. But…you know what I’m asking, right? And why I’m asking?” He turned to stare down at me, and I thought he seemed tense. “It isn’t just about what happened at the waterfall.”
My heart gave a painful kick. “I know.”
“Well?”
I drew a quick breath. “His name is John Devlin. He was the police detective in charge of that case. I was a consultant for a time.”
“And more?”
“Yes.”
“How much more?”
“It doesn’t matter. We’re not together now.”
“Why not?”
I couldn’t tell him about Devlin’s ghosts. Even if he would have believed me, it wasn’t something I could share. Devlin didn’t even know about them, and confiding in Thane somehow seemed a betrayal to him. “It’s complicated.” I turned and walked past him up the path. When he caught up with me, I said, “He lost his wife and daughter. He wasn’t ready to move on.”
“What about you? Are you ready to move on?”
I closed my eyes briefly. “I don’t know. I’m not over him, if that’s what you’re asking. I’m not sure I’ll ever be.”
“Is that why you came here? To nurse a broken heart?”
“I came here because I was offered a job,” I said flatly.
His expression was guarded, the eyes deeply shadowed. “For what it’s worth, I know what it’s like to lose someone you love. I know that emptiness, that awful helpless feeling.”
“Your grandfather told me about Harper,” I said softly.
He frowned. “What did he say?”
“He said she was the girl you wanted to marry. She died in a car crash, and you blamed yourself for allowing her to go out in a storm.”
Anger flared. “Did he also mention how he’d done everything in his power to keep us apart?”
“No.” But I remembered his grandfather’s comment about the girl’s mental instability. “Why did he try to keep you apart?”
“Because she wasn’t part of his grand design.” A muscle pulsed at his temple. “And her family didn’t meet with his approval.”
“Why not?”
“She didn’t have money or connections, the right kind of pedigree. None of that mattered to me, of course. I only wanted Harper. If not for the accident, we would have been married that spring despite Grandfather’s objections.”
“I’m sorry.”
He was silent for a moment. I heard the rumble of thunder in the distance and the rustle of leaves overhead as the breeze picked back up, bringing the scent of rain and the promise of bad weather.
Thane looked up through the breaks in the canopy where the sun still shone brightly. “It was a long time ago and who knows if it would have lasted. We were young, and I can look back now and admit that part of the appeal of our romance was bucking Grandfather’s wishes. Don’t get me wrong,” he said quickly. “I did love her. And I’m also grateful to Grandfather for taking me in when I had nowhere else to go. I’ll never be able to repay him for all that he’s done for me. But—”
“He never quite lets you forget that you’re not a true Asher.”
He gave a little laugh. “When you say it like that, it sounds pretty petty.”
“No, it doesn’t. At best, it must be awkward and at worst, soul-crushing.”
He reached out briefly to touch my cheek, his fingers as light as a dragonfly skimming across a pond. “He’s a fool, you know.”
We were no longer talking about Pell Asher.
It’s not his fault, I wanted to tell him. It’s hard to let go of the ghosts of your past when they won’t let go of you.
I didn’t want to look at him, didn’t want to read too much into his eyes, so I focused instead on Angus, sitting on the path patiently waiting for us.
But my mind was in turmoil. I hadn’t expected this, nor did I want it. I wasn’t looking for romance with Thane Asher, and yet I couldn’t deny a connection that was starting to frighten me.
“Thane—”
“Don’t say it. Don’t say anything.”
“I have to.”
He put a fingertip to my lips. “Life’s too short to live in the past, Amelia. Let him have his ghosts.”
When we arrived back at the cemetery, I turned to say goodbye at the gate. I needed to work for as long as I could before the storm moved in, and I really wanted some alone time to sort things out. That kiss at the falls had left me confused and emotionally shattered. I felt the inevitable tug-of-war: the desire, always, to return to Charleston, to Devlin. The need, for now, to stay here with Thane.
“I should get to work,” I said briskly.
The old grin flashed. “You’re not getting rid of me that easily. I think it’s time for you to meet the rest of the family.”
“I’m sorry?”
“Dear old Aunt Emelyn. You did say you wanted to see her.” Thunder rumbled closer, and he looked out over the cemetery toward the mountains. “You’re not going to get any work done this afternoon. That storm is moving down fast.”
And with his words came a gust of wind that swept a flurry of dead leaves across the graves. Along the edge of the forest, the tops of the pine trees started to dip and swell like waves in a dark green sea, and a sheet of rain raced toward us, the patter on the leaves and on the ground like the whisper of a thousand ghosts. On the heels of the rain came rolling thunder and flash after flash of lightning. And just like that, the storm was upon us.
Thane took my hand. “Come on. Let’s make a run for it.”
We could just have easily backtracked to the cars, but instead we raced through the maze of monuments and headstones, through the lych-gate and past that circle of angels with their faces upturned to the storm.
Shoving open the mausoleum door, Thane stepped aside for me to enter. Angus came in behind me, shaking water droplets from his coat. It was dim inside, but I could see lightning flashes through the stained-glass windows and the shimmer of cobwebs from the corners. The stone walls were cold and felt damp to the touch, and the whole place reeked of mildew and neglect. In the middle of the stone floor, a long set of stairs led down into the dead-dark shadows of the tomb.
Thane wedged something underneath the door to keep it open so that what little light was left outside filtered in. I welcomed the fresh air, too, that storm-charged breeze that tangled my hair and stirred the cobwebs.
“What do you think?” he asked. “You still want to see her?”
“Yes, only…”
His eyes glinted. “Not afraid, are you?”
“Of Aunt Emelyn, no. I’m not crazy about snakes and spiders, though.”
“What kind of restorer are you, anyway?”
“The cautious kind. Do you still have your penlight?”
He dangled the key chain. “But I seem to remember candles from before and, hopefully, matches. Should I go down alone?”
“That’s okay. I’ve learned to deal with my phobias. You can go first, though.”
“Thanks.” He descended into the gloom. “Stay close and watch your step. These stairs are steep.”
Angus, I noticed, didn’t follow. He wanted no part of that tomb.
I was right on Thane’s heels. When he stopped halfway down, I almost smashed into him. “What’s wrong?” I asked breathlessly.
“Just trying to remember where the sconces are.” He went down another few steps and played the light over the stone walls. “Ah. Here we are.” I heard the strike of a match, and then light flared, animating giant shadows on the walls. Cupping the flame, Thane lit the candles, then plucked one from the sconce and handed it to me as he pocketed his penlight. Then he took another candle for himself.
We went down the rest of the steps, and he lit more candles at the bottom. The tomb was larger than I would have expected, with walls of crypts and vaults that vanished into darkness. I saw the glitter of more cobwebs, the glint of reflected light on sterling-silver markers and plaques. The smell of mildew grew stronger, and I could well imagine the creep of black mold in every corner and crevice.
“This is incredible,” I said, and the stone walls threw my breathless voice back to me.
“Too bad we don’t have proper lighting,” he said. “We’ll have to come prepared next time. Some of the carvings and scrollwork on the vaults is extraordinary.”
“Was that the tiniest bit of pride I heard in your voice just now?” I teased him.
He glanced over his shoulder, his face eerie in the flickering light. “I’ve never disputed the family has taste,” he said. “My quibble is with the overindulgence. And speaking of which…” He held the candle high. “Emelyn’s coffin is this way.”
He led me through an arched doorway into a small chamber where the glass coffin rested on an ornate pedestal. As he turned to place his candle in a nearby holder, I came up beside him, which is how I happened to make the discovery first. The candlelight reflected in the glass so that I couldn’t see anything at first. But as I repositioned, I got my first glimpse of her. And gasped.
Thane whirled. “What is it?”
I held my candle over the coffin. His gaze dropped, and he said on a breath, “Jesus.”
Air must have gotten into the container through a fracture or a seam because the body had started to wither and shrink. The wrinkled skin had turned gray, and the eye sockets were empty, the lips shriveled back into a hideous grin. And even more grotesque, somehow, were the bridal trappings in which the corpse had been displayed.
“How long since you were down here?” I asked.
“Years. I wonder how long she’s been this way.”
“Who knows? If there’s even a hairline fracture in the glass, I imagine decomposition would have happened quickly.” I paused on a shiver as I glanced down at the corpse. “Will you tell your grandfather?”
“I see no reason for him to know. It would just upset him and he’ll never come down here again. Not until—” He broke off as a cold wind swept down into the tomb, snuffing the candles a split second before the door slammed closed upstairs.
In that utter blackness, I felt the chill of dread creep along my backbone.
“Thane?” As I breathed his name, I felt his hand on my arm.
“It’s okay. The wind blew them out. Let me find the matches.”
I sensed his body close to mine, and in the deep silence of the tomb, I swore I could hear his heartbeat. Or was it my own? His arm came around me as he fumbled for the matches. I could feel his breath against my cheek, the whisper of his lips in my hair.
“Thane?”
He pulled me back against him, an arm around my waist holding me still as he lifted my hair and licked my neck at the pulse point. As if trying to devour my essence.
I jerked away in shock. “What are you doing?”
“Trying to find the damn matches.” His voice came from the bottom of the stairs. He was no longer in the chamber with me. But the arm was still holding me… .
In the paralyzed moment before I could react, I felt the hand slide up to my breast, another down to my thigh. A raspy voice whispered in my ear, “Soon.” And then I heard the scrabble of claws on the stone floor a split second before Thane appeared in the doorway with a candle.
I whirled but no one was there. I was alone in the chamber with Emelyn Asher’s withered corpse.