Coldhearted (9781311888433) (36 page)

He accepted that. “Okay…but why are we in the
woods?”

“
You thought you saw
something and went to investigate,” she lied.

“
How’d I end up on the
ground?”

“
You fell,” she said, which
was true. “You must’ve hit your head because you passed out,” she
said next, and again, not really a lie. He’d probably hit his head,
although he’d fallen in the first place when a ghost had left his
body after possessing it.

Russell reached up and raked his fingers
through his hair. “I don’t feel a wound.” He rubbed at his temples.
“My brain feels like someone churned it in a blender, though.” He
shook his head, trying to put the pieces back together, and then
focused on her. “Are you all right? You’re shivering.”

She waved a dismissive hand. “Yeah, I’m fine.
Can you drive?”

Russell took a baby step, and then another,
until he was able to walk smoothly toward his car. He got inside
and turned over the engine. “Uh, Edie?” he called out, after he’d
shut the door and rolled down the window.

“
Yeah?” She leaned in
through his side, but kept a necessary distance. “Do you still feel
bad? Do you need me to call someone?” she asked,
concerned.

He bridged the gap and brought his face
closer to hers. “I don’t have anyone,” he said softly, and then
gave her a chaste kiss. “That’s for not leaving me in the woods,
all alone.”

She’d retreated from the car, but she wasn’t
running away. She cared for Russell very much, but she wasn’t in
love with him.

“
I wouldn’t have left you.”
She was appalled that he’d even think that she’d do something so
cruel. “Why would you say that?”

“
Don’t you wish I was out of
your life for good?”

Edie advanced and rested her hand on his.
“No, Russell, not at all. It’s just…well, what you feel for me, I
don’t feel the same, but that doesn’t mean I don’t like you. I want
you in my life, but just as a friend, okay?”

“
It’s Mason, isn’t it? You
love him.”

She didn’t know how she felt, but her heart
had been hurting at the thought of never seeing him again.

“
Mason broke up with me,”
she said. “I lied to him and he’ll never forgive me.”

Russell removed the glove from her hand and
kissed her palm. “He’s a fool.” He kissed the inside of her wrist.
“Edie...” Her name on his lips was full of longing.

Gently, she removed her hand from his and
retrieved her glove. “I have to go.”

“
To where?” He sounded like
he’d follow her to the moon and back.

“
Home. I-I want to be
alone.” She put her glove back on and deftly wiped away his earlier
kisses from her palm and wrist. “I’ll see you at school,” she said
firmly.

He knew that determined voice of hers and
didn’t try to sway her. “See you at school,” he returned, and then
drove away.

She really didn’t want to go home, not yet.
So she stood in front of Lockhart Manor and closed her eyes. As
time flowed, she heard the distinctive sounds of life, and when she
opened her eyes, she saw the manor, as it’d been in past, full of
sounds, lights, and people. There was joyous laughter, followed by
a terrifying shriek. Sorrow, jealously, and pain erupted in her
mind like an electrical shock, zapping the synapses, setting them
on fire.

She hurried to her car, turned over the
engine, and sped away.

Lockhart Manor was haunted and she never,
ever wanted to step foot in there again.

****

“
Long time, no
see.”

Edie almost wrecked her car when Tristan
appeared in her rearview mirror, and then slithered out to sit on
the passenger seat.

“
Are you trying to get me
killed?!” she accused, shivering.

It was a rhetorical question. She knew that
he wanted her dead.

“
Someone’s been blocking
me,” he said, ignoring the question of her imminent death. “I-I’ve
missed you.” His voice was soft, melancholy.

Obviously, he’s playing a
trick on me
.

“
Well, I haven’t missed
you,” she said coldly.

She slowly decelerated on the icy road, and
then stopped at a red light, but refused to look at him, knowing
that he was staring at her with those otherworldly lapis lazuli
eyes. He may have looked like Adrian, but he was the sour and
murderous version of his sweet and caring older brother.

“
Liar,” Tristan accused
without emotion. “You were at Lockhart Manor. Why?”

The light turned green and she accelerated,
hard, as if she were embracing her inevitable death. “I was
thinking of buying the place. It’s a fixer-upper, but I like a
challenge.”

Tristan laughed. It sounded so…normal. He
seemed so…normal.

It didn’t last long as the temperature in the
car plummeted.

“
What did Arianna say to
you?”

She almost lost control of the car, again.
She swerved back onto the road and almost caught a patch of ice,
narrowly managing to avoid it, as well as her assured death, by
flying through the windshield. She’d neglected to strap on her
seatbelt. Of course that wasn’t the only stupid thing she’d done
since she’d arrived in Grimsby.

She found an abandoned road that led into the
woods and parked there.

She turned toward Tristan, who was eyeing her
with suspicion. “Who’s Arianna?” she asked, trying to sound
clueless.

Tristan narrowed his eyes. “Don’t lie to me!”
he barked.

Edie winced in pain at his cold anger.
“She-she, uh, just said ‘hello,’ that’s all.”

Tristan wasn’t buying it. She was expecting
another eruption, but he was contained, for now. “Did she appear to
you?” he asked in a curious tone.

She didn’t know what to say. Which answer was
the right answer?

“
Yes,” she replied
truthfully. “She looks like me,” Edie added. “I think perhaps we’re
related.”

“
You’re nothing alike,” he
countered bitingly. He paused, and then said, “She’s been a thorn
in my side for decades, hindering me, preventing me from escaping.
Anyone who’s been within the vicinity of Lockhart Manor, she’s
diverted.”

“
But not me,” Edie said, and
wondered why.

He hadn’t been looking at her, staring out
the window, but now he turned toward Edie and smiled. “Not you. She
couldn’t keep me from you.”

“
Why?”

“
I wanted you too badly,” he
admitted. “I overcame her strongholds and captured you for my own.
And now”—his tone hardened—“she’s trying to take you from
me.”

“
She just said ‘hello,’”
Edie reminded him of her lie.

He seemed to believe her, for now. “She could
never keep her mouth shut. Yap, yap, yap. She’ll find you again.
She’ll say more than just ‘hell-o.’”

“
What are you afraid of her
telling me?” She asked the question even though she knew the
answer, the truth from Adrian, of their unhappy home life and
tragic endings.

“
Nothing,” he said, as if
there were nothing to tell, no insight into his evil character.
“Whatever she’ll say, it’ll be lies. Edie, you can’t believe her.
She was in love with me and I rejected her. She couldn’t handle it
and killed herself. That’s why she haunts the woods. She’ll corrupt
you, Edie. She’ll transfer her pain onto you. She’ll get inside
your head, torment you. You have to resist her.”

Edie knew that he was lying, but she played
along, and nodded her head.

“
What about you? How did you
die?”

“
She killed me,” he replied
truthfully, and then added, “Arianna killed me with a poisoned
kiss.”

Arianna had set a trap for him, an enticing
trap, and won, but at a great cost to her.

Yes, Arianna had killed herself, but not
because he’d rejected her, right? Not because she’d been in love
with him? Edie was sure that Adrian had told her the truth,
but…what if…? No, no! Tristan was the liar! She couldn’t give in to
him. She just couldn’t! He was a manipulator and deceiver! He had
to be stopped, but was killing herself the answer? Why should she
die so that others could live? She wished that there were actual
ghost busters out there, with fancy devices that could capture and
exterminate poltergeists.

But they were in the real world where
“happily ever after” never happened.

Tristan had been staring at Edie with those
dark, blue eyes, while she’d been running a one-sided conversation
inside her mind. She wondered if he knew what she was thinking,
even a little bit. As an answer to her thought, he reached out and
touched her hand, or tried to touch it. His cold hand passed
through hers. She was wearing a thick glove, so it wasn’t that much
of an icy shock to her system.

She maintained her hand on the console and he
withdrew his hand, in defeat.

“
I don’t like scaring you,”
he said, though she doubted his words.

“
But you like scaring
others?” she posited.

“
I have my reasons,” he said
cryptically.

His reasons were to become corporeal. And he
was well on his way, inducing fear at every turn. He would—if he
wasn’t stopped—transform into a mortal-looking man with the ability
of a “super” spirit, able to kill by simple touch. How could that
be? How could evil wield such power and good remain powerless? It
was striking how unbalanced the scales of justice were.

Her cell phone rang, making her jump in her
seat. It was her uncle.

“
Hello?” she
answered.

“
Edie, are you all right?
Your friend Jules called and said she couldn’t get in touch with
you.”

“
Oh, um, I guess I was in a
bad area.” Yeah, if Lockhart Manor was the gateway to Hell…but she
said instead, “I’m almost home.”

“
There’s someone here to see
you,” Uncle Landon said. “He’s wandered into the maze. I offered to
let him come inside, but…anyway, could you come home and find him?
I think he’s lost.”

“
He, who?”

“
Mason, your
boyfriend.”

Her heart skipped a beat. “But-but he broke
up with me.”

“
He didn’t say why he was
here. Just that he wanted to see you. By the look on his face, he’s
been crying. I know, men aren’t supposed to cry, but…we do,” he
added softly.

She was almost crying herself. She told her
uncle that she’d be home soon, said goodbye, then put the car in
gear, and got out onto the road, flying.

Has Mason forgiven me? Does he want to get
back together? Him crying is a good sign, right?

She’d been so intent on rushing home that she
didn’t even realize that Tristan had left the car. Good riddance!
Even though she knew that it wasn’t going to last. He’d be back but
hopefully after she’d reconciled with Mason.

Minutes later, she was through the gates and
parked her car on the gravely path that lead up to the house. She
jumped out and advanced toward the maze.

“
Mason?!” she called out.
“I’m here!”

No answer.

She’d never wanted to enter the maze before,
but now, she was determined to find Mason, no matter how long it
took. She entered and found the labyrinth to be more confusing than
anything. Whenever she thought she was on the right path, a grassy
hedge blocked her from moving forward. There were so many twists
and turns, she wondered if she’d ever make it out before the sun
went down.

“
Mason?!” she called out
again.

She waited and almost lost hope until she
heard his voice.

“
Edie?!” He sounded far
away.

“
Where are you?!” she called
out.

She heard his laugh. “I have no idea, but if
you keep saying my name, I’ll follow the sound and find you!
Okay?!”

“
Okay!” she yelled back, and
started yelling his name over and over. It wasn’t long after that
that he appeared from behind a hedge. “Mason!” she yelled, even
though it wasn’t necessary, considering they were a few feet from
each other. “What are you doing here?”

He’d been crying. His eyes were red and
puffy.

He didn’t answer her. Instead he caught her
in his arms, hauling her above the ground. He held onto her,
burying his face into the crook of her neck. He started crying
again.

“
Mason, it’s okay,” she
soothed, and he put her back down.

He held her face in his hands and she reached
up to wipe his tears away. He kissed her gloved fingers, forehead,
eyelids, cheeks, the tip of her nose, and finally her lips in a mad
rush, crying for joy.

“
I’m sorry,” he said, after
he’d reluctantly pulled away, but still held her in his arms. “I’m
sorry,” he repeated. “I shouldn’t have acted like that. I shouldn’t
have been so mean. I shouldn’t have walked out on you. I’m so
sorry. After I’d left the hospital, I drove and drove and realized
I didn’t care you’d lied. You’re going through something I can’t
even fathom and I had no right to question you. When we were
separated, I felt like I was dying. I can’t live without you.
Edie…I love you. I love you so much. I never want to be apart from
you again.”

“
I love you too,” she said
in a rush, almost tripping over the words.

His confession drew out her own for she
realized that she shared the same feelings. She always had. She’d
just been unwilling to admit it until now because after her
parents’ deaths, she’d been afraid to love because loved ones, when
they suddenly leave you, also leave a tear in your heart; a tear
that she’d once feared would never be mended and would just stretch
in sorrow.