Authors: E.M. MacCallum
The Demon's Grave (42 page)
“Mom,” I protested, feeling a buzz radiating the air and knew instantly what it meant. Aidan was close, just like before the Challenge, I could feel him coming.
Mom instantly released me and apologized several times before looking back over her shoulder and waving at someone to come in. “Whoever did this is going to pay,” she said seriously.
Leaning on crutches in the doorway, Aidan smiled weakly at us. “Mrs. Fuller,” he said politely. He was in regular clothes again, clean clothes with clean bandages on his forehead. His knee was covered in sweat pants.
That familiar buzz still electrified the air. My stomach twisted and my insides squirmed at the warning. Suppressing it with a smile, I tried to shove it aside. After everything that’d happened I wanted it to go away; it didn’t belong here with him. “How are you?” I asked.
He glanced at my mother. “A little shaken up,” he said.
“Me too.” I chuckled nervously.
Mom glanced between us before standing awkwardly and smoothing her clothes. “I should call your father. He’ll want to know you’re awake. He’ll probably bring the girls.” She cast Aidan a suspicious backwards glance as she passed him but he didn’t seem to notice.
Once she left, Aidan hobbled closer and sat in the empty chair by my bed. “Said anything?”
“Temporary amnesia. You?”
Aidan adjusted his leg while sitting and shook his head. “Let’s just keep this Demon’s Grave thing to ourselves,” he said.
“Yeah,” I sighed and we smiled at the same time. It was a bitter, secretive one, but mutual in its understanding.
Aidan’s leaned closer and before I could move, he and kissed my forehead. His warm lips stayed there for several seconds, tickling with the buzzing sensation that vibrated through my scalp. He jerked back and bit his lips together.
“Now tell me you don’t feel that,” I said huskily.
His eyes trailed to my lips before taking a deep, slow breath. “It’s not like that—usually.”
“I don’t feel like I don’t belong anymore?”
Aidan blushed and looked away.
The joke fell sour and I glanced at the key that was left on the bedside table. “Guess it wasn’t all in my head,” I muttered.
Aidan’s cheeks still flamed, he said, reluctantly looking at me. “No, but Damien was trying to manipulate us both into thinking we were enemies.”
I didn’t want to say that I thought it was Aidan who’d done most of that. “He never told me you were my enemy,” I said instead.
Aidan stiffened. “Oh.”
“What did he say to you?” I raised my eyebrows.
He shook his head.
Seeing the broken trust fragments, I said. “My aunt killed my sister. Her name was Nell, if you hadn’t already guessed.”
He finally looked at me. “She was with those two zombies?”
“They were men at the time, but yeah. I guess she sacrificed them to the Demon’s Grave, but I don’t know why.”
“Where’s she?”
“A high security mental hospital. She was the only one caught.” I told him about the bonfire and how I was supposed to be thrown in first. I told him everything. We weren’t in the darkness anymore. My promise to Damien seemed moot without me there. I only hoped that he couldn’t hear us out here in our world.
When I finished, Aidan pinched the bridge of his nose and breathed in deep. “Christ.”
Falling silent I wasn’t sure how I should react.
“The dream,” Aidan released his nose and sniffled, “when Damien was talking to me. He said I should sacrifice you because you belonged to him, not me.”
I raised my eyebrows, hoping he’d elaborate, but he said instead, “We have a lot to do.” Aidan had trouble meeting my gaze. “The, uh, marble door is missing.”
I wanted to twist at my shirt. I didn’t move my hand and tried to absorb everything he’d said. I didn’t belong here. That’s what Aidan had said he felt about me and Damien had played on that. He must have when he kissed me.
Swallowing loud enough to hear, I listened to the beeping instruments and murmurs from the hallway. Not a single noise could distract me from feeling his mouth and I concentrated on blocking it out.
I squeezed my eyes shut.
There wasn’t a doorway anymore. The Keeper had failed.
I reached back and plucked the key from the bedside table to show Aidan. Gripping the tip so the glass handle shone in the florescent lights I turned it around in my fingers, much the way my mother had. The glass key flashed a color, but it was so quick it could have been a trick of the light.
Aidan grimaced. “How are we going to do this, Nora?”
Dismal is the Demon’s Grave. Dismal and dark to what I crave…
Tilting my eyes to him over the shining key I said reluctantly. “I have an aunt who knows how to make a portal.”
To be Continued in
Midnight Ruling
Midnight Ruling
The Demon’s Grave Book 2
They weren’t supposed to go back and they weren’t supposed to take innocent people with them. Damien is getting closer to the truth and Nora realizes she has more enemies than friends.
About the Author:
E.M. MacCallum grew up in Southern Alberta surrounded by harsh winds, prairies and wonderful people. She’s an avid reader, writer and random hobbyist.
You can find out more about her and her novels on her website:
EMMacCallum.com
Or follow/like on
Twitter @EMMacCallum
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