Knight Casefiles Book 1: Revelations

Revelations [Chapter 34]

Chapter 34

There’s something about funerals that make them so inherently depressing. Even if you just happen to pass by one, not knowing anyone there, the rest of the day just seems all the more dreary. When my parents died, it had crushed me even though I would never say we were close. There’s a power to death and the traditions that frame it. A power that brings people together as one, regardless of differences, to mourn the passing of life knowing full well that that’s where we all end up anyway.

The Lodge was filled with that kind of atmosphere, made all the more dismal with the knowledge that even in death these souls will not find peace. No, they’ll end up in the belly of a power-hungry sorceress – essentially written out of history.

Lightning flashed and thunder growled. I could feel the storm in a way that Elaine and Robert could not and knew instinctively that it wasn’t a normal storm. Raw energy raked through the sky, pulsing servants of nature leaping from cloud to cloud, awaiting the chance to strike the earth. In the brief moments when lightning would illuminate the attic, I could see the shadows of the dead and the undead, waiting still for their mistress to beckon. They were getting closer now.

“Adam,” Margaret murmured, her voice distant. “Should Knight attempt anything, I want you to kill Ms. Hartley.”

“Yes, mistress,” Adam said, pressing the cold steel of his dagger closer to Elaine’s neck, drawing blood.

Elaine made a small sound of protest and looked to me with pain in her eyes. It wasn’t physical, no. She didn’t enjoy the role she now played – leverage to keep me down. The last thing she would ever want would be to become a burden to anyone.

Margaret flicked her wrist and a brown sack flew into her hand. She reached inside and drew something spherical the size of her head. Lightning blazed again, bright enough to make me wince, and I realized what it was in her hand.

A skull, and not just any skull. It was the skull that I assumed started it all. There was a crack on the cranium where she had been struck. Until now, she still wore the bridal veil.

“That story you told last night,” I said to Adam. “She was the sacrifice. The bride.”

“It was a threefold sacrifice,” Adam replied, beaming with pride. “A Hecatomb befitting the Goddess of Death and Winter. A thousand bovines replaced by a trinity – man, woman, and spirit. The groom, the bride’s sister, and the bride, each left to stew for forty days. The spirit fought to be heard, oh she did, but ‘twas in vain.”

“You son of a bitch,” I spat. “And now you’re just going to let Margaret undo everything. What do you think’s going to happen to that little charm Marzanna put on you once Margaret’s done?”

Adam’s brows furrowed. He glanced uncertainly at Margaret who was murmuring something to the skull.

She took a deep breath. “Don’t let the Knight fool you, Adam. He’s desperate. Our bargain remains – you will retain your immortality and then some. Trust me…”

Whistler’s eyes shifted uncertainly before he bowed his head. “Thank you, mistress. I do.”

Margaret smiled. “Good. The talisman.”

Adam drew his cane from his coat and lobbed it at Margaret who caught it deftly.

She raised the skull so that she looked directly into the now empty eyeholes, pushing the bridal veil to the sides. Muttering another incantation, she drew in a deep breath and blew onto the skull, raising the cane and striking it. Instantly, the bone erupted into purple fire and with it, came a shrill cry.