Page 10 of Grave Devil
But she’s not the only one who’s acting strangely. It seems as if the whole town is caught in some sort of cataclysm. I wake up in a cold sweat most nights, reeling from some demonic dream.The darkness reaches for me with frenzied fingers, desperate to latch onto my soul for good.
I roll down the window and light up a cigarette. As I exhale into the wind, a much farther trail of smoke catches my eye. “Stop. Rodrick, stop the car.”
Mia leans across my lap to look out the window.
“What is it, Dray?” Aries asks.
Rodrick pulls to the side of the road, and we all climb out. I squint toward the tree line. “Something’s burning in the Circle.”
“A forest fire? I’ll call the authorities.” Rodrick snaps into protector mode, proving once again that he is more than just a driver.
I shake my head. “Not yet. This could be Nocturnus business.”
Aries smooths his hands down his silk lapels, a picture of elegance and chaos. “It’s probably just kids. Remember how much trouble we got into our senior year? My mother did not appreciate us hosting a séance party in the apothecary.”
Mia bursts out laughing. “Why doesn’t that surprise me about you lot? I wish I knew you back then.”
There’s a knot in the pit of my stomach telling me that this is more than just some teenagers lighting a bonfire in the woods. I can’t explain it, but I can feel it all around me. “I think we should check it out.”
Mia groans. “Seriously? I hate the woods.”
Aries towers over her and bends down until his lips graze her ear. “You didn’t mind them when we had you pinned against that tree. I can still feel your tight little cunt stretching around my fingers.”
The memory of that night makes my cock spring to life. But their lack of seriousness is starting to irritate me more than turn me on. “Are you both fucking high right now?”
Their eyes widen like deer caught in the headlights. Mia stumbles back against the car. “We are joking around, Draven. Maybe you should try it once in a while.”
I loosen my tie, cursing myself for wearing one. There’s a flicker of heat licking the back of my neck, a fire sparked by adrenaline and instinct. I glare daggers at both of them. “Get in the car. Rodrick, take us to the Circle. If it’s just a high school party, then I’ll leave them be with some Blackwell gin. There’s a case of it in the trunk. But either way, I want to know who’s hosting bonfires inmytown.”
The closer we get to the smoke, the thicker the tension between us. Words unspoken hang in the air. Have we really dealt with our feelings about Nox and Mia? Before they came to Ever Graves, it was just me, Aries, and Bones. We had our routine, but it lacked that fire that Mia and Nox give us.
Yet we haven’t discussed any of it. I’m more to blame for that than anyone, but no one else is pushing the subject either. We are trying to act as if nothing has changed when everything has.
As we near the Circle, visions of Bones dancing around his opponents flash in my mind. The ground is stained with his blood, mostly theirs, among other bodily fluids. I crane my neck out the window as we approach.
“I told you,” Aries snickers.
The remnants of a bonfire smolder out. “Where are the kids then?”
Mia follows me out of the car. “They probably high-tailed it into the woods when they heard us coming.”
Aries nods in agreement. “Yep. They heard tires on gravel and didn’t waste any time getting the fuck out of here. We would’ve done the same.”
I throw him a side-glare as I amble toward the dying bonfire. “No, we wouldn’t have. I’m a fucking Blackwell, and you’rea Thorn. Who the fuck is punishing us? We never ran from anyone.”
Aries warms his hands by the fire. “I think you’re the only one who thought that back then, Dray. The rest of us didn’t want to get smacked by our fathers.”
“That didnothappen in my house.” I glare into the flames.
“That’s because your father was afraid of you.” Aries snorts.
Chills slink up my back. “Yeah. Now we know why…” Finding out that I’m half-nightmare was more of a surprise to me than it was to my father. He never said it out loud, but the way he treated me and my mother was enough to prove that he did know something was wrong with me.
Mia shivers and folds her arms over her chest. “I wonder what mine was like sometimes.”
“Trust me, you’re better off not knowing.” I feel a twinge of guilt for my lack of empathy, but this pit inside me grows. It festers like rotting fruit.
“You know, legend has it that the Circle was once a ritual site.” Aries kneels down and runs his palm over the dirt. He sprinkles some into the wind. “There are stories of ancient blood sacrifices at the Wishing Tree, but here also.”
