Eternally Devoted (Frostbite 4)

I had to get them out of this, but how?

In addition to that, I needed to get out of this house so I could call Brandon to find out about Kipp. Of course, I had no way of doing that, either. Hence, the non-stop battle in mind that I’d been fighting for hours.

All the things I needed to do or should do, I couldn’t do. So many worries flooded my mind that my body was thrown into the flight response with the race of my heartbeat and sweaty palms to prove it.

I shut my eyes, exhaling long and deep, when a sudden creak broke through the dead silence. I snapped my eyes open and my breath caught in my throat. I jerked my head toward the bottom of the staircase where Zach lay.

Again, another creak shook me to my very bones, but now it sounded above my head. I glanced up as dust flew down from the ceiling. I cocked my head and listened hard, trying to ascertain if I’d been hearing someone walking above me, or if the old house was settling.

I could’ve sworn I’d heard footsteps a while ago, but no one came down, and I figured my mind played tricks on me. Now I held my breath, tilted my head further toward the basement stairs when the creak sounded even louder now.

“Oh, hell no, you are not imaging that.” Pa

nic so intense overtook me and my stomach turned. I drew up my legs and wrapped my arms around them. Oh, god. Oh, god. Oh, god.

The door to the basement slowly creaked open, and when two shoes hit the first step my whole body quaked. I could do nothing but freeze in fear. Wayde…oh, god, help me….

My bravery had been forged by the men around me—men who could protect me with guns and muscles. Gun…

I glimpsed at Zach, noticing his gun resting at his side. Quickly, I looked at Max, who was closer to me. His gun must’ve been under his stomach because I couldn’t see it.

Another creak had me glancing at the staircase and one of Wayde’s feet hit the second step. Then I pounced, and as I made it to Zach’s gun, Wayde ran down the rest of the stairs.

I didn’t look at him. I focused on the gun. The moment my hands slid around the cool metal, I gripped it tight in my fingers and aimed at the staircase. “I’ll shoot,” I screamed.

“No. You won’t.”

My breath left me in a loud whoosh of shock as I took in who stood in front of me. Keeping the gun aimed at the staircase, I glanced around the room in a fast sweep, suddenly realizing something was very wrong.

I turned to the person standing in front of me, totally confused. “Amelia?” I lowered the gun, but kept it in my hand, since something I couldn’t quite pinpoint rubbed me wrong. “What happened?”

“Don’t aim the gun at me again.” She approached me and a dark look registered along her face. “You will listen to what I have to say.”

Fear and awareness blasted into my body. I scooted back onto my butt until my back hit the trunk. “You did this?”

Holy shit, I hadn’t realized she hadn’t been with us or with Sammy, nor had I realized it in the time I was alone in the basement. How had I missed something that important?

Clearly, my mental state was far worse than I suspected, because how had I not noticed she wasn’t there?

In fact, after a second of thought, I realized I would have noticed. I could only assume she had placed some type of magic on me to warp my memory. Truth was, I hadn’t thought of her once until this very moment, and that was odd.

Amelia’s stare was hard as she settled in front of me. “My father told me of the spell on the Lux, in case it ever got into the wrong hands. The magic would force those in its presence asleep, which would give us time to locate the book, if it ever went missing.”

My head spun so fast I had trouble focusing on a single issue, not even knowing where to start questioning her. I did not understand this…at all. “But you’re not sleeping.”

She inclined her head, looking at me incredulous. “Of course, I’m not. I’m the one who cast the spell.”

I gawked at her, in total disbelief. I tried desperately to catch up, pressing my back against the trunk as my heart hammered. No, this made no sense. Wayde was behind Alexander’s murder. With Sammy’s explanation, I had all the answers for why. Amelia had no part in this.

“Why did you do this?” I waved my hand around the room to the people sound asleep. “To everyone here, including your husband?”

“To talk to you,” she implored. “To get you to solve my father’s murder. You only magically promised Wayde you’d help, and you’ve done that. With the Lux in your hands, you would’ve left, because what you came here to get, you found. I need to know what happened to my father. You have the means to do it. Your focus needs to be that.”

I gestured toward the others asleep in the basement. “This is how you went about talking to me?”

She glimpsed at Dane for only a moment. “I placed the diary in the barn for you to find, not Wayde.” Drawing in a long breath through her nose, and clearly changing the subject, she added, “I thought once you found the diary that would be the end of it. You would read what you needed to discover about your abilities and you’d stop searching for answers. You’d get back to solving my father’s murder.”

I shook my head in total bewilderment, but knew she was partly right. Clearly, she hadn’t read the diary, either, and obviously, she thought it held more weight than it actually had.