Beyond the Gates of Evermoore

How could any of this be?

It was almost like a hurricane had struck the house while she’d been sleeping, and splattered it with dirt, and mud, and…

Time.

Yes, time. That was definitely it. Hell, it looked like the house was a hundred years older than before she went to bed.

It’s exactly like Lucus said…

A chill realization stole through her. One that made her uncomfortable and frightened. Melody looked down at her bare feet. Back up at the manor house, and the surrounding mist.

It comes.

Lucus’s words echoed eerily in her mind. The mist was closer still now, creeping its way inward. Devouring the plantation, inch by inch, yard by yard…

It always comes. Every time. It’s always the same.

Some of the stuff the smith told her last night was crazy. It had to be. Sensationalized, in the dead of night. Made all the more real by how scared she was, after her encounter with the dogs and everything.

Yet at the time…

Something made her reach up and grip her pendant. The Heart of Isolomara felt warm and comforting in her naked palm.

Hurry up, Mel.

She looked again at the mist. Back at the house again.

You’re wasting time.

24

Melody didn’t have to wonder if the glass doors to the side patio were unlocked. They opened as she approached them, and Eric flew out to meet her.

“Oh my God, what happened?” he cried, holding out his hands. She stopped walking as he gripped her by the shoulders. “Melody, where have you been?”

“Locked out,” she said grimly. “All night.”

Eric’s entire face was painted with genuine astonishment. “You spent the night out here?”

“No, not out here.”

His gaze went over her shoulder and up the path. When his eyes passed over the carriage house, he frowned.

“You stayed there?”

“Uh huh.”

“With the blacksmith?”

The word dropped from his lips with accusatory overtones, and a strong underlying hint of disdain. Melody examined his reaction carefully. Thought for a second to even read him…

“Melody, that man is dangerous.”

“Funny,” she laughed, although it wasn’t funny at all. “He said the same thing about you.”

“He did?” Eric wasn’t even trying to hide his scowl now. “Well of course he did. He’s not one of us, Melody. He doesn’t know what we know. Doesn’t realize what we’re after…”

He looked at her skeptically. One of his eyebrows went much higher than the other.