Verum (The Nocte Trilogy 2)

But she’s already changing the subject.

“I’m an expert in herbs, Miss Price. I learned from my mother, who learned from her mother, who learned from hers and so on. I can give you a tea to help with your sleep. I wish I would’ve known your brother. I have a feeling I could’ve helped him, too.”

I immediately shake my head. “I don’t think so. Your herbs might’ve interacted with his meds. He took some pretty strong medication. He had some pretty crazy days.”

But then again, I should talk.

“You never know,” Sabine tells me. “But know this. You shouldn’t dismiss your brother as ‘crazy’. People like him, people who suffer from that type of affliction, their minds are open; they don’t see things for what they were supposed to be, they see things for what they are.”

I’m confused now, and a little bemused. “So you’re saying that the demons my brother saw were real?”

Even I can hear the humor and condescension in my voice, and I try to check it. At the very least, Sabine is my elder and I need to respect that. She shrugs.

“Perhaps. Who are we to say?”

“People like Finn are more inclined to trust their intuitions,” Sabine continues. “They’re very intuitive. You should take a page from that book.”

My head snaps around and she chuckles. “No offense intended, of course.”

“Of course,” I murmur.

For some reason, as the breeze blows across the lawns, my attention turns to the horizon, where I know a lonely mausoleum sits by itself, forgotten by the people within Whitley.

“How did my grandfather die?” I ask her bluntly, changing the subject as I think of the lonely crypt. Sabine doesn’t flinch.

“He had a car accident in the rain.”

“And my uncle?”

She stares at me, her dark gaze unwavering. “He also had a car accident.”

“In the rain?”

“Isn’t it always raining here?” Sabine answers a question with a question. I sigh.

“That’s quite a coincidence. Father and son both killed in car accidents.”

Sabine shrugs again, unconcerned with it.

“The universe has a funny way of working, Miss Price.”

“What do you mean by that?”

The old lady stares into the horizon, seeing things that I can’t.

“The universe takes care of iniquities, of people who have been wronged, of injustices that the world can’t right. That’s all I meant.”

I exhale, my breath slightly shaky. “That’s all? That’s quite a belief. It seems like you’re saying that people can be cursed by the universe.”

“That’s exactly what I’m saying,” she acknowledges. “It’s true. I’m sorry if you’re scared by that.”

“I’m not scared,” I admit. “I just don’t think I subscribe to that particular belief system.”

Sabine smiles now, and the only thing that I’m scared of is her grotesque smile. It’s not pleasant.

“Surely you’ve noticed unfair things,” she points out. “Growing up the way you did. I’m sure you’ve seen deaths that weren’t fair. Stillborns, children, young mothers, young fathers… didn’t you wonder what happened to make them occur??

??