Dane squeezed my hand as if he knew what I was thinking.
“May we sit?” Beth asked.
Teresa rocked once in her chair. We took it as a yes.
Taking Beth’s lead, we filed into the room, sitting on the edge of a tattered sofa.
Teresa turned her gaze to me and began to rock—slow and steady. It was beyond unnerving.
“What are you?” she finally spoke, her voice raspy as if she hadn’t used her vocal cords in days.
I remembered Dane had asked me the same question that first night in the corn. “I . . . I’m Ash Larkin,” I stammered. “Nina’s daughter and I—”
“No,” she barked, making my insides jump. Her eyes narrowed into slits. “What are you?”
I swallowed hard. “I’m a conduit.”
“Is that what they told you? You’re nothing like me.” She lifted her chin in the air, inhaling deeply. “You have a twin.”
“My brother, Rhys.” I motioned toward him, but Teresa just kept staring at me.
“It’s unfortunate.” She sighed. “But without darkness, there can be no light.”
Rhys stood up. “This was a bad idea.”
I could tell by the way he looked at me that he finally got it. He understood what it meant to be a conduit. What it meant for me.
“Teresa.” Dane leaned forward. “We’re hoping you can help us.”
Teresa’s eyes shifted to Dane. “I know you. I know what you are. You’re Spencer’s bastard.”
“Yes.” Dane flinched at the word.
I couldn’t believe it. She didn’t even know he was her son. Would I eventually forget about my mother and Rhys . . . and Dane?
Dane looked into Teresa’s eyes. “You’d mentioned Ashlyn’s marks when you met her at the Mendoza lodge. Can you tell us anything about them . . . why they’re not working anymore?”
“You’re marked, too.” She seized Dane’s wrist, turning it over to expose his brand. Then she took my hand, forcing it into Dane’s. “You may carve out your heart and throw it into the deepest ocean but it will remain there at the bottom of the ocean floor, irredeemable.”
Dane tried to pry her fingers away from us, when her eyes rolled back in her head and she started trembling. “He’s here. He knows what you are. He’s not what you think he is.”
“Who’s here?” I asked. I looked to Dane for reassurance, but he seemed just as disturbed as I was.
“Ash,” my brother called out in a panic as he stared out the window. “I think you need to see this.”
I broke free of Teresa’s death grip and joined my brother by the window to find the trees outside the cottage swarming with black birds.
I looked back at Dane, but he was busy whispering to his mother, easing her back in her chair, trying to soothe her.
“Stay here,” I said as I went outside.
Slowly, I stepped down from the porch. The crows stared at me from the trees, their red eyes gleaming, too many to count. The sound of their talons scraping against the branches set my teeth on edge.
“Scat.” I waved my hands, but they didn’t budge.
A crow let out a demonic cry and swooped down—Dane pulled me back onto the porch. “What do you think you’re doing?”
“He’s come for us . . . the last of the Larkins,” I said, remembering their presence at my mother’s studio. “I can distract them while you take my brother and Beth back to the lodge.”
“I’m coming with you.”
“You can’t.” I took his hand. “Rhys is deathly afraid of birds, he’ll never be able to make it back on his own.”
“Ashlyn, please don’t—”
“Let me help my brother while I still can, while I still know who he is.” My eyes veered back toward the house—Rhys and Beth were standing by the window. “No matter what happens, I need you to get my brother and Beth out of here.”
“We’ll all go together.”
“No,” I said a little too forcefully, and then lowered my voice. “I can’t leave without my mom. Promise me you’ll get them out.”
“I promise,” he said softly. “When the time’s right I’ll take them to the outer perimeter, but then I’ll come back for you.”
I looked down at the ground, trying to hide my feelings. If Dane knew what was good for him, he’d leave, too. He knew better than anyone what my future entailed.
He looked at me in anguish. “There’s something I need to—”
“There’s no time,” I interrupted. “You said you’d do anything to help me. This is what I need.”
He gave me a slight nod. Before I had a chance to change my mind, I let go of his hand and ran into the woods behind the cottage. The wail of the crows barreling down on me from above sounded like hell itself.
I caught a glimpse of a limestone ledge up ahead. I skidded to a stop, and the crows passed over me like a screeching freight train.
As I pressed myself under the ledge, the crows circled back, casting a dark shadow.