The Dead House

He said, “Oh, Kaitie,” and I said, “Yes.” I said, “It was you all along, right? You’re the Shyan.” He smiled gently and said, “It’s not that simple.” My whole chest was concave. He said, “It’s just a technicality.”


“A technicality? What do you mean?” I said. He said that nothing was ever that simple and that “all is fair in love and war.” “Why are you doing this?” I asked, and he laughed and said he wanted me. “I want you. I love you; can’t you see that? I want to free you. Why else all this trouble?”

“Trouble. Is Carly trouble?” I said. “Is Juliet trouble? What about John and Brett and Naida? Are they all trouble too?”

“Yes.” He said yes. So simple. So blunt. I couldn’t believe I was talking to my Ari. “I’m sorry, Kaitie. I don’t mean to sound so glib. Not at all. But I had to free you. You were trapped. They were keeping you hostage in your own double life.”

“What happened to you?” I said, but the words barely left my mouth.

“I am what I am,” he said, “and I love you more than anything.”

“No. No no no.” I told him that over and over but he just stepped closer and closer and whispered “yes” over and over and it was pointless and also important.

“I don’t understand. How did you know about all this stuff?”

“Army brat,” he said, smiling in a way that was not joyful, not at all. “Remember? I’ve lived in so many places I’ve lost count. When I went to the Orkney Islands, I met an intriguing woman. She used to live on Fair Island and knew Naida’s grandmother—had studied under her. She taught me a lot. I dabbled in witchcraft for a while, and some voodoo as well.” He smiled, as though remembering fondly. “But when I heard about Mala, I was intrigued. It’s much more ancient, much more potent.”

“What about the Grúndi? How could you mess with that stuff? How could you even think of using dirty conjurings like that?”

“That woman, Naida’s grandmother’s pupil—she had broader interests than Mala rituals. It’s the reason she left the island. She was the one who opened the door to Grúndi to me. I learned what she knew, and then it was time to move, yet again, and this time we moved to London. Grúndi central, if you know where to look.”

“How could you not tell me?”

“Would you have understood?”

I couldn’t reply. I was so confused.

“But… why take away Carly?”

“She was a parasite, Kait. She was a leech. She was draining you. Stealing half your life, making you miserable. We could barely be together. You were always hiding, always in shadow, always so sad and trapped and—you were a hostage. I tried… I tried to switch you first. Make her the night half for a change. I tried to keep things simple, knowing it would hurt you to lose her entirely. But you can’t do things halfway. It didn’t work. I had to go deeper. Do more.” He paused, his eyes intense. “Free you.”

Could someone love me like this? Could someone do so much for me because he really, truly does love me? Me for me, and not me for Carly?

“Ari,” I begged. “Stop it. Please stop it.”

He smiled sadly, stepped closer, touched my arms. When my dad told me we were moving to Somerset, I chose Elmbridge. I thought it was for Naida, and then I met you… You turned the world around. I knew in that moment, I would love you. Then: Carly is gone. “Carly is gone. You’re free.”

He didn’t know. He didn’t know that I had already found the door to that place beyond and walked through it and come back. Somehow this seemed important.

“I don’t understand,” I said. “Why me? Why Carly? What do you want her for? And the others? Explain it to me.”

He smiled patiently, and I wanted to hurt him even as I felt my love for him stubbornly refusing to die. “The others are expendable, for you. Everyone is, for you. I was trying to reach you. To give you what’s yours.”

I shook my head, struck dumb.

“You’re ready, Kait. You’re ready. Everything that was in your way is gone. You’re free, just like you always wanted. We can have a life together. We can be together. Do everything you want. Go to London, go to university. Have a life!”

I wanted to vomit, wanted to scream. He was so excited. I wanted it.

“And Carly?”

“She’s not what you thought, Kaitie. She’s weak, but she’s also selfish.” He broke off, sighing. “I don’t want to hurt you, but you have to know what she did.”

“Tell me the truth.” I couldn’t believe him.

“Last year Naida taught a few minor things to Carly—Mala things.”