“Why are you here?” I asked.
A cryptic smile flashed. “The better question is, why are you here?”
“I don’t know. I don’t even know how I got here.”
“Of course you do. You have a powerful gift, one that is constantly changing and evolving as your connection to the dead world grows stronger. You’re not the same person as when we first met, nor will you be the same when our paths cross again. But one thing hasn’t changed. You continue to align yourself with the one man who could be your undoing.”
I frowned. “Devlin would never hurt me.”
“Not now, perhaps. But who knows what the futures holds?” Darius cocked his head, studying me. “Do you think you’re the only one wrestling with a legacy? Do you think you’re the only one being guided by destiny?”
“What do you mean?”
“Once John Devlin’s grandfather is gone, there will be demands put upon him. Expectations that even you can’t imagine.”
“Tell me.”
“Not yet. Not until you’re ready. But watch your back, Graveyard Queen. You have no idea who John Devlin really is.”
“Wait!” I cried as he began to fade back into the shadows. But he was already gone and when I turned, Devlin and Mariama had also vanished, leaving me to my own memories and a troubling premonition that my future with Devlin had been doomed from the moment we met.
*
I shook myself out of the memory, the daydream...whatever it had been. The eerie sensation had lasted only a split second, but during that moment, I’d unconsciously taken Devlin’s hand. Now I turned his palm up, searching, finding and then tracing the tiny moon-shaped scar with my thumb.
He recoiled in shock, backing away from me as he stared at his palm in revulsion. Then, shoving both hands into his pockets, he paced to the windows and stood staring out into the garden.
Neither of us said anything for the longest time. It was strange how close we’d been one moment and now it seemed that miles and centuries of history separated us. I studied his rigid form, badly shaken by what I’d seen. By what I’d heard.
“John...” I said on a breath.
He turned with shuttered eyes.
I had no idea what I’d been about to say to him. Maybe I meant to ask him about his family’s history and the expectations that came with his legacy as a Devlin. Maybe I wanted him to reassure me that nothing from his past or mine could tear us apart. Instead, I shifted my focus to the tiny indentation just beneath his bottom lip. I’d wondered about that scar for so long. Maybe if I emptied my mind...
No, I told myself firmly. No more playing around with a power I didn’t yet understand.
“You’re looking at me very strangely.” His voice sounded strained, foreign. Did he have an inkling of what had just transpired? I didn’t understand it myself and I still wasn’t entirely convinced I hadn’t imagined the whole thing. “What is it?” he asked.
“I have some photographs I want to show you.”
“Of what?”
“Kroll Cemetery.” I turned to the desk so that he couldn’t see my trembling fingers as I tore open the package that Dr. Shaw’s assistant had left on the porch. The packet had been waiting for me when I got home from the churchyard, but I’d delayed my examination of the images until I’d shown Devlin the stereogram.
Now I eagerly glommed on to the distraction because I didn’t want to think about Mariama’s assertion that she would never leave Devlin or Darius’s warning that Devlin could be my undoing. I didn’t want to dwell on my evolving gift or the history of the Order of the Coffin and the Claw or the possibility that Devlin and I might never find our happy ending.
“Where did you get them?” he asked as he moved up beside me.
“Dr. Shaw had them sent over. He told me that Kroll Cemetery is thought to be a puzzle because of all the keys and seemingly random numbers engraved on the headstones. Now I can see why.” I sifted through a few of the pictures. “The symbols are unlike anything I’ve ever seen.”
Devlin picked up one of the photographs, turning it toward the windows for a closer scrutiny. While he studied the image, I studied his profile as something distressing occurred to me. Had he been thinking about Mariama earlier when we’d been so close, or had I entered a memory that was deeply buried in his subconscious?
If his dead wife had been on his mind, why? Why now?
“I’m not sure there’s anything mysterious about the numbers,” he said.
“What?”
“The numbers on the headstones. Most of the bodies were decomposed beyond recognition. The remains were probably numbered in the order in which they were found.”
With an effort, I tore my focus from the past and tried to concentrate on the here and now. On the mystery of Kroll Cemetery. “That makes sense, I guess, but I can’t help thinking those numbers are a code or a message. They have significance. They’re another piece of the puzzle.”