Page 45 of The Redd Key (Bone Coven #1)

“R aina,” Sarah screamed, running toward me as Bridget’s hair whipped around to see where I stood. I couldn’t believe it—of all the places to emerge from capture. Sarah grabbed me by the shoulders and held me at arm’s length. Her eyes frantically searched me. “Are you ok? Where have you been? We were just going to ask the Cove for help tracking you. Jeff never answered Bridget and we couldn’t reach Eamon.” Her voice pitched as she spoke through her cries. She looked over my shoulder, where Bridget was now investigating.

“You scared the shit out of me,” Bridget called to where I stood. “My goodness, I had no idea this tunnel was back here. Were you in there this whole time? It’s been so long! We haven’t stopped looking for you.” Her voice broke, revealing the emotion she felt under her stoic face.

Both of them paled in the moonlight, as if they saw a ghost. This moment was like an out-of-body experience. At the heart of the cove, a ritual pyre nested.

“I was taken,” I choked; the words rotted in my mouth. “Cole…”

Horrified, they led me away from the edge of the tree line to the center of the cove.

“What do you mean by taken?” Bridget glowered at the thought. She smoothed the matted hair away from my face.

“It’s hard to remember, but after Lydia…” My voice trailed off, and I swallowed hard. “That night, I was in my apartment, and someone—Cole—got in. All I remember is that it went dark, then I woke up in the craziest cell, like something out of Pirates of the Caribbean.” My forehead was slick with sweat, and I wiped it away with the back of my hand. “I just…escaped.” Bridget’s eyes flew back to the pines from which I emerged. Sarah shook with silent sobs and just kept holding my face and shoulders.

“We have to go…now,” Bridget urged, and Sarah shot her a confused look. “Cole might be coming.” With that realization, my stomach dropped. She was right. And who knows what he would do once he found me. It was impossible to know how much time had passed since I left the cavern.

Limbs of trees twisted around boulders, wilder and more overgrown than ever. Thorns ensnared us, and roots tripped us as we clawed our way back to Bridget’s car. It felt as if the woods didn’t want us to leave.

“Did he say what he wanted, or why he took you?” Sarah’s voice was still shaking. “I just don’t understand why anyone would do that!”

“Really…Cole?” Bridget uttered under her breath.

“I never got a reason. He wasn’t really into talking,” I said, and Sarah’s eyes flew open.

“Then what was he into , Raina?” Her voice pitched as she gasped at imagined scandal.

“Ew, Sarah, I’m sure it wasn’t like that,” Bridget huffed. I felt my face immediately flush at the memory of Cole on top of me; his whispers against my ear. “Unless it was…” Bridget gave me a side-eye full of pure judgment.

“No!” I threw my hands out when I stumbled over a log and immediately got whipped on the forehead by a twig. “Ack! He just didn’t hang around to chat. He’d leave meals when I was asleep. Though, we did speak a little. He never really got into why I was there, why he took me.” I rubbed the stinging welt.

“You must have been so scared,” Sarah breathed heavily.

“Yeah, for sure,” but the words didn’t feel right. I don’t think I actually feared for my safety at any point. If anything, I was grateful, thankful to have gotten a break from the locket…and from myself. The thought lingered as the road became visible. “It was a really strange place, and you won’t believe what he had in the cell with me.”

Bridget and Sarah turned to look at me, stopping on the unkempt path. Bridget raised an eyebrow and subtly shook her head, urging me to continue.

“It’s going to sound ridiculous, but it was like I stumbled upon buried treasure. He had mounds of silver and gold coins, stored in crates and trunks. Incredibly aged wines, maps, portraits, and furniture. Goblets, chalices, silverware, ornaments, and jewelry.” My eyes sparkled with the recollection. “And so many books.”

“That…is super weird.” Bridget shook her head. “How and why does he have all of that?”

“I don’t know. He obviously stole it all, right?” I asked. Sarah shrugged, and I went on, “It was such an odd place to store so many priceless artifacts. And I think it’s all from that pirate Bellamy’s shipwreck. I found a bronze nameplate with ‘Whydah Gally 1715’ stamped onto it.”

Bridget coughed out a laugh in disbelief. “I’m sorry, what did you just say?”

“I said—”

“There is no way he has the treasure from Black Sam Bellamy’s ship. Impossible!”

“I don’t know, B. Cole is basically a pirate himself, right? He’s always on his boat; he could have discovered it.”

“No, Sarah. That whole area, where the Whydah sank, is already a part of conservation efforts. The rights to the site of the wreck are owned by the family who discovered it in the eighties—you can’t just jump into the water and claim what you’ve found.”

“He didn’t mention how he acquired his collection, but I definitely accused him of kidnapping me to get to mine.” I flinched from the daggers they shot at me.

“We made sure no one went to your apartment,” Sarah said.

“I asked Chris to do a well-check. That’s how we knew you were missing. Cole never went back—he didn’t take anything,” Bridget offered.

“That’s not true,” I said as we stepped onto the curb. “He has the locket.”

“That might not be a bad thing.” Sarah placed a tender hand on my elbow.

“You’re right,” I replied, wincing. “What’s most bizarre about it, and I feel like a complete idiot for admitting this.” My stomach twisted, and they watched me expectantly, “The door didn’t even have a lock.” I cringed, bracing myself for them to tell me how incredibly stupid I was how I embodied the classic role of the helpless damsel. But I never had the chance.

“Oh my god, Raina!” Someone yelled as we reached Bridget’s car. It was Griffin; he ran toward us, stopping abruptly when he registered the messy state of my clothes and hair. “Wh—what happened to you?” He swallowed hard, eyes welling with concern. Biting his bottom lip, he pulled me close to his chest. With his face buried in my hair, he exhaled, “I’ve been so worried, all of us have been. Where have you been?”

“What are you doing here?” My question went unheard as Bridget spoke up.

“Cole took her,” she explained. Her face was smooth as stone as she looked up at Griffin. “He had her this whole time.”

“Cole?” He looked down at me, still in his embrace. “Why would he take you? Does he even know you?” He tightened his hold. “Anyways, I’m just so relieved you’re alright.” He stepped back and gave me a slow once-over. “You are okay, right?” he inquired. His eyes searched mine, and the worry in them broke my heart. I nodded, and he exhaled, pressing a kiss on my forehead. “Okay, we need to report this. Cole needs to be brought in.” He pulled out his cell phone while sliding a hand on my back to usher me toward his SUV.

“I can drive her, if that’s ok,” Bridget sharply offered.

“Yes, of course,” Griffin quickly agreed, studying the hard look on her face. “I will call Chris and give him a heads up. We can cut through Bennett Forge Park and head straight to the police station.” Griffin cupped my cheek. “I don’t know what I would have done if I lost you.” His throat tightened, and then his lips met mine. The kiss was slow, but deep. The emotions behind it caught me off guard , and I melted in his hands. Before I could even kiss him back, he pulled away and looked at Sarah and Bridget. “I will follow you, just in case Cole appears.” The three of us nodded and got into Bridget’s crossover.

“Do you think he’s going to come after you?” Sarah asked once the car door shut.

“I wouldn’t think so. He is likely going to disappear from the island. I mean, wouldn’t you run if the person you kidnapped escaped? He must know I would go straight to the authorities, right?” An unsettling feeling grew in my stomach. Betrayal. Somehow, my heart twinged with the thought of Cole being arrested. He didn’t mistreat me. He didn’t threaten me. Honestly, the entire time I was in the cell, I mistreated myself, telling myself I deserved to be locked away after what I’d done to Lydia. I may not have pushed her off that cliff, but I didn’t grab her. I might well have killed her with my bare hands. Shaking the morbid thought from my mind, I redirected the conversation. “I found something while I was down there.”

Bridget skewed her head toward me, and Sarah leaned forward between the front seats. The road was slick with melted snow, and I noticed the white banks built up along the curb. The winter storm must have continued while I was in the cell. I checked the mirror, and Griffin’s SUV was a few yards behind us as we took the bend toward Bennett Forge Park.

“There was this journal. I’m not sure how it’s possible, but it belonged to Sam Bellamy.”

Sarah gasped, “Black Sam’s?”

“What other Sam Bellamy do we know of, Sarah?” Bridget asked, snorting.

Being with the both of them, even after everything that happened on the bluffs, gave me a sense of safety I hadn’t felt in a long time. The causal banter was a welcome reprieve, even amidst such an intense and confusing time.

“Yes, the pirate. But the dates didn’t make sense. We saw in the library that his fleet sank in April 1717. This journal was dated beginning in December of that year.”

“Not his entire fleet,” Bridget led. “I think only two of them sank, and the other two weren’t in the Cape.”

“So do you think that’s how Cole got all the items? His hidden stash is from the other ships?” Sarah piped in.

“No, because I found things specifically from the Whydah. Now, I’m not so sure that Black Sam was actually on the Whydah Gally when it went down.”

“That would explain quite a few things actually,” Bridget mused aloud, as she weaved carefully through the foothills. “The urban legends and folklore surrounding him and his crew must have been fueled by something. Perhaps he did make it out of that bay, and alive.”

“I read the entire journal, and I don't know,” I trailed, looking out the window. The trees were heavy with the wet snow. “I feel like I know him. Like Bellamy and I had met before. Nothing he wrote was surprising to me. In one entry, I read of a place where I was instantly mentally transported. A port on the Jamaican coast. I’ve never been to Jamaica; however, as I read his words it became a vision—I could hear and see the gulls, the aquamarine lagoon, and taste the spices in the air.” I let out a short breath. “He did not like that I read the journal.”

“Sam?” Sarah prodded excitedly, and I turned to look at her.

“Cole,” I laughed at Sarah, and all three of us finally smiled.

“What was Cole’s problem with you reading it?” Bridget asked as she drove toward the heart of the park, with only a few miles left to go.

“I have no idea,” but I remembered his reaction with my entire body, which involuntarily quaked. “He was just very, very upset with me.” I let out a breath. “I’m actually upset he took the locket , though.” I felt along my collarbone, missing the weight of the necklace.

“We will get it back at the end of all this,” Bridget said, decidedly.

In the side mirror, Griffin’s SUV disappeared before we rounded another turn, leaving plenty of room to maneuver the icy road. “I’ve felt…lighter without the locket though. It made me feel,” I searched for the right words, “out of control, almost like she possessed me. But now without it, I feel like a part of me is missing.”

“It’s enchanted with Aecor,” Sarah remarked. “I knew it the moment you brought it into the shop, and Anabel froze. By Lydia’s reaction, too.” We all fell silent at the mention of her—sorrow coiling in hush. Moments passed as Bridget cautiously navigated the way through the park. A sign was posted at a trailhead – Forge Ruins 1.75 miles west. The image of Griffin holding me as the flurries were suspended in the air flashed in my mind’s eye.

“There was Aecor in the cave.” I leaned my head against the window. It was cold on my skin. “I couldn’t use my power, but I felt it. It resisted me, hindering me from using my own power.”

“Do you think something else in the room was spelled or cur–” Bridget stopped abruptly. Something hit the windshield, slamming through the glass, and the car lurched to the side, swiping trees. The three of us were shoved forward. Sarah screamed, and Bridget cursed as she tried to regain control of the vehicle, sliding across the black ice and slamming sideways into the wide trunk of an ancient oak. I knew I was sitting upright, but the entire world felt sideways.

“Are you guys alright?” Bridget barked. I lifted my hand to my forehead and felt blood. Sarah groaned from the back seat, and the noise quickly evolved into a guttural scream. She pointed to the front of the car as the color drained from her face. Our screams bled together, matching Sarah’s.

An enormous head of a stag was on the hood of the car. The buck’s antlers spanned the width of the vehicle. They pierced the glass, merely inches from impaling us. Thick crimson blood pooled across the webbed glass, dripping through the cracks onto my lap. The sight was grotesque – the creature’s body was nowhere to be seen, decapitated.

As Griffin’s SUV pulled behind us, headlights illuminated the stag’s black, lifeless eyes. My seatbelt wouldn’t release, Sarah couldn’t get the door open, and Bridget was pinned to her seat between the long, slim spikes protruding from the creature’s head. Griffin’s footsteps crunched against the layer of snow. My head was spinning, and I could hear Sarah sobbing. Bridget’s mouth was shut tight as she panted through her nose, keeping her eyes up to the ceiling, avoiding looking the deer in the eyes.

The crunching stopped, and I didn’t hear anything except for the dripping of blood on my lap. Suddenly, a sound of rushing water filled my ears, like a riverbank filling from a flash flood. I craned my head and saw Griffin through the back window. I couldn’t see any water in or out of the car, but what I could see, brightened by the headlights, were his arms raised, coated in the scarlet liquid that leaked from the neck of the stag. Griffin’s mouth was moving, chanting. Aecor pulsed through me, through the car, and directly toward him.

“Fuck,” Bridget screamed, and I felt it too. It was like we were being submerged in the icy depths of a frozen lake.

“No, no, no,” Sarah cried as the car filled with invisible water. I reached out with my magic and felt it cower against the intensity of the blood. The iciness crawled its way up my body, bone by bone. I could see my clothes were indeed dry, yet I felt them cling to my skin, weighing down as if we were sinking. “What is happening?” Sarah shrieked.

“It’s Griffin, he’s doing this.” Bridget glanced at the rearview mirror. She let out a growl. “I can’t move!”

“He can’t be. He’s trying to stop this.” I clung to my words, but my head reeled at what was happening. Surely, Griffin was trying to stop what was happening. I lifted my chin as the creeping chill reached my neck. I took a deep breath as if I were about to dive underwater, then I felt the invisible force consume me.

Even though we weren’t physically submerged, floating hair strands danced in weightlessness. There was no doubt that Aecor was attempting to drown us. I fought against an unseen current, struggling to keep sight of Sarah; her face a deep russet as she struggled against the lack of oxygen. Bridget’s hand shot out to my wrist, and the look in her eyes broke my heart. Our Aecor did nothing against this attack. My chest fought the unnatural pressure building; the muscles begged for fresh air, and I gasped out involuntarily. The air bubbled as if water was actually filling the car.

When I looked back at Bridget, her eyes were shut, and her head was lolling onto her chest. A silent sob tumbled out of me. Sarah clawed at the door, desperate to escape, when she suddenly stopped. Her head slipped against the glass, and she folded over in her lap. My vision turned black with red prickling around the edges. Before losing consciousness, I saw Griffin standing outside my door.

His eyes were unrecognizable. And his smile, the last thing I saw...was colder than the icy burn that filled my lungs.