Page 32 of The Secret of the Three Fates

“Did they tell you that… just now?”

He laughed softly, tucking a stray bit of hair from my brow. “Haven’t you ever sensed the dead before?”

I shook my head. The only thing I was feeling right now was him. Not precisely the same thing. I stepped away from his touch and turned back to face the wardrobe. “I’m not sure I believe in ghosts.”

He started for the door. “Unfortunately, they believe in you. Now, if you don’t mind, I’m going back to bed.”

And with that unsettling statement, he turned and left, leaving me to an old woman’s things and the horrible realization that once again I was in far over my head.

CHAPTERFOURTEENA Mother’s Fear Returns

Iwas in France.

Knee-deep in water and blood, stumbling through the flooded-out trench. Fetid liquid sloshed up over my boots and wet the knees of my woolen jodhpurs.

My frozen fingers dug into the earthen wall of the trench, desperately trying to keep balance.

Each step harder than the last.

They’d told me he was just ahead. I could make out his shape at the opening. The familiar slope of his shoulders as he ran from something unseen.

Death and piss.

Metal and gunpowder.

All the familiar scents blending with the sickeningly sweet remnants of gas on the air. My teeth chattered hard enough that I could scarcely breathe. Rats, fat from feasting on both the living and the dead, followed along behind me, looking for their next meal.

I’d left my ambulance back by the regimental aid post with a handful of wounded already loaded in the back. The regimental medical officer said the soldier was just ahead. He was waiting forme and would come for no one else. Stubborn bastard, but I’d expected no less of him.

I knew him.

Had always known him.

Kitted-up soldiers pushed against me like high tide. Flooding up and over the top, met by flashes and the rumble of gunfire.

A match strike.

A hiss.

Sticky hot blood rained down my face, filling my mouth with its metallic tang.

Where was he?

A high-pitched whistle of a shell sailed overhead, followed by a blast that took the ground out from beneath me, sending bodies flying. Yet I was pulled ahead on an invisible tether.

He needed me.

I had to keep going.

Crawling over a sea of bodies, the duckboards gave way at last, opening up into an angry crimson lake.

He was there. Just ahead.

The dark water was up to my waist now.

Cold. So cold. My body grew weak but I could almost touch him.

Ruan.