Page 133 of The Sister's Curse

“I didn’t tell a soul. But I told Jeff and Quentin I wanted no part of any of this shit again.”

I exhaled. “Then what happened?”

“Things got better. Jeff’s dad’s company got a last-minute investor. Quentin didn’t get sent to boarding school, and my parents didn’t get a divorce. We had all of those things. Everything we ever wanted, and more.

“I thought this all was in the past, but weird shit started happening. We sort of figured out that Viv had cursed us, that she’d summoned something, just like we had years before. But whatever’s here…it wants more blood. It wants our blood.”

“I’m stopping the curse!” Sumner shouted. “Giving the Forest King another was the only way!”

“According to who?” I shouted.

“The spirits. I hear them…” He looked up into the trees, his eyes rolling white. Jesus, he was hearing voices. “The spirits are all around us. He’s here, now…watching.”

I didn’t turn around. I did not want to see if the Forest God was here, haunting this place. I thought he was gone. I thought…

“You’re going to pay for what you’ve done.” Jasper’s voice was cold and even.

Sumner turned his manic glare on me. “Shoot him. I’ll give you whatever you want…money, power…I can make it happen. You and your boyfriend can go free. I swear.”

“You’ve been helping out the meth heads with some Vapozene,to cook up some meth? Using them to do your dirty work? They took Viv. And dumped some more chemicals in the river.”

“The costs of industrial-waste disposal are fucking astronomical. I’m operating on the edge of bankruptcy. I had to cut costs somewhere.”

“You fucker.” Rain dripped down my chin. “And Viv cursed you. She thought she raised the Rusalka.”

“Viv cursed us all. She woke something up. The only way to kill the curse was to give another offering.” He was batshit mad, crazier than Viv. Maybe even crazier than me.

“And Nick?”

“Finding your boyfriend was an accident. We wanted to give you to the Forest King. But, y’know…the more the merrier.”

“The spirits told you this?” I demanded.

“This place is full of them.” Sumner laughed, spreading his arms out. “They’re fucking everywhere. Can’t you feel it? All that power…”

“I’m gonna kill you. All of you.” Jasper said it without inflection, cold as a fish.

I turned on Jasper. “That guy’s a babbling idiot, but you…did you kill those people?”

Rain swept down in sheets, and Jasper had to shout to be heard above it. “Go home, Koray.”

“Fred, did you kill those people?” Rain hammered my scalp and arms.

He refused to answer me. “Koray, you’re a good cop. You don’t need to be a part of this.”

“I can’t let you do this, Fred.” I said it listlessly, though. I was supposed to say it, right?

“I’m supposed to be dead,” he said quietly. “We can all disappear into the night.”

These fuckers deserved it, didn’t they? I looked down at the water washing over Viv. They’d almost killed Nick. They killed the Carson sisters. They were complicit in the abuse of those girls. Nick’s career and mine were dead; I wasn’t a good cop anymore.

Jasper gestured to the water. “Sumner, Lister. Both of you, into the river.”

He marched them into the water. Sumner was cackling, and Lister made a grab for Jasper’s gun. But Jasper shot him in the arm, and he howled.

“Get in the water,” Jasper said.

I turned my gun on Jasper. “Fred, stop it.” But I only whispered. I don’t think he heard me.