Seduction: A Novel of Suspense (35 page)

She was still running fifteen minutes later. And he was still lagging behind. He’d push himself to catch up, and then she’d find another reserve and sprint ahead. No matter how fast he ran, she ran faster. And then the unthinkable happened. He lost sight of her.

Dread mixed with adrenaline. What to do? Logic told him to just keep on, straight ahead. There was no way of knowing if she’d turned off. Another hundred meters and he saw the giant stones peeking through the trees. When he hit the clearing he didn’t slow down, and just missed tripping over her.

Jac lay prostrate in front of an outcropping of ancient rocks.

This was the circle of stones he’d been alternately terrified by and fascinated by as child, and which he most often gravitated to as a teenager. Even though it sometimes frightened him to be here, this was where he came to be alone. To think. To weep. This was where he felt the most in touch with himself. Even if that self was in hell.

At the far end of the circle, a dirt tunnel led to a shallow hollowed-out cavern. When he was a kid, he almost thought he could hear voices in there sometimes, echoes of people speaking, even though he knew no one was there. No one could be. The rock temple was a famous landmark on the island but few people visited because it was difficult
to get to. Deep in a forest, access to it passed through land owned privately. You had to trespass to get to it.

He and Jac technically would have broken the law to get here if they were anyone else. But the stone edifice dug deep into the earth was on the Wells in Wood land.

Jac had taken him on a five-kilometer run, right back to his own home.

He watched her now, lying on the ground, her back racked with sobs. Her cries haunting yet somehow beautiful. An operatic aria of grief. It was a song to the dead, he thought. Although he wasn’t sure how he knew it, he was sure of it. She was honoring those long gone with a keening that bypassed his intellect and reached him purely emotionally. A song that rose to the heavens, implored the spirits, defied time.

It was here, hiding in these shadows, where he’d smoked pot while he cursed his father for being so strict and his brother for being so bloody perfect when he, Theo, was never even close to being good enough. It was here he came when he felt the most miserable and frustrated. Where he allowed himself to wallow in his depression. The one place in the world where he felt more alone and bereft yet complete than he did anywhere else.

How had she known this place was here? Why had she come? What did it mean to her?

Jac lay on the grass to the side of the Celtic ruin. Minerva leaned over her, taking her pulse. Theo hovered nearby, nervous, concerned, watching.

“When was the last time she said anything that made sense to you?” Minerva asked.

“I don’t know.”

“Try to remember,” Minerva said.

He ran through the last hour. “In the cave, she picked up a totem and was talking about how similar it was to something the ancient Egyptians buried their dead with.”

“And then?”

“She sort of disappeared. Not literally of course. But she was looking off into space and not responding to anything I said. And then the few things she said didn’t make any sense or even sound like her talking.”

“What did she say?”

“Gibberish. Nothing I could understand. No, that’s not true. She said a word, maybe a name: she said
Brice
a few times. At least that’s what I think it was.”

Minerva was listening, nodding.

“Do you have any idea what’s wrong with her?” he asked.

“Not really. She seems drugged, but you said you didn’t see her take anything. Did she drink the water in the cave?”

“Not that I saw. But even if she did, could water do this?”

“The water could be tainted with goodness knows what. Or there might even be fissures in the cave with hallucinogenic gases escaping that she inhaled. It’s not unheard of at all on the island.”

“But I’m okay.”

“She could be more susceptible for any number of reasons.”

“Can you help her?”

“I should be able to. None of her vital signs are worrisome. Move back a little and be quiet. I want to try to talk her out of it, but for it to work I need her to hear my voice without any distractions.”

Reluctantly, Theo walked off and leaned against an oak tree, close enough to give his aunt room but still allowing him to see and hear what was going on.

“Jac, I want you to listen to me. It’s Minerva. I want to help you.” She was speaking softly, rhythmically, in an almost singsong voice. “I want to help you. I want to find you and help you back.”

Jac remained unresponsive. Her eyes were open but she didn’t seem to be focused on Minerva. She was still weeping, but silently and more gently now. A steady stream of tears like a late-afternoon rain.

“Jac, all you have to do is listen to my voice,” Minerva chanted. Her cadence was soothing even to Theo. And she was swaying a little too, like a human metronome, he thought.

“I want you to know you are safe. I’m here and Theo is here. And we care about you and can take care of you, no matter what is wrong. We can help. You don’t have to stay where you are. Even if you think you’re trapped, you’re not. I can bring you
out. Just listen to my voice. Listen and let go of your fears. Listen and let me help. Listen and I will pull you out of where you are. Just listen to my voice. My voice is a powerful thread made of spun gold, twisted with copper, as strong as a tree trunk. Just listen to my voice and grab hold of it. Feel how strong it is? It’s so strong that if you are holding it, I can pull you out of wherever you are. Just relax, and listen, and hold on, and I will pull you out. Just listen to my voice. I’m pulling you out. You can feel yourself being pulled back. Back to where we are. Where Theo is. Where I am. Keep holding on.”

Theo thought he could see some change. Jac seemed to be leaning forward a bit. Swaying slightly to the rhythm of Minerva’s chant.

What was his aunt doing? Hypnotizing her?

“You’re going to be fine now, Jac. I have one end of the thread and you have the other, and I’m pulling you up. You’re surfacing. Up. Up. Out of the dark place where you’ve been trapped and into the light. Theo is here and waiting for you, and we’re going to go back to the house and have dinner and be together. You’re going to be fine. And safe. Just listen to my voice. It’s a strong, strong thread that is pulling you up, pulling you out of the dark. You’re not to be scared anymore. Or sad. Or worried at all. You’re going to be fine. Just hold on to the thread.”

Something was breaking inside Jac. She didn’t understand the feeling or where it came from, but she had never experienced anything like this before. This wasn’t like coming out of the hallucinations she’d had as a girl in Paris or this past summer. Those were easy transitions. She would just step past the dream and be back to being herself, and remember it all clearly.

But not this time. She wasn’t sure who she had been or even where she was. As the impression of leaves and trees and water and rock came into focus, all she could think about was how she wasn’t ready to leave this place. Wasn’t done mourning. Someone she loved had died here. And she couldn’t go out in the world yet. Not without him.

No. That was wrong.

This was where someone she loved had lived.

“Jac, hold on to my voice.”

The chanting interrupted her thoughts. Yes, her name was Jac, of course, but that was only half of her. She felt as if there was another self. Two of them warring with each other—one wanted to stay, the other wanted to go.

“Hold on to my voice. Let my voice pull you up. You’re not to be
scared anymore. Or sad. Or worried at all. You’re going to be fine. Just hold on to the thread.”

Jac didn’t want to be scared anymore. Or sad. She pushed hard, as if she were shooting up from underwater. Breaking the surface, she took a great gulp of air. Focused her eyes in the direction of the voice.

A woman was sitting next to her, watching her. From the expression on the woman’s face, Jac knew something was wrong.

“What happened?” she asked.

Jac recognized the woman as Theo’s aunt.

“You’re going to be fine,” Minerva said.

Theo ran over, knelt down. “Are you all right?”

Jac remembered seeing his face like this once before. When? Why? Then she knew. At Blixer Rath. But under what circumstances?

“You both look so worried,” Jac said to them.

“You know who I am?” Theo asked.

“Of course. Why wouldn’t I?”

“And where you are?” Minerva asked.

“Not exactly this spot, no, but in Jersey, yes. Why are you asking me these questions?”

“You’ve been not quite with it for the last hour or so,” Minerva said in that voice Jac knew. A therapist’s voice. Giving only the most minimal information, making an effort not to influence the patient as she tried to calm her.

“How did we get here? I remember we were in the cave.” She looked at Theo. “We found that strange rock and the little amber totems and . . .” She had to think. “Oh. You found the Victor Hugo journal.” She searched his face. “You still have it?”

He nodded.

“You found it?” Minerva asked, astonished.

“We did,” Theo said.

Jac was still trying to work her way out of her confusion. She could smell Minerva’s perfume. It was of this time and place. Not of that darkness where she’d spent the last hour. A whole hour? Was that really what Theo had said?

“So how did we get from there to here?”

“Let’s go home to Wells in Wood,” Minerva said. “We can go over it once we’re inside and have some tea and cake. You’ve been through quite a bit for one day.”

Theo helped Jac up. She was still looking around, trying to get her bearings. “I thought we were down by the beach.”

“We were. But we took a long walk—a run actually. You’re a very fast runner, you know. I couldn’t keep up at all.”

“I don’t run. I haven’t in years. I swim but don’t jog.”

Theo had a strange expression on his face, as if he was hearing her but not believing a word she said.

“Let’s wait to talk about all this till we are back at the house,” Minerva said. “I’ll get the car and pull it closer. Theo, bring Jac down to the road.”

Theo took Jac’s arm to help her. They took a few steps, and then she stopped and looked back at the stone ruin.

“You said I ran here?” she asked Theo.

“Yes. We were getting into the car, down by the beach, and you broke away from me and ran off.”

“Did something scare me?”

“I don’t know. You didn’t say anything. Didn’t explain. You just took off as if you knew where you were going and led me right here.”

“This was his house. He lived here with his family.” Jac had shocked herself. She didn’t actually know who she was talking about, but there was knowledge about a man that she had now that she didn’t have before. The knowing was just there in a niche in her mind. The way the totems had been sitting in the rock, protecting the bones, waiting all this time to be discovered. To reveal their treasures.

“Who? When did he live here?” Theo asked.

Jac shook her head.

“You were crying when you got here. Do you know why?”

“No. Wait. I do. Something had gone very wrong. As I started to come back, I was still holding on to a terrible loss. As if everything that had mattered to me, that would ever matter to me, was gone.”

Theo nodded.

“You know the feeling?” Jac asked.

“I do. And I don’t quite understand how to explain this, but whenever I come here, and I have been coming here since I was a boy, I’ve always felt a particular loneliness. A profound sadness. This place is part of the reason I wound up at Blixer Rath. I was spending so much time here, becoming more and more depressed, until I . . .”

He stopped, kicked a rock with the toe of his boot.

Jac looked at him. She empathized with this man. She understood him in a way that she understood no one else she’d ever met. As if she were inside his head somehow. It was a very real connection. One she didn’t think she should ignore.

“Let’s go. Minerva will be waiting with the car by now. Once we get back, we’ll try to figure out what happened,” he said.

Jac was still staring at the ruin. Stones surrounded by trees. Ancient stones and holy trees. “You know exactly where we are, right?”

“Yes, of course.”

“So if I wanted to come back, you’d be able to bring me?”

He nodded. “But we’re not going to come back.” He said it as if he were trying to will it so.

“Before, you said when you were a teenager you’d come here all the time until—until what?”

“I tried to kill myself here.”

Jac was wrapped in a pale-rose cashmere shawl, sitting on the settee in front of the fireplace drinking a cup of tea laced with brandy. Just the way her own grandmother used to make it. The way her brother made it. The way she herself had made it the night when this excursion had really begun, in Connecticut, in Malachai’s house, when Jac found Theo’s letter.

Eva was in the kitchen making soup and sandwiches while Minerva and Theo kept Jac company. They were also sipping the fortified tea. Neither of them had asked her any more questions. At least not yet. But she kept running over the episode in her head. It was so confusing, and the answers that Theo had given her had only made everything more complicated, not less.

“Did you take the figurine?” Jac asked Theo.

“Yes.” He reached into his pocket and pulled it out. He placed it carefully on the coffee table. Jac looked at it but didn’t reach for it. Not yet.

“What is that?” Minerva asked.

Jac had just started explaining when Eva came out with a tray of cheese and tomato sandwiches. As Jac smelled the toasted bread, she realized how hungry she was.

While Jac ate, Eva picked up the statuette and examined it.

“This is very curious,” she said.

“Why?” Minerva asked.

“I think we have one of these somewhere in the house. I’ve seen something like it before.” She put it back, and Jac reached for it. She lifted it up gingerly, as if it were burning hot, and turned it over in her hand.