Page 40 of Kill the Beast
“Bellgaard,” Alderic said softly.
“Bellgaard?” she asked, getting out her chalk. “I’ve never heard of a place called Bellgaard.”
“It’s the name of an old country estate in the Niadosia Mountains.” He hesitated, then said, “Ragnhild told us to choose somewhere with significance to us or one of the victims. Happy memories as an added bonus.”
“I don’t need to know why you picked it,” Lyssa said, but Alderic curled his hands into fists, as though determined to go on.
“The Beast killed my brother at Bellgaard, the place we were happiest as children.”
It felt like the breath had gone out of her. “You lost your brother?”
“Yes. And now we’re even. A bit of me in exchange for the bitof you that you were forced into giving. I’m sorry, by the way,” he said. “I made that more difficult for you than it had to be. I should have just done what you said—like I promised I would—and acted as lookout while you went over the fence.”
“Yes, you should have,” she said, but all the heat had gone out of her voice. He had lost his brother, same as she had. Maybe that’s why Ragnhild’s bones had wanted him to come along. They were bonded in a way only those who had lost a sibling could be. Not that Alderic ever needed to know that.
“However, I amnotsorry that we were able to help that woman,” he said. His jaw was set, as though he were ready to fight her if she disagreed.
“I’m not sorry about that either,” she said. Alderic looked surprised, but it was true. When she was a child, she would have given anything for a handsome stranger to show up at their door and hand them all the money they had needed in order to save her mother. How could she begrudge Mrs. Jensen that miracle?
Then she frowned with sudden realization. “Wait a minute. How can the Beast have…” The wordskilled your brotherdied on her tongue. Thinking them was painful enough, but saying them out loud was unbearable.
She shook herself. Remembered that they weren’t talking about Eddie. Still, she didn’t like the idea of dragging Alderic down into despair with those words, either. “I have a list of all the victims’ names for the past two centuries. There’s no ‘de Laurent’ in any of the records.”
“My parents were very… private people,” Alderic said, the muscles in his jaw working as if it took immense effort to keep his voice so even, so free of emotion. “The last thing they wanted was for our family’s tragedy to be splashed around for everyone to see. They paid handsomely to make sure my brother’s death remained quiet.”
“I see.” Part of her wished she could have done the same, if only to spare herself the pain when an old friend like Dickie mentioned Eddie’s death, tearing her wounds open all over again withoutmeaning to. At the same time, hiding what she had been through brought its own kind of pain. “So, where in the Niadosia Mountains is this Bellgaard? Are there any towns nearby? I need to know where I’m going.”
“The closest one is Silverdell.”
Lyssa shook her head. “We can’t go to Silverdell.”
“Why?”
“Because I’m not welcome there.”
“More faerie-lovers?” Alderic asked.
“Miners. They hate me even more than the Children of the Moonlit Grove do.”
“On principle?”
“Not exactly.” Lyssa winced. “I, er… came across a knocker there a few years ago. Subterranean faeries that miners swear lead them to rich veins and warn them of danger, though they’re just as likely to slit your throat and rob you while your back is turned. It tried to steal my gear when I was sheltering from a storm, and I killed it. A week later, there was a cave-in that buried half the townsfolk, and the mine dried up soon after. The good people of Silverdell blamed me. If I show my face anywhere near there, there’ll be trouble.”
Alderic thought for a moment. “What about Reedshollow? It’s a little farther, but not terribly.”
“Reedshollow likes me,” she said with a nod. “I saved them from that redcap. The weather there is horrible this time of year, though—looks like you might actually get to use some of that rain gear you bought.”
He looked so excited that she almost burst out laughing.
CHAPTER
ELEVEN
THE WOODS AROUNDBellgaard were quiet the way forests are quiet when a predator is prowling through them, the birdsong hushed and expectant, the leaf-litter shuffles of small game gone still. As if there was something lurking out there and the fauna knew it, collectively holding its breath until the danger had passed.
Lyssa paused, scanning the path. The ground was still muddy from the storm that had been raging over Reedshollow and the surrounding mountains when they’d first come through the Gate, but the only prints she could see were their own.
Up ahead, Alderic must have realized that she and Brandy were no longer right behind him. He stopped and turned, his giant pack rattling and clanking with all the gear he had stuffed inside it, his brow furrowed in confusion. Lyssa held a gloved finger to her lips, listening. But there were no sounds at all, nothing to give away whatever creature might be stalking them.
