Page 78 of When Bones Whisper
“I knew your family were evil,” Charles shouted, and the rest of the guests fell silent.
“That will be enough from you,” Charlotte snapped, forcing him to his knees with a wave of her hand. The spell fell over him, and she looked at Alexander, who rushed to Charles’s side, ready for her orders.
“Stop the rest of them from leaving,” Katherine urged, pulling back Charlotte’s focus. “If you let them go, they will run to the authorities. Do you wish to bring more innocent people to this manor?”
She swallowed thickly, looking around at the carnage and blood splatters up the walls. Her limbs jerked unexpectedly.
Katherine bit her lip. “You can’t hold this much power for long. Release it.”
“It’s mine.”
Nathaniel’s voice floated into her consciousness, but it wasn’t out loud. It was in her head.
It’s not yours. It’s the spirits.
Her jaw slacked. “How did you do that?”
It’s the bond. It’s stronger now.
She blinked twice, shuddering at how he felt in her mind, how his deep voice caressed her darkest thoughts, especially the ones where she imagined slicing open the throats of Charles Eringhorn and the rest of his family.
“Get out of my head.”
Katherine’s eyes darted from him to her. “Enough of this. Charlotte, hold the boundary spell and don’t leave. For all our sakes.”
“I’ll take her to the cellar with Alexander,” Nathaniel stated. “Zachariah, Irene, kill everyone else here, except for Baron and Baroness Ellenwood.”
They didn’t try to leave, like the rest, and she realized they already knew what Nathaniel and Alexander were. The others attempted to sink into the shadows.
Charlotte panted, flexing her fingers, holding steady. “Don’t hurt them.”
“Then what would you have us do?” Nathaniel asked. “Let them go so they can tell everyone what happened here, and that you’re a witch. Your manor will be burned to the ground.”
“Persuade them. Bribe them. Whatever it takes. No one else should die today,” Charlotte told Nathaniel, her chest heaving. So much murder had already happened. The heavy energy of the souls who lingered slowly suffocated the room. “You speak of wanting to be mortal, yet you act like a vampire. You rely on it. You cannot just kill every problem.”
“Those problems,” he said, jaw clenching, pointing at the guests, “will come back to haunt us. To haunt you, more specifically.”
Katherine tilted her head, sighing. “I can make them forget what happened tonight. I agree with Charlotte. There has been enough slaughter.”
She watched Katherine walk over to the guests, her voice faint as she spelled each of them, staring into their eyes with her hands on their shoulders. The power in the room slowly waned. A hazy look washed over their expressions and one by one, they left the room, as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened, not even looking at the body parts all over the floor.
A dark figure caught Charlotte’s eye from across the room, just beyond the pile of bodies. Her heart palpitated when she spotted Duke, darting through the ballroom and toward them.
“Duke!”
Yowling, he pounced through the air, grabbing the cockroach with his paws. Getrude’s familiar wrestled underneath his strong legs. With one crunch, he bit into the insect, tearing the body apart. Shadows released from its body, swirling into the air before seeping into the ground in a shimmer of black.
The last time he’d done that, she stopped him. With a shake of her head, she said, “I’ll never doubt you again.”
He looked at her with wide yellow eyes as he devoured what was left of the cockroach.
After releasing the power back into the Realm of the Dead, Charlotte could barely keep her eyes open. The entire thing felt wrong. She had siphoned the ghosts just like Gertrude had done to her ancestors and family, although, the spirits tonight had consented.
Katherine and Nathaniel reappeared after dragging Gertrude’s body away, who unfortunately had returned from the dead, while the others disposed of the body parts.
Charlotte turned to face Nathaniel. “Are we going to talk about what happened earlier?”
His eyes darkened. “Not tonight.”
