It didn’t work. All her surrender did was bring her closer to the edge of the jungle.
Government men were up there, perhaps in response to the man attacked by the jungle monster. Had that man really been dead? Did the government know about the role-playing game happening in town?
Whatever their reason for being in town, it was a relief to see them. She knew for a fact they would help her and stop Jack.
But that wasn’t what happened. Jack took hold of her arm and pulled her around their barricades. No one even questioned them. It was as if they were invisible to the officials.
Ash shouted at them as Jack dragged her through the area, but none of them even blinked.
They had to be in on the game. And why wouldn’t they be? It was a big moneymaker for the town.
Jack let go of her arm and led the way into the jungle, toward the pits. He didn’t need to physically restrain her when she was somehow incapable of changing her direction.
The whole thing felt like a nightmare that she couldn’t wake from.
There was another barricade at the edge of the forest. Here again, Jack just sauntered past it unchallenged, and she was helpless to do anything but follow him.
Okay. Stay calm, she told herself. This was just part of the game. This wasn’t real. It was all some kind of make-believe.
Men in hazard suits were inside the first pit. She watched them work a moment, and realized they were collecting soil samples. The human remains were long gone.
She remembered Pablo and his friend telling her about the slaughter that had happened to those in the pit the night Merc had been injured, and she felt sickened at the thought.
“Yes, that’s right,” Jack said. “Your lover did this. Not only did he condemn those in the pit to a slow and torturous death, but when that was too slow, he made sure they were killed in the most brutal way possible.”
Ash shook her head. This wasn’t real. It was just a game. It wasn’t real. It wasn’t real.
“You don’t believe me? Then you should see for yourself.” Jack shoved her into the pit.
She screamed as she fell, landing in a slush of blood, mud, and human bodies. Just a moment ago, the pit had been nothing like it was now. A little muddy, maybe. But not like this hell. This was a vision. It wasn’t real.
But the stories her visions told her were always real.
The beasts from the mural that looked like werewolves were in the pit with her, destroying the people stuck there.
“And see your beloved Merc,” Jack told her from somewhere outside the pit. “He did this.”
Ash looked to where Jack pointed, seeing Merc standing with his arms spread, a look of pure joy on his face.
This wasn’t real. This wasn’t real.
Something brushed up against her hip. She realized she was on her knees in the muck. The thing moving near her was a man, dying from his wounds.
Ash screamed, and her world, her vision, her entire sense of self, went black.
Merc cleared the woods in time to hear Ash’s scream. He broke through Flynn’s spell on her, wrapping her in his own blanket of protection.
“Enough!” he roared at Flynn, but that only made his nemesis laugh.
“You think you ended the curse here, but you didn’t,” Flynn said. “It’s taken on a life of its own. A thing has the meaning people give it. After what happened last night, this spot will always be considered damned. You have yourself to thank for that.”
Merc waved that aside, unfazed by Flynn’s crazed words. He wished they could fight it out, but there was no point. Neither of them would let the other get through their own protective shields. Merc had the beginnings of a plan for getting Flynn when he was most vulnerable, but now was not that moment.
“Leave my woman alone. Your fight is with me.”
“So you’ve decided to claim her, have you?”
“Not your business. You already took my family. You can’t have her too.”
Flynn grinned. “I already am taking her, bit by bit. I will eat her soul, as I ate your family’s. Oh, how your little girls screamed there at the end.”
Merc turned away before Flynn could see how deep his words cut. He went into the pit and lifted Ash from the mud. Leaving her in a trance that numbed her senses, he carried her out of the woods and all the way back to the steps of the church.
Flynn’s words reminded him why he couldn’t claim Ash. He was going to have to wipe her memory of him when they got back to Colorado.
There was no way he could lose more of his heart and have enough left to live with.
22
The dark paralysis eased, lifting its crushing weight from Ash. She was confused. She wasn’t in the muddy pit in the jungle, but sitting on the steps at the front of the town’s church in the soft glow of a streetlight.
How had she gotten there?
Merc was kneeling in front of her, one big hand on her face, the other squeezing her knee. Damn, the man had two expressions: boredom and anger. His brows were angled sharply over his eyes. A wrinkle marred the bridge of his nose. She smiled at him and used her fingertips to ease the hard lines of his face. “Why do you frown so?” she whispered.
His eyes drilled into hers. “How are you?”
“Better than you, apparently.”
“Are you hurt?”
She shook her head. Why would he ask that? As quick as a blink, blurry impressions came back to her. The jungle. The pits and Jack’s glee at the suffering Merc had caused. Merc’s expression as he stood over the pit. There was more, but she couldn’t quite reach it.
Ash lurched to her feet. God. She had to get away from him. From Jack. From this whole stupid game. It was spiraling out of control fast. She wanted to cry and vomit and scream.
Merc slowly got to his feet. Those brows stayed as sharp points over his eyes. He looked at her like someone he hated. She turned and walked, then ran across the plaza, rushing for the cover of her room…the room she shared with him. When she neared her door, she patted her pockets for her key and caught sight of her hands, covered in drying mud. It was then she realized she was soaked with the stuff. She sent a panicked look over her shoulder. Merc was only feet away. She fumbled about for her key ever more frantically, but the door opened on its own.
She stepped inside, almost without intending to, as if a wave of energy moved her forward. Merc followed right behind her and the door closed.
Why was everything so fuzzy in her mind? There were thoughts she wanted to work through, but she couldn’t reach them. Her mind and heart were numb, so close to shattering.
The dirt that was on her covered Merc as well. They both stunk like a leaking cesspit.
She remembered a bit of what had happened, but it was like trying to capture a dream after waking. She hoped it had been a dream, because whatever it was, it was awful.
“I took the robe,” Ash told him. “I was going to return it, but Jack took it from me.”
“That’s okay. It wasn’t the real thing. I was going to use it to replace the one in the church.”
Why would he do that? That bloodied robe meant everything to the village.
It was my blood, mine to take, Merc said into her head.
Ash started to softly cry. “Your things were gone. I thought you weren’t coming back.”