Black River: The Bell Witch Series Book 6

Chapter 9

Moonlight glistened off of the stream as it bubbled over the rocky marsh, the still night amplifying the gurgling sound. Sitting on the bank, his feet a few inches above the waterline and the thick grass swaying around him, Cadwyn drew in a deep breath, trying to breathe in the dark serenity around him. Bit by bit, the raging storm of his thoughts dwindled, rendering his mind a barren echo chamber. It was a strange mix of distraught, enraged, and numb.

He didn’t see the hellhound coming until it was upon him. Before he could do more than flinch, the other two Ladies crowded in for his attention. Their combined efforts to make sure that he was okay almost pushed him back against the grass.

“I thought I told you girls to stay inside.” He couldn’t keep the affection from his voice.

“They’re with me,” Basheba said as she sat down with a good few feet between them. “Oh, don’t look so shocked. I’m a hunter. Of course, I’m going to be able to track you down.”

Cadwyn arched an eyebrow and turned his head. The hotel’s lights blazed in the darkness about a hundred yards down the road.

“Yeah, well, you’re hidden away down here and—”

“You just opened the door and followed the Ladies, didn’t you?”

Basheba shrugged and plucked a few blades of grass. “What are you doing down here, anyway? This is, like, the worst time to have a personal moment.”

“I wanted some privacy to talk with the kraken, like I said.”

“There’s nothing to talk about.” Basheba flung her arms out, almost hitting one of the Ladies that had settled down next to Cadwyn. “Can you please just let Abe do his thing so we can focus on the bigger picture?”

Cadwyn’s gut clenched, and he fixed his gaze on the bubbling water.

“Gah! Why are you bring so stubborn? Just think about this logically—”

“It’s not a logical issue!” Cadwyn’s outburst caught them both off-guard.

“Okay, I get that you’ve—can you please look at me?”

Cadwyn kept his eyes fixed on the water passing by their feet. “I’m a little too angry to do that right now.”

“Angry?” Basheba repeated, a tinge of fear in her voice.

“I have always had your back. I might not have always agreed with you, but I would say my piece, and trust that you respected me enough to consider my point of view. I have never demanded your obedience.”

“I didn’t mean it like that,” Basheba stammered.

“Yes, you did.”

“Okay, yes, but I meant it as in I really really want you to do this. I freaked out, okay? I heard a demon is attached to you, and my thoughts went right to Abraham. All those things that you said it did to your brother—my brain was bombarded by images of it doing that to you, and I freaked out.” She huffed and flopped her arms against the grass. “Come on, Cad. Abe threw some grenades into my entire world view back there, and you’re holding me to my wording choices?”

Cadwyn turned to her, studied her in the moonlight, and just felt cold. “Did you know?”

“Know what?”

He licked his lips and lowered his head once more, his fingertips playing across his temple. “I’ve been backtracking through my family tree, and, well, it gets a little muddled back when cousins used to regularly marry cousins, but I have noticed a trend. If Abe is right, then the vast majority of my relatives that you actually like have Allaway blood.”

“You think I knew?”

“Did you?”

“No!”

“So, it’s just a giant coincidence?”

“Yes.”

“And the fact that you chose me, a direct descendent of your ancestor, that’s just happenstance as well? What a happy accident. After all your other options were gone, you still ended up with someone who matches very specific criteria.”

“You make it sound like none of my relatives ever took it outside of the family. My mom married a Bell, remember?”

Cadwyn shook his head. “You wanted family. And you found one.”

“Yes, I did. Cadwyn.” She scrambled in front of him, sloshing into the shallow waters as she did so. She gripped the sides of his face with both hands, but he still struggled not to look at her. “The importance of family has been drilled into me since the day I was born—by both sides. But so much has changed over the last few years. Everything I thought was simple got complicated. All the things that were always just facts suddenly weren’t anymore.”

It made Cadwyn’s chest hurt to hear her sounding so lost. He tried to pull back, but she tightened her grip, sinking her fingers into his hair and holding him in place.

“Losing the Leviathan made me do some hard thinking. I love my family. I can give you a long list for why each one of them still means so much to me. And—Cadwyn, listen to me, just listen—genetics doesn’t fall anywhere on that. Abe surprised me as much as he did you. I’m not going to lie and say that there isn’t a part of me that’s delighted to hear I’m not alone anymore. It’s a primal thing that I can’t explain. But I swear to you, I didn’t know.”

A weak smile crossed her face when he finally met her gaze.

“The kraken wants to broker some deals. Not just with the bloodline; it’s open to all offers,” Cadwyn said, his voice flat. “I think we could use its help in Black River. I won’t force anyone, and I won’t agree to anything until we’ve talked it through. But I want to negotiate.”