Unspoken (Shadow Falls: After Dark #3)(96)

“Chase?” she said. Panic filled her eyes. Then she looked back. “Kylie, look who’s here. Chase. Come talk to Chase.”

Kylie appeared at the witch’s side. “Hi, Chase,” she said, but like her friend she appeared … not herself.

“Do you know where Della is?”

“Nope. Don’t have a clue,” the witch blurted out. And her heart did a tumble.

His gaze shot to her wide hazel eyes.

Kylie cleared her throat, obviously trying to communicate to the witch not to lie. But it was too late.

“Is she okay?” he asked the witch.

She nodded.

“Is she here at the school, or did she go out?”

Her head didn’t budge. But her eyes cut to the right to peer at Kylie. “It’s your turn.” Then the witch ran off. Disappearing into a bedroom.

Chase looked at Kylie.

“What’s going on?” he asked.

“Oh, Miranda acts weird like that sometimes,” she said.

He studied her. “Where’s Della?”

“I’m not sure exactly where she is.”

Her heart didn’t skip.

“Is she with someone?” he asked.

She blinked. “She was alone when she left.”

Clever girl, but he knew a cover-up when he heard one.

“Thanks.” He walked off straight to cabin nine. To the cabin Perry, Steve, and a new were named Caleb were staying.

He knocked. Caleb opened the door.

“Is Steve here?”

“Nope,” he said, completely honest, and unconcerned.

“Do you know where he is?”

“Went out on a date, I think.”

*

Della stared at her father’s name on the file. That whisper of cold became a bone-chilling cold.

She reached down and pulled it out, but it was empty. Completely empty.

You keep looking for proof. It doesn’t exist. Why can’t you believe me?

Della looked up, frosty air hitched in her lungs when she spotted her dead aunt stretched out on the floor, a knife in her chest. Blood was slowly leaking out and turning the white nightgown red.

He did it. I see him over and over again. I feel the pain, the betrayal, and I see him pulling the knife out of my chest. I see him standing there with blood dripping from the blade.

“He would not do that,” Della snapped.

“What?” Steve asked.

Bao Yu jumped up. Go ahead, look. Look in every box there is. You won’t find it because the proof doesn’t exist.

Her aunt climbed up the metal rack and started throwing the boxes. The sound echoed in the big room.

“What … what’s happening?” Steve asked.

“Shit,” Della said, realizing that wasn’t a vision, that the boxes really were moving. She climbed the rack. “Stop,” she said to her aunt as she picked up and tossed another box. It landed with a loud thump.

Della moved in front of her and tried to catch the box, but she couldn’t.

Steve yelled something from below, but Della was too busy trying to rein in an angry spirit to listen.

Then all of a sudden six or seven boxes floated up in the air. And they started flying across the room. They hit the walls with loud thumps and papers started raining down.

Steve yelled to her again. Della jumped down. Her heart raced as she watched her aunt send more boxes flying.

“We have to go,” Steve snapped.

But it was too late. She’d been so involved trying to stop her aunt that she hadn’t noticed they had company until now. She looked at the officer standing in the door, a gun and a flashlight pointing at her.

“Don’t move,” the guard said. “I swear to God I’ll shoot.”





Chapter Forty

Della’s heart pounded against her breast bone. The guard was a good fifty feet from her. She debated making a dive for the window, but how would that be explained? And while she was fast, she didn’t know if she could outrun a bullet.

She cut her eyes to the window where Steve stood, waving for her to come.

The tall shelves hid him from the officer’s line of vision.

“Go,” she whispered.

“What?” asked the guard.

“No,” Steve whispered.

“Go. Get help,” she said and watched as some more loose paper fell from the ceiling.

“Don’t move. I’ll shoot. I swear I will,” the guard yelled.

“Burnett?” Steve asked.

“Chase,” she said without thinking. And in the corner of her eyes, she watched Steve transform back into a bird and he took flight.

“Is someone else with you?” the guard asked.

“No one else,” Della said to the guard and raised her hands. “Just me. Little old me.” The ghost tossed another box from the top of the rack and it crashed at the guard’s feet.

“Who else is here?” the guard asked, looking at the top of the rack.

“Just me,” Della said again and glanced up at the ghost. Please stop it. Please.

The next box that came down hit the guard on the head. Della saw him lose his footing as if slipping on a banana peel. His feet came out, his arms extended.

And right then the gun exploded.

*