She nodded, and the others joined in. Seth stepped forward. “Susan ran this place.” He looked at Kholt and me. “I’m not sure if you remember her. She ended up one of Father Lionel’s wives—one of his favorites, actually—and he bought this place for her and then split his time between here and the ranch.”
I relayed what they had said for Kholt.
“Fucking unbelievable,” Kholt growled, and I felt the anger coming off him in waves. I reached out and took his hand, and he caressed my thumb with his.
Erin stepped up. “We all lived in this house.” She gestured behind her. “Susan lived in the main house you are all in right now. That day, Father Lionel’s lieutenants came and told us that the prophet wanted to have a special meeting with us. We were all so excited. We thought we had been chosen for a great mission.”
I felt bile rise again at the thought of them basically being led to the slaughter and choked it down as I repeated what Erin relayed. Kholt must have been feeling something similar because he squeezed my hand and moved closer to me.
Joshua put his hand on Erin’s shoulder. “We prepared and waited. When Father Lionel got here, he told us that it was time for us to meet the Divine. Initially, we thought he had some spiritual journey for us to take, but we soon found out that it was literal. Damien and Trent locked us in the room, and the next thing we knew, smoke filled the space. We tried to get out, but the door was too hot, and the windows were always barred. We soon suffocated.”
I could almost feel the air being choked out of my lungs and the scorching heat of the doorknob as they tried to escape. It nearly brought me to my knees. I couldn’t hold back the tears.
“Goddess,” I sobbed, “I am so damn sorry.”
“Did he ever tell you why? Did you ever find out after death?” Dev asked, moving closer to Kholt and putting a hand on his shoulder as if he could sense that Kholt needed some strength right now, too.
Seth shook his head. “We still aren’t sure.”
I noticed that Melissa and Maeve looked a little uncomfortable, shifting where they stood and stealing glances at one another. “What is it, ladies?” I asked the two of them.
Maeve closed her eyes for a beat. “I wanted to leave,” she confessed. “Lisbet was my best friend.” I heard Hanlen gasp. “After everything that happened with her and seeing how Balance of Light handled it—or didn’t—I felt differently about my time with the group and started looking into some things. And I got Melissa to help me.”
I was about to repeat that when I saw that Dev was whispering to Kholt.
I knew how hard this was for me, and IknewBalance of Light was evil. I couldn’t imagine what must be running through Kholt’s head right now being confronted by this on top of everything else that Turner and I had already laid on him.
Melissa looked at Maeve and then the others before turning her attention back to us. “We were starting to work with a local journalist just to see if he could help us piece some things together and figure stuff out, but I think he planned to expose the group for what they were.”
I saw looks of anger flash across the guys’ faces. “And you never thought to tell us?” Seth seethed, and I could only imagine what he was feeling right now.
“You practically signed our death warrants,” Joshua barked.
“I can’t do this,” Erin cried and disappeared, quickly followed by the guys. Poor Erin. I remembered how timid she used to be. How trusting.
Maeve and Melissa looked at me with sadness in their eyes, and I wished I could hug them. I wanted to show them how brave I thought they were. “Please, stop him, Starling,” Melissa said, the use of my old name causing me to flinch. Then she grabbed Maeve’s hand, and the two of them disappeared, as well.
Seeing what those women were willing to do, what Lionel didn’t allow them to do, lit a fire of determination in my gut. I turned to the group—my friends. Myfamily.
“Someone call Turner for me,” I said and watched as Aaron picked up his walkie.
“Control,” he said. “Turner, kid, can you come to the back of the house through the kitchen?”
“Hey, Aaron, this is Harper.” Her voice came after a beep. “Turner’s not actually here. He left to take a call outside. Didn’t want to interrupt us, though I had a sense that it was a call he didn’t exactly want to take. He should be somewhere in the front of the house. Unfortunately, his walkie is sitting in his chair.”
“Yeah, okay, doc,” Aaron said and looked at me with a shrug. “Thanks.”
“It’s all right. It can wait.” I turned to Dev. “I’m . . .” I started, really wishing that I would have been able to talk to my brother. It would have been a welcome deviation from what I faced right now. I didn’t think I could go into that building. I didn’t think I could handle the emotions and echoes that had to still be alive and well in there. The residual energy the other day had taken me out at the knees. Now that I knew what it was all about and who it involved? No.
“I’m not sure I can investigate the attached building, boss.”
He merely nodded and turned to Dakota. “Were you nearly done with what you needed to do at the front of the house?” he asked her.
“I was pretty much entirely done. I didn’t get much. We got some impressions of the house from my psychometry up there, but nobody came through for me, and I got nothing with my automatic writing.”
“Would you be okay taking over back here and in the attached building?”
“Absolutely. I’ve got you, Birdie.” She turned to me and then James. “You ready?”