Belmary House Book Three (2 page)

“I only sent you away for your own safety,” Liam started, his eyes devoid of emotion, as if he was somewhere else altogether.

“You failed,” Solomon said with a shrug.

“I tried to find you,” Liam said weakly.

Ashford wanted to shake him, snap him out of whatever old memories he was lost in. This was their one chance. The only reason they’d gone to such lengths was so he could attempt to make things right with his son and he was about to screw it up worse than it already was.

“You failed,” he repeated. It looked like he went back to trying to unravel the spells and Ashford waved his hands at Liam to get himself together.

Liam nodded at Ashford, his face turning resolute. “I didn’t want it to end up like this,” he said.

Something about his cold tone made Ashford’s stomach roll over and he looked at Piper, who was staring blindly toward the middle of the room, her hands fluttering and her lips moving silently. He wondered if he could take a chance to flee for his weapon and began edging toward the door when her gaze locked on his as if she read his thoughts. She shook her head once and glared at him to get back in his corner. Apparently he was doing something, if only being an anchor, and he got back in place.

“Another thing you failed at,” Solomon said, laughing again, this time with no hint of finding anything funny. “Because it did end up like this. You abandoned me as an infant to be raised by a deranged criminal, which would have been enough in itself. But to leave me to find out about my foul abilities all on my own? Do you know how many beatings I got for moving things when I didn’t mean to?”

He shook his head, and advanced toward Liam, but was stopped by Piper’s spellwork. She gave a triumphant nod to Ashford, who stood stock still, forcing all thoughts from his mind so he could be a divining rod or whatever it was she needed from him. Solomon was too wrapped up in his anger for the moment to notice or care that he could go no further, and continued ranting at his father.

“What about the time I fell into the portal in Wales when I was fifteen? I was sent to the thirteenth century, and almost burned for witchcraft. That’s how I finally knew what I was. The only good thing about it was I was finally freed from my guardian. I had no one to teach me how to use or control my power. Did you think to have a joyous reunion? I’ve done everything on my own up until now, trying to free myself of these abilities, and today I will truly be free, once you’re gone.”

He turned with snakelike speed, knocking Piper to the ground with a flick of his wrist. She tried to get back up, but he waved his fingers and she grabbed her head and gasped with pain. The son of a bitch had been toying with them. Piper and Liam’s entire morning of hard work meticulously placing spells had been as easy for Solomon to rip through as if they’d been cobwebs, once he decided to do it. The pain and rage that twisted Solomon’s face made Ashford turn to Liam, afraid the man would be too torn up at hearing how his only child had fared without him to be of any help. Liam stood motionless, staring blankly once again.

“Stop it,” Ashford yelled, seeing it was up to him. “She’s not part of this. It’s me and Liam you want.”

He braced himself for a shock of agony, knowing Solomon wouldn’t kill him quickly, but none came. He blinked to see his old nemesis looking confused for a moment before turning back to pick on Piper some more.

She curled up against the pain he inflicted, and knowing he was a dead man already, Ashford raced forward and grabbed Solomon by the shoulder, punching him as hard as he could in the face. Even as he felt the satisfying crack of bone under his knuckles, a fiery jolt coursed through him, tossing him backwards to crash into the wall. His teeth rattled when he hit the floor and in a momentary daze from impact, watched helplessly as Solomon moved forward to finish him off.

“Whatever you did to stop me before is gone now,” he said gleefully through his teeth as he advanced.

Before he could figure out what that meant, Ashford felt another hot surge of pain, as if his spine was being ripped out, though Solomon was still several feet away. He clung to images of Matilda, determined that she be the last thought in his mind. He closed his eyes and silently apologized to her, wishing he could have done better to protect her. The pain receded as suddenly as it came and he opened his eyes to find Solomon frozen and shaking with rage at the new turn of events.

Liam had his hand out, palm forward in a halting motion, the blank look gone from his eyes at last. What replaced it, Ashford didn’t like at all. Piper scrambled to her feet and ran to Ashford’s side to see if he was all right. Her forehead was laced with drops of sweat from the intense pain she’d endured, and Ashford himself felt like he’d been trampled by a team of horses.

“That’s enough, Solomon,” Liam said, astounding them with the cool calm of his voice.

For a man who purported to have little to no experience in the use of his abilities, he certainly seemed to have a handle on the situation all of a sudden. He had a handle on his son, at least, as he moved his hand and forcibly made Solomon turn to face him.

“What is this?” Solomon gritted out.

“It’s a taste of your own medicine, my boy. This is the source of your power. Nothing would change even if you could kill me.”

Ashford hurriedly stood and swept Piper behind his back, fearing Liam as much as Solomon now. The man’s face had made a complete change. No longer open and friendly and somewhat lost looking, he now looked fierce and threatening. Piper looked up at him questioningly, but Ashford had no answers for her.

Turning his hand and closing it into a fist, Liam made a snapping motion with his wrist, causing Solomon to crumple to the floor.

“You say you were alone?” Liam asked, his words laced with venom. “You say you had no one to guide you?”

Solomon tried to sit up, clearly fighting with all his might. Piper gripped Ashford’s arm and he pulled her toward the door, hoping the two mad magicians could hash out their troubles on their own, but she pulled him back.

“Liam,” she said hesitantly, then cleared her throat to speak more assuredly. “What are you doing?”

Ashford dropped his chin to his chest. The naive woman clearly hadn’t got the message that these two were cut from the same cloth. As his Matilda would say, batshit crazy.

Liam ignored her, continuing to stare at Solomon with what could only be described as contempt. Gone was the purported desire to reach his son, make things right as he’d told them repeatedly. He was going to make something right, but it wasn’t what they’d discussed. Ashford seethed at the betrayal, confused by the complete turnaround. Liam took a step toward his son, looking like he wanted to physically kick him, but waved his hand again, sending more of the pain inducing hex at him.

“Do you want to whine some more about your terrible upbringing?” he asked. When Solomon only ground his teeth against the pain, Liam slowly circled him. “Perhaps you wouldn’t have been alone, perhaps you might have had a family that loved you, if you hadn’t murdered your mother. You idiot boy, you can’t free yourself from what we are. And since you refuse to accept it—”

Ashford thought the lights flickered, but it was just his mind adjusting to this new information. So, there it was. Liam had fooled them into thinking he was on a mission of mercy, when all along it had been revenge. He thought Piper might break his arm, her grasp was so tight, and he heard her gasp out a small sob at the revelation. Liam raised his hand over his head, ready to bring down the final killing blow.

“You can’t,” Solomon said, and even through the torment being inflicted on him, there was his smug smile.

“You can’t,” Piper said shrilly, at the same time, jumping out from behind Ashford. “This isn’t what you said you wanted. This is revenge, plain and simple, and I won’t have it.”

Ashford reached forward to grab her back, not trusting Liam if she got in his way and only wanting it over with Solomon. There were some people in the world who didn’t deserve mercy, and he couldn’t let kindhearted Piper ruin a perfectly good opportunity to rid the world of a rather large dose of evil.

“This sniveling coward has been traveling all over the ages, killing people for even knowing about the existence of magic. While I was turning London inside out searching for him as a baby, he came back and killed my wife.” Liam’s face was streaked with tears when he turned to Solomon. “Did you even know who it was, you fool? How much she loved you?”

He held his hand upraised, his fingers twitching as if they wanted to release the hex with or without his permission. But something held him back, and Ashford saw that Piper was somehow keeping him from doing it. He imagined all the power in the huge old castle had to be giving her strength.

“Then he should come to justice,” she said, drawing herself up to her full height of barely five feet. Bristling with indignation, she looked much larger than she was. “But you don’t get to decide that, not in my house.”

“I’m terribly sorry, but he has to go,” Liam said, grimacing against the invisible bond she’d put on him.

She dug in her heels and doubled her concentration in his direction, unwilling to let murder be committed in her library.

Solomon giggled, giggled of all things, and Ashford saw his smug look had intensified while Liam and Piper argued about his fate. The gangly pile of excrement knew something.

“You can’t kill me,” he laughed, managing to pull himself to standing, though it obviously caused him a great deal of pain.

“I most certainly can, and will,” Liam said.

“No, you won’t.” Piper foolishly moved to stand in front of him, and Ashford saw a light of decision spark in Solomon’s eyes.

Before the madman could act on it, Ashford leapt forward and yanked Piper out of his reach. Her concentration shattered, Liam was free to send his hex down on Solomon, but Solomon was faster, and before Ashford could turn back around from pulling Piper away, Liam was now on the ground, writhing and unable to breathe.

“No, you won’t,” Solomon taunted down at his father.

Rage was a powerful antidote, and Liam was much, much stronger than he’d let on. He had to have been to be able to rise and regain at least partial command of the situation. Solomon stopped laughing, not expecting such a formidable opponent, and quickly focused his concentration back on the fight he thought he’d already won. Some of his smug smirk was gone, but not enough of it for Ashford’s liking.

“What did you do?” he asked quietly, shocking everyone in the room into looking at him.

Solomon smiled so widely his bulging eyes almost closed. “Someone in here’s paying attention. I’m glad it was you, Ashford,” he said fondly. Ashford wanted to throw up.

“What’s he on about?” Liam asked, looking from one to the other. “What are you both on about?”

“He did something,” Ashford said, voice rising with agitation. “That’s why you can’t kill him. What did you do, you bastard?”

He lunged and hit him again, earning himself another electrical jolt of pain. He managed to stay upright this time when Solomon defended himself and clenched his teeth against the ringing in his ears until the hex wore off. He wanted to hit him again when he was faced with Solomon’s self-satisfied, almost tender smile.

“He’s so clever,” Solomon said. “A worthy adversary after all these years. I think I’ll be sorry that it’s over.”

“Nothing’s over,” Ashford said, glad Matilda wasn’t in the room.

He’d never felt so angry, bordering on out of control. If the wee arsewipe kept taunting him, he didn’t know what he was going to do. Fury rippled through him with every elevated heartbeat. He could feel it in his veins.

Solomon sighed contentedly and adjusted his coat. He had to be in terrible pain from the hexes still aimed at him by Liam, but was doing a fine job of hiding it.

“It’s Belmary House,” he explained, examining his fingernails. “If you kill me, you kill everyone linked to it, starting with the lovely miss Emma Saito. You know her, don’t you? Sweet girl. A mother, I think.”

Liam lowered his outstretched hand, a look of complete despair on his face. He squeezed his eyes shut and seemed to change his mind, doubling down on his efforts to hold Solomon.

“You can’t,” Piper cried, shaking with her own effort to stop him. “Not if innocent people will suffer.”

Liam wavered, and fear rose up in his eyes, clearly warring with himself on what to do. Ashford knew if Liam let go of Solomon they were finished. They’d not only be done for, so would everyone else in this house. Piper’s Highlander husband from the past, the batty red-haired woman, his darling Matilda. All of them. Something cold started to crystalize in his chest, maybe it was the pure hatred he felt.

“You’ve got it right,” Solomon said, his watery gaze turned to lock with Ashford’s, as if he could read his thoughts. It wouldn’t have surprised him. “All of them.”

At hearing that, Liam hesitated once more. Solomon lashed out and flung him aside, his body crashing into a window, glass breaking all around him.

“No, no, no,” Piper sobbed, the last of her control shattering like the window.

“Every single one of them.” Solomon advanced toward her, taking a knife from his jacket pocket.

The cold thing in Ashford’s chest erupted. He physically felt it springing out of him, a manifestation of his dark fury. Without thought or decision, he flung out both his hands, a white ball of light surrounding Solomon and freezing him in his tracks.