Came Back Haunted (Experiment in Terror #10) - Karina Halle Page 0,74

what she did and what she was. He never could. That’s why he killed himself.”

“You think he killed himself?” I whisper.

His eyes go to mine but they give me nothing. “What is the alternative? That he went for a swim?”

“That he was compelled to do so,” I offer.

The tiniest smile creeps up on his lips. “So then you know about her.”

“I have theories,” I tell him. “But we need to hear the truth from you, about all of this. Both of you were lying to us from the start and we need to know why.”

His eyes flutter closed, his lashes dark, and he inhales and exhales deeply, like he’s suddenly meditating.

“I will tell you everything,” he says in a low voice, enough so that Dex has to lean in to hear him. “And when I am done, I won’t say anymore. I can’t. You have to trust me on that.”

I automatically push my hand into Dex’s thigh, silencing him, knowing he has a rebuttal to that.

“Okay, we will,” I assure him.

“And no matter what I say,” he says, his eyes still closed, “you should choose to believe me, for your own sake.”

His eyes open and now they’re not green at all but grey. The dull, desaturated gray of the Veil. My hand on Dex’s thigh turns into a fist.

“Dude,” Dex says in a whisper, “do you know that your eyes just changed color?”

“Did they now?” he asks, not looking amused. He looks to me. “I come from a long line of witches. This is one of the traits passed down.”

Witches. So Maximus was right.

“Your mother was a witch,” Dex says.

“She still is,” he says. “Just because she’s dead, that doesn’t mean anything.”

“Are…you a witch?” I ask. “Can a guy be a witch?”

Again, not amused. His eyes go dull. “I’m not your focus here. This is about the women. It’s about the line. I wasn’t lying when I said I was related to Edgar Allan Poe. He had a child out of wedlock, two years before he died. The woman, Jacinda, a witch, took his name regardless of the fact he wanted nothing to do with her. She then had a son and that son married a witch. And then they had a son and that son married a witch. And so on, and so on. Blood passed down through the generations, mixing with power.”

“So you really are a son of a witch,” Dex comments, running his hand over his jaw.

“Yes,” he says dryly. “Can’t say I haven’t heard that one before.”

“So your mother, a witch, then married a descendent of Poe. Obviously not Harry,” I say.

“No. She married my father, Victor.”

Both Dex and I stiffen in unison.

Atlas eyes us uneasily. “I take it you’ve seen him in the house?”

Dex clears his throat. “Uh, part of him.”

Atlas nods. “I see. So that was Victor. He was an awful person. Just awful. Abusive to me, to my mother, overly cruel. Hated animals, people, hated me especially. Hated everything and delighted in hurting others. He was a psychopath and there wasn’t a moment growing up where I didn’t feel like my mother and I could die any day at his hands.”

“Oh my god,” I say softly, while Dex loudly slurps his coffee, his attention glued to Atlas.

“He wanted to control her, he wanted the power she had. She wasn’t an especially powerful or prophetic witch, but she could work with the elements well. Water, fire, wind. Water especially. Birds were her familiar. But he hated that, hated that she could do things he couldn’t.” He takes a sip of his tea, looking ever so casual. “They were destined, you see. A witch is always destined to marry the sons of Poe. That’s the way it is. And after so many generations, you were bound to get a man with bad blood. At least she had me, so that was her reasoning. And she took the abuse over and over again until one day she couldn’t.”

He looks around the restaurant absently, as if reminding himself of where he is. Then he visibly relaxes in his seat and gives us a tepid look.

“She killed him.”

Fuck.

Samantha Poe killed her first husband. Somehow I’m not surprised at all.

“It was self defense,” Atlas continues with a shrug. “Except that it was done in a ritualistic way. The worst kind. Black magic. The stuff she wasn’t supposed to touch. Not to mention that killing him ruined any future chances of the line carrying on, in the event that I