Gallows and Ghouls by Katie May

Author:Katie May [May, Katie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Expresso Publishing
Published: 2020-02-06T16:00:00+00:00

Dinner was a sordid affair. The tension could’ve been cut with a steak knife.

Karissa happily chewed her meat while Colt glared at her distrustfully. Papa kept exchanging anxious glances with Dad. When he looked at his youngest daughter, a crease would form between his brows and his face would pale.

But the silence was fragile, one word away from imploding. It wasn’t tranquil—it was the calm before a ferocious storm. We were just waiting for the knife to cut through skin.

“So is this it?” I broke in at last. Papa pulled his gaze away from Karissa, and Dad blinked at me. Only Colt remained diligently eating his turkey, head ducked. Me? I couldn’t stomach the food. Instead, I absently moved it around my plate. For all I knew, it was poisoned.

Death by turkey. What a way to go.

Didn’t the Shadow Man have more originality?

“What do you mean?” Karissa asked primly, dabbing at her lips with her cloth napkin.

What the hell was this? Did a fifty year old woman decide to occupy the body of my baby sister? Karissa was many things but poised and elegant weren’t any of them.

“The Shadow Man kidnapped my family, killed the men I love, and lured me to the underworld...all to play dinner party?” I released a humorless laugh.

“Men?” Papa snapped. Of course that would be what he heard.

Dad choked on his bite of turkey. “Love?”

“Killed?” Colt’s head whipped up to stare at me. Whatever he saw on my face made what little color remained drain from his cheeks. “Phoebe?” His voice was a hushed murmur as his hand absently fiddled with the napkin.

“She’s grieving,” I said gently. “But she’s strong.”

“Ty or Ian?” Colt pressed.

“Ty,” I replied, lowering my gaze. When would it ever stop hurting? When would it ever not feel like a bowling ball was being dropped on my chest?

At least he was with Ian now. Maybe they would be able to get some peace. Ian needed to know that Ty’s death wasn’t his fault, and Ty needed to understand that it was my choice to surrender to the Shadow Man.

“Dinner party,” Karissa snorted, resuming her languid eating. She held her fork in the air and pointed it in my direction. “This is a family event.”

“The Shadow Man isn’t family,” I replied snidely, crossing my arms over my chest. “He’s a monster. The devil. And he doesn’t care about you or me.”

Anger briefly flickered to life in Karissa’s dark gaze. She took a deep, calming breath, eyes fluttering shut, and when they reopened, they were hewn from ice. Somehow, that scared me more than her fury.

“He won’t be spoken to that way,” she said softly, and a coy grin played on her lips. She turned to diligently cut up her steak, and my eyes were drawn to the rope around her wrist.

Rope?

I followed it upwards with my eyes, mouth dropping open when I saw the wooden sticks crossed above her head. Four strings cascaded down—two encircling her wrists and two around her ankles. She looked like…

A puppet.

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