The Madness Below: An Alastair Stone Urban Fantasy Novel (Alastair Stone Chronicles Book 20) by R. L. King

Author:R. L. King [King, R. L.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Magespace Press
Published: 2019-12-08T22:00:00+00:00

17

Verity didn’t speak until she and Stone had been on the road for several minutes, heading toward Shawdale. When she finally did, her voice was soft in the darkness. “Do you think we’ll be able to do this?”

“Do what? Get inside Maple Ridge?”

“No. Deal with…whatever’s out there. Whatever made all those kids kill those people. You know it’s got to be really strong, if it can influence that many people that far away.”

Stone had been thinking about the same thing, and not just tonight. “I don’t know,” he said at last. “I don’t think it’s influencing them from this distance—I think it placed some kind of compulsion in their minds when they were close to it. It’s entirely possible that committing the murders cleared the compulsion, and as long as no one gets near that thing again, nothing else will happen.”

“You don’t believe that, though, do you?”

“I don’t know what I believe. I’m hoping Ms. Lyons can tell us more, or perhaps the information I get back from Eddie, Ward, and Blodgett might help.”

She was silent again, leaning against the door and staring out into the night. The road they were on had only two lanes, with the trees lining both sides making it feel even more claustrophobic.

“Verity?”

“You know more about this organization than you’re telling, don’t you? The one those two guys belong to.”

As usual, her perception surprised him. He wondered if, in addition to her magical talents, she might have picked up some minor psychic abilities from her mother as well. It would certainly help explain both the empathy that made her so good with healing and her deft touch with mind-based magic. In any case, he couldn’t lie to her. “Yes.”

“Do you want to tell me about it? If I’m going to help you with this, I want to know all the facts.”

Now it was his turn to be silent. He fixed his gaze forward, squinting against the dazzling headlights of oncoming cars. There weren’t many tonight, but several of them apparently didn’t think they needed to cut their brights just because they saw another vehicle approaching.

“Doc, come on. Tell me.”

He sighed. “It’s not something I’m proud of.”

“That doesn’t make sense. You’re not connected with this organization, are you?”

“I’m not. But my family was.”

“What are you talking about?”

“I think I mentioned them before, back when we were dealing with the echoes back at the Surrey house. They’re called Ordo Purpuratus, which is Latin for ‘Order of the Purple.’ As in the color of royalty, privilege, and magic. As I said, I’d thought they died out years ago—the last records I have of them were from my grandfather’s day, and I’m certain—well, fairly certain anyway—that my father wasn’t involved.”

She twisted in her seat to look at him. “And you think they’re back?”

“I found their insignia on a notebook in Kroyer and Lang’s room at the Schooner Inn, when I searched it. I was shocked, as you can imagine. Not only did I think the Ordo was long gone, but I didn’t think it had ever made it over here to the States.

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