“He certainly didn’t wantthem,” Baldy replied, gesturing to the headless bodies on the floor.
The hourglass stood about two feet high. Unable to manipulate it with my light, I tried moving it. But all it did was burn my hands with hot energy.
Niko appeared at my side. He tested it with his own hand and curled his fingers. “Strange indeed.”
A chair scooted back. “If you’re not here to swear allegiance to the master, then you’re not here.”
I turned on my heel, my tone civil. “There’s no rule about entering the premises. Besides, this isn’t even your house. Lenore Parrish still has rights to her property, and I’m pretty sure you don’t want to piss off the woman your leader is wooing. Not a great impression on the woman who might be your future queen.”
The redhead stewed on it for a moment before stalking toward the back of the house. “Get what you need and leave.”
Niko tried to grip the hourglass, but his hand went right through. Then he attempted to push energy into it. When he shook his head, it knocked the wind out of my sails. There went that idea.
“Weird,” I muttered, deciding we couldn’t dwell on it. “I need to run upstairs and make sure nothing’s stolen. Viktor would want a full report on the condition of her house. Wait here?”
He inclined his head, but he was studying my light. Niko obviously wanted to know what I was scheming, but neither of us conversed.
Following Lenore’s instructions, I hiked up the winding stairs. Unlike the pretentious décor below, the second floor had parquet floors in a basket weave pattern covering the upstairs sitting area and hallways. Antique sconces accented the walls, as did a few paintings with gilded frames. It carried a different scent from downstairs—a mixture of old perfume, aging wood, and something else I’d smelled in antique shops. The baseboards were dark wood, an antiquated look that carried throughout. A simple chandelier hung beneath a textured beige ceiling. Because the glass dome took up a good portion of the front of the house, the second floor had less space.
I entered the hallway and peered inside a bathroom at a claw-foot tub and glass block windows. Based on her extensive wardrobe, I was willing to bet she’d converted one of these bedrooms into a massive closet. But I had no interest in gawking at her belongings, so I backtracked out of the hallway and veered left into the library. The musty smell of old books reminded me of Gem’s secret room. They probably came with the house, and Lenore just kept them for show. I flipped a switch, and a Tiffany floor lamp in the right-hand corner blinked on.
A massive area rug covered the floor by the fireplace straight ahead. I imagined Viktor and Lenore cozying up on one of the brown leather couches that faced each other. Viktor would like this room. The books filling the shelves on either side of the fireplace and right-hand wall, the leather furniture—it was as if she had designed a room just for him. The heavy brown drapes on the opposite wall were drawn, but the room wasn’t dark. When I twirled around, I set eyes on the dark-stained oak liquor cabinet to the right of the door.
“Hello, darling.”
Behind the long doors, all kinds of booze. She kept wine on the bottom rack and glasses hung neatly above the counter. I unscrewed the cap on a tequila bottle and guzzled a mouthful.
“Fucking hell,” I muttered, not tasting a thing. “Can’t even get a buzz.” After another long gulp, I screwed the cap back on. “This is what I get for being social.”
I searched the shelves for the vodka Lenore had described. When I knelt down, I spotted a small bottle with a familiar shape. Like the one Houdini had given me, it was also pink, but this didn’t have a black label on it that readLove Potion.
“You conniving little bitch.”
I stood, bottle in hand. It was about a quarter full, which meant she had used it on someone. But recently? There was no way to know. I released a deliberate sigh, trying to refrain from smashing all the bottles. I’d always wondered if she might have charmed Viktor, but this was next-level deception. Viktor loved a good drink, and a spiked drink like this would fill him with false feelings. Maybe they weren’t entirely false, but this was manipulative.
What really had my head spinning was where she’d gotten the potion from. Now that I knew her and Houdini were chummy, was it possible they were plotting something together?
I put the bottle back and located the Russian vodka. She’d mentioned tasting it, probably to dispel any suspicions I might have had about the broken label. But when I turned the bottle over, all the alcohol appeared intact. Fearing she spiked the bottle, I marched down the hall to her bathroom and poured it down the drain. Then I rinsed it clean before returning to the study. After locating another bottle of vodka, I carefully transferred the alcohol using a funnel, which was coincidentally sitting next to the love potion. I’d be damned if I was going to watch Viktor guzzle down a lie.
“And what are you up to, Butterfly?”
Without looking at Houdini, I finished wiping up a few spilled drops from the counter. “I should have known you’d be following me.”
“On the contrary, I was already here. So I guess that means you’re the one following me.”
I peeked around the open cabinet door, thrown off by his gothic costume from the previous night. The deep-red jacket had black cuffs and lapels that matched the loose black shirt beneath it. The dark colors made his bleached hair striking. “You look like a punk-rock version of Dracula.”
He casually leaned against the doorjamb and grinned. “Perhaps we should have gone as a couple.”
“I’d rather have a stake driven through my heart.”
“Why are you wasting time with alcohol? I thought you’d be using your free time to learn about this realm.”
I screwed the cap back on Viktor’s bottle. “I don’t plan on spending much time in it.”
“That may not be our choosing. Besides, there might be an advantage.” He moved away from the doorway and stood behind me. Through the reflection in the cabinet mirror, I watched him pet the dark waves of my hair. “Have my little experiments taught you nothing?”
“They taught me a lot about your morbid sense of fun.”
