Before she knew what she was doing, she grabbed the lid and slammed it back on the box. Rafael recoiled in shock.
‘What’s wrong?’ he gasped. ‘What was that?’ He staggered back from her, still clutching her coat like it was a totem of protection.
‘Nothing,’ she said. ‘Are you OK?’
She peered at him and he squeezed his eyes tightly shut and then pinched the bridge of his nose as if fending off a headache.
‘Yes. I…I think so. Just…a bit dizzy. Sorry. That…that thing is…’ He didn’t say what he thought of it, but she knew exactly what he meant.
‘I know,’ she agreed. Picking up the box, she returned it to the storeroom and closed the door. The lock still hung there, forlornly broken. There had to be another one around here somewhere. She needed to lock the mask away, and not just in case of theft. The effect it had on both of them was unnerving. Dangerous.
‘Someone broke in?’ Rafael asked.
‘Looks like it. I don’t know who though. There was no one here when I got back.’
‘But you said there was.’
The creaking floorboard, the sounds upstairs…
Ari ran up the stairs, her heart pounding in her chest. Her room was empty. The box with Simon’s things was tipped over, the papers spilling across the floor. She gathered them up quickly, shoving the notebook and the pages back into it.
His things. All she had left of him. Precious, sacred to her. If someone had taken them, or destroyed them…
But there was no one here. Had they gone while she’d been preoccupied with the mask? Climbed out a window and made their escape?
Or had there really been anyone else here at all?
‘Ari,’ Rafael said as he appeared behind her again. ‘Don’t just run off!’ He checked the rooms himself. ‘What if there had been someone here? A burglar or worse. With what we’ve seen… Think.’
It was like a slap and she turned on him, angry now. Angry with the situation, with whoever had been here, real or imagined, with the mask, with all the madness, and with him. ‘I think altogether too much, Rafael. And I don’t need your protection.’
To his credit, he backed up, hands held up in submission, but she caught the smile lingering in the corner of his mouth.
Slowly, he shook his head. ‘Even a malevolent spirit would think twice about taking you on. Ari, talk to me. Please.’
‘We need to lock that bloody mask away where no one can get at it. I don’t care if something supernatural or physical is trying to get to it, or if it’s trying to get to us, it needs to be put out of reach. Now.’
‘I agree. The vault in the Manoir, it will be safe there.’
She hesitated, the suspicion she felt curdling in her stomach. ‘You can’t take it alone. It isn’t safe, Rafael. Believe me.’
He reached out his hand. ‘I do.’
‘I know what I felt. What I saw in your face. It wants us. It’s manipulating people. I know it sounds crazy, but—’
It had affected her effortlessly. She’d seen the way its magic had reached out to ensnare Rafael just as quickly. What would it do to Jason or to Nico if it was this strong already? What would it want from her brother or her friend? No. She couldn’t allow that. She wouldn’t. She’d have to get rid of it. Destroy it. Throw it back into the sea.
Is this what it had done to Simon? Had he seen the danger, tried to act – but the mask had taken him all the same? It hadn’t even mattered, because the first time she’d gone into the water, she’d brought it back out again. As if it had been intended. Ordained.
To get rid of it would mean destroying their only serious find, the only link they had to Ys. And to Simon…
Rafael’s hand closed over hers again, threading their fingers together, and the spiral of panic faded away. Just with his touch. ‘Ari, I believe you. We’ll take it together. We’ll both go, and we’ll keep each other safe. OK?’
Somehow she found the ability to breathe again. Slowly, she nodded. ‘OK,’ she said. ‘But it has to stay locked away, Rafael. It’s dangerous. Promise me.’
‘I promise,’ he assured her. And, like an idiot, she believed him.
CHAPTEREIGHTEEN
