Instead, I settled for a simple, “Okay.”
With that, we descended.
The stone stairs were impossibly smooth beneath my feet, the air turning colder with every descent. The sconces flickered along the passage, their dim light stretching long, distorted shadows over the damp stone walls.
I swallowed hard.
I was walking straight into the belly of the beast.
In the foyer, stone faces leered at me, their carved eyes seeming to follow my every move as I scurried behind Mathias. The further we went, the more the air thickened, pressing against my lungs like an unseen force.
We came upon a doorway—not just any doorway. This one was made of solid metal, blackened and ancient.
Mathias reached into his waistcoat and withdrew a key. He fit it into the lock, turning it with precision. A snick echoed through the chamber as the mechanism gave way.
As soon as the door creaked open, a bolt of fear lanced through my spine.
“Mathias, wait!” The words tumbled from my lips before I could stop them. Shame burned my cheeks.
He turned, his gaze unreadable. “Yes, my dear?”
I hesitated, feeling unbearably exposed. “I’m…scared.”
Of you.Of Balthazar.Of everything this place represents.
Mathias studied me for a long moment, his expression softening. A tenderness in his eyes nearly tumbled the walls I had hastily built. But then I remembered—the iron grip of his control beneath the refinement, the darkness curling beneath his polished words.
Could I truly trust him?
“I will not let anything or anyone harm you,” he said. “Not now. Not ever.”
But his words did not comfort me.
With a motion, he pushed the door open and stepped across the threshold.
I followed.
The chamber was small, carved from the living rock beneath the estate. The walls were uneven, damp with moisture that dripped in a rhythmic pattern.
A glass enclosure was nearly a foot thick at the center of the room.
Inside, Balthazar.
He lay sprawled across the crystalline floor like a discarded marionette, his limbs at unnatural angles.
A fine, white mist drifted from a tiny hole near the bottom of the enclosure, coiling around him in lazy wisps.
Belladonna? Or something worse? Something that could even subdue a demon?
Mathias reached up and pulled a slender red cord hanging from the ceiling.
A deep, resonant clang rang through the chamber as a large brass bell reverberated inside the prison cell.
Balthazar’s eyelids fluttered open. His gaze was heavy-lidded, the reptilian stare of something barely clinging to consciousness.
With effort, he pushed himself upright, his movements stiff and awkward.
“Finally,” Mathias murmured with dark satisfaction. “After all these years, I caught you.” He propped his hands on his hips, looking down at Balthazar as if he were nothing more than a nuisance to be disposed of.
