The driveway lay ahead, the gravel already dusted with snow.
Nobody stopped me.
No hands grabbed me from the dark.
No monster came running after me.
Thoughmonsterwas the last word I would use to describe him if we had met under different circumstances.
The air changed.
A slow, unnatural hush settled over the world as if something vast and unseen had noticed me.
I stopped walking.
The weight of a gaze—cold and curious—pressed against my back.
“Hello? Is someone there? I have what your master asked for.”
I pulled a folded paper from my pocket and held it up as proof. “Tell Vexley and Cagliostro I have what they needed.”
Silence.
Not the silence of a night forest but the silence of a tomb. Thick and unnatural.
I took another step deeper into the gloom.
The violin trills remained somewhere far away.
Maybe Vexley was trying to frighten me into obedience when he said they were watching the manor?
Maybe I could slip away.
I stood there for a moment, pondering.
Not a bad idea.
If I escaped unnoticed—great!
Paris and Milan, here I come!
If their men caught me, I still had papers to present. Maybe they were valuable enough.
The gravel crunched behind me, a sound so small yet alarming enough to send my pulse into a frenzy.
I whipped my head left and right, but there was no one around.
Only the thickening darkness.
“Tell Vexley and Cagliostro that I have what they needed!” I repeated, but the night swallowed my words.
No response.
Yet something was there.
Listening.
Preparing for its next move.
