“What happened?” Cyrus demanded. And I’d never seen Viola hysterical and distraught. She usually held herself together stronger than a steel pole, but at this moment, her knees shook and her hands trembled. She was nothing more than a pile of black lace and tears in Cyrus’s arms.
“Th-th-the Shadows are here,” her voice wobbled as she gripped Cyrus’s arm tightly, her knuckles turning white. Cyrus’s horrified gaze sprinted to me, and we exchanged glances. And then I sprinted into the house.
My only thought was of Camora and the boys.
“Adora, stop!” Cyrus shouted from behind. “Mother, let me go!” But I was already sprinting up the stairs and heading for Cillian and Kaser’s bedrooms.
One after the other, I pushed open their doors.
The maids had each of the boys awaken in their arms in a comforting embrace as they cried, terrified. I dashed across the hall to Camora’s bedroom.
“Camora!” I shouted, my hand reaching for the door handle.
I flung the door open, and it slammed against the wall.
Only a maid with a stricken face stared back at me from the other side.
Camora wasn’t there.
I clutched the maid’s shoulders. “Where is she? Where did she go?”
“I don’t know, miss,” the maid stuttered in a cry. “She was here one second then disappeared.”
Her father. Camora must have run straight for her father to protect him.
I flew down a flight of stairs when Cyrus grabbed me. “Adora, please stay here,” he said, desperately. “Let me handle it.”
I faced him with rage crawling in my blood. “No, I can’t just stand here. This is your family!”
“And you’re the other half of me!” Cyrus shouted with a panicked look in his eyes. Then he calmed. “Please, Adora,” he said, quieter this time.
I broke free from his grasp. “I can’t.”
I skipped the elevator and hurtled down another flight of stairs to the cellar, where Darnell’s bedroom was. It felt as if my heart was in my throat, blocking my airways. I couldn’t breathe, thinking of Camora and the absolute worst, that maybe I never would have made it in time because she was already dead. The vision of her body lying on the cold ground with a frozen shock in her pupils propelled me forward. Faster, longer strides.
I ran through the wine cellar until I was pushing against Darnell’s bedroom door.
It flew open, and a gasp of sea salt and brine breathed on my face.
I froze, was paralyzed, hearing the knocking in my ears.
Thethump … thump … thump ..
Five slithering black shadows had Camora cornered against the wall.
I couldn’t move. Only my eyes were able to slide across the room.
Darnell’s thin and bony body draped halfway off the bed, eyes shut and mouth ajar as if he’d died mid-yawn. My gaze was anchored to his face, and I tried to tear away from it, but it was difficult. The sight of him and Camora’s cries were whizzing away from me, sinking to the end of a long black tunnel. Stars exploded in my peripheral vision.
“ADORA!” Camora’s voice pounded into the room again.
My eyes darted to her.
Suddenly her terror was in my ears, and the room came back into focus.
“Adora, he’s dead,” she cried, the Shadows still surrounding her.
She must not be able to see them.
