I was in a narrow corridor, with several closed doors on each side of the hall. I looked over my shoulder, then reached for the handle on the nearest door. Unsurprisingly, it was locked.
Now was as good of an opportunity as ever to make note of my findings. I carefully pulled the enchanted parchment from my dress, along with a small piece of charcoal. Ensuring nobody was coming down the hall, I propped the parchment against the closest door and sketched a crude drawing of a map. I drew lines from the entrance to the mansion as best as I could to show the path leading down here. I wasn’t sure if it would be important, but considering a private guard had escorted me, Scarven obviously didn’t want this place open to the public.
When I finished, I waited several seconds for something to happen. Was I supposed to do something? Say a magic spell?
But a moment later, the drawing faded into the weatheredparchment. I blinked twice, once again in awe of these Alchemists and their powers.
I started to fold it back into its tiny square when something burned my hand. “Ouch,” I muttered. The paper had a strange yellow glow. When I turned it over, four words stared back at me.
Quite the artist, darling.
That had definitely not been there before.
I grinned. I could practically hear Nox’s insufferable yet charming drawl. I bit down on my bottom lip as I glanced toward the entrance of the hallway again, then wrote:
If only I could draw Everett in this outfit of his. There’s not much left to the imagination.
I barely had time to look away before his response materialized.
Such a tease.
I smirked and put the charcoal back to the parchment.
Me, or him?
The words faded. I stared at the page for a moment longer than I should have, waiting for words that never came.
Embarrassment rose to the surface. What was Idoing? Nox may be fun and quick-witted with his other friends, but we weren’t like that. He was all business with me. Business mixed with a bit of trouble, something dark and sharp that kept drawing us together and pushing us away at the same time.
I knew he was still having nightmares. My shadows kept waking me from my sleep, summoning me to him with whispers of his cries. But he wouldn’t answer the door. Not that I blamed him—who was I to think I could barge in and solve his problems? Or that he would evenwantme to?
I wasn’t sure why I cared, except the memory of him thrashing in his sleep that night in the tent played when I closed my eyes. He was a prisoner to whatever demons plagued his mind. I wanted to help him. But I knew when to take a hint, and he obviously didn’t need me beyond the scope of my mission for the Order.
I shoved the parchment and charcoal back down the top of my dress, then spotted a series of portraits along the walls. Large oil paintings with ornate gold frames, each depicting scenes of battle. Human against human, animal against animal, humans against animal, all in various gruesome fights.
At the very end of the hall, however, were two matching portraits, the largest paintings of all. The one on the left showed two lions, one a vibrant golden color and the other a slightly darker, bronzed gold with a streak of white going down its side. Their throats were locked in each other’s jaws while their paws wrapped over their shoulders, almost in a morbid embrace. And the portrait on the right?—
The golden lion’s head was clutched in the jaws of the darker one, ripped clean from its body.
The inscription at the bottom read “The Challenging.”
I jolted back in horror. Was this Nox’s father? Was this the day Scarven challenged him?
Disgust swirled in my stomach. The fact that he had these paintings done wassickening. I hoped Nox never had to see this memorial.
My fingers toyed with the edge of the frame, wishing I could tear it from the wall. Sorrow shot through me. Both for the boy Nox used to be, and the man he was now.
One of my shadows slipped from me and twisted around my extended finger. Before I willed it away, a faint whisper reached my ears. It wasn’t a voice, but more like…a clanging sound.
Like chains.
A groan drifted to me in the shadows, but it wasn’t comingfrom the den behind me. It was distant and pained. Desperate. Longing.
I swallowed and let my shadows dig deeper. It was definitely coming from below. There was a grate in the wall to my left where my magic was picking up the sounds from. Someone was being held right beneath this wing of the mansion.
I closed my eyes, trying to push just alittlefurther. My shadows tugged on that well of power deep in my chest. They urged me to follow. My body swayed forward in response when a hand clamped down on my shoulder.
“I was wondering where you were,” Scarven’s rich voice said at my back.
