So what if Heather looked at me like I was a bug? So what if that obnoxious midnight concerto kept me awake? During my weekly hospital visit, I gushed about Elena to Mom (I decided to leave out all the naughty stuff about the guys. I wasn’t sure she’d want to hear that). I even played her the second movement of our Beethoven. Dr. Nelson and some of the nurses came in to listen, and they clapped and cheered. I was too happy to tell them that people weren’t supposed to applaud for classical music.
I crawled into bed the night before the party, my stomach churning with excitement. I knew from the square of bright light from the full moon and the buzzing in my veins that I’d struggle to sleep.
Sure enough, I wriggled down into the sheets and willed my mind to shut off. I counted Beethoven jumping over sheep. I pictured calm waves brushing against a white-sand beach. I touched myself and thought of the guys. But still, my mind reached toward the storage room, listening for signs of life.
After midnight, the footsteps paced across the floorboards.Creak, creak, creaaaaak. I had to hand it to Heather, even when she was pretending to be a specter, she moved with a certain musicality.
Then silence for a time. A long time, long enough for me to start to question myself again.It’s not footsteps – it’s just the old house settling.
I’d just started to drift off to sleep when the creaking started again. The footsteps moved across the storage room, then stopped. I strained to hear a sound, like the scraping of a piece of furniture. Then I didn’t hear anything else for a long time except my heart hammering in my ears.
Then, the first mournful note sounded.
I peered at my phone. 3:02AM. Yet someone was playing again. That same haunting tune, over and over. Vaguely familiar, but impossible to place.
I threw the covers off, circling the room and pressing my ear to the walls, trying to figure out where it came from. I opened the door and stood on the landing, straining to listen. No, it wasn’t someone practicing downstairs. It was definitely louder inside my room.
It doesn’t make any sense.I circled my room again, straining to hear where the sound was loudest. Not in the bathroom. Definitely beside the bureau, and around the clothing rack…
My stomach tightened with fright. I held my ear to the wall. A tremble started in my legs and moved through my whole body.
The music was coming through the wall, from the other side.
From within the locked storage room.
Chapter Fifty-Four
Faye
The music continued.
I banged on the wall. It didn’t stop.
At 4AM, I tossed aside the sheets one final time and slid out of bed. If I wasn’t going to sleep, I might as well get up and finish my chores.
As I padded downstairs, using my phone as a flashlight, I strained to hear the violin – but it was as if it stopped dead outside my room. The only time I’d heard it anywhere else in the house was when I stepped inside Madame Usher’s private chambers. I didn’t know what that meant except that she was probably to blame for it.
Down in the kitchen, I prepared spicy sausage, beans, and scrambled eggs for breakfast burritos. A treat to start our day. As I bent over the dishwasher, emptying last night’s dinner dishes, the kitchen door banged open and Titus appeared.
“Nice view.” He wiggled his eyebrows in a way that made me burst out laughing.
I straightened up, shoving the tray of burritos in the oven until I needed them. “Why are you up so early?”
“I wanted to get in a little morning practice.” He nodded toward the woodshed. “And I heard you on the stairs and I thought you might like some company.”
My heart pattered, but this time it wasn’t fear. I remembered what Dorien said about Titus wanting to ask me out.
“The others told me what happened when I was gone.” His eyes darkened. “I wanted to… I guess I wanted to say that you’ve obviously got your hands full with the two of them, but if you wanted to add a third guy to your harem, I’m game.”
“My… harem?”
“Mmmm.” Titus leaned toward me. His fingers trailed along my arm, raising a line of fire that scorched through my veins. He loomed closer, his breath kissing my neck…
…as he grabbed an apple from the bowl behind me, bringing the fruit to his lips and taking a bite. Fuck, how did he make eating an apple look so hot? A shiver ran through my body that had nothing to do with the draft blowing through the window.
I backed away from Titus until my ass pressed against the dishwasher. “It may shock you to know I am not used to this kind of attention from guys. I’m not sure what todowith a harem.”
“You can do whatever you like with me.” Titus was on me in a moment, his bulk hemming me in, blocking any possible exit. I didn’t mind. Not in the least. Now it was my turn to trail my fingers over the skin of his arm.
