***
The Engel House orphanage and the Academy of the Blind stood side by side, and when she saw them, Semele felt like she was meeting her grandmother and grandfather for the first time.
The orphanage was boarded up and had long since shuttered its doors. Several buildings on the block had construction signs posted outside them, and the four-story building that had once housed the orphanage would likely soon be refurbished.
The heavy wooden doors resembled the entrance to a church. A bolt and chain wrapped around the wrought-iron handles like a snake. It had been cut by someone to allow them entry—an ominous welcome.
Semele felt like she’d located a needle in a haystack. She couldn’t believe she had managed to find her mother in all of Europe with the sheer force of her mind. She watched Theo take the chain off, and her pulse began to race. Whoever—whatever—was waiting on the other side of those doors terrified her.
“Semele, you can do this,” Theo said.
She nodded, knowing she had no choice.
Ionna had foreseen these events and had tried to prepare her:The road must be walked whether you are ready or not.
The World
Semele stepped inside and let her eyes adjust to the darkness. The boarded-up windows allowed in little light. She moved through a hallway filled with cobwebs and dust. Cracks riddled the walls like veins.
“Apropos. Don’t you think?” Viktor’s voice rang out from a room up ahead. “Nettie’s sanctuary for years. The place where she tried to forget. The place where you must remember.”
Semele walked toward the voice, leaving Theo to follow behind.
She found Viktor Salko in what could only have been the library, though its bookshelves were now empty. He sat on the far side of the room in a high-back chair, like a king at court waiting for an audience. An oxygen tank stood next to him and a mask covered his mouth. He had thinning hair, and a pained expression dulled the hawkish lines of his face; he wore an ivory suit with a matching shirt and tie, as though he were dressed for a wedding… or a funeral.
Her eyes landed on her mother.
Helen was gagged and strapped to a chair twenty feet away. Wires had been hooked up all over her body and led to a strange contraption at the center of her chest. Semele had no idea what she was looking at.
Her mother’s eyes watered when she saw her, and she tried to call out through the gag. The sound brought Semele out of her stupor and she took a step forward.
“That is close enough,” Viktor ordered in a sharp voice. He had taken off his oxygen mask. “Stand still and let me look at you.”
Semele glared at him, her body emanating cold hatred.
“I’m quite impressed you made it in time. It seems my experiment worked.” He laughed in relief. “I really wasn’t sure it would.”
“Why are you doing this?” she demanded, her voice unsteady.
He answered her question with a question. “What battles intuition? The haze of doubt, the fog of the mind. You have been in a fog all your life. Now it is time to step out of it if you want to live.”
Semele’s body quivered. Every atom within her vibrated with fear and anger.
“Your grandmother hid you away, and your intuition was buried with the help of a workaholic father and an alcoholic mother. I’ve been attempting to liberate you. It’s been very difficult.”
“We know who you are.” Theo spoke up, his voice strong.
“Do you really?” Viktor gave him a condescending smile. “My father was a brilliant man. But he was also cold, with no understanding of life or the human heart. I understood why Nettie and Liliya ran away. My father spent years trying to find them.”
He turned to Semele. “For him, Nettie was the key to unlocking a future world. He never stopped looking for her. I used to dream that I too would meet her someday. I so wanted to.”
Viktor drew from his oxygen. “You see, you belong to that rarest group of observers—the truest of seers—who can take the full measure of life, filled with all its infinite probabilities, and see the future that has been set forth. Just look at Ionna’s manuscript. She didn’t write to Nettie. She wrote to you—she singled you out because you are next in line. Her heir. Your sight, your ability has even greater potential than your grandmother’s.”
Semele shook her head in denial.
Viktor’s gaze shifted to Theo. “Tell me, did you inherit Liliya’s gift?”
Theo didn’t answer, but his eyes hardened.
