“I’ve been thinking about it all night,” she told him. “It’s like Marvel’s death ripped out her soul. It must have occurred during the fireworks. Eustace sneaked off somewhere. I thought maybe she was checking the food or talking to someone. After the fox, I found her like that. In the basement room.”
Gordon leaned back in his chair. “Why would she be down there?”
Cordelia shrugged. “She’d been going down there more and more. We…” She met his eyes, hoping he wouldn’t flinch at the words. “We cast a spell down there before the guests arrived. Something she found for protection. Obviously, it didn’t work.”
He tilted his head as he listened.
“When I found her, the secret door was closed. No one knows about that but us. I think she went down there and closed it behind her so none of the guests would see if they wandered inside.”
Gordon nodded. “It wasn’t locked? Like someone shut her down there?”
“No,” Cordelia told him. “She could have gotten out as easilyas I got in. She must have been up to something she needed that room for.”
Gordon drank his coffee, thinking. “What your sister did saving that animal—it was special. Not like anything I’ve ever witnessed before. Impossible, even. If she saw what happened, do you think it could have put her into shock like that?”
Cordelia thought about what the old man had told her last night concerning Morna’s ravens. “Maybe, but she wasn’t out there. How would she see?”
Gordon looked at her. “You tell me.”
Cordelia felt it land on her all at once, like a fist to the face. How she hadn’t realized it before defied her. She must have been in a certain amount of shock herself. She moaned into her hands. “You’re right. She saw it happen.”
“How? If she was in the basement?”
“Because she wasn’t in the basement,” Cordelia told him. “She was in Marvel.”
Gordon set his cup on the table and looked at Cordelia with intelligent eyes. “The fox? Your sister is the fox?”
“She could put herself—her senses, her consciousness—inside the fox if she wanted to. It had become a habit of sorts. The morning she saw the man on our property and chased him—”
Gordon’s lips twitched. “She’d been inside the vixen. That’s how she ran him down.”
Cordelia nodded. “I think she wanted to look for the person responsible during the partyasMarvel. We hadn’t had any luck up to that point. She must have thought the fox’s senses would give her an advantage. I bet she went into the basement so no one would find her in some kind of trance state and snap her out of it. She probably thought she’d be safe down there.”
“The runes on the floor,” Gordon said, eyebrows raising.
“Yes. They seal the space, apparently. It was a room used forworkings. Spells and potions and things. She was just starting to put it all together.”
“What did Dr. Mabee mean when he said he didn’t know how it happenedhere?” Gordon watched her carefully.
Cordelia knew there was no point holding back the truth; he’d likely already guessed after her two fainting spells. “We can’t leave the estate,” she told him. “Something about the land protects us. Without it, we’re doomed. But here, we don’t get sick or hurt. At least we shouldn’t. It hasn’t always been that simple for me. But things had just begun to improve on that front before…”
She looked away. She didn’t want to remind him of their fight, the terrible things she’d accused him of. “Anyway, Dr. Mabee doesn’t know how or why, but he says it’s been this way for generations. Somehow, our mother managed to hold off the effects for as long as she did. But even she succumbed eventually. Although, we think someone played a role in that. The same person who is hunting us now. Eustace and I were both suffering before we came here. I doubt we had long. But after my first trip with you to the store and learning about the legacy of the estate, we’ve been careful. Last night shouldn’t have happened. The fox is one thing, but my sister should have been safe here.”
He let the explanation ease into his mind. “That’s why your aunt never left.”
Cordelia gave him a tight smile. “It seems there’s something to your children’s rhyme after all.”
He waited a minute before telling her, “We’re going to catch him. Whoever it is, they’ll pay for this.”
“It had to be someone at the party.” She finished her coffee and set the cup back down.
“Did you notice anyone odd?”
“Not in a way that really stood out,” she answered.
“What about during the fireworks? Did anyone leave or sneak off?”
“My sister,” she said, frustrated. “Otherwise, no. I mean, Mr. Togers stalked off in a huff, but he’s old. Eustace said this guy was young—he was fast.”
