Eustace threw the pouch onto the nearest shelf. “Let’s get out of here,” she said, turning for the door.
“Wait,” Cordelia said, not quite ready to leave. But the light of her phone went out, and both sisters were swallowed in black.
“Cordy,” Eustace whispered frantically. “Are you fucking with me? Because it’s really not funny.”
“No,” Cordelia insisted. “It’s the phone. I guess the battery died. I thought it had plenty of charge when we came in here.”
“I take it back. Not Scooby-Doo. Definitely a horror movie,” Eustace said with a tremble.
“Stay calm,” Cordelia told her, feeling her own heart begin to pound. “It’s trying to come back on.”
She entered her pass code when the screen loaded and expected to see the same wallpaper image of herself and John on their wedding day, even though she’d vowed to change it. But instead, her photo gallery opened, and she was greeted by the lawn beside the carriage house, green and gold and marked by trees.
“What the heck?” Cordelia wondered aloud.
“What is it?” Eustace asked, scooting closer in the dark to peer over her shoulder.
“A picture I took,” Cordelia said absently. “But there was no one there that day.”
“What day?” Eustace asked. “Let me see.”
There, poised lithely between two trunks as if she were simply on a stroll, was the silhouette of Arabella Bone—their great-great-great-grandmother. Her light blue dress was washed out, streaked across the screen like paint, and her fair hair was smudged around the pale heart of her face. She was looking directly into the camera. Cordelia stared, her eyes watering from the light.
“Let me see,” Eustace said again, reaching for the phone and tipping it out of Cordelia’s hand.
As the light emanated away, it revealed a ghostly white face framed by reddish-black hair hovering right in front of her. The dark eyes were melting, the mouth an open gash.
Morna. There and gone.
CHAPTER FOURTEENTHEBOOK
CORDELIA LEANED BACKagainst the bookshelf door as she caught her breath, making sure nothing followed them out of the basement. Eustace leaned over the desk, gripping the edge with one hand. Both women were huffing from their race up the stairs, and Cordelia’s head was pounding anew with the effort. She grasped it with both hands.
“The medicine not working?” Eustace asked between breaths, her voice hitching with fear.
Cordelia dropped her hands. “I just need to catch my breath.” But inwardly she shared her sister’s concern. If her pills were already proving ineffective, she couldn’t have much time. “I saw our names down there,” she told Eustace, as much to change the subject as anything else. “On that wall.”
“Which wall?” Eustace asked.
“The one with all the writing. It was painted black. I think it was, like, a family tree. I found our mother’s name and then mine. Yours, too.”
Her sister stood very still. “Not the most conventional way of tracking your genealogy.”
Cordelia shook her head. “No, it was different than that. It was simpler, more straightforward.” She thought about it, recalling thenames she’d seen. She remembered the nameOpalon the wall, and Bennett talking about her when he showed them her and her husband’s portrait in the dining room. But there was noTheodorebeside it. Just like there was no name beside their mother’s. “I think it’s just direct descendants. Not a tree as much as a…bloodline.”
“Maybe we really are vampires,” Eustace said humorlessly.
“Or blood witches,” Cordelia whispered. “Do you think they practiced some kind of sacrificial magic? All those bones… And you saw the oven.”
“I don’t know what I saw,” Eustace countered.
“What if that’s why Mom left? What if they wanted her to do things she didn’t think were right? Unnatural things. Murderous things. It would explain her never wanting to come back here, even if it was the only way to save her life. And why she never wanted us to know about this place. She might have been afraid they would suck us into it too. It would explain the rumors.” Cordelia leveled her gaze on Eustace.
“Intowhat?”
“Black magic,” Cordelia whispered.
“You’re jumping to conclusions,” Eustace told her. “We don’t know anything for certain yet.”
