He made to swallow the last of his coffee when a deep thrum pulsed through the manor. Lux jerked upright, her eyes sweeping the room. “What is that?” The sound continued to beat several more times before ceasing. When her bewildered stare met Corvin’s, he appeared unphased.
“That would be our call to Invocation.” He stood and tossed his napkin onto the plate. “Return to your room and rest. Exploring can wait. You’ve had an arduous journey, and this period won’t be long. Excuse me.”
He hardly spared the time to offer one of his smiles before leaving through the door.
Lux stared after where he’d gone and startled only a little when the wall opened, admitting the same man who had brought their meals from below-stairs. Lux nodded politely at Godfrey, who didn’t return it. He ducked his head and began stacking their dirtied things.
Her jaw hardened.The most unfriendly staff in existence,she thought.And that included the mayor’s mansion.
Her attention slid to the wall he’d come from, and her senses heightened with curiosity. She wouldn’t be ordered about, and exploring couldn’t wait. Lux slipped from her seat. She made a show of examining the portraits on her route, lingering slightly longer on the mustached collector. The seriousness of these men bled through the paint—they took to their career of books with great responsibility.
But at least they’re actually dead,she thought.
With every breath, she eased nearer to that particular wall, and once she reached it, her fingernail traced the vague seam. She glanced over her shoulder. Godfrey was still occupied with balancing a teapot in addition to plates.
She only wanted to open it. To see how it functioned.
That was a lie, but it was what she would say if questioned.
Lux held her breath and pushed.
And cried out when she fell.
Chapter eighteen
Herkneescrackedagainststone, her body tumbling down several stairs before stopping. Lux lay draped backwards on the staircase, gasping for air.
Devil take me.
Everything hurt, but her palms screeched loudest. She rolled off them, cradling her hands to her chest and biting her lip against a sob. Pained tears puddled in her eyes.
She’dtrippedon her saintforsaken dress.“What sort of torturous climb is this for the help?” she cried. Because not only were the stairs sharply spiraled, but the steps were too narrow; she’d stepped down like they were normal, not deadly.
Lux climbed to her feet. Still cradling her hands, she looked toward the door to a seam hardly visible. Really, she could see nothing much in the scant light.
Her knees ached terribly. When she glanced at her palms, she found while they weren’t bleeding, they were fiery red. “Devil’s tits,” she seethed.
Should she go down? The pain had bled the worst of her interest from her. She doubted the stairway led to the vault anyway. Probably only to a kitchen, as she’d been told. She sniffed away the remainder of her tears. The passage smelled the same as most dark, enclosed spaces: a musty mixture of dust and stone. She’d never liked such things and positively hated them now.
But you only have two days,the matter-of-fact side of her demanded she remember. Two days and only herself to count on.
She stepped forward and winced at the painful flare in her knees. Maybe it did only go to the kitchen—but it was better than obeying Corvin’s direction to do nothing. She moved farther down the staircase.
“You’re going the wrong way, Lucena.”
Lux flattened herself against the wall.That voice…She waited, crouched like a thief, and didn’t so much as breathe.
But no one appeared; the voice said nothing else. And as time ticked on, she wondered…therehadbeen a voice. Hadn’t there?
Her muscles protested loudly now. Lux tentatively peeled herself from the wall.It was nothing. No one here knows my given name. No one here knows…She pushed away until she stood in the center of the stairs, trembling as if she’d caught a terrible fever. Because while the trees had spoken to her, too, it had never sounded like this. Like her nightmares. Like the words had come from her very own mind.
She had no courage left for this. Goosebumps lifted along her skin.
“You’re only having a conversation with your own head. You’ve done it all the time.” It had been a habit since losing her parents young. With neither family nor friends, who else did she have to speak to other than herself?
Lux continued on her way. She rounded the next curve faster than the one before and nearly toppled down the stairs a second time. She caught herself on the stones—only to stumble backward.
Someone stood at the bottom.
