“Search the room,” Sterling orders, and then there are more stamping footsteps. Soldiers.
Briony gasps and I press my finger against my lips. I have no breath or heartbeat – nothing that will give me away to prying ears – but the girl beside me has both.
We hear the soldiers stomping around the old man’s room as he mutters away to them in bewilderment, either genuine or manufactured. Then those same footsteps reach the bedroom.
I wrap my arms around her, let my shadows swim over our skin, hoping it’s enough to hide us if anyone opens the wardrobe door. We hear the mattress creak as someone looks beneath it. We hear another cupboard door open somewhere else in the room.
Footsteps draw closer.
Briony tenses in my arms and I draw my hand over her mouth. Her breath is hot and wet against my palm, and I can feel her pulse drumming in her veins. I can smell her sweet scent in my nose. I will my magic to be enough to conceal us.
The footsteps draw closer still.
They stop on the other side of the wardrobe door. I can hear the man breathing, can smell his body odor through the wood.
It’s been a long time since I’ve used the other power gifted to me as a vampire – a power that I’ve always hated, that I’ve very rarely used. The ability of suggestion, of persuasion. Since I turned my back on my hunting days, I haven’t wanted to use it. The only time I’d been tempted was out in the demon wastelands when I was Veronica’s prisoner.
But it doesn’t work on other vampires. Only humans.
I test the barrier of the man’s mind now. It’s weak, flimsy, spongy – easy enough to penetrate. I find a disappointing mind: simple, not much going on in there, easy enough to tweak, to manipulate.
The soldier reaches out his hand toward the handle of the wardrobe door. I see the image reflected in his mind. I twist the thoughts. His hand hangs there for a moment, then draws back. The man turns and walks away.
Briony visibly relaxes in my arms, her body slackening. But I know the danger isn’t over. There are other soldiers. There is Sterling himself, a much cleverer, more manipulative man. But his irritation with Cornelius and his wittering is getting the better of him. He’s losing his patience and his temper.
And in another moment, he’s ordering his soldiers away.
We hear their footsteps stamp out of Cornelius’s room. The door slams shut. They retreat down the corridor, and I hear Sterling thumping on another door.
I don’t release Briony from my arms. They could return.
We stand there silently until finally it’s Cornelius who opens the wardrobe door. I realize my hand is still covering Briony’s mouth, my other wrapped around her waist. With a great deal of determination, I release her and she steps out of the wardrobe.
“They’re searching each of the staff members’ rooms,” Cornelius says. “They’ve already searched the students’ rooms.”
Briony’s gaze snaps to mine, obviously thinking of Beaufort, Dray, Thorne, and her two friends.
Cornelius pauses, giving Briony a sympathetic look that turns my stomach. “He’s questioning some of your associates.”
“My associates?” Briony says, shaking her head at the ludicrousness of the word.
“Your friends,” Cornelius corrects.
Briony chews on her lip.
I want to take her back to that safe room in the library – one that I think will protect her, protect all of us. But I won’t risk it while Sterling and the soldiers are still out there in the hallways. So we’re forced to wait.
The minutes tick by, Briony becoming more and more anxious – chewing on her cheek next and then her fingernails.
Finally, when I’m satisfied that they’re gone and not coming back, I take her hand again and we head toward the doorway.
“Fox,” Cornelius says as I reach for the handle.
I pause and turn back toward the old professor.
I don’t know how much of what he’s told us – his theories and opinions – are to be trusted. His mind is not as quick as it used to be, although at times it seems so sharp.
“This castle once belonged to the lumomancers.” I nod, and beside me Briony mirrors the action. “I think if it came down to it, it would choose to protect the lumomancers if they were ever in need.”
