If her mother even so much as took one step in Linnea’s direction, Halsten would end her. Hell, he would have to fight back the urge to do it just from laying eyes on the wretched woman.
Linnea let out a shaky breath. “Just up this path,” she gestured by nodding in the direction of the gravel path jutting off the main road.
Halsten did not know what he expected to find at the end of the passage, but it surely wasn’t a polished manor with manicured lawns and lion busts. Judging by the confused look on Linnea’s face, she hadn’t expected it to look so well-kept, either.
“This isn’t right. She’s not supposed to have anything,” she muttered to herself more so than to everyone around her.
Gyrial dismounted his horse, putting a hand out to help Linnea down. Liva stabilized Niklas as he took an uncoordinated leap from his steed, catching his glasses in one hand and grabbing Liva’s forearm with a deathgrip in the other.
Before anyone could fully settle from dismounting and tying up their horses, Linnea marched right for the main entryway. Instead of using the knocker, she slammed the side of her fist on the large oak door.
A servant answered, one who clearly did not work in the manor when Linnea lived there, because there was no sense of recognition. Linnea shoved past him, sending him stumbling backward.
“Oh, I’m sorry,” she whispered sweetly before turning back and entering the foyer.
Halsten ran in behind her, followed by Gyrial, Liva and Niklas. She was already charging up the stairs, determined to reach a destination no one else knew about.
Following closely behind her, Halsten saw when she threw a door to a room open that was clearly not used often by the amount of dust coating the air.
The entire manor was slightly chilled due to fall beginning, but this room was cold. Beautiful tapestries of what Halsten now knew were sirens and sea dragons were strung on the walls.
Niklas whimpered and squeezed past Halsten. “Queen Else’s room,” he muttered.
A fascinated Niklas ran his fingers over every surface and fabric he could find while Linnea went straight for the vanity and began digging through drawers.
Halsten stood beside her while Gyrial and Liva guarded the door.
“They’ve got to be here,” Linnea grumbled.
The comb and mirror.
They had traveled all this way in hopes that Queen Else had left the siren artifacts here in her old home, farther away from the sea to protect them. Her small note she had left in a research journal was vague.
Comb and Mirror
Origin: siren
Magic: unknown
Possession: attained
Importance: essential
Greer.
Halsten had never learned what “Greer,” meant, but clearly it led them to the Blomvin Manor. It made sense to Niklas and Linnea, but no one else.
Linnea slammed the last vanity drawer closed in frustration. “It’s not here.”
“It has to be,” Niklas declared. “She specifically wrote Greer!”
Linnea closed her eyes and sucked in a deep breath.
“Okay, I’ll ask since the two mute guards over there aren’t going to,” Halsten jested, referencing Gyrial and Liva. “What is Greer?”
“Not what. Who,” Linnea said flatly. “My mother.”
Niklas pushed past Halsten to investigate the vanity himself. “Nothing in your aunt’s journals were wrong. They have to be here.”
