Chapter 18
JUDE
Conner is nervous. I can see it in the way his shoulders remain stiff. He’s sitting perfectly still, shoulders straight, muscles tense, and ready to run.
I get it. After taking him out of the No Face tunnels and basically telling him to forget everything, I can understand why he feels on edge now that I’m telling him we’re visiting the tunnels again.
He practically stared down death during his previous visit. I can’t imagine heading back to a place where I was nearly murdered through no fault of my own.
I grip the back of his head and pull his mouth to mine. While he doesn’t need to be walking around with a tent in his pants, I’m hoping to take his mind off the impending adventure.
Conner doesn’t relax, but his hand fists in my shirt to keep me close as he takes what he wants from me. I’m about to crawl onto his lap when a voice clears behind us.
If possible, Conner tenses further.
Sighing, I pull away but don’t give them my attention as I look at Conner staring at them over my shoulder. Gently, I turn his attention to me and pretend he has some of my drool at the corner of his mouth to wipe away with my finger.
He gives me an unsure smile. I kiss his cheek and then put my lips to his ear to whisper, “You’re completely safe, Conner. Promise.”
His nod is stiff. I get to my feet and pull him with me, finally giving the men and woman who entered the room my attention. Conner’s eyes immediately train on Adalaide. Axl smirks at me, winking. Little bitch. Apparently, Adalaide might be Conner’s girl crush.
“You know Ady,” Axl says to Conner. Conner’s cheeks are pink. I’m going to need to fuck him into remembering who he belongs to later. “This is my great-uncle-cousin Rome, and his husband, Tristan.”
“Triton,” Triton corrects, glaring at Axl.
Axl continues to smirk as he drapes his arm around Adalaide’s waist.
“I’m just a cousin,” Rome says, offering Conner his hand.
“Our family quantifies relations based on the generation you’re born into,” Adalaide informs Conner. “Uncle Rome is kinda in between generations, though, so we waffle on cousin or uncle.”
“Ah.”
“He’s not immediate family,” Axl says. “Meaning he’s a descendant of a great-uncle—not of Grandpa Jalon, which adds another disruption in titles.”
“Being a Van Doren sounds complicated,” Conner says.
Adalaide grins, tossing her hair over her shoulder. I swear she’s flirting with my man, and Conner is entranced. I glare at her and tug Conner to my side. “Anyway,” I growl in warning. “This is your show now, hun. Show us the wall you were pushed through.”
There it is again. His unease is back. Even being hypnotized by Adalaide isn’t enough to fend it off. He meets my eye, and I kiss him, earning myself a smile.
“You’re safe,” I say against his lips. “That’s why we have an influx of Van Dorens on this exploration with us.”
“I’m not following that logic,” he mutters, eyes flickering to the side.
“Arek, Orev, Axl, and Paisley have claimed you as safe under their name, which admittedly means more than mine here. You’re safe. I promise.”
“I feel like a pet,” he says, scowling. Conner turns away and leads the way out of the room.
“You are,” I say, following him. “My pet, darling.”
He scratches the back of his head with his middle finger, earning him a round of quiet laughter as we follow him.
It’s clear that Conner gets turned around twice as he leads us through the castle. He pokes his head into one of the dens and then moves further down the hall.
“Didn’t you say he found where he’d been again yesterday?” Axl asks.
“I did,” Conner answers. “But all your damn halls look the same, and I wasn’t paying attention the first time I wandered into the room. I was just walking aimlessly.”
“It’s okay, cutie,” Adalaide says. “We’re not in a hurry.”
I shove her gently. She laughs and links her arm with mine as we continue to follow Conner.
Not going to lie. Adalaide is one of the most beautiful women I’ve ever laid eyes on.
If I weren’t gayer than a Pride Parade, I’d be all over her.
It’s not a surprise that literally everyone who meets her is entirely enchanted the first few days they’re in her presence.
I’m convinced that it’s a combination of her flirty winks, her pretty eyes, and her long legs.
Then she talks, and you’re shocked as well as enthralled by her voice before you even register her wit and intelligence.
Adalaide is simply a wonderful human being, and while I’m getting annoyed that she’s seducing my man, I love her company most of the time.
She can talk hockey with the best of them, which is the first indication of their character in my eyes.
She kisses my temple and then pats my cheek a couple times. “He’s a cutie,” she says quietly. “Nice man to fall for, Judey.”
I huff but can’t deny the warmth in my chest. I grip her hand on my arm, acknowledging her words but not willing to forgive her just yet. I have a feeling Axl brought her along to distract Conner from his fear of entering the tunnels again.
Eventually, Conner enters one of the drawing rooms and looks around. He approaches the fireplace, touches the No Face mask carved into the mantle, and then examines the wall of bookshelves.
“That one,” he says.
“You were pushed into it?” Rome asks.
Conner nods. “Not hard. He hurt his hand when he missed me and punched the mantle. I let myself fall backward, not expecting the wall to give way. He tried to open it once I kicked it shut from the other side, though he gave up quickly.”
Triton and Rome examine the shelves and the books on them. Their hands go everywhere, but the bookshelf refuses to open.
“Maybe we get in from the other side,” Axl suggests.
Triton shakes his head. He steps back and taps the shelf. “There’s a keyhole here. Whoever shut it last didn’t latch it, but closed it enough that no one suspected that it was a door.”
“It’s not often we throw people into walls,” I muse.
“It’s not a typical key. Look here,” Rome says, and the four of us move forward to examine the shape.
Keys are very distinct. Practically a stick—one end a handle with enough grip for you to turn it, and the other a series of peaks of different heights and widths that match a particular combination inside the lock.
This one isn’t stick-like in appearance. At the end is a flat head that turns the symbol in the back of the shelf so all the lines align properly.
“This is a big castle,” I note. “And a small key.”
“It’ll likely be in this room somewhere,” Triton says.
“You’re officially given permission to snoop,” I tell Conner.
He looks at me warily.
The room isn’t huge, but there’s a lot in it. Just like every other room. And the key could literally be anywhere. This isn’t the first time I’ve searched for something impossible to find in the castle, though. While it feels impossible, I’m excited about what we’ll find when we locate the key.
“The key will just be lying around?” Conner asks.
“Not necessarily,” Rome answers. “We’ve seen pieces of armor come away to be keys.”
“Or doors.”
“Or graves,” Adalaide mutters.
“Look at this,” Conner says, and we all turn in his direction. He’s staring at a picture frame. Not the picture itself, but the frame.
“We need you to hang around more often,” Triton says as he pries the key we’re looking for out of the frame. He grins hugely at Conner before heading for the door.
Adalaide is once more giving Conner flirty eyes. I press my hand to her face and shove her away. “Get your own man, Ady.”
She laughs. Conner flushes. It’s hot as hell. Maybe Arek is onto something. Blushing boys are certainly gorgeous.
The click in the wall is audible, and the bookshelf swings inward silently. It’s a black void beyond. Conner stiffens beside me once more.
“This look right?” Triton asks.
Conner nods. “Take a right. That’s the path I chose.”
Even though he told me about the fires starting, I’m almost startled when Rome steps inside and disappears into the darkness just before the entire hall beyond lights up with dancing firelight.
“Wow,” Adalaide says as she follows Rome inside. “This is… dirty.”
Axl laughs. “You’ll clean up easily enough, Ady doll. Come on.” He takes Ady’s hand and pulls her along down the hall.
“They’re besties,” I tell Conner. “Have been since they were kids, even with the years that separate them.”
Triton shuts the door behind us, keeping the key in his pocket.
“This is amazing,” Triton says. “This might be what we’ve seen referenced but have never been able to find.”
“Think of all the doors that could be hidden in these walls,” Rome says, trailing his fingers along the shelves, leaving a trail in the dust as he goes.
“How far did you walk?” Triton asks.
“Until the end. It’s a dead end.”
“How did you possibly find a door in a dead end?” Rome mutters.
“Eyes,” Conner answers, and we all look at him. “You’ll see.”
It feels as if we’re walking for ages. The ground dips and curves. Because I know the layout of the island, I know that we’re heading toward the tower in the forest, except… we took a random left toward the water.
The corridor of books ends abruptly at a wall that looks like the rest. Conner points at the painted mask above the bookcase and then traces an invisible line toward the shelves to our right. Ah, that’s how he got back toward the tower.
“The eyes showed me where to go,” Conner says. “I don’t know how I opened the wall, though. I was pulling and pushing and hitting all over the place, and it suddenly opened.”
“Like whack-a-mole,” Axl says.
Conner laughs. “Yep, exactly.”
Rome and Triton are far more methodical as they look for the trigger to open the door. It takes nearly as long to locate it as it had in the parlor, and we’re let into a wide-open room lined with portraits.
“Are there more doors here?” Triton asks as we follow them through.
I shut the door behind us, and it vanishes into the wall. “Can you find the door we just went through?” he asks, raising a brow.
Triton turns, looks at the smooth wall, and laughs. “Noted.”
“I didn’t look,” Conner says. “It felt like a waste of time to find something that might as well not exist.”
“What is this room?” Adalaide asks as she stands over the mosaic on the floor. “It looks a lot like the ceremony room but… colder.”
“Execution room,” Triton says. “Look at the angle of the floor.” He points to an invisible slope that leads to a drain in the floor. Then at a spigot in the wall. Water.
Conner wraps his arms around his middle.
“Where to, Conner?” Axl asks.
Conner walks by everyone and leads us through the one exit, stepping into a dark corridor. Axl turns on the flashlight on his phone to give us a little guidance in the dark. We pass three passages that turn off to the left. Conner stares into the darkness as he continues straight.
“You sure you didn’t turn down one of these in the dark?” Rome asks.
“I had my hand on the wall,” he says, and I note his hand is once more trailing the wall on our right. “There are no openings on this side.”
When we get to the end, Axl turns his phone off, and we stare through the back of a painting. This time, Conner knows how he opened it. Even before the portrait swings open, I know the room we’re looking into. The one where we found him. Through a passage we didn’t know existed.
We step into the ceremony room, and Conner looks at us, putting his back to the table where he was nearly executed.
“Nice job, Conner,” Triton says, gripping his shoulder and smiling. “Even if accidental. You found something we’ve been looking for for generations.”
“Just think. He almost took that knowledge to the grave,” Axl muses.
Adalaide and I smack him at the same time.