CHAPTER THIRTY A CLOSER LOOK #2
Thomas took a deep breath, steadying himself. “Where has Anastasia been? I’m afraid we’ve both been ignoring facts. Ones that have been blinding in their obviousness.”
My blood prickled. Thomas was being overly cautious.
It wouldn’t be the first time he’d told me to suspect those closest to us, and yet part of me knew Anastasia had secrets.
In fact, if I were being truly honest with myself, I knew Ileana had them, too.
I had known someone else who’d harbored secrets. …
I shut my emotions off, not allowing devastation to cloud any more of my judgment. I would neither be willfully blind to the truth nor keep my suspicions to myself from this point forward, no matter the cost to my heart.
“I also haven’t seen Ileana in two days. Which was the evening before the body was taken from the tower morgue.”
Thomas nodded. “And? What else? What else doesn’t quite add together?”
I thought back on all the times we’d spoken about strigoi. About how she’d change the subject before Anastasia could ask more questions. How superstitious she’d been about the bodies. “Ileana’s from Brasov. The village where the first murder occurred.”
“She’s also aware that Vlad Dracula’s blood runs through my sister’s veins.”
I knew it wasn’t medically possible, but I swore I felt my heart stop beating. At least for a moment. I stared at Thomas, knowing our thoughts were straying to the same horrid conclusion.
“Do you know where Daciana is now?” I asked, pulse racing. “Which city she was visiting next?” Thomas slowly shook his head. A darker feeling tugged at my core. “Are you certain she left the castle? What about the invitation to the ball?”
“Daci is a bit of a planner; she’d probably have written it out ahead of time.
The invitation could have been sent through the post by anyone.
” Silver lined the edges of Thomas’s eyes, but he quickly blinked the liquid away.
“I never saw her off in her carriage. She slipped away with Ileana. I didn’t want to intrude.
I thought they wanted a bit more time alone. ”
The body stolen from the tower morgue—was it Daciana’s?
I could barely breathe. Thomas had already lost his mother; losing a sibling was as close to a mortal wound as one could withstand.
I forced my brain to move through its grief and connect any dots or clues.
What did we know about Daciana’s last days or hours at the castle? Then it struck me.
“I know precisely where we need to go.” I made to grab his hand, then paused. Even behind castle walls, the impropriety of my action would not go unnoticed. As if my fears had summoned him, the librarian walked past, arms filled with books. “Come,” I said. “I have an idea.”
We exited the library and scanned the wide corridors.
No maids or servants or guards. Not that we would have noticed the maids straightaway—they could be hidden away behind the tapestries in the makeshift corridor.
I motioned for Thomas to follow me into the secret hallway, and we moved swiftly and alertly.
Focus primed for any movements or sounds.
The air was particularly cold—hallway fires had burned down to nothing, and torches weren’t lit. It was as if the castle were closing off its own emotions, descending into that icy calm. I hoped a storm wasn’t about to break around us.
Some nooks now seemed even more sinister—they were places that might shelter anyone who wished to do harm. I kept one eye out for any flash of movement there. We passed a pedestal with a serpent, and I shivered. Anyone might be ducking behind it, waiting to pounce.
Ileana was small enough to disappear among the displayed artifacts. Thomas followed my gaze but kept his expression neutral. I wanted to know if it was the first time he’d been in the servants’ passages but didn’t risk speaking aloud. Not yet.
Scuffled boots tramped along the carpets in the main corridor.
We froze, backs pressed against one of the large tapestries.
I didn’t dare glance at which scene of torture we’d hidden against. Judging from the heavy tread, I guessed there were at least four guards.
They didn’t speak. The only sounds of their arrival and departure were the clunk, clunk, clunk of their rhythmic steps.
I barely breathed until the thump of their boots faded. Even then, Thomas and I remained motionless for a few beats more. I peeled myself away from the wall and checked both ways. We’d exit the secret corridor soon.
Thankfully, we managed to find our way toward Anastasia’s chambers undetected. Seemed everyone heeded the headmaster’s warning and were tightly locked away in their rooms.
I pressed my ear against Anastasia’s chamber door, listening for a moment before opening it. The fires hadn’t been lit, but the sunlight streamed in through the open curtains. Everything was just as I remembered it the last time Anastasia had been here.
“Why are we in this chamber, Wadsworth?”
I scanned the room. The book Anastasia had taken from the missing woman’s house had appeared to bear one of the Order’s symbols. And if that were the case, perhaps…
“Look.” I crossed the room and lifted the book from the table. It was titled in Romanian: Poezii Despre Moarte, “Poems of Death.” I’d been so distracted by the idea of the missing girl being lost and frozen in the woods that I hadn’t bothered reading the title earlier.
“When Anastasia and I entered that house, she claimed there was a connection between this book and the Order.” I held the book up for him to see.
A cross was burned into the cover, each of its sides ablaze with crude flames.
“At first I thought she’d been mistaken, there was no logical reason for the missing woman from the village to be connected to a chivalric order made up of nobles. A mistake on my part, clearly.”
“Everyone makes mistakes, Wadsworth. There’s no shame in that. It’s how you go about mending them that truly counts.” Thomas flipped through the book quickly. “Hmm. I believe—”
“That it is time for you to go to your own chambers. You have no reason to be in these rooms.” Thomas and I both tensed at the intrusion and the gravelly voice.
D?nesti stood in the doorframe, his mass taking up the entire space.
Seemed like this castle was full of people who could move about without a sound.
“All activity within the castle has been canceled until the morning. Moldoveanu’s orders.
The headmaster has decided to hold classes tomorrow under one condition: everyone will be escorted to class and then back to your chambers. ”
Thomas had somehow hidden Poezii Despre Moarte, and he held his hands up. “Very well. After you.”
I didn’t dare search too hard for the now hidden book.
I didn’t want D?nesti to snatch it from us, especially if it turned out to be the very volume he’d been hunting.
After depositing Thomas at his rooms, the guard watched me enter my chambers and then tugged the door shut behind me.
Keys jangled and before I knew what he’d done, I was locked in my tower chambers.
I raced into the bathing chamber and checked the door to the secret stairwell. It was bolted from the other side.
I did not sleep well that night, pacing as if I were an animal plotting its escape. Caged until someone set me free.