Written in Red (Mercury Raine #6)

1

When experiencing Aventine Manor for the first time, most guests found the bevy of ghosts the most intriguing thing about the large and impressive estate.

There were more than twenty, after all, though no one beyond the estate’s inimitable owner was aware of all of them.

But Mercury Raine hadn’t purchased the house for its size or elegance.

The secrets the estate held were far more important.

Hundreds of people and ghosts had passed through Aventine’s door in the years Mercury had lived there, and he’d not revealed any of those secrets to any of them. Until now.

“The danger we fled from in London will reach us here soon.” He looked out over the translucent faces gathered in the dungeon.

Not all of his ghosts were there—some were far too inclined to keep to themselves—but those who were present listened intently.

The absent ghosts he would visit personally.

“The key to our safety is found behind this wall.”

He tapped the heavy stone behind him, illuminated by the two lanterns he’d brought down with him.

“Behind a solid stone wall?” The Quiet Queen sniffed her disbelief. Her overbearing manners often made her seem arrogant. At times she was arrogant, truth be told, but Mercury knew she was also reasonable and good and reliable.

“Very convincing, isn’t it?” Mercury slipped his hand into a well-hidden gap in the mortar between stones and pulled that stone outward.

It took effort, but the wall itself shifted.

He did the same behind another stone and pushed the wall to the side.

It slid like a pocket door into the stationary part of the stone wall.

His ghosts leaned in near-perfect unison, peering into the darkness behind the now-open wall.

It was Tacey, the only other non-ghost in the dungeon, who spoke first. “It looks too dark and deep to be another room.”

“It is a tunnel,” he said.

“This house has a secret passageway?” Captain Capitate could not have sounded more excited.

Mercury nodded. “Several, in fact. And they all begin here.”

“Ghosts can sense openings behind walls,” Gary the Green said. “How is it none of us have ever realized this is here?”

“Aventine is a mysterious place,” Mercury said.

“A brilliant place.” The Captain slipped into the darkness.

To the others, Mercury said, “The tunnels will need to be aired out and torches added to the sconces throughout. We’ll need to make certain no portions of the tunnels have collapsed.”

Zizzy, ever concerned and often nervous, turned to Mercury with wide, worried eyes. “Will you be in danger in the tunnels?”

Ghosts, of course, couldn’t be hurt by falling walls or ceilings. Mercury and Tacey were the only ones who needed to be wary of such things.

“That is why we are going to do a thorough evaluation and do whatever work needs to be done,” he assured her. “We’ll make certain it is safe. For us.”

That earned him a look of interested curiosity from the Quiet Queen.

He held her gaze, and a flicker of understanding entered her eyes.

People were coming to Aventine to capture him, possibly hurt Tacey, cause his ghosts distress, and undo all that Mercury had built for himself in the more than a decade since he’d fled the orphanage.

He intended to make Aventine a very dangerous place for those people.

The ghosts all trickled inside, leaving Mercury and Tacey at the tunnel entrance.

Tacey’s eyes shifted from the tunnel to him. “Should the Vanns or the Forever Flame arrive at Aventine, intent on capturing you—”

“Us,” Mercury reminded her; she had already been snatched away once.

“Us,” she amended, “are the tunnels a hiding place or are they a means of escape?”

“They can be both,” he said. “But I am preparing them to be a prison.”

He watched for her reaction to that. Safeguarding her, himself, and their ghosts was crucial.

If that required locking people in the Aventine tunnels, he would absolutely do it.

But she might find that a bridge too far.

He’d presented himself to the world as a man of civility and sophistication.

But, at his heart, he was a scrappy street urchin, a fugitive from the law who had learned the hard way how to survive.

“The Vanns locked me in their basement,” she said, mouth twisting in the tiniest bit of satisfaction. “Turnabout being fair play, I think reserving a room for them down here would be fitting.”

Mercury took up a lantern in one hand and held his other one out to her. She’d allowed him to hold her hand a few times over the last couple of days. He wanted to view that as a sign his growing feelings for her weren’t entirely one-sided. But he also didn’t want to assume too much.

She set her hand in his again. Some of the tension he always carried with him eased a bit. He was starting to depend on her. Mercury didn’t usually allow himself that much vulnerability. Tacey Wilde had changed him.

He was less lonely. But he was also more vulnerable. She gave him more reason to fight for his future, but that also meant the outcome of this fight now impacted more than just him. It was a complication he’d never encountered before, and one he had no intention of freeing himself from.

Tacey snatched up the other lantern, and together they stepped into the passageway. It was dark, but the lanterns helped. He could see well enough to guide them both.

“I’ve lived in the dungeon for years.” Wallaby floated in front of them from an adjoining tunnel. “I should have sensed this was here.”

“The man I purchased Aventine from said that, in all the years he lived here, no ghost ever suspected that the wall was anything but a wall,” Mercury said, “or that there was anything below ground other than the dungeon.”

“Odd place, Aventine.” Wallaby floated along, exploring the previously unknown space.

Testy Tolver peeked inside a room at the start of an offshoot tunnel. There were several in various places along the network of tunnels. “How is it the room has a window? We’d have seen it from the outside.” He sounded offended. Testy Tolver nearly always did.

“I have searched for years,” Mercury said. “Not one of the windows from any of the rooms in these tunnels can be seen from anywhere on the grounds. I know where they ought to be. I’ve looked for them. They’re not there.”

“Are they simply very well hidden?” Tacey asked, peering into a room with her lantern held aloft.

The room, like most of the others, had a smattering of very simple furniture. At some point, these rooms had been used, though whether as hiding places or cells, Mercury didn’t know.

“I’ve not ever been able to determine if the tunnels are discombobulating and one is not actually where one thinks one is, or if there is something more otherworldly at play.”

Tacey looked back at him. “You make it sound as if the house is magical.”

That brought a few of the ghosts’ eyes back to Mercury, curiosity in their expressions.

“Aventine is more than merely ‘magical,’” Mercury said. “In many ways it feels almost conscious, aware, active.”

“And secretive.” It was impossible to tell if Testy Tolver approved of that secretiveness or not, which was actually odd for him. The judgmental ghost usually made his opinions quite apparent.

Sweet little Baby Blue floated up next to Mercury, his ghostly eyes wide with amazement. “How many tunnels are there?”

“Ten,” Mercury said as they made their way down the main one. “Some longer than others. They all branch off this one.”

Baby Blue peered into the darkness of one of those tunnels. Many of the other ghosts were doing the same.

Mercury held his lantern high enough to illuminate the passage Baby was slowly inching down and followed him.

“This one feels different,” the tiny ghost said.

“It is different.” Mercury felt it as well. He had every time he’d walked through the tunnels, though he’d not done so in years.

Baby Blue peered into a room a few yards ahead, and a feeling of alarm immediately seized Mercury.

“Do not go in that room!” he called out.

The little ghost stopped on the instant, spinning back to face him, hovering a hair’s breadth from the threshold.

Mercury looked at all the ghosts, who had drawn near, no doubt shocked to hear Mercury speak so forcefully to Baby Blue.

“None of you must ever go in there,” he told them. “Not without Tacey or me nearby.”

“Why?” Zizzy inched closer to Tacey, watching Mercury with her usual look of concern.

“Ghosts cannot escape it. If the door is opened for them, they can leave. But ghosts cannot pass through the walls or the window or the closed door.”

Gary the Green earnestly waved Baby Blue closer to him and farther from the ominous room.

“I’ve never heard of such a thing,” the Quiet Queen said. “Ghosts can pass through any material, no matter how thick or dense.”

“Aventine is more than a house.” Mercury urged them all to return to the main passageway. “It is secretive but also dangerous. And it has countless unique fortifications.”

“That is fitting, seeing as we are going to battle,” Tacey said.

He held her gaze a moment, allowing a flicker of worry. But he tucked that quickly away. “We’re not ‘going to’ battle. The battle is coming to us. And Aventine is our secret weapon.”