Chapter 41 #2
But Jade shoved the thoughts out of her mind.
Whatever it was about him that always derailed her best intentions, she wouldn’t let it get the better of her this time.
She was here for answers. If she had to make him believe certain things to get those answers, she’d have to be in complete control of her own thoughts and decisions.
In the main room, Jade peered around for any sign of Nicolas, but none could be found. The only sounds were the breeze outside, the creaking of old shutters, and the flapping of shingles. She didn’t imagine Nicolas would be inside the farmhouse, but this time, Jade knew where to go.
She pulled down a sconce beside the fireplace.
A click of metal behind the giant portrait of the family who must have once lived there told her the latch had released.
Jade gripped the edge of the frame with her fingers and pulled the whole painting forward, revealing a door behind it.
She pushed open the unlocked door and descended the steps into the tunnels.
Jade retrieved the chalk she had tucked in a pocket and walked closely along the stone wall of the tunnel, making a mark beside her every so often for Theo to follow in a few minutes.
Her muscle memory gained from each trip through those tunnels combined with the last time Nicolas had guided her out without a blindfold gave her what she needed to find her way to the bunker.
Once she reached the bunker door, Jade pressed her ear against it and listened.
Only a cold silence met her. If she hadn’t seen the horse in the barn, she might have assumed Nicolas wasn’t there.
She turned the knob and pushed the door open slowly, peering through the crack to check for an occupant.
Nothing. Jade opened the door the rest of the way and stepped inside.
“Nicolas?” she called as she pulled the door shut behind her.
The two doors on the opposite wall were closed.
Jade had never been through either of them before, and she didn’t want to barge into a more private part of the bunker.
One of them had a bed—Nicolas had told her as much.
He could be in there, possibly asleep. But it was the middle of the day.
What did he do with his days? Just scavenge for information? He’d never answered Jade’s more personal questions, but she couldn’t imagine him sitting around in the cold, quiet bunker by himself, wasting away the day.
“Nicolas?” The second unanswered call made her believe he must not have been there.
With nowhere else she knew of to look, Jade crossed the room to the door on the right and pushed it open.
Inside was a small bathroom: a shower, toilet, and sink, with a tall, narrow cabinet tucked in a corner.
She didn’t even have to bring a light inside to see the entire space.
She closed the door and tried the next one.
A warm glow spilled out from inside the room as Jade opened the door, taking her by surprise.
Her heart jumped to her throat. With the lamplight flickering throughout the room, she expected to see someone in here, but it too was empty.
Nicolas must be close, wherever he was, since the lamps in the room were lit.
Jade cast a glance over her shoulder at the door into the bunker, and with no sounds or apparent movement nearby, she crept into the bedroom. Why, she didn’t know, but she felt the pull to investigate the place where Nicolas must have spent a good portion of his time.
A bed had been pushed up into the corner of the tight space to make room for another beside it, each merely a metal frame and mattress covered with simple red bedclothes.
They were wide enough for two people, but only just. Though both beds were made, the covers atop the one closest to Jade were slightly rumpled.
On the wall nearest Jade stood a wooden wardrobe beside a chest of drawers. Jade stepped over to the chest, pulling open drawers to reveal socks, gloves, cotton shirts, and undergarments. Typical things to find in a bedroom. What was she expecting to find in here?
Jade swung open the doors to the wardrobe next, running her fingers along the dark fabrics inside.
She found the silky smooth material of the dress coat he’d worn at the masquerade ball, and beside it were the shirt and pants.
Other clothing in the wardrobe she hadn’t seen him wear, including what appeared to be a hooded cloak.
She tugged the heavy material out of the depths of the wardrobe to examine it closer in the wavering light.
Something about the cloak was familiar, though she was certain she’d never seen it on Nicolas.
But of course, a cloak was a cloak, and a plain black one was sure to have a multitude of duplicates that she found similar.
But as she pulled out the width of it to examine, Jade’s eyes fell on an imperfection at the bottom. A jagged slit, about a foot long, where a blade had run through the material.
The realization overwhelmed her, knocking the breath out of her like a wave crashing into her and pulling her under. Of course, she recognized this cloak. She had seen it many times. Her knife had stuck into the back and torn through it the night she fell off the roof at Lord Arthur’s house.
Another image came to her mind, as though the enlightening of one observation led the way to others. The flower she had run her finger along outside wasn’t an ordinary flower. It was the white blossom of firra. She’d seen it here before, the night she came to get a horse to take to Lesseine.
And creeping along the ground outside, where the horses had been grazing and the grass was shorter, was a thick accumulation of morsbane. She’d noticed the horse munching on some when she’d taken it to Lord Arthur’s house but hadn’t made the connection.
“I’m not at all surprised you figured it out.”
The voice that came from outside the room froze Jade to her core, sending an icy shockwave down her spine. She dropped the length of cloak, turning to face the sound through the open bedroom door, which provided a straight line of sight to the bunker door.
There, with his arms crossed and his chin slightly tilted up, a slight smile playing on his lips, stood Nicolas. The assassin.