Total pages in book: 93
Estimated words: 92254 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 461(@200wpm)___ 369(@250wpm)___ 308(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 92254 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 461(@200wpm)___ 369(@250wpm)___ 308(@300wpm)
“Never.”
I almost make it through the night.
Arsen doesn’t come to bed. Men keep coming and going. It’s clear whatever happened escalated things in the war. I spend the evening in the library and try to get some sleep, but I can’t make my eyes stay closed.
Not when something’s going on and I don’t know what.
I slip out around one in the morning. There are voices down in the kitchen. I creep past the stairs, find the secret latch on the library fireplace, and shimmy my way into the narrow passages in the walls.
It’s creepy as fuck at night. The rooms with lights on in them send some weak light streaming in little gaps. I use my phone to navigate and do my best not to make too much noise. At one point, I hear Tigran and Arsen arguing about something. Their voices are muffled, but I can tell Arsen’s not happy.
“…kill her now and be done with it,” Tigran says.
“I know your stance on this, brother, but we’re going to find a different solution first.”
“Garen’s not responding to our messengers. What makes you think he’ll even come to the table?”
“He’ll come. Give him time.”
“How much time?”
“As long as we need. Trust me, Tigran. Let this play out.”
Tigran’s frustrated response gets lost as the men move into a different room. I shuffle along, trying to keep pace with them, but eventually I get lost and have to backtrack.
The passages are hard to navigate, but I’m getting the hang of it. Years spent practicing urban exploring really come in handy. The dust and the mouse droppings don’t even bother me.
Well, not that much, anyway.
I follow the commotion and try to catch snatches of conversation. Eventually, I find myself on the far side of the house, and I realize I’m in the forbidden wing. I hadn’t even meant to cross that invisible line, but this is where most of the men are concentrated. Several guards are in the hall where Maud and I cleaned up the majority of the old blood.
“Make sure nobody bothers her,” Arsen says to one of them before leaving the wing again. I’m tempted to follow him, but what he said makes me pause.
Who is her?
Snippets of what I heard throughout the day start to coalesce. I crawl under a few loose boards, shift around a tight corner, and find myself in the walls outside of the old office where Arsen used to keep the bodies. The skeletons are long gone and the room’s mostly scrubbed clean now.
There’s a light on inside. I shuffle toward a narrow gap in some boards, but I have to stand on my toes to see through. I can just make out a person sitting in a chair—no, a woman tied to a chair—when I lose my balance and fall backwards into the wall behind me.
It thumps loudly and I freeze. My heart’s up in my throat. If anyone catches me in here, Arsen’s going to be pissed. And I won’t even blame him for being mad.
“Is someone there?”
A woman’s voice. Older, I’d guess in her sixties. Shit, she must’ve heard me.
“I know you’re there,” she says, louder this time. “Arsen, is that you? Or is it Tigran? Hiding in the walls like you used to?”
My breath’s coming fast. Arsen and Tigran used to explore these passageways? But of course they did. If they grew up in this place, there’s no way a couple of young boys would ever leave these tunnels alone. They’re way too fun and tempting. I’m a full grown adult pregnant woman and I can barely stay out of them. Forget about some dumb kids.
“No, it’s not either of you,” the woman says. “You two wouldn’t need to hide. Then who’s in the walls? Is it that old poisoner bitch? Or maybe someone else. Maybe it’s someone new to the house.”
I lean forward and squint into the room again.
Then jerk back in shock.
The woman’s looking over her shoulder. She’s got a big, vicious grin on her face, and she’s staring right at me.
“It’s you, isn’t it? The bitch that caused all this trouble?”
I nearly choke on my fear. How the hell did she know? How did she see me? I’m panicking and I’m about to run away, but I force myself to stop.
If I make more noise, she’ll be sure I’m here.
She’s just guessing right now. I bet she knows these passageways too, and she’s aware of where the hidden peepholes are. That must be Sona, Arsen’s aunt, which means she probably grew up in this house too.
I work up some courage and look back through the holes.
She’s still looking back at me, but it’s clear she can’t see anything. She looks like an aging movie star with crow’s feet and bad hair. But there’s a strange dignity about her too, despite being tied up.