Total pages in book: 128
Estimated words: 120230 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 601(@200wpm)___ 481(@250wpm)___ 401(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 120230 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 601(@200wpm)___ 481(@250wpm)___ 401(@300wpm)
The stairs were only wide enough to accommodate a single person at a time.
Aaron, bringing up the rear, said, “Does Ash know about these stairs? Only I’m thinking he might’ve gone the other way and we might miss each other.”
“If he’s not in the tower,” Darcie said, “then we’ll go down the other way. We’ll either run into him along the way—or find him waiting for us with V and Grace.” Her words were puffs of white as she took the steps at a speed that strained her lungs.
They strained mine worse, and not only that, I was having trouble seeing. The weak lightbulbs meant to illuminate the area had been spaced so far apart that they created more shadow than light.
My eyes couldn’t adapt to the dappled effect, the world a shaky mirage.
I kept my hand against the wall on one side while gripping the railing on the other. “Why did they build such dangerous stairs in the olden times?” I said to hide my fear of the strangling dark.
It was Aaron who replied. “I’ve always wondered that, too. Didn’t they have maids and other staff constantly coming up and down with food, water, laundry?”
We might’ve continued to chat, but Darcie surged on at a relentless pace. Though Aaron was having no difficulties, I couldn’t keep up and talk at the same time. He patted me on the back a couple of times in silent encouragement.
Kaea would’ve slapped me on the shoulder and told me I was losing my conditioning.
Such different men. Both my friends.
A loud creak and I looked up to a burst of light.
Blinking against the spots in my vision, I barely made out the image of Darcie haloed in gold pulling open a door.
I made it the rest of the way on instinct. The bulb in the tower was brighter—golden—perhaps because Darcie and Ash used it often in order to download messages and the like, and I gave myself the time it took me to catch my breath to adapt to the change in illumination.
My vision was shaky even at that point, but I could tell the tower was empty. No mistake. The place had a couple of chairs and that was it. Nothing to hide behind.
“He’s not here.” Darcie spun toward the main doorway. “Come on, we have to go down the other set of stairs.”
My vision still unstable, I hung back as Aaron followed her.
He paused, glanced back. “Lunes?”
Thinking fast, I lifted my phone. “Let me grab a couple of photos. Not sure I’ll have the energy to come back here later. Ash is probably already in the living room.”
He nodded in agreement. “Catch up to us soon, though, okay?”
“Will do.” I collapsed into one of the chairs the instant after they left, my eyes closed and my breathing a conscious process designed to calm.
I could see again when I finally lifted my lashes, but the only thing to see was this room cold and grim and lonely. The door we’d come through had shut on its own, leaving only a seamless gray wall.
No life. Nothing but ice.
Mouth suddenly dry, I whipped my head around, certain I’d heard a whisper, seen a flicker out of the corner of my eye. But of course I was alone. It didn’t matter; I raced down the stairs after the others. I didn’t want to be alone anywhere in this house.
As it was, I spotted Aaron and Darcie on the far end of the hallway after exiting the stairs. “Aaron!” I began to jog toward him.
Darcie kept on walking, while Aaron hung back.
No longer panicked now that I had them in sight, I waved him on. “Stay with her! She’s not thinking straight.”
My cheeks were hot. Not from exertion but due to embarrassment at the foolishness of my earlier fear. I’d wandered all over the house today, come to no harm. Yet I still put a rush on it when Aaron disappeared around the corner.
Even with the distance between us, there was no mistaking the fear in Darcie’s jagged motions as she half walked, half ran over the polished wooden floors while her ancestors looked on with painted eyes.
She slammed into the living room. “Where’s Ash?” I heard her demand even before I reached the doorway, my breath painful enough that I had to brace myself against the doorjamb.
Vansi was frozen with a spoon halfway to Kaea’s lips, while Grace sat behind him, attempting to hold his lolling head in place. Now, the petite blonde’s eyes grew wide. “You mean you didn’t find him?”
40
Darcie dropped to her knees, began to look under sofas, as if Ash was a child who might’ve crawled beneath, but what held my attention was the creeping terror in Vansi’s dark gaze.
All at once, fear seemed the rational choice. “You two stay with Kaea,” I said to her and Grace. “Ash might’ve decided to wander around in another part of the house. We’ll go find him.”