A Gift of Three (A Shade of Vampire #42)(27)

I could hear footsteps coming from the opposite end of the corridor. As I couldn’t see anything, I assumed it was coming from one of the rooms. I used True Sight, searching the rooms on my left. The first two were empty of occupants, but in the last, I saw a familiar figure and almost wept with relief.





Serena





[Hazel and Tejus’s daughter]




Hurrying along the corridor, I opened the door, causing Jovi to spin around in surprise, wielding a glass vase as a weapon.

“It’s me!” I hissed. “It’s okay.”

Jovi lowered the vase with a huge sigh of relief.

“What is this place?” he asked me. “Are you okay? I was trying to help Aida, then was practically blinded by the light—”

“Same here,” I replied. “When I opened my eyes again, I was here. And I can’t tell for the life of me where ‘here’ is.”

His room was the same as mine had been, though slightly larger, with a fireplace at either end. It also had velvet curtains hanging from each of its windows, half-eaten by moths and decay.

“Wherever we are, I want to get out.” Jovi made a move toward the door I’d just arrived from, and together we stepped back into the hallway.

“Do you think the others are here?” I asked hopefully. If Jovi and I had both arrived in the same place, then there was a chance the others had too.

“Did you look in other rooms?” he asked.

“They’re empty,” I confirmed, “there’s no one else on this floor. We should try downstairs. I passed a staircase. This way.” I led him on, back down the gloomy corridor.

“Look up,” he whispered, coming to a standstill a few feet from the banister. I did as he asked, and quickly wished I hadn’t. The ceiling was covered with murals: oil-painted depictions of black-eyed demons locked in battle with serpents and humans. Winged creatures, scaled and furious, lashed at one another, while glad-masked figures stood by and watched, as if they were at a play. It was creepy.

“Come on,” I said, tugging at his shirt sleeve. I wanted to get out of here—back into the light, at least. The gloom and the watching eyes of the stuffed creatures were making me edgy.

The staircase was wide, thickly carpeted like the hallway was. Some of the steps were broken in, the polished wood of the banisters also destroyed in some places, the railings draped in thick and musty cobwebs.

“Mind your step,” Jovi muttered as we slowly descended, anxious that every creak might give us away to whoever or whatever owned this place. The staircase led down to what I assumed was the main entrance. It was a vast and empty hall, whose floor was made of cracked, polished marble slates. Large paintings hung from the walls, covered in a thick layer of dust and depicting pastoral scenes—a nice change from what we’d seen on the ceiling upstairs.

Jovi hurried to the front door. It was huge, with two marble columns on either side, and rusted brass knobs on both doors. Jovi wiggled the handles, and I joined him, looking closely at the locks.

“Locked shut,” I asserted, rattling the frame. In our desire to get out, I’d stopped worrying about the noise we were making. “We should just break the glass of one of the windows, it will be easier.”

“Agreed,” Jovi replied. “Let’s see if we can find any sign of the others first. Which way should we go?”

I turned and faced the interior of the house. The layout was vast. There were so many rooms, most cast in darkness where the curtains were pulled tightly shut. I could see one fire blazing in one of the rooms in the west ‘wing’ of the home, but it looked as empty as the rest. I could also see a glass greenhouse that backed onto the lawn—full of tropical hot plants, and as overgrown as the rest of the land.

I told Jovi what I saw, both of us worried that the rest of our friends and family were nowhere to be found.

“Let’s make our way to the room with the fire,” he suggested. “If we can’t see anyone, we can get out through the greenhouse.”

I led the way, glancing into the different rooms that we passed—some vast, with the furniture covered in more mildewed sheets, and some smaller, containing nothing more than chests of more junk, books and unfamiliar objects that looked like they belonged at an antique fair.

“Do you think this is some sort of trick? Maybe one of the fae playing with us or something?” I asked hesitantly.

“It’d be a pretty cruel trick,” Jovi replied. “And I don’t know…it would take a lot of power—a jinni would have to be involved… and all this for amusement? It doesn’t sound likely.”

I had to agree. And there was nothing about this that felt remotely amusing. The more we explored of the isolated home, the more disheartened I felt—and frightened. With all the panic of seeing my friends in that state, and the dancing and fun beforehand, and now the use of True Sight to keep watch on the house as we walked through it, my energy was fast depleting. If I didn’t find energy to eat soon—and I didn’t believe that there would be anything in this place—I would have to ask Jovi if I could syphon off him. Something I absolutely didn’t want to do in this situation.

As we approached our destination, I could hear the faint sounds of a fire crackling in the hearth. I was already perspiring heavily—the house, even when cast in gloom, was humid and dank. Why anyone would want to light a fire in this heat was beyond me.