“Severine,” Grayson said softly as they reached another corner where the only option was to go down. “If your Mr. Brand has been…ah—irrevocably hurt—”
“Killed you mean?” Severine asked. She saw no point in walking delicately around the horrible. It didn’t change the facts and wasting energy in avoiding reality did no one any good.
“Yes,” Grayson replied. “You’re in trouble.”
“I am,” she agreed. “But I was before, wasn’t I?”
“You were.”
“Maybe Father planned for anything happening to Mr. Brand. I didn’t bother to ask. Though, of course, I want him to be safe.”
“Of course.”
They let Anubis lead the way through the narrow passages. Upstairs, down halls, through shadow ways and finally Anubis rushed ahead. He was silent but powerful as they hurried forward. When he stopped, Severine started to open the door but Grayson touched her elbow lightly. Neither of them were speaking. He took a few steps back and slowly pulled back the portrait they had passed and slid the small slot back.
Grayson leaned down and breathed out a low curse. He stepped back with his finger over his lips and she nodded, pressing her lips together. She breathed, barely loud enough to be heard, and whispered, “Anubis, leise.”
She pushed up onto her toes and gasped. They’d found Lisette and Mr. Brand and they were alive! She wanted to rush in but when she started searching for the handle Grayson put a hand over her mouth and caught her arm.
“Not yet!” he hissed low and quiet. “Let’s watch.”
She nodded against his hand, hating leaving them trapped and frightened, but he had a point. They took turns watching and waited long enough to see Mr. Brand struggle against the ties and Lisette try and fail to help. Their mouths were gagged and both of them kept turning to the same direction, looking at something that Grayson and Severine couldn’t see.
Was it Andre? If so, Severine and Grayson could be heading into a trap.
Severine dropped down onto her feet and whispered, “What do you think?”
Grayson shook his head and then tried the door. It wasn’t locked and he turned the handle gently. Nothing happened, so he slowly pushed the door open and, with a gesture for Severine to watch through the slit, sidled through it. A moment later, he stepped forward. Mr. Brand’s and Lisette’s heads jerked up and their gazes widened in unison. As Grayson rushed forward to help, Severine felt Anubis tense. He growled low and she reached for him.
Anubis, though, was shoved through the door and it was yanked closed before she could react. Her brother grabbed her arm, tugging her around and smothering her with his hand over her mouth and nose. He laughed in her ear as he dragged her down the passageway. He pulled so hard and fast that she was hauled off her feet and unable to get her footing again.
Her arm twisted with pain from his iron grip, and the weight of her body made it all the more uncomfortable. He hauled her around a corner and down the stairs, seeming to enjoy her gasps as she thunked against the stairs. They reached a basement level where the passageway switched from wood-paneled to cold and stone-lined. There was an eerie echo with the sound of their footsteps and when he finally stopped she stared in shock.
The room was large, round, domed, and torch-lined with pillars support a green ceiling. He shoved her inside and closed the door, and turning a key in the lock, and then laughed as she scrambled away from him. He took the first lit torch and walked the rounded circle of the room, lighting every torch. She faced him, slowly pushing to her feet as he laughed at her again.
“Would you look at this place?” Her brother spun in a circle, holding out his arms. “No wonder your Father stole it from the old man.”
Severine couldn’t help but follow her brother’s gaze. It was an engineering marvel. What she first took as a green ceiling was actually thick glass under the lake with filthy algae covered glass. Between the torchs were tunnel exits, open for escape. She was shocked. She had to force herself to focus on her brother while a plan formed in her head.
She could see the heavy weight in his pocket. Did he see the heavy weight in her skirt? What were they going to do? Have some sort of showdown at high noon? Then her eye was caught by something in the corner. The crumbled, broken form of Grandmère. For a moment, Severine feared the old woman was dead, but then Grandmère moaned low and raggedly.
Severine wanted to back away from her brother and towards Grandmère; however, that may well put Grandmère in greater danger.
She wanted to rail her fists at him. Instead, she turned her body slightly and carefully slid her hand into her pocket, taking hold of the gun. Her fingers were shaking, and she slowly let go of it. There was a very large pond over her head, and what would happen if the glass broke?
She swallowed thickly. “What is this place?”
Severine didn’t care, of course, but she knew that Mr. Brand and Grayson would be coming for her. If they could find her. So needed to keep Andre talking.
“It’s how I found the passageways,” Andre continued as if she was hanging on his every word. She swallowed carefully as his high-pitched laugh echoed around the room. “I heard about this place from Beau Coutelier. Have you heard of him?”
Severine shook her head. She’d backed away from him, but he didn’t care. She knew he noticed. She felt those cold eyes landing on her, and she shivered in reaction, but if anything, moving away from him amused him.
“Grandson of the old fellow who built this place. They hate us, you know. Well—" That high-pitched laugh was so horrifying, she felt as though someone had walked over her grave yet to come. “They really just hate you now that old Lukas is
