With daylight shining down and the sun acting as a spotlight, Sarah waited until a cloud passed overhead before she sprinted from the woods. She felt incredibly slow, but she figured that it was due to the fatigue and lack of sleep, which she’d gone without for nearly forty-eight hours.
Black dots peppered her vision when she reached the door. The short distance had winded her and left her legs shaking like bowls of jelly. She shut her eyes, keeping below the window line of the door, and concentrated.
She just had to keep it together for a little longer. She gritted her teeth, took a breath, and then opened her eyes. She slowly peeked her head above the window line in the door and peered inside.
The sunlight made it difficult to break through the contrast of the darkness inside, and Sarah’s heart beat faster when she reached for the door handle. She gave it a quick turn, but it was locked.
“Shit,” she muttered under her breath, then maneuvered her way toward the back. There were two other doors that she knew of that could grant her access. One was on the back side of the building that led into the kitchen, which was locked, and the other was on the mansion’s east wing that faced the great north, which was also locked.
After the defeat of the last door, Sarah briefly considered checking the front entrance. The Bells were cocky enough to leave that unlocked, but it was also the entrance that they could see her coming from anywhere on the front side of the house.
Sarah stayed low, tapping her foot, trying to figure out her next move. She still wasn’t pressed for time, but she also knew that the longer it took her to retrieve the orb, the less time she had to destroy it. The last thing she wanted was the clock ticking down to zero and pushing her luck.
She briefly contemplated trying to project herself back into the house, but she figured that since those icy scales were gone that those abilities had vanished, too.
Attempting to climb and try for a second-story entrance was out of the question since there weren’t any scaffoldings or concrete ledges for her to try and climb, which left Sarah only one option. Break a window, rush inside, and pray that she could hide before one of the Bells heard her escape.
Sarah picked up a nearby rock, then crouched near the east wing door. It had a single window pane, which looked like single pane glass. She shut her eyes, visualizing where the lock was on the door, then smashed the rock into the glass. She thrust her hand through, the thick sleeve of her jacket protecting her from the shards, and grabbed hold of the lock before giving it a quick twist.
Glass crunched beneath Sarah’s boot as she sprinted inside, and she immediately darted up the stairs and before she even made it to the second floor, she heard the commotion in the house.
With her heart pounding, disoriented from the rush of adrenaline and confusion that was flooding through her veins, Sarah broke away from the staircase and sprinted onto the second floor. A quick scan of the hall revealed that the coast was clear, but the thundering footsteps coming from above signaled that they were getting closer.
Sarah reached for a door handle, which ended up being the sixth door on the right, and she burst inside, shutting it quickly and quietly behind her.
The room was one of several that hadn’t yet been cleaned, and Sarah tiptoed toward the closet and concealed herself in the darkness.
Old clothes lined the rack, their scent musty and damp, the wool coarse and scratchy as it grazed Sarah’s cheek on her retreat deeper into the darkness. The hurried steps from Kegan were muffled by the walls, but it grew louder and when Sarah heard the quick opening and shutting of doors on the second floor, she struggled to quiet her breathing.
Every slam that drew closer made her heart skip a beat and pound faster. She leaned up against the back wall and removed the pistol from her waist, gripping it with both hands.
And Sarah waited, the door slams growing more frequent and closer, until she heard the quick rush of wind that accompanied her door opening. Sarah froze.
The wooden floorboards groaned with every step, and panting breaths accompanied Kegan’s footsteps. Sarah aimed the pistol at the closet door, her palms sweaty against the pistol’s handle despite her knuckles being frozen stiff from the cold.
The footsteps traveled around the room, and Sarah heard the ruffle of sheets as Kegan checked beneath couches, chairs, and the bed, until finally all that was left was the closet.
Two columns of shadows appeared at the crack at the bottom of the closet door, blocking out the limited light from the cracks along the closed curtains. Sarah’s muscles tensed as she placed her finger on the trigger.
The door handle turned. Sarah held her breath, motionless as she waited for the reveal.
And quick as a snakebite, the door swung inward. Sarah rushed forward, blinded by the light behind Kegan, who was nothing more than a silhouette.
“Stop,” Sarah said, her arms shaking as Kegan froze, hands lifted into the air. “Don’t move.”
“I can help.” Kegan spoke the words slow and articulated his speech carefully. “I’m not going to hurt you, all right? But you have to be quiet. You have to be—”
“Did you find her?”
Both of them turned toward the voice, but when Kegan turned back to Sarah, he raised a finger to his lips and stepped out of the closet, greeting the voice at the door.
“No,” Kegan said. “Nothing.”
“She’s here.” It was the witch’s voice. “I can smell her.”
“I’ll keep checking and work my way up. She has to be here for the orb.”
“Or to kill you.” Though Sarah couldn’t see her, she knew that the witch had said the words with
