The latch clicked closed.
Chapter Forty
Alora could breathe. She knew they were in the main hall purely by the sensation of space around her, but she didn’t dare ask Bash what he planned next. She didn’t want to risk anyone hearing her. The captain’s pace quickened, his hand laced with hers, and Alora soon felt the change around them. The coolness, the slight downturn, the enclosed feel. They were headed down the hall, straight for Door Twenty-five.
Minus the monumental loss of her contract, at least everything else seemed to be going according to plan. Alora heard another knob being turned, another door quietly creaking inward. A frightened, “H-h-hello?”
“It’s only us, Miss Flowers,” said Bash and eased them from the darkness. The slow transition was all for her sake, she knew. He’d told her once that his plunging and returning from enchantment didn’t disorient him in the slightest.
She wished she could say the same. She blinked tears from her eyes, the dim lamplight feeling like the summer sun at highnoon. When she could once again see the room she’d created, she didn’t notice another soul inside it. “Lennox?”
At her name, Lennox shrugged off her coat. She sat on the chaise, her fingers forming a trail against the velvet fabric. “I love the seating in here. I want one for myself. Where did you find it?”
“Ichibald’s Fanciful Furnishings, a shop in Thistledown Square. I’ll take you there, when this is all over.”
Lennox smiled at the idea of it, though Alora sensed a shadow about her. Like she wouldn’t allow the hope to delve further than her expression. She was draped in melancholy, the hour growing late and minutes away from opening, and it made Alora say, “You weren’t able to go to Door Eleven this afternoon.”
Her friend shook her head, her smile drooping. “It’s all right, Alora. This is much more important.”
Alora wanted to reach out and hug her. Tell her that soon, she wouldn’t have to worry over a pool with a muzzled mermaid to bring her a happy memory because she would be out in the world making new ones all for herself. But the time never came as a horrific crack rent the room.
Alora sucked in a breath and Lennox yelped, both turning to Bash and the skull he held, the box in pieces on the floor. “Apologies,” he said. His hood shifted as he bent to examine the artifact, careful to keep the rubies from their line of sight. “He’d nailed it shut.”
Lennox rose from the chaise. “Okay, Alora. Are you ready?”
Alora took her friend’s place on the chair and shed her own coat. “Ready.”
Bash handed the skull to Lennox with care. Alora wished she could see his expression, to see if it bothered him at all that she’d chosen Lennox rather than him as the one to entrance her. He’d acted fine about it when they’d come up with the idea, but she knew him well enough now to understand when he hid someemotion from her. Only, she didn’t know what it was—hurt or something else? The truth was that she couldn’t even placate him even if he were upset.
At the base of it, she realized she cared for him—quite a lot—but he’d done so many things, held so many secrets, and a small part of her didn’t know for certain that he would choose her at the end of everything. That was it. Unfair or not, that was her truth.
Lennox’s face twisted. “Gracious, it evenfeelsevil.”
Alora scowled and swung her gaze to Bash, only for him to shake his head at her. Sheknewit.
“We’re running out of time,” he said.
“Yes. All right. Well, look into it, I guess.” Then she shoved the ruby eyes straight in front of Alora’s gray ones.
The sensation was the same as before, of diving into an enchanted red sea. She yearned to be there, to see the very depths of it. To never leave. In the far away distance, she heard a male voice say, “That’s enough. Command her to do something.”
The eyes disappeared. Alora almost protested, but then Lennox was there, standing in front of her instead, demanding, “Stand on one leg. Please.”
Alora promptly did as told, wobbling in her golden gown. “It’s worked!”
“It should have erased every command from before,” said Bash. “Picture me stealing you away now. Does it hurt?”
Alora didn’t need to obey him, but she did anyway, imagining herself on horseback, her arms around Bash’s middle, rushing through the gate. “Nothing,” she said, and grinned.
She could visibly see the tension leave them both. She felt it leak from her too. “Lennox? My leg is tired.”
“Oh! Stand on both legs, please.”
Alora sighed in relief at having both feet planted again. “All right. Should we give it a go?”
Lennox nodded an enthusiastic agreement, hugging the skull to her. She said, “Alora, I command you to be disentranced.”
Alora closed her eyes, breathing deeply. She didn’t exactly feel the same unwinding sensation as she’d felt from the physical commands, but she’d had other commands forced upon her by Merridon, too, that she’d not felt. It might not mean anything. She blinked her eyes open.
