“Will you be able to get into all the rooms?”
Sabrina turned her head. I followed her gaze up the wall.
“The vents?”
She nodded. “The werewolves block the vents because of their superior smell. The vampires block the vents because of their superior hearing. Demons have neither and therefore no reason to obstruct this tiny little passage into their dwellings,” she told me. “I will have no trouble moving from room to room. I dare say, this will be easy.”
BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!
I rolled over and slapped my alarm, too buzzed to keep sleeping for a second longer.
Sabrina had been out all night making real progress on finding Dora for the first time since I set foot in this cursed place. I’d already set my alarm to wake up two hours earlier, and I had my notebook and pencil lying on the pillow beside me, waiting for Sabrina to return.
“Okay, okay, okay,” I mumbled to myself. “First, I’ll get the list of all the suspects, write down everything Sabrina can tell me about them and their possible motives, and then... I tell Tristan everything.”
I nodded to myself, finally making it full circle to acceptance. “It can’t just be me and Sabrina following these guys and trailing one of them back to Dora. It can’t even just be me and Sabrina confronting this guy.” I shuddered thinking how easily Erliktossed me around like a rag doll, and how even more easily Ronin exploded heads with the snap of his fingers.
“Side by side, Tristan and I can rescue my sister and avenge his brothers. He—” I trailed off, something catching my eye.
A single sheet of paper lay on Sabrina’s armchair.
I froze. “Was that there when I went to sleep...?”
The empty bedroom didn’t need to answer me, because I already knew the answer was no.
Slowly, hesitatingly, I crept across the bedroom and picked up the paper. Fifteen seconds later, I was running out the door—my day clothes, my patch, and my shoes forgotten.
I bet you thought you were being very clever,
sending your sneaking, slithering spy into my bedroom.
Since we are very much close to the end now, I will forgive this lapse in judgement,
and give you a chance to save your pet.
Come to the fourth-floor demon wing library before the breakfast gong sounds,
and don’t be late.
There’s nothing like deep-fried chili snake to start the day.
I TORE THROUGH THEempty hallway, skidded into the main corridor, and then turned left. Between Sabrina’s nighttime wanderings and mine, we had quite a bit of the manor mapped out, and that more than included the demon wing.
I raced up the stairs two at a time and it sharply reminded me of my ill-fated chase after the Dora phantom.
But this is not going to end the same way. This time I will save you.I picked up the pace.I’m coming, Sabrina. Just hold on!
Topping the landing, I peered down a single straight hallway to towering double doors. Once again, the décor was a masterpiece. Endlessly creepy and beautiful, the face of a skull stretched across both doors so that its mouth could swallow you when you pushed them open.
And that’s what it felt like as I fell on the doors and roughly shoved them open.
I was walking into the belly of the beast.
Bare feet padded across the cool stone, carrying me deeper into the bowels of the library. I didn’t know if electricity existed in hell, or if they really just preferred everything be lit by torches and candlelight, but the latter were all I had lighting my way as I moved through the shadowed stacks.
The light burned brightest toward the back of the library. I found myself naturally moving that way, if only to escape the chilling darkness. I reached the last stack and stopped.
Slowly, I stuck my head out, peering around and—
