And on the back wall, on either side of the creepy Jesus statue, red banners hang from the stone wall.
Bingo.
I run, unwilling to allow the Chastian family to find me, shoving each banner aside as I search for the hidden door. I find nothing.
I start again, and I only find the hidden entrance under the last banner as my finger catches the small stone button off to the side. A faint clicking can be heard, and suddenly an entrance is revealed. The stone rectangle swings inward, revealing a set of creepy-looking stairs that lead into pitch-black.
I uh… don’t think I want to walk intothis. Sure, I can see the faint flickering of light at the base of the staircase, but the in-between? Darkness.
“I’ll check the chapel,” I hear Julian call out, his footsteps coming even closer, heard so clearly in the silent estate.
Fuck.
I plunge into the darkness, closing the stone, handless door behind me. I sure hope My Atticus knows how to getoutnow that we’re in. He isinhere, right?
I take the steps slowly, dragging my free hand over the wall for balance. And if I thought the staircase was scary, nothing could have prepared me for the room itself.
A lightbulb hangs from the ceiling in the center of the room, illuminating the podium to my right and the… holy shit! There’s analtarto my left!
Two bookcases line the wall opposite me, covered in similarly bound books to the one I’m holding, and next to them, staring straight at me, is My Atticus.
“An altar?” I squeak out, suddenly remembering every horror movie I’ve seen that startsjust like this.
But he just grins, shrugging softly. “It is not for us, Cameron. Don’t fear. Did you bring it?”
I extend the book toward him, stepping fully into the room.
“Here. What are we doing with it?”
My Atticus makes no move to grab the book, only staring at it with the same expression he wears before he devours me whole.
“I cannot touch,” he tells me. “You will do what we need, and after you do, I can stay here. Forever.”
“With me?” I ask, needing to hear it once more before I do whatever sketchy thing he’s about to request.
“With you,” he confirms in that distorted, sweet voice.
I sigh, relieved. “What do I need to do?”
“Come,” he beckons, approaching the podium. Once I’m next to him, he wraps a frostbitten hand around the back of my neck. “You will solidify me,corculum.Say the words and I am yours, and you are mine.”
A shiver runs through me. The promise of forever is so sweet, so perfect for me that I lay the book on the stand and open it.
“Which page?” I breathe out, looking at the foreign words before me.
“The marked page,” he explains, pointing to the ribbon that marks one of the pages. “Say it, and then we will make the deal.”
“The deal? I have to make a deal?”
My Atticus gives me a small, secret smile. “Sic. You will give me life.”
God, I want to. I’d give him anything if he’d continue looking at me like this.
The words are in a different language, so I’m unable to understand the sentences before me. The paper is old and discolored, and the ink has faded slightly. Luckily, someone else has already translated the words, a small piece of paper shoved into the crease of the binding.
Some of the pages we passed had illustrations, but this one doesn’t. It’s just… words.
“Begin, Cameron,” My Atticus tells me gently.
