Page 1 of Written in Red

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When experiencing Aventine Manor for the first time, most guests found the bevy of ghosts the most intriguing thing about the large and impressive estate. There were more than twenty, after all, though no one beyond the estate’s inimitable owner was aware of all of them. But Mercury Raine hadn’t purchased the house for its size or elegance. The secrets the estate held were far more important.

Hundreds of people and ghosts had passed through Aventine’s door in the years Mercury had lived there, and he’d not revealed any of those secrets to any of them. Until now.

“The danger we fled from in London will reach us here soon.” He looked out over the translucent faces gathered in the dungeon. Not all of his ghosts were there—some were far too inclined to keep to themselves—but those who were present listened intently. The absent ghosts he would visit personally. “The key to our safety is found behind this wall.”

He tapped the heavy stone behind him, illuminated by the two lanterns he’d brought down with him.

“Behind a solid stone wall?” The Quiet Queen sniffed her disbelief. Her overbearing manners often made her seem arrogant. At times she was arrogant, truth be told, but Mercury knew she was also reasonable and good and reliable.

“Very convincing, isn’t it?” Mercury slipped his hand into a well-hidden gap in the mortar between stones and pulled that stone outward. It took effort, but the wall itself shifted. He did the same behind another stone and pushed the wall to the side. It slid like a pocket door into the stationary part of the stone wall.

His ghosts leaned in near-perfect unison, peering into the darkness behind the now-open wall.

It was Tacey, the only other non-ghost in the dungeon, who spoke first. “It looks too dark and deep to be another room.”

“It is a tunnel,” he said.

“This house has a secret passageway?” Captain Capitate could not have sounded more excited.

Mercury nodded. “Several, in fact. And they all begin here.”

“Ghosts can sense openings behind walls,” Gary the Green said. “How is it none of us have ever realized this is here?”

“Aventine is a mysterious place,” Mercury said.

“A brilliant place.” The Captain slipped into the darkness.

To the others, Mercury said, “The tunnels will need to be aired out and torches added to the sconces throughout. We’ll need to make certain no portions of the tunnels have collapsed.”

Zizzy, ever concerned and often nervous, turned to Mercury with wide, worried eyes. “Will you be in danger in the tunnels?”

Ghosts, of course, couldn’t be hurt by falling walls or ceilings. Mercury and Tacey were the only ones who needed to be wary of such things.

“That is why we are going to do a thorough evaluation and do whatever work needs to be done,” he assured her. “We’ll make certain it is safe. For us.”

That earned him a look of interested curiosity from the Quiet Queen. He held her gaze, and a flicker of understanding entered her eyes. People were coming to Aventine to capture him, possibly hurt Tacey, cause his ghosts distress, and undo all that Mercury had built for himself in the more than a decade since he’d fled the orphanage. He intended to make Aventine a very dangerous place for those people.

The ghosts all trickled inside, leaving Mercury and Tacey at the tunnel entrance.

Tacey’s eyes shifted from the tunnel to him. “Should the Vanns or the Forever Flame arrive at Aventine, intent on capturing you—”

“Us,” Mercury reminded her; she had already been snatched away once.

“Us,” she amended, “are the tunnels a hiding place or are they a means of escape?”

“They can be both,” he said. “But I am preparing them to be a prison.”

He watched for her reaction to that. Safeguarding her, himself, and their ghosts was crucial. If that required locking people in the Aventine tunnels, he would absolutely do it. But she might find that a bridge too far. He’d presented himself to the world as a man of civility and sophistication. But, at his heart, he was a scrappy street urchin, a fugitive from the law who had learned the hard way how to survive.

“The Vanns locked me in their basement,” she said, mouth twisting in the tiniest bit of satisfaction. “Turnabout being fair play, I think reserving a room for them down here would be fitting.”

Mercury took up a lantern in one hand and held his other one out to her. She’d allowed him to hold her hand a few times over the last couple of days. He wanted to view that as a sign his growing feelings for her weren’t entirely one-sided. But he also didn’t want to assume too much.

She set her hand in his again. Some of the tension he always carried with him eased a bit. He was starting to depend on her. Mercury didn’t usually allow himself that much vulnerability. Tacey Wilde had changed him.

He was less lonely. But he was also more vulnerable. She gave him more reason to fight for his future, but that also meant the outcome of this fight now impacted more than just him. It was a complication he’d never encountered before, and one he had no intention of freeing himself from.