Page 59 of Monsters in the Museum

Nora thought on the truth of his words.

“I’ll find time this week to sit down and talk to her about it. I won’t ruin her fun tonight.”

Thad nodded in approval. “Speaking of ruining the party, you should go down there and have fun with her. Don’t waste the evening feeling sorry for yourself with this old hermit. I’ll stay up here so I can have a bird’s eye view.”

Nora did as he suggested, making her way back down the stairs into the frivolity below. She scanned the crowd and managed to spot Gerald Krinkle. Jackpot. He was notorious for large private donations to passion projects, and he was standing alone.

Nora made a beeline through the crowd toward the man with the deep pockets, but she was interrupted before she could get there by Leo stepping in front of her. She bit back a groan of frustration and looked up into his face with the emptiest smile she could muster.

“Enjoying the celebration, Leo?” she asked with an extra helping of forced cheeriness.

He pursed his thin lips in response.

“You can quit with the sass, Nora. I came to make peace.” He offered her one of the two champagne flutes in his hands.

Nora blinked in surprise.

“Oh, well, that’s very big of you.”

“I know we both wanted the same promotion, and they are going to announce that it is going to you later tonight, and I have to admit you’ve done a very good job.” Leo looked like the words were physically paining him, but he pushed on, “I thought it would be nice if we could be on the same side for once.”

“I… that might be nice.”

Leo raised his glass to her, “To new beginnings.”

“To new beginnings,” Nora echoed, taking a small sip. She had already had two glasses, and she didn’t want to drink any more before she got a chance to talk to all the bigwigs.

Leo inclined his head and weaved off through the crowd as Nora looked around for Gerald Krinkle. Before she could take another step forward, though, a hand grabbed her elbow, and she was thwarted for the second time in a row. She turned to snap at whoever was stopping her but was cut off by Odelle.

“Don’t drink that!”

Nora froze in confusion and looked at the glass in her hand.

“The champagne? Why?”

“I saw Leo put something in it.”

“But he just came over to—oh, that little…” Nora’s face heated in anger, and she began searching through the crowd for Leo’s retreating form.

Odelle caught sight of him first, slipping through the doorway leading to the stairs down to the office.

“I’m going to go confront him about what he tried to give you,” Odelle said. “It wouldn’t look good for you to lose your cool at your own party. You go find a glass of water and a place to sit down.”

Odelle then slipped away, stomping through the crowd with a look on her face that made people jump out of her way. Before Nora could do as her sister instructed, though, Thad stepped up beside her.

“Glad Odelle got here first,” he commented, plucking the champagne out of Nora’s hand and giving it a sniff. “Hmm, interesting choice of drug. Wouldn’t have hurt you, just would have made you act embarrassingly drunk.”

Nora growled. “Probably trying to get me to embarrass myself in front of the board members. If I’m not going to keel over, I’m going to join Odelle in giving him the chewing out of his life.”

“That sounds like something I want to watch,” Thad said, gesturing for Nora to lead the way through the crowd.

Nora and Thad had just made it to the door when Nora caught the faint whiff of smoke, making her freeze, and bringing her back to the day of the fire in this very building. The moment was broken by a shriek. Nora shoved through the door and found Odelle standing at the foot of the stairs over a crumpled form. Leo lay at the bottom of the stairs, pale and lying in a pool of dark blood that spread over the white tile. Odelle’s skirt spread in a matching puddle on the floor as she fell to her knees and felt for a pulse.

Odelle cursed before overlapping her hands on Leo’s chest and beginning to pump. Thad was already halfway down the staircase. Fishing her phone out of her clutch, Nora opened it and had to try three times to dial the right number.

“Nine-one-one. What’s your emergency?”

Nora sunk down on the stairs in front of the museum and pulled Thad’s suit jacket more tightly around her shoulders as she watched the ambulance carrying Leo’s lifeless body pull away. She couldn’t feel her face, but she wasn’t sure if it was from the cold or from whatever drug Leo had slipped into her drink. She was only alone for a few seconds before a warm body appeared next to her, and an arm was draped around her. Nora let her head fall to Odelle’s shoulder and tried to let the smell of roses comfort her.

“I’m sorry they didn’t get to announce your promotion,” Odelle murmured, smoothing her hand over Nora’s hair, which had fallen halfway out of its elegant twist.

“I think that’s the least of my worries at this point,” Nora sniffed, “They’ll probably just email me about it.”

Odelle nodded against her head, and silence fell for a few moments as Odelle continued to stroke Nora’s hair.

“It’s all my fault,” Nora whispered.

“It’s not your fault that a man had too much to drink and fell down the stairs after trying to drug you,” Odelle countered, but Nora knew the truth.

She had smelled the smoke of the Shadows in that stairwell, and she knew they were there for her. Leo had just gotten in their way.

Nora swallowed. “Odelle, can we… talk sometime? Not tonight—but soon?”

“Of course. I’m free on Thursday. Want to come over for dinner? I’ll make borscht.”

Nora nodded silently into Odelle’s shoulder. Thad was right; she could no longer carry this burden alone. Odelle would help her.