Page 144 of Eternal Surrender

“We renovated some of the castle but never touched this room,” I said, balancing the painting on one of the four high-backed armchairs.

“Because no one ever came in here,” Alex said.

“Which tile do you think Artimas is pointing at?” Ingrid asked.

I lifted up one of the chairs and placed it in the exact position as the one in the portrait, aligning the background fireplace in the painting exactly with the one in the room.

Kneeling, I examined the tiles. After my third attempt, one of them gave and I lifted it out. Sliding my fingers into the hole, I felt something hard and grabbed hold of it, removing a small metal box.

Everyone gathered around to watch me open it.

Inside lay a large, rusty key.

A rustle of excitement as everyone gathered around me, all of us looking down at the antique key, the relic resting in my palm.

A flash of inspiration came over me, and I headed out of the room, making my way back along the corridor. Taking two steps at a time, I descended into the dungeons.

I burst into the torture chamber.

Footsteps approached, signaling the others were right behind, and Marcus, Alex, Anaïs, Ingrid and Sebastian flooded in to join me.

Sebastian was holding the halogen lamp he’d grabbed from the stairwell. It threw shadows around us.

“I was eighteen the first time I came into this room.” I turned round. “Followed my father Lord Artimas down here. By the time I got in here, he’d gone.”

“Jadeon’s perspective,” Marcus said, studying me.

They immediately went to work, Sebastian taking the far wall, Alex the left, and Marcus the right. Anaïs examined the tabletop.

Ingrid went for the table too, kneeling low beside one of the four table legs. “If I know one thing, it’s blood stains.” She pointed. “See how this one’s trickled beneath this tile?” Ingrid’s smile of exhilaration beamed back at me.

“What were they doing in here?” Anaïs glanced up at me.

I swapped a wary glance with Alex.

Ingrid ran her hand up the table leg. “Looks like this is the mechanism.”

Marcus leaned in beside her and twisted the upper rounded edges in the opposite direction of each other.

Upon the floor, stone scraped along stone as a central panel rose up several inches and slid outward revealing a winding stairway twisting into the darkness.

“Maybe we don’t want to know where this leads,” Alex said.

“Aren’t you intrigued?” Anaïs asked. “Who’s going first?”

“That’ll be you, Anaïs,” Marcus said. “Just in case there’s a death trap.”

She rolled her eyes. “What do you think is down there?”

I ducked under the table and eased myself into the square entryway. “Only one way to find out.”

“Here you go.” Sebastian held up the halogen light.

“Um. We can see in the dark,” Anaïs said. “We don’t really need that.”

Sebastian lowered his arm. “Oh.”

“Wait here,” Marcus told Ingrid and Anaïs. “You too Sebastian.”