Page 57

Still.

Then—

Voices.

Low.

Muffled by stone.

Another burst of thunder rolled overhead. I barely heard it now. I left my bedroom door open behind me and headed along the hallway. He was down there meeting with men who came in the middle of the night.

I couldn’t turn back, even if I wanted to—and I didn’t want to.

I clenched my hands as I headed toward the foyer. The east wing sat quiet and dark. Too dark. My booming pulse smothered the sound of the storm. I stopped. Listened. But the voices were gone.

No.

Not gone.

Hidden.

I moved silently, crossing the library. The study glowed faintly ahead. Empty now.

Cold air lingered unnaturally in the study. Not rain. Not storm. Something older.

I swallowed the taste as a whisper raced across my skin.

I held my breath and scanned the room. There was something here. Some kind of hum I hadn’t felt before. An ache gnawed deep in my hip, drawing my focus. But it wasn’t because of my weight or my stance. A current raced through my feet, plunging into my thigh. I looked down, focusing on the floor.

Wetness shimmered.

A mark.

No.

A tread.

Someone stood there. The harder I looked, the more outlines of boots I found. The marks moved from the doorway… to the wall. A dark edge. The wall… unaligned. I moved closer, but the agony in my hip unleashed. I stumbled hard, catching myself before I froze.

My heart lunged.

Fear found me as I stared at that crack in the wall. I wanted to move, to cross the space and open that gap wider, to uncover all his secrets. But something pinned me in place. Not just terror… something else.

I took a step backwards, then turned.

The corridor was a blur as I headed back to my room. I barely closed my door before my knee locked, then gave way. The storm still raged, dragging me toward my seat under the window. A moan came as I collapsed, turning to stare out the window.

“What the hell are you doing?” I muttered. “He could’ve found you.”

But in the silence came something else.

A want.

A confession.

An ache.

My gaze moved to the open book and picked it up, pulling it to my chest. The Phantom waited. His desire a darkness that consumed. Lines blurred between the pages and my life. I dragged my gaze back to the window. Rain pelted the glass. The sound hypnotising.