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Giulia spun around to find Nick standing beside the fireplace. “What do you mean, close the door? Are we not venturing to the west wing?”
“You shall see.” The impish grin spread on his face, deepening crease marks on the sides of his mouth.
Giulia did as he bid and crossed back to him slowly. “What are you not telling me, Nick Pepper?”
“Does that ever feel strange to you, Jules?”
She paused, frowning. “Do you mean how you use a nickname that I have expressly explained I am trying to escape?”
“No,” he said, smiling down at her. His voice softened, sending a shiver down her spine. “I don’t recall you disliking your nickname. In fact, I rather thought you missed being called by it. I was referring to how you call me by your own surname.”
“It is your surname as well.”
“Yes, exactly.”
He stood there, leaning against the mantle with one ankle crossed over the other in flawless ease. She expected a smirk, but mere curiosity shone on his face and she released a bit of the pent-up energy coiling in her lungs.
She leaned against the mantle facing him, crossing her own arms in a slight mirror to his. “It is strange, I admit. But we are cousins after all, so it is not all that bizarre. In fact…” She hesitated. Perhaps he did not want this in depth of an answer. Nick continued to look at her expectantly, so she continued. “In fact, it helps me to trust you, I believe. You are family, and I can almost picture you as the brother I did not get to have when I consider you as ‘Nicholas Pepper’ and not just ‘Nick.’”
His eyes widened in surprise and he faltered against the mantle before righting himself and standing up straight. He cleared his throat and gestured to the bookcase that sat against the wall behind Giulia. “Shall we?”
Giulia raised an eyebrow. “It is a very nice bookcase.”
Nick leaned over her and placed his hand on the medallion that took residence on the top corner of the fireplace before turning it in a quarter circle. A soft sound popped behind her and Giulia turned and gasped, her hand flying up to cover her mouth. The bookcase had opened, actually opened beside the fireplace and a small dark crack appeared between the bookcase and the stone wall it sat against. Nick picked up the candle that he had apparently lit from the mantle and stepped around Giulia to the opening in the wall.
He leaned down and whispered near her ear. “After you, Jules.”
Excitement skittered through her body and she tried to suppress a grin. “A secret passageway? An actual secret passageway?”
“The very thing.”
Giulia placed her hand in the opening and pulled the bookcase aside. It swiveled outward and she stepped into the dark corridor. Nick followed closely behind her, closing the covert door most of the way but leaving a finger’s width of a crack, presumably for them to get back into his room when they were finished.
Shadows bounced along the narrow corridor from the small candle’s flame, casting warm light over Nick’s face. “Would you like me to lead?” he offered.
Giulia took the candle from his hand and shook her head. Nick hardly fit as it was; there was no way he would be able to slide past her without covering himself in cobwebs. The flames lit his sharp features and made his eyes look darker. She whispered, because to speak loudly in a secret passageway seemed to break some code of adventurers. “I will lead, just tell me where to go.”
“Straight.” Nick nodded ahead. “If we do not veer off at all then this path will lead us directly to the west wing.”
Giulia turned and began walking, her hand trailing along the cool stone until she snagged a silky spiderweb and jumped. Her free hand flew to her chest as she willed it to calm and Nick’s warm hand came to rest on her shoulder. “Are you frightened?” he asked from behind her.
“No, it was only a spiderweb.”
Nick chuckled a deep, throaty sound. “I should have warned you.”
She turned her head back slightly, her chin brushing against his knuckles. “I should have assumed.”
They passed along a few openings that led further into the castle, and one staircase that led up before coming to the end of the corridor. It was shorter than she had anticipated, and she stopped at the wall. “How do we…?”
Nick leaned over her, reaching for something in the dark corner, when a click sounded, and the wall opened a fraction. She could feel his heart beating against her back and her own breath stalled. When he moved back, Giulia pushed on the door, but it did not budge. “It’s not opening,” she whispered.
Nick drew closer, his breath tickling the hair beside her ear and sending a wave of chills down her neck. “This one does not swing, it slides.”
He proceeded to push the door aside until it slid into the dark. Giulia moved to exit but bumped into a heavy, threaded wall, like a carpet. Or perhaps a tapestry. She pushed it away from the wall and slid behind it until she exited into a bedchamber. At first she thought it was her own, but the colors were wrong. Nick followed her, still grinning. “See? No stairs.”
“No stairs, indeed.” Giulia moved toward the door. “Where are we, anyway?”
“I believe this is the west wing.”
