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Chapter13
Banishment.
It was such a strong word, but I knew that I would face it for Noah. And the king. And even the queen. Not that she deserved my loyalty, but this kingdom did after it gave me a home.
I left the bathroom door open a crack behind me, hoping it would give me some shelter while still allowing me to hear if footsteps approached outside the main door to the bedroom.
As soon as I heard anything, I needed to act like I was cleaning something or laying dresses out. My plan would be to run to the wardrobe and, depending on how much time I had, I’d be stacking dresses on my arm or laying them out on Vanessa’s bed. I hoped it would be a good enough cover story. It had to be.
My heartbeat needed to chill out or I was never going to be able to hear footsteps. Every beat it took sounded like a thud outside. I breathed slowly through my nose and out of my mouth as if I were at a training practice.
Just like sparring, focus on the goal, set my intention, and move confidently toward it. I stood surveying the bathroom. Nothing stood out just at a glance, so whatever hiding spot there may be must be concealed well. Perhaps that was all it was—a hiding spot. And then the guest had snuck out after I left.
I walked to the main mirror in the room and ran my hands along the edges before moving my fingertips down to the cabinets and doors that sat beneath the white granite countertop. Nothing with the faucet handles or framed mirror. Nothing in the drawers.
I even moved shampoo bottles and extra toiletries in case somehow a hidden door popped open.
Footsteps, my brain shouted. I bounded on tiptoe toward the bathroom door, nudging it open and moving to the wardrobe.
But they passed. Right by, without stopping.
I let out a sigh of relief and returned to my search.
Halfway through running my hands over and lifting every item in the bathroom, more footsteps sounded. This time, my stomach tightened, but as quickly as the footsteps had started they were gone.
This would be the death of me if I didn’t find something, and soon. There was only one side of the room left, and after that, I could slip out, hopefully unnoticed, and no one would be any the wiser as to how I’d spent my free time.
I rubbed my forehead. It shouldn’t be this difficult to find a hiding spot that someone could fit in.
The bathtub was clean, so was the large shower. Toilets. Cabinets inside the bathroom. Everything.
Maybe I’m losing my mind.
My fingers took up the mission at hand without my instruction as I reached up on my tiptoes to feel around the large mirror on the opposite side of the bath.
“Ouch!” I whispered as my finger pricked a rough edge of concrete. I brought it to my lips as a thin line of blood formed.
Frowning, I reached back up. The concrete was split there. And the wedge between the mirror and wall was larger than it should have been.
Instead of running my fingers over it, I dug in. Grasping at the small crevice. As I did, the entire mirror swung silently open, hinged and in place on the other side, but opening in the oval shape of the mirror to reveal a damp, dark stone hall.
“Oh my gosh,” I breathed. I’d been right. There was a passageway inside of Vanessa’s room. Someone had been in the bathroom with her. Someone who knew the ins and outs of the Unseelie castle quite well.
Now the question was, should I follow the creepy hallway or find another way to figure out where this led. But I knew what the answer had to be. There may not be another chance like this, and it wasn’t one I could simply leave locked in the bathroom.
“Here we go.” I pressed forward into the cool opening, surprised by the draftiness that swirled around me.
I rounded the first dark corner, and as the light from the bathroom grew dimmer, it was harder to see. Being in here reminded me of walking underneath the castle, escaping from the cell with Nicole. The draftiness, the stone walls along my fingers. I was inside the castle walls, it seemed. In between parts that weren’t frequented.
The path sloped downward slightly and after two more turns it was pitch black. I moved on, pressing forward with careful steps.
A cobweb brushed my hand and I almost screamed but flicked my hands to my sides in a very silent freak-out instead. Touching something I wasn’t expecting was not what I wanted or needed at the moment while my heartbeat pounded in my head.
I moved as quietly as I could, careful not to shuffle or make a noise. My fingertips traced the walls but I didn’t feel anything other than stone. No doors, no other entry ways. It was a narrow walkway, that’s all. I wondered what the odds were that it even led anywhere. Perhaps Vanessa’s visitor had hidden behind the mirror until I was gone and then left.
Though I couldn’t see, I could feel. My senses were heightened somehow and it was as though the walls were starting to close in. I inched forward, knowing I didn’t have all day to creep around the passageway. My foot bumped into something other than stone and I felt with my hands in front of me.
I’d come to a wooden door. I exhaled. The passage from Vanessa’s room did lead somewhere after all. Without knowing what lay on the other side, I was hesitant to push the door open. Should anyone be near it, I’d be coming out potentially on top of them. Though if it was concealed in Vanessa’s room, I wondered how it was concealed on the other side of the wall from me now.
