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We find neatly arranged stacks of cash in there, each block sealed with a strip of thick paper. Empty spaces suggest he spent most of the money, though I can't imagine what he might buy that would help him trigger doomsday.
I shut the drawer.
We give up on the study and search the rest of the house. Dax wants us to split up so we can cover more ground in less time, but I reject that command. Neither of us should be alone, not with those creatures outside and the possibility that Sefton might return at any moment. Safety in numbers, I say, even if the number is only two. None of the many rooms in this mansion provides anything useful. But when we get to the cellar door in the kitchen, it's locked.
"What's down there?" I ask. "I mean, is it usually locked?"
"No, it is not." He takes a large step backward. "And it won't be for long."
I don't even bother trying to stop him. He kicks the door open with a bang that reverberates through the kitchen and hurts my ears. Then we clomp down the stairs into the cellar.
Dax flicks a switch at the top of the stairs, which turns on a light bulb in the space below us.
"Haven't you wondered how this house has electricity when the rest of the world doesn't?" I ask as I follow Dax into the gloom below.
"Sefton used magic to spare the estate from the devastation elsewhere. Why should it surprise you that he ensured his home would have electricity?"
"Fair point."
We've reached the bottom of the stairs when he stops to turn toward me. "Did you just admit I was right? Perhaps I imagined that."
I roll my eyes.
A draft wafts over me, so cold that it raises goosebumps on my arms. I get the strangest feeling that something is in here with us, something dark and strange and intangible. The dank basement is weirding me out, that's all.
The chill teases my skin again.
"Do you feel that?" I ask.
"Yes." Dax walks further into the cellar, fists clenched, scanning the area with his gaze. He halts in the middle of the cramped, shadowy space. "I have felt this before."
"What is it?"
"Dark magics."
"They're just floating around in here?"
He glances at me over his shoulder. "No. I believe Sefton is storing them here."
"You can't know that. Can you?"
"I suspect it, and I can find out for sure."
Dax creeps toward a row of metal shelves that hold various sizes and shapes of boxes, all fashioned from wood or metal and featuring strange symbols etched on their surfaces. He stops inches away from the shelves, scrutinizing them while he just stands there, not even moving his head. Then he stretches out a hand to touch one box.
He jerks and gasps, yanking his hand away.
"What happened?" I ask as I come up beside him.
"It stung me." He rubs his palm. "Felt something like an electrical shock combined with a jellyfish sting."
"Ouch. I guess your brother protected these boxes. That must mean they hold something important, huh?"
"Yes. I suspect they're part of the magics he used to create the Echo and start an apocalypse."
I touch one of the boxes, and my entire body jerks, making me stumble backward half a step. Yeah, that felt a lot like electricity and a wasp sting. I've never been stung by a jellyfish, but wasps have gotten me a time or two.
"Are you all right?" Dax asks.
