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We all laughed. I felt the stress evaporate from me at being in a peaceful comradery of my partner and mate.
We followed Gabriel down the corridor to another door. He tensed and put his hand on the handle. The door was locked, so he started looking for the key.
“This is Hanny’s room,” he said.
That explained why he was so stressed. I was tense too. I hoped we would find Hanny inside. Victor had promised to kill all the Torres. What if we were too late?
But when the door opened, I saw Hanny curled into a ball on the large bed. The room was still the same yellow and blue that I remembered from childhood. Gabriel ran up to Hanny, and I followed with Daphne close behind me.
“Hanny!” Gabriel exclaimed.
When his sister saw him, she threw herself in his arms and started weeping uncontrollably. I sat at the edge of the bed and raised my hand awkwardly to pat her head. Daphne sat down next to me.
“You’re safe now. We’ve got you. We defeated Victor,” Gabriel mumbled into Hanny’s hair, hugging her close.
“Gabriel, Esteban, oh how happy I am to see you. It was terrible, truly terrible here,” Hanny cried.
I didn’t know how long we stayed there, trying to calm her down, whispering words that were meant to prove to her that there was nothing to worry about anymore. Yet, that sentiment was not entirely true. Victor’s abuse of Hanny couldn’t be erased with mere words. He had treated her like property, like a lowly servant. She would remember what had happened to her during those three years for a long time but she was alive. That fact meant a lot too. As long as she was living, her life could get better and we would make sure that it did.
“Who is that?” Hanny finally whispered, looking at Daphne.
“Our mate, Daphne,” I explained.
Hanny’s eyes widened. “You found a mate? For both of you?” Her expression changed to a bright, loving smile. “That’s wonderful news! When did you mate?”
“Last night, in fact,” Gabriel said with pride in his voice.
Hanny laughed. “Didn’t want to go fight the bad guy before you reaffirmed your love? How romantic!” She turned to Daphne. “You have to tell me all about it but no spicy details. I don’t want to imagine my brother in such a situation.”
Daphne chuckled. “Only the mushy details then. Roger that.”
“Let’s talk later though. I want to get out of here. This place used to be my home for many years but it has also been my prison. You’re probably happy to return here, but I only want to go someplace else.”
“You can live at the sleuth we created – Santuario,” I said.
“The ‘sanctuary’? What a fitting name for a bunch of people thrown away from their rightful place,” Hanny commented.
We’d had the same exact thought when we had named our sleuth. Hanny knew us well.
We went out of Hanny’s room and back to the corridor. Gabriel locked the door.
“We need to figure out how to get rid of the Bloody Claws’ and the Starry Banes’ prisoner implants next,” Gabriel thought out loud. “I remember my father saying that the key to unlock the magic is in the vault in the treasury. I hope Victor didn’t misplace it.”
We wandered to the basement level of the castle. The air was damp and stale here, barely moving. We passed by a few cells with prisoners but nobody we recognized. They had to be people who Victor had nabbed as soon as they had arrived on the island over the past three years. Their care was another matter to address, but first we had to do right by the people who had fought at our side. There was so much to do. Focusing on one thing at a time though was the only way we could get control of the situation.
With the largest key, Gabriel unlocked the door to the vault. We stepped inside. Piles of money were stacked all the way from floor to ceiling. Daphne gasped, and I barely held back my bewilderment too.
“It seems Victor has earned us some money. There was a bit less in here when father ruled. Like in this entire area there was no money,” Gabriel gestured.
I had never understood how a person who was an accountant could be so nonchalant about large sums of money but Gabriel had grown up in the main branch of our family; the richest branch. While he had an excellent grasp on what everything should cost, he also liked to have a lot of money lying around. It was simply the way he was raised.
Hanny didn’t seem too shocked about the piles of banknotes either. Yes, this trait must be a family thing.
“We will be able to do a lot with this money. Repairs, buying supplies,” Gabriel said, “but we will hold on to most of it.”
Figured.
Gabriel wandered to a wall in which a small safe was embedded. He turned the knob on the device a few times left and right. Finally, the lock clicked, and the door opened.
