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Lincoln wasn’t about to let me go. Instead he held me closer, his hand stroking over my hair and glaring around the room like he could ward off evil with his indignation alone.
Too bad we need a whole hell of a lot more than that to fight whatever or whoever I just spoke to.
ChapterThirteen
Lincoln
“Alright, Darklings. We split up the team tonight. On this feed, you’ll have me and Ben to keep you company. We thought we’d take a peek at the attic while the others went out to the lake.”
“That’s one investigation I’m not sad I missed,” Ben said. “It’s cold enough in this drafty castle. I couldn’t imagine being out there in the snow after dark.”
“They did say they wouldn’t last long, so if you wanted to tune in to their feed first, you could always come back here when they give up,” I explained to the viewers.
I wasn’t used to being the one talking but Brea had slid the glasses on my face, giving me no choice in the matter. She loved pushing me and I couldn’t tell her no. Not on something so simple.
“Is this the right way?” Ben questioned as he held the map in front of his face. He tilted it one way before trying the other, attempting to make sense of our location.
We’d been searching for the stairs for the better part of twenty minutes.
I took the map from him, peeking into a few rooms in an attempt to figure out where we were.
“No, you were in the wrong wing, Ben. We’re here,” I tapped the map to show him, and he took it back.
“This place needs GPS,” he muttered before trailing his finger over a path. “Alright, we need to head down this hall, hook a right, take a left, and then go all the way to the end of the hall.”
We started walking again and shared a glance as another set of footsteps joined ours.
The moment we paused, they did too.
“Darklings, listen to these footsteps. Are you hearing this?”
Ben turned around before meeting my gaze. “It sounds like somebody is walking with us.”
“Walk,” I hissed, both of us falling into step again. Instead of one set around us it was as if an army joined. The cacophony of stomping boots filled the hall until it was almost deafening.
My hand gripped Ben by the hoodie and forced him to stop without warning.
This time the footsteps kept going for a few beats before they stopped.
“Well, we’re definitely not alone,” Ben said, letting out a nervous laugh before we took off again.
This was our first time on the second floor outside of the wing we claimed and warded. There were three wings of the castle we’d left unexplored yet but we were leaving the family wings for another time.
It felt like an invasion of privacy.
Apparently the ghosts here weren’t willing to let us ignore them for long. They were practically screaming for us to notice them now. It would make for amazing evidence but was hell on my nerves.
I wanted to keep Brea and the others safe and I couldn’t do that against the unknown. Especially the chaotic and dangerous unknown.
Finally, we turned into the last hallway, stopping at the very end and turning the knob. The door swung open a bit too easily, a musty air wafting down to us, and a large staircase looming ahead.
“I don’t see a light switch down here,” Ben said as he stepped through the door, checking the walls just inside. I leaned back a little to check the walls outside of the room, but I didn’t see anything there.
“It wouldn’t be the first time we go into the dark, that’s what we do, right?” I reminded him. He shot me a look but didn’t argue as he started up the steps.
“Night vision for the win,” he muttered as he reluctantly made his way upstairs.
The room stretching around us looked more like a storage room in a museum than an attic. There were a few mannequins standing tall just off the stairwell. Each one was wearing elaborate dresses and fancy coats that were covered in a layer of dust.
