Total pages in book: 128
Estimated words: 120230 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 601(@200wpm)___ 481(@250wpm)___ 401(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 120230 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 601(@200wpm)___ 481(@250wpm)___ 401(@300wpm)
Everyone else had stopped moving, was staring at me.
My mind flashed to the doll on Darcie’s bed, then in her hands. Flaming strands, a burned face. An intent to torment. It hadn’t been a prank gone wrong, no matter if she’d tried to play it off that way. One of us had been torturing her. And now no one had seen her for at least a half hour, maybe even forty-five minutes. I hadn’t looked at the clock when we’d left, had to go off instinct.
“She came back to get a flashlight,” I said. “I was supposed to wait for her, but I decided to use my phone flashlight to go down and check out the cellar. She said Jim’s flashlight was in the pantry.” I glanced at Aaron. “You didn’t see her?”
“No, and I was in the kitchen until about ten minutes ago. But let me go check the pantry just to be certain.”
No one spoke until he came back through the door from the living room to the kitchen. Face grim, he held up a heavy-duty black flashlight.
“Maybe she’s upstairs?” Vansi jumped to her feet. “I’ll run up and see. On the hike, she was laughing about getting dolled up tonight. Could be she decided to do that.”
It was a flimsy hope, as was Ash’s thought that she might be feeling ill and was holed up in one of the toilets. We all went to check the various toilets and bathrooms, even our own, but came up empty.
“Okay.” Ash pressed his fingers to his temples after we returned to the living room. “We split up.” He dropped his hand. “Everyone take a part of the house and search. Place has a ton of nooks and crannies. She could’ve fallen if she decided to take a shortcut on the servants’ stairs, or if she slipped someplace nearer to the cellar.”
“Take your phones if we can’t find the flashlights,” I blurted out. “I’ve noticed the lamps flicker—they might go out without warning.”
Aaron confirmed the flashlight from the pantry worked, and Kaea proved to have two in his pack, which I ran up to get. Grace also dug out a slimline one that she kept in her travel bag. “Here, Luna,” she said. “You take this one. It’s light but strong. I’ll be with Aaron and he has the heavy-duty one. That leaves two for Ash, Vansi, and Nix.”
“We all stay in pairs,” Ash said before we could split off. “Luna, you’re with me.”
“I can keep track of what’s been searched.” Kaea’s skin was taut over his cheekbones, his hand digging into the back of the sofa. “If you pass by this way, check in with me and let me know.”
I squeezed the rigid line of his shoulders. “We’ll keep you in the loop.”
“This is weird, Lunes,” Kaea said softly as Ash began to divide up the search zones. “First that stupid doll, then my shoes, and now Darcie goes missing?” He stared up at the mounted stag heads. “I’m almost starting to believe this pile is haunted.”
“It’s more likely something in the house gave way.” I wasn’t willing to see ghosts when I already lived with shadows every day of my life. “It’s an old place, and hasn’t been maintained as well as it should.”
“Luna.” Ash’s voice was clipped, a command.
Given the situation, I felt no sense of irritation, just joined him as he led me down the corridor toward the wine cellar. “We’re going back to where I last saw her?”
He nodded, his jaw working. “You’re sure you saw no sign of her on the way back?”
“Yes.” And because I didn’t like the tone of his voice, added, “I have no reason to lie.”
A muttered expletive. “I know. Shit.” He punched a fist against his thigh. “This fucking house. So many ghosts.”
Something about the way he said that made the hairs rise on the back of my neck. “You’re not talking about the metaphysical kind, are you?”
“That burned-out part of the house?” He jerked his head in the direction of the ruined wing. “It’s not all historical. Darcie just prefers to let everyone believe that because explaining the truth is harder.”
“What? I thought Clara Shepherd and three of her children died in the fire?”
“They did, but that fire was contained to a small section of the wing—the four of them just happened to be trapped in a room without an exit. Servants managed to put out the fire and save the rest of the wing, but Clara and her kids had already died from smoke inhalation by then.”
My pulse beat in my mouth. Having read what I had of Clara’s hidden diary, I wasn’t certain any of that had been an accident. But that wasn’t the most important thing right now. “Neither Bea nor Darcie ever mentioned a fire.”
“It would’ve been before you met. Darcie was eleven, Bea ten. Down here for a family summer—ended up being the last summer they spent here together.”