Chapter 16
Mystrategywasnolonger researching the Xurian characters, and it no longer had anything to do with going into Felix’s office. If I never had to enter that space again, it would be too soon now I knew what was hiding behind the walls.
Unfortunately, eliminating those options from my pool of code-breaking strategies meant I had none left. All I was doing was wandering around, hoping something popped up in front of me. I spent a day wandering like that, looking into every nook and cranny, casting the occasional sensing spells when I guessed a wall may have something behind it.
Most of the time, I was right.
Abraxas had a lot of paths through the walls, but they had nothing to do with my ultimate goal.
I was downstairs in the living room, scouring the furniture and decor for something that reminded me of home, when the thin hairs on the back of my neck prickled. Zan’s presence wasn’t unwelcome, exactly, but I was still mentally recovering from the trauma of the ghost attack. He’d saved my life, though, so I did what I could to temper my reaction.
He cleared his throat, and I turned to him, one eyebrow raised.
“Did you need something?”
“Sorry to bother you,” he said quickly, grimacing. “I know you’re busy. I wanted to ask if you needed anything.”
This was… new. Sure, Zan had helped me to find the book in the library, all those rewinds ago. But that had been more up to chance and not him seeking me out. What had I done differently during this cycle to warrant his curiosity? I tried to pinpoint a moment, coming up empty. I’d been somewhat kind to him in the bathing room this morning, but that wasn’t saying much considering my past responses had been on some level of screaming or rude brushoffs.
“I’m not doing anything specific, honestly,” I admitted. “Just wandering around.”
“Would you be OK with wandering up to the top floor? There’s something up there that I think will help to clear your mind.”
Following Zan anywhere made me wary, but I pushed it away. I couldn’t judge the sweet ghost off his horrid brethren. My body’s reaction couldn’t be helped, but I had it in me to be pleasant to him and let him show me something without believing he was taking me to die.
He didn’t need to take me upstairs to die, anyway. I’d died on the ground floor plenty of times.
“Stay two metres away from me at all times,” I said, standing to my full height from where I’d been crouched and rifling through the sideboard.
His head bobbed. “Of course. I’ll go first.”
I stayed a safe distance behind him as he floated up the stairs, passing through the floor with the men’s bedrooms and up to the empty third-floor living room. The sun was shining orange through the windows, shocking me with how late it had gotten while I’d had the curtains closed downstairs. I’d wasted a lot of time today, wandering around and sensing through walls, with absolutely nothing to show for it.
What a depressing thought.
When Zan paused at a window, solidifying his hand to wipe off a series of spiderwebs, he turned to me and beamed. “It’s this one. Look through it!”
He drifted a comfortable distance away, and I approached. Oddly, I didn’t need to keep him in my line of sight, nor did my body tense up every time he moved. I was comfortable with his presence. At a distance.
The glass was scratched with age, one crack running through the pane, but the view beyond made it easy to overlook. A tall set of mountains rose in the distance, nothing but trees and farmland between us. I’d known the property was on the outskirts of town, but I hadn’t realized how much of a view it had, much less appreciated it. Since getting here, I’d focused on other matters.
With the sun descending over the mountains, the smattering of clouds was stained orange and pink, colours more vibrant than anything inside the confines of the house. A small smile quirked my lips, and I stared out, watching birds fly in the beams of light and leaves rustle in a gentle breeze. If the weather had been like this the night I’d arrived, I might not have had a panic attack outside the house.
“Do you like the view?” Zan asked, wringing his hands.
I nodded. “Yes. It’s a bright spot in a shitty situation. I should have looked outside before now.”
“It makes sense that you didn’t. We’ve all spent time focused on finding a way out of here, not that anyone succeeded or had the advantage that you have.”
“Being Felix’s niece doesn’t feel like an advantage. He’s too cryptic.”
Finding his clues among the thousands of square feet in this house was proving difficult, not to mention the secrets he wanted to keep and didn’t want me to find. Like the horrible basement.
“He could be… hard to deal with,” Zan said. “But you have the skills you need to get us out.”
Zan was a mage too, if his performance with the ghost and the spirit box was any indication. I’d heard ghosts could keep the abilities they had in life, in very specific circumstances, but they were weaker than before. Besides, his captors would have been aware of his magic and warded this place against him specifically.
“If I ever solve the puzzle, I can,” I conceded with a sigh, turning and resting my forehead against the glass.
