With a nod from Rosalie, they were gone, buzzing down the hallway again with that awful vibrating movement. It was a relief to see their nightmarish visages go, but then I remembered Lenore and began banging on the doors again, crying out for help. I didn’t care if I woke the entire manor and everyone thought me mad. My sisters’ ghosts had to be stopped.
A series of soft clicks on the other side of the door woke me.
I lay crumpled against the glass panes, completely spent. My hands were raw and bloody, and I’d gone hoarse from screaming. After my sisters had blurred away, my eyes hadn’t seemed to work right, couldn’t focus on anything. I’d let them flutter shut, intending to rest them for just a moment, maybe two.
Suddenly the door opened and I fell, my head striking the wooden floor of the hallway with a painful crack. Gazing up, nearly cross-eyed, I saw the dark silhouette of Cassius peering over me with a candle, his face masked in concern.
“Annaleigh, what are you doing down here? You’re injured,” he said, taking my hands in his.
“Get away from me!” I jerked from his touch, tumbling down the steps into the solarium. My head spun as the room tilted sharply to the right, blurring to a fuzzy haze before sharpening with too much clarity, too many colors. My stomach lurched, fighting with the room’s off-kilter equilibrium. I grabbed at a potted palm to keep from turning upside down with it.
He straightened. “I didn’t mean to frighten you. Are you all right? I heard screaming.”
“Just stay back!”
I brushed bits of dirt and leaves from me, suppressing a whimper. Each sweep of my swollen hands was agonizing, but I couldn’t let him know I was in pain.
Seeing my sisters’ ghosts had convinced me Fisher’s theory was true. They had been murdered and had come back, haunting us until their killer was found. And though it broke my heart to think it, Cassius was the most likely suspect.
His every move now seemed deeply calculated to me. A sly hardness glinted behind his eyes, appraising the situation with care, taking in every possible detail.
My vision rushed in and out of focus again, and I briefly entertained the thought of a concussion before realizing Cassius was using my distraction to slowly cross into the solarium.
“Annaleigh, what happened? Your hands look awful.”
“I told you to stay away from me!”
He paused on the final stair, and I tripped over the hem of my robe, stumbling into the foliage. If Cassius truly had killed my sisters, I could only assume he would come after me as well.
Awful visions crowded my mind. Verity discovering my body floating facedown in the pond. Camille tumbling over my half-hidden ankle as they searched the house. Lenore waking up to see my corpse laid out beside her. Another funeral.
What would they do with my body? I couldn’t fit in the crypt with Rosalie and Ligeia still there. Would they dump me out at sea? Would I end up in the Brine with the rest of my family, or would I be doomed to toss about on the waves for all eternity, like a ghost ship never reaching port?
The room flipped on its axis again, and I struggled to keep sight of Cassius.
“You poisoned me,” I accused as black dots swam into my vision. This couldn’t be a concussion. I’d been drugged.
His face was a perfect mask of incredulity. “Poisoned? What are you talking about? Annaleigh, tell me what happened!”
He rushed toward me, and I wheeled around and raced down the path. I knocked over potted plants and small statues, anything I could to slow his pursuit, but his footsteps trailed closer and closer.
Bursting through the ferns onto the tiled area by the pond, I grabbed a little metal table and wielded it between us.
“Stay away from me! I know what you did.”
Even as I hurled the accusation at him, I knew I wasn’t making sense. Poisoned? How? When? But what else could explain my disoriented state?
Cassius’s eyes were wild with confusion, and he held his hands up, presumably to show he meant no harm. “What I did? Annaleigh—I’ve done nothing!”
“Then why are my sisters dead?”
Once the words were out, they couldn’t be taken back. They cut through the air, sharper than a serrated blade, slicing deeper still.
I’d never forget the look of horror on Cassius’s face.
“You think I killed your sisters?” He let out a short, dry laugh.
“Someone did. Someone on the island.”
