I try the door in front of me, but it’s locked.
“This way.” The voice draws me to the right.
I pull at the handle, and the door opens into a short, narrow hall, just wide enough to fit one person and a mop bucket. Straight ahead is another door, and to my right is the plain, incognito elevator. The dim, green light emitting from the access panel is the only light in this space. I shut myself in and take the three steps across. I twist the knob. It doesn’t budge. I look to the ceiling, as if the voice can somehow hear me better this way. “I can’t open it.”
“You can.”
I pull harder at the handle. “No. I can’t.”
“You can.”
What am I doing? I sigh and push the up button for the elevator. The door slides silently open. I peer into the brightly lit interior.
“So impatient… Use your mind.”
It’s one thing for a child to go running after voices, but I’m way too old for this. I step into the elevator.
“You have great power. I will help you.”
I scan the inside panel. The elevator only goes up to the main office.
“Use your mind.” The voice grows insistent.
My fingers hesitate over the silver buttons.
“Jaaaade…”
Suppressing a groan, I step back into the cramped space and press in close to the locked door. I wrap my hand around the cool steel handle. This is stupid. I focus on the bronze lock above the handle and jerk it to the right with my mind. A loud click echoes off the walls. Then the door pops quietly open.
A small laugh escapes my throat. I push the door open and find myself staring into total darkness.
“Closer.”
I take one step inside, and weak blue lights emerge from flat square fixtures along the wall. Everything is made of stone, including the ceiling. It’s like stepping into the hidden basement of a castle. The floor in here slopes down and curves to the left.
When I don’t move, the voice whispers to me from down the hall.
“This way.”
The door stays ajar behind me as I step cautiously around the first curve. There’s nothing to see. Only rough stone and blue squares of light that go on for ages.
It grows colder the farther I walk. I wrap my arms around my body as shivers trickle down my back. As I continue down, it grows colder still, until my breath becomes visible before me, and crystalline frost sparkles on the walls.
This is strange. I would think I was dreaming, but my dreams are never this vivid. Not since the poison. They went from colorful and vibrant to dull and dreary. Washed-out, is what I call it. They’ve been that way for a decade almost.
I round yet another steep curve, and my feet come to a halt. A dark silver door stands before me. It looms up to the ceiling. My jaw drops a little as I take in all the intricate details.
A spoked wheel of some kind is fitted in the center. It’s shiny and golden. This is surrounded by two more wheels, each larger than the one before it. The second one is glittering crimson and faceted like a ruby, and the third is black and smooth and shines like onyx. The rest of the door is covered top to bottom in etchings, some of them shallow and faint, some of them crude and deep. I run my fingers over them, taking in the different textures and shapes.
“What is this?”
“Ancient ritual enchantments.”
“Magic…” A smile plays across my face. I step back and scan the sides of the door for a way to open it, momentarily forgetting how cold it is down here.
“It will require a sacrifice.”
“What kind of sacrifice?” I lightly brush my fingertips along the golden spokes.
“Blood.”
My hand falls to my side. I back away. This is too much. My imagination has run away from me. I stay cooped up too much.
I turn sharply and start quickly up the winding path.
“I understand. I need to earn your trust.”
I snort. “Sure.” I stuff my hands under my arms and pump my legs faster. I’m losing my mind. I’m going to end up on a bridge like Aunt Alara.
“Let me show you something. Follow my voice.”
There’s no way I’m taking those pills again. I take a few deep breaths. I can beat this on my own. I don’t need that shit. I reach the room with the elevator.
“This way.”
Against my better judgment, or sanity, I follow the voice back into the tiny room with the stairs.
“Here.” His voice hovers by the first door like an invisible cloud.
“Why not? I’m already crazy.” I unlock this door, much like I unlocked the other, and push it open. The air outside is frigid, but it’s almost warm in comparison to that tunnel. I step out into the night, into the open space between the back of the building and the parking garage. The door is right next to the awning that connects the two.
“This way.” The whispering echoes around to the side of the building.
The door shuts and auto-locks behind me as I push after the voice.
“Stop.”
My feet stall just before the turn. Before me is a cluster of large trees that shields the side of this tower from the one beside it. The wind is high out here and carries the scent of tar and the sound of laughter.
“Slowly…”
I peer around the corner. Across the street, two figures huddle close together outside of an upscale clothing store. One of them is in an obnoxious pink jacket, and dull blonde hair hangs over the collar. I squint at them and press in a little closer. They seem very familiar.
The couple starts across the street. I dive into the thick shadows around the trees and peek around the bark.
Fallon’s obnoxious voice reaches my ears. “…what’s not to like? He treats me well, and he does everything for me. I’m living a dream.”
“I can do things for you,” says a voice that sounds very much like Logan’s. “And do things to you.”
Fallon giggles. I wince and stick my neck out a little further.
It’s Logan all right. He grabs Fallon around the waist and presses her back against the side of the building. He kisses her neck, and then his lips trail a line up to hers.
I clap my hands over my mouth and draw back. Acid flares up in my stomach. What the actual fuck? My blood burns through my veins. I knew it.
She’s worthless. They both are. I drop a hand to the tree trunk to steady myself and peer around again. They’re still kissing, making out hard like they’ll never get the chance again.
My nails curl into the bark. Where’s Jerod? I reach into my skirt pocket and retrieve my phone. After putting it on silent and turning the flash off, I snap a photo of them and then switch to video mode. I don’t know what I’m going to do with it, but they are not going to get away with this.
The voice hisses around me, as if attached to the wind, the words long and slow and heavy. “So…many…lies…”
10
Sacrifice
Logan jokes loudly at the other end of the lobby, entertaining a group of men with lewd jokes and wild stories from their recent trip abroad. My sweet, idiot brother leans against the wall grinning over at him, his stupid gray eyes full of trust.
My leg bounces under my desk, spreading irritation through my body. There are no words for how pissed I am. I wish I could bring the ceiling tiles down on Logan’s head. My water bottle teeters in time with my agitation, and I clamp a hand over it to still it.
Of course, I could. Probably. But if my father suspected me of being responsible, he’d have me carted off in a straitjacket.
“Don’t worry about Logan. He will suffer. Come back and open the door.”
“How?” I force my eyes away from Logan and try to keep my voice low. No one is paying attention to me that I know of, but it’s awkward, talking out loud in an open space. For a second I wish the stupid voice could read my thoughts, but then I think better of it.
Honestly though, how crazy am I that the voice in my own head can’t hear me think?
“Sacrifice.”
“Yeah, you said that, but—” I cut myself off. David walks towards me with a small rectangular box full of padded envelopes.
He drops it on my desk. “This is for Juliane.” He speaks slowly and stares at me hard like he’s trying to read my mind. He caught me talking to myself, I know it. And likely not for the first time. “I’d take them to her,” he continues, “but she hates me, so she can schlep out here and get them.”
“Okay.” I turn to the computer and pretend to be busy.
“Whatcha doing?”
“Working.” I open a spreadsheet and delete and retype a row of numbers. I glance at him over my shoulder. “Do you need me to do something for you?”
“Well, it’s getting close to lunchtime. If you didn’t have any plans, I’m going to that new bistro across the street. I hear they have excellent paninis.”
“Sounds great.”
His eyes widen with mad hope and surprise.
“I mean, have fun.” I grab my water and gulp down some sips while I wait for him to leave. He doesn’t.
“Well, what are you doing for lunch?”
The elevator opens and Griffin steps out with Malcolm—the family lawyer—and Kaius. Griffin’s face lights up when he sees me, and he tells the other two he’ll catch up with them in a minute.
They continue down the hall to the main conference room, and Griffin stops by my desk. He nods to David and says, “Hey, man, what’s up?”
David’s gaze shifts back and forth between us. Then he gives Griffin a stiff nod in return. “Oh, you know. Lots of mail.” He pats the top of the envelopes and spins around on his heel. He lags behind a little, but he’s going in the right direction.
Loud laughter draws my attention momentarily back to Logan. My jaw clenches.
“So I was thinking,” Griffin says as he casually drums his fingers against the desk, “in the spirit of keeping things slow and casual, I thought maybe our first date could be at the coffee house later this afternoon.”
David lingers a few feet away, one eye on us as he pretends to read something on the bulletin board above the copy machine.
“What are you saying?” I ask. “You want our first date to be during your break? How very interesting that is.”
He laughs. “Well, I’m trying not to scare you.”
“Succeeding.” I relax for a moment and smile at him. “Deal. What time?”
He glances at his watch. “Three o’clock?”
“I can do that.”
“Great.” He turns to David and furrows his brows. “Is he okay?”
“Probably not.” The phone rings, and I send it to voicemail.
“Gotta get to a meeting.” Griffin grins. “Don’t stand me up.”
“If I do, you’ll know where you stand.”
He shakes his head, but laughs again as he hurries to the conference room.
The second he’s out of sight, David slides back over to the desk. “So…lunch?”
“I can’t.”
“Do you have a boyfriend I don’t know about?”
I wrinkle my nose and go back to messing with the spreadsheet. “No, David.”
“So…”
I suppress a groan. “I have stuff to do during lunch.”
“What kind of stuff?”
“Errands.”
“I can bring you something.”
My hands clench over the keyboard. “That’s really tempting, but I can’t let you do that.”
“I wouldn’t mind.”
My shoulders tense. “I’m sorry.” The phone rings again, and this time I answer it. “Xacharias Corp, what do you want?” Probably the nicest I’ve ever been on the phone. David waits while I transfer the call to marketing.
“Are you and Griffin dating?”
I shrug. “Not really.”
He nods to himself. “Well, if you change your mind about lunch, I’m going at one.”
“Okay.” I give him the biggest smile I can muster, and he finally leaves. I pick up a pen and tap it against the desk to distract me from Logan, something that doesn’t help in the least.
What kind of lowlife runs around with his best friend’s girlfriend? Seeing her cheat on my brother is hardly surprising. She has gold-digger tattooed on her ass. But with Logan? The only family closer to ours than Griffin’s is Logan’s. The Lelands have a landscaping company. They do work for all the properties my father and grandfather own. They’ve been playing together since before they could walk.
Sadness starts to displace some of my anger. How long has that been going on? Fallon hasn’t even been around all that long.
“Jade?”
I groan.
“Your energy is restless.”
“You can feel that, huh?”
“I always feel your emotions.”
I sit up a little straighter. “Can you…see me right now?”
There’s a pause. “No.”
Interesting. My mind wanders to the utility elevator. I can’t go now. There’s too many people back there this time of day. And David. Poor guy might think I’m going back there to talk to him.
I buzz Juliane before I forget. “Your crap is up here.”
“Gee, thanks,” is her reply.
The elevator dings, and my father steps out into the lobby with Astrid. He sends a wave my way and disappears around the half-wall to his office, his assistant rushing behind him.
Good to know he’s not worried about me today. I hunch over my desk.
It’s getting harder and harder to pretend like that voice is just in my head. I never would have gone outside to creep around the building like that on my own. And that tunnel isn’t something I saw as a child and forgot. Jerod and Kaius can’t know about it either. They would have told me. They couldn’t have kept something like that to themselves.
What’s behind that door? Given the general design and layout of the building, it seems awfully strange that stone tunnels were built into the bottom—tunnels that lead deep underground to an even stranger door—the exact something a person would do if they were trying to hide a secret something from the world. If I’m remembering right, the building was designed by my great-grandfather. What would he have been trying to hide?
It needs a sacrifice to open. What kind of sacrifice?
The memory of those disembodied words echo in my head.
So many secrets.
So many lies.
11
Arrogance
The first person I see in the downstairs lobby when I go to meet Griffin is Logan.
He glances over his shoulder at the sound of the elevator opening, sees me, and grins. “Hey, what’s up?”
The urge to punch him in the nose is strong. That’s some nice imagery there. The thought of blood running down the front of his designer shirt makes me smile. Which is unfortunate, because he takes that as his cue to jog over and talk to me.
I turn away from him and start towards the coffee shop. He steps in my path.
“How ya doing?”
I grit my teeth. “Great.” I squint into the low-light interior. Griffin is already inside by a glass case full of scones and muffins, talking to someone from middle management.
Logan follows my line of sight. “Meeting up with Griffin, huh? That’s cool. How’d he talk you into that?”
I shrug and force myself to look Logan in the eyes. Please go away and die. Being telepathic would be a whole lot more helpful than whatever delinquent crap I’ve been able to do. “What do you want?”
“I just want to say hi.” He grins. I frown. Did he see me outside in the pseudo-alley last night? There’s no way. He wouldn’t have been sucking face with wannabe-model-Barbie if he had.
“Why?”
“I’m thinking of doing some work here.”
Laughter spills out of me. “You’re joking.”
His smile wanes some. “No…”
“Doing what?”
“Jerod says he can get me a j
ob as a runner for the advertising department. Then I can work my way up from there. You know, Winston is leaving at the end of next term.”
No, I didn’t know that. What the hell? Jerod knows I hate working reception. He equally knows I would be great in that position. Sure, that would mean working long hours with Kerry, who hates me, but why would he tell Logan and not me? I keep my face straight. “And you think you’re qualified to be marketing director?” He did finish high school, at least. Barely.
The insecurity shows up on his face as red pigment in his cheeks. “Uh, I mean, Jerod’s VP.”
Like I need the reminder. My stomach grows heavy. Dicks. Both of them. “Well. You’ve always been such a great friend to my brother. If he thinks you should go for it, you should totally try. It’s not like you have to be qualified for anything around here.”
His face falls completely. I give him a bright smile, step around him, and trudge into the coffee shop. When I look over my shoulder, Logan’s dragging himself out the front door, all the arrogance gone from his steps. I honestly have no idea what he’s doing for work now. I assumed before that he had gone into the family business—his family’s business—but I suppose he’s too lazy for that.
Griffin excuses himself from his conversation when he sees me. “Hey, I’m glad you showed. I have to admit, I really thought you’d stand me up.”
“Thought about it.”
He laughs. “Glad you talked yourself out of it.” His eyes scan my face. “What’s going on?”
“What do you mean?”
“You look like you’re about to stab something.”
“Do I?” Logan’s his good friend, too. Should I tell him about what I saw? I do have proof to back me up. I glance down at my phone, see the time, and realize I’m fifteen minutes late. “Oh God, I’m sorry. I’m so late. I didn’t know.”
“It’s okay.” He nods to the far-left side of the room. “There’s a dark corner over there. I picked it out when I got here. I thought you would like that. We can talk about life, get to the bottom of your bad mood.”
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