Page 31 of One Last Secret

3.The door will be hidden in shadow. Enter it.

4.Do not fear the path. Brave it, and you will reach heaven.

This is it. This is a step-by-step instruction of how to get to his cove. I pump my fist joyfully and rush from the room. I don’thave a flashlight, but my phone’s light is bright enough that it should work if I’m careful.

I pull it from my pocket and start toward the cove, but I stop when I see the time. It reads four-thirty. I’ve spent over three hours in the art closet. That can’t be, though. I spent an hour looking through paintings and perhaps another hour looking through the journal. It’s not an especially thick book, so it can’t have taken me as long as that to go through all of it.

I look back at the staircase and bite my lip softly. Evelyn will be here soon, and I don’t want Celeste to be by herself. I don’t want to share this evidence with either of them until I know for sure that it will reveal Victor’s whereabouts.

But I don’t want to wait any longer. If Victor is there, then I might be able to convince him to return home. If he is injured, I might be able to help him. At the very least, I can bring news of him to Celeste. Perhaps I can even get him to tell me about Annie and help me know where to look for her next.

I stand to gain too much to allow this opportunity to pass me by. I’ll simply have to hurry.

I start down the path, placing each step carefully. I slip once on a loose step, but I catch the banister before the stumble sends me falling down toward the sea.

I reach the beach after perhaps ten minutes. I am now where the fairies bathe.

I take my slippers off and wade into the water. I should probably have changed into my bathing suit before I went out here, but it’s too late to turn back. Besides, I have little time.

It takes me a while to find the quartz and amethyst "treasure." There is no moon in the sky, and the light from my phone reflects off of the water, not the crystals buried underneath. After several minutes of wandering in circles, though, I catch a dull purplish gleam under the surface and breathe a sigh of relief when I realize I've found the place.

Now to find the door hidden in shadow. This will be even more difficult since the night is already dark.

Well, Victor would be looking for this place during the daylight when the treasure would sparkle brightly. Anything facing that treasure would reflect some of their light back, so it wouldn’t be hidden in shadow. The “door” must be behind the treasure.

I step carefully over the treasure and find myself on a shelf of rock two feet higher than the rest of the inlet. The water that was at my waist is now only halfway to my knees.

I move forward. Ahead of me is a pitch-black void. A cold wind seems to emanate from that void, as though the shadow is warning me that I have reached it during its time of strength.

But I press on. There is a young girl up in that house who needs her father, and the answer to a thirty-year-old mystery may await me on the other side of this door. I walk until my light reveals a jagged hole in the rock. I stoop down and shine my light into the hole. It disappears without reflecting on anything.

I move carefully and enter the tunnel. The water level remains low, and when I lift my light above me, I see that the ceiling is twelve feet above me. I can walk without fear of bumping my head.

I proceed about seventy yards when my light shines on the opposite opening. Thirty more yards brings me to the end of the tunnel, and I step through and find the cove. It is small, only ten yards long and the same amount wide. The cave continues overhead past the edge of the water into the open ocean.

The surf is more powerful here than in Fairy Cove, but still moderated significantly by rocks a few dozen yards past the entrance.

I have found haven.

I look around. Visually, the place is not that impressive beyond the fact that it’s a beach in a cave. There are noshimmering crystals, and the sand is coarser than the fine silt of Fairy Cove.

But it’s hidden, and to a sensitive young man suffering under the force of Elias’s personality and the pain of watching the woman he fancies choose another, it could easily be a haven.

More importantly, I find evidence of a campfire. There is ash and charcoal on the ground. I approach closer and find a few crumbs of beef jerky. They are old and stale, but not that old. This cove has been used recently.

I feel a leap of excitement. Victor was here! Almost certainly, he was here after the incident in his studio.

I must tell the police. They must know that he’s still alive and somewhere close.

I dial the number, but the phone has no signal. I’ll have to go back through the tunnel first.

I turn to leave, but I stop when I see the back wall.

Victor may not have been able to capture my sister’s beauty on canvas, but he captured it well enough on granite. Heat climbs my cheeks as I look upon her form in a way I never desired to see her, but my eyes can’t look away. Victor has chosen abstract art as a means to transcend reality, but what I see before me is transcendent because it is real. I should not be surprised if Annie stepped from the wall and greeted me.

She is beautiful. She was always so beautiful. I look at her, and my mind drifts back.

I feel a pang when I see her kiss him, but at least this time, I don't fool myself into thinking he might fancy me. They separate, and John whispers something into her ear. She laughs and slaps him playfully on the shoulder before skipping toward the house.

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