Page 43 of Chain Me
I had no choice but to reach inside.
My heart raced as I cautiously inched my fingers deeper within the tomb, feeling along the marble bottom. My arm was in nearly up to my shoulder by the time I finally brushed something cold. Slender. Familiar?
I withdrew it, holding it up to the light, and a gasp tore from my lips as I identified just what it was—a cross. Dangling from a thin chain, it looked identical to Dublin’s. It could have been the exact same one.
But the shape differed upon closer inspection. The tips were pointed instead of squared, and a series of letters had been etched into the metal. A name? I couldn’t read it, but as the talisman’s weight settled over my palm, it was impossible to shake the sense that it was so much more than a casual piece of jewelry. Dublin guarded his more fervently than his own contract. Perhaps, in his obsessive need for control, he’d hidden a spare here?
Among the decaying bodies of a hundred Grays.
I mulled over the potential answers, none of them comforting. So lost in thought, I almost missed the slight noise at first. It shattered the quiet, reverberating from the upper level. A hiss. A thud.
Footsteps.
I bit my lip, assuming the intruder’s identity. Dublin Helos himself, arriving just in time to smack my hands for disobeying? I tucked the cross into my fist and turned toward the central chamber, fully prepared to face my scolding.
Do I need to get the manacles, Eleanor?
“You saw her come in here?” a man whispered—but his voice was too soft. Not Dublin’s.
Panic froze me in place as his steps continued their hurried descent.
“The lights are on,” another man pointed out. “And keep your voice down. We don’t want to scare her.”
“Ms. Gray?” the first man called out, his raised voice echoing to the farthest reaches of the crypt. “We’re…friends of your sister’s.”
Georgie.But something in his tone made me creep back toward the empty tomb and I traced the rim with trembling fingers.
“I don’t think she’s here,” the second man deduced. Both sets of footsteps sounded like they’d settled near the base of the stairs. Mere paces away from my corridor.
“Let’s fan out just to be sure.”
My pulse surged, hammering against my eardrums. As footsteps approached my section of the chamber, I crouched, inching into the open space in the wall. Dust and grime clung to my skin. It took everything I had to shuffle back, peering through the opening of the tomb.
“Anyone down here?” A shadow darkened the doorway, his silhouette large, betraying a muscular frame. Seconds later, a slender figure appeared beside him. “I don’t think she’s here,” he said. “Let’s check the house again. The kid said someone came onto the property. If she managed to escape, it’s only a matter of time before they track her down.”
“You think she escaped?” the larger man replied.
“Of course. He isn’t stupid enough to let her wander around alone. At least if she is in here, he won’t be able to track her anyway. We can keep watch.”
He.Dublin?
“I’m surprised he hasn’t killed her already. Or sold her.” Their shapes retreated from the doorway and I heard their footsteps as they crossed the central chamber. “But it’s only a matter of time. He’s already summoned theotherone. I hear the bastard is on his way now. Helos must know she’s gone.”
“Doesn’t this feel strange to you though? Looking…well, hunting down a Gray? Especially since no one’s seen Georgiana since—”
“We don’t question,” the smaller man hissed. “And whatever reason there is for it, I don’t really want to know. After what she’s been through, she might be better off… Come on.”
Their steps faded to silence. In their wake, my thoughts spun. Too much information clamored to be reconciled all at once. Georgie. Her “friends.” Their intent—hunting me down.
For what?
And Dublin…
A dull pain seared through my palm, so I loosened my grip on the cross, wincing as warm liquid dribbled down my fingers. I’d gripped the necklace so hard that it had broken the skin. The coppery scent of blood tainted the air, as vibrant as an SOS beacon. I imagined Dublin tracking the smell, using it like a map to find me.
Or not. Deep down, I knew that the fact I’d left his property at all was a miracle within itself. Perhaps he didn’tcareenough to come looking.
Enough!I shook my head to clear it and inched forward on my hands and knees. My entire body trembled as I climbed from the tomb and approached the central chamber, clinging to the wall for balance.
