The Forbidden Doors Box Set

by Cortney Pearson

  His fingers twine with mine.

  I take a grounding breath. “What if your father isn’t who you think he is?”

  “I know who he is,” Nikolay says. “It’s his capabilities that should be our concern now.”

  Exactly what are his capabilities? Nikolay didn’t know about the murders, but his father certainly did. “We have to stop this,” I say again.

  His face hardens. Nikolay stalks off without a word, thundering back down the spiral stairs, back down to the basement. I follow, not about to let him go anywhere without me.

  The magic, the suspense of being with him down here has vanished. He yanks a book from its place in the box. He flips through it, his eyes narrowing, before he turns back to a previous section.

  “I saw Rosemary hanging,” I say, wanting to fill the silence. “She was killed, and the man who did it threatened me too.”

  Nikolay slams the book closed. “You spoke to someone?”

  “He said your father better not break his deal. What deal, Nikolay? With the doors?”

  He inhales, forehead creased. He bends at the shelf near the exposed brick wall, removes the crate from earlier and retrieves one of the books. He skims through its pages.

  “It looks like Rosemary Cauthran’s death was tied to that doorway. Each door has an owner, someone who has paid a high price to manipulate time and prolong his life. I just can’t believe it of my father, that he would sacrifice people’s lives without their consent.”

  That’s a friendly way to say murder.

  “How do we stop it?”

  Nikolay flips to another page. “That’s what I’m trying to figure out.”

  He digs for another book, and another, brow strained in concentration. I remain silent, letting him look, driving away the worry building around me.

  “The knobs represent a person’s death,” he reads. “Death is the key to open the knob. That person’s death is contained, inked in with magic, into a book connected to each door so that death is not required every time it’s opened. One death is enough to facilitate each turn of the knob.”

  My stomach sickens. I touched that knob. I turned it, not twenty minutes ago.

  And the one I took from the theater is still clutched in my hand.

  “But someone didn’t have to die for yours?” I ask. No one had to die so that Sierra could be helped, or so I could visit Victorian England, did they?

  Nikolay pauses. “I don’t know.” The muscles work in his jaw. A loose page slips from the book, and I reach for it, attempting to decipher its Russian script.

  “Nikolay—” I hand it back to him.

  “All these years,” he says in astonishment. “I’ve been using that door all these years, and I never knew.”

  I don’t know what to say. The thought is just as revolting to me.

  “Does it say how to stop it?” I prod.

  The book shakes in his hand. “The doors themselves only grant access to the ostium nexu. Garrett channeled that access by use of a staircase he manipulated and trapped the Crenshaw line into. His spell was so much more complex.”

  He squints, untangling the words on the page. “My father’s other customers didn’t have such murderous intent, so he found a way to write their spells so only one death was required.”

  Only one death. “One death is too many,” I mutter, beginning to pace.

  Nikolay concentrates on the book once more. “Ah, here. The door owner needs to claim the book by writing in it, as I had you do with yours. He then spills his blood and dips the knob in. The resulting image is a stamp, sealing the owner to the book.”

  “Who thinks of these things?” I ask, horror-struck.

  “The sacrifice—” Nikolay’s voice breaks. His eyes trail along the page and begin to well with tears. He blinks them away. “The sacrifice is chosen. Her blood is spilt and absorbed into the book’s pages. Only one drop is needed.”

  “Then why kill her?” I exclaim.

  “It seems the spell can only take effect once her life is gone. It can then serve as the key to the door.”

  I shudder. “I saw her die, Nikolay. I’ll never be able to forget that.”

  He sighs and scrapes a hand behind his neck. “This is my fault. I should never have showed you any of this in the first place.”

  “Why did you?”

  “I thought you deserved answers.”

  I reach forward and touch his arm. His glance darts at me, his eyes wide. “I did, Nikolay. Thank you. It’s because you showed me that we know what’s really going on. And we’ve got to stop this.”

  His throat bobs, and he casts his gaze to the book again, flipping pages. After a few moments, he gasps.

  “What? What is it?”

  He peels the book open for me. An image of my face has been sketched into the book. No hair, no body, just my face, from the fringe on my large eyes to the freckles spraying across my nose.

  “This is Harold Meiser’s book—the theater owner. I’m not sure this was there before.”

  I take the book from him, analyzing every detail, the shading of my eyes, the shape of my chin and the curve of my eyebrows. A small dusting of hair frames my face, but he obviously wasn’t too preoccupied with my hairstyle at the time. He was probably only intent on getting the details of my face down. My mouth drops. “How did that get there?”

  “Meiser saw you?”

  “Yes, right before I took the knob.”

  Nikolay swears, setting down the book.

  “What? What does it mean?”

  “It means we are both in a great deal of trouble.”

  “What kind of trouble?” I ask.

  “The kind that means I now have to tell my father exactly what we’re up to, because I don’t know what is going on.”

  “No, you can’t do that.”

  “Everly—” Nikolay grasps my hand in his. “You are in deeper than you can possibly imagine. If Meiser has your face in his book then you are now a part of his spell. To what end I can’t yet tell, but he drew you in here sometime in the last hundred years. And long life means long memories. He hasn’t forgotten who you are.”

  Instead of fear, determination steers in. This is a man from 1917. I won’t let him control my life over a hundred years later. I can’t.

  “Then we have even more reason to stop this.”

  His shoulders are rigid. “From what I read, to destroy the doors we need each book and its coinciding knob. The power is in the knob.”

  “And if we get all the knobs?”

  “We could break the connection. Stop this cycle of murder.”

  “We have to do it. We destroy the ostium nexu. What can your father do but guilt trip you out?”

  “Guilt trip Nikolay about what?”

  I whirl around, stuffing the doorknob in my hand behind my back. Andrei glowers at us from the bottom of the stairs.

  I glance at Nikolay, but he keeps his attention at his father, his posture stiff.

  I’m here, in the secluded basement of his store near his very exclusive and dangerous collection of homemade spell books. He can’t be happy about that, let alone considering how much of our conversation he may have overheard.

  Andrei crumples a paper in one hand, glaring at me though his words are for his son.

  “Nikolay, I have just received a very interesting message.” He tears the knob from my hands. “And it seems it’s true.”

  Nikolay rises to his feet. “Papa, I can explain.”

  “Miss James, you are fired and forbidden from ever coming back to this store.”

  “Papa, she is in danger.”

  “Because she is here!” Andrei roars. “I will sort things out with Meiser. She should never have been introduced to the doors. And if she comes here again I will kill her myself.”

  “I’m
sorry,” I say, helplessly.

  “Get out. Leave!” His words spike fear in me, and I break for the stairs, treading through panic with every step. I can’t get to the exit fast enough.

  I make it up the stairs and past the register. Nikolay catches my arm, and, with a finger to his lips, joins me outside.

  “Everly,” he says once the entrance closes.

  “Your father is terrible,” I tell him, Andrei’s threat to my life still lingering over me. Nikolay pulls me close, and I fold into him. I’m burning with frustration, I barely notice the chilly air.

  Nikolay rubs my back. “I’m sorry he said that.”

  I’m still trembling. “Does he threaten you like that? Are you going to be okay?” I stare at his collar, at the cords of muscle I feel beneath his shirt. “I got you into trouble, Nikolay. I’m so sorry.”

  “I will be fine.”

  “Will you? Because I don’t think so. Come with me!” I add when he doesn’t correct me. “Stay at my apartment. We can sneak back in, we can go back to the other doors.”

  A tender, dejected amusement crosses his face, and he strokes my cheek. “If only I could. I cannot leave the store, not for long periods of time. Much as I would love to be near you as often as I could, I cannot. My father…”

  “What can he do? Fix the door? Give Meiser back the knob? That’s only going to continue everything. We have to stop this, Nikolay. You know it.”

  He doesn’t answer. A muscle tightens in his jaw.

  “Don’t let him put the knob back. Let’s get the other knobs, let’s do this. That’s the only way to stop Meiser from coming after me, right?”

  He doesn’t argue, just releases a long breath. “When?” he finally says. “And exactly how do you plan on breaking the door connection?”

  “You said we need all the knobs. And their coinciding books.”

  “We don’t have Garrett’s. It wasn’t in the crate downstairs.”

  “What if we can get it? Please, Nikolay. You can’t imagine how this scares me. What will Meiser do? What is he capable of? Not only to me, but to you and your father too?”

  Nikolay looks away. “I think you saw what he is capable of.”

  Shivers pinprick the back of my arms at the memory of Rosemary’s death. I approach him once more. “I’ll be back. Please. Meet me here?”

  He glances over his shoulder and takes my hand. Sadness swims in his eyes, though I can’t figure out why. Worry for me? Regret that this is happening at all? Slowly, carefully, he lifts my hand to his lips and presses a warm kiss there. “If you’re sure.”

  “I’m sure.”

  He squeezes my hand. “Then meet me in the alleyway at eleven thirty. We go through to get the other knobs tonight.”

  twenty

  As hard as I try, I can’t stop thinking about the crow—the single crow—that confronted me on the balcony. That bird coerced me into the door. It helped me once I was in there.

  Snap by snap, things begin clicking into place. The crows have been leading me to this all along. To Nikolay, to his store. To destroy the ostium nexu.

  Something pinches into my leg when I slip into my car. With a grunt, I remove the hitch I forgot I stuffed in my pocket. With a mental note to return it to Nikolay that evening, I drive like a crazy person the few miles back to my apartment.

  Though there’s no outward threat, no looming crows, the thought of danger is almost worse. The grim words Nikolay shared about what Meiser is capable of. I’m not sure how my image appeared in that book. Did Meiser get that good of a look at me? Did he draw me after I left with his precious knob? Was he keeping me in mind for something in the future? And why did he never contact Terekhov for another doorknob after all these years?

  Unless that was on the note Andrei crumpled in his hand. What is Meiser planning?

  It doesn’t bode well, not only for me, but for Nikolay and his father. Because of what I did, I forced them to go back on their word too. Meiser thinks it’s Andrei—does Andrei know?

  What was I thinking?

  Panic balloons in my chest, and I hammer on Piper’s door. No one answers.

  “Not now, Piper,” I say. “I need to talk to you.” I step down the stairs a few paces, but there’s no sign of Todd’s red truck here, either. I could go to his house, but she never goes there if she can avoid it.

  I go back into number fourteen and search all over for Layla. She’s nowhere in the apartment. She must have had a test today, I think, though she could have done that online. Maybe she’s at work.

  I stare at my parents’ picture on the contacts of my new phone, thinking about Nikolay’s questions, about my change of heart and the regret where they’re concerned, at the unpacked boxes all over the apartment that I haven’t had the heart to open. It wasn’t like I thought—it wasn’t only my parents fault. They had good reason for acting the way they did, though I can’t say everything they did was okay. But I understand it now.

  Still, I can’t bring myself to hit call. Not when some psycho from 1917 has it out for me.

  Todd’s truck pulls up outside, rumbling and emitting exhaust, and I dash out. Piper rolls down the passenger window.

  “Piper! Todd, I’m glad you’re here too.”

  Piper chews her lip, sliding out of the truck. Todd follows, slamming his door shut.

  “You okay?” Piper asks with a timid glance. Todd hangs back by the truck, arms folded across his chest like he’s some kind of bodyguard on hand in case Piper needs him.

  I admire that, now that I know just what she went through. I’m glad she has him.

  “I—” I hesitate, not sure where to start. “I got tired of secrets, so I asked Nikolay what was up with this door in his store.”

  “What door?”

  I explain it to her, as much as I can.

  “That makes sense, about the murders,” she says, her cheeks reddening from the cold. “I was tired of secrets in my house and tired of avoiding doors I was looking at every day but told never to open. I got sick of it. So I opened one.”

  “That’s when you saw Ada, isn’t it?”

  “How do you know about that?”

  “Because that was her door. There’s a person linked to each door—or I should say, a person’s death. And now Andrei Terekhov is telling me to avoid doors too,” I say. “To avoid the store altogether.”

  “They fired you?”

  I nod.

  “You know too much,” Piper says, staring off. “It’s a wonder they let you walk away at all.”

  I don’t like the lingering threat in her voice.

  “And your crows?”

  I blink, thinking it through. “All along they’ve been leading me to Terekhov’s, so I could find out what we needed to know. So we can destroy the pathway. Nikolay told me everything that was going on.”

  “That was their message?” she asks. “What if it was the opposite, Everly? What if they were telling you to stay away?”

  “No, that crow was guiding me. I know what you’re thinking, but Nikolay wouldn’t hurt me.” I think of all the times I’ve been alone with him, all the times he had the chance to lose his cool, to take it out on me, to betray me or take advantage of my feelings for him. But he never did. He would never have.

  “Wouldn’t he?” she asks. Todd clears his throat. He still hasn’t spoken since we started. In fact, I almost forgot he was standing behind Piper. “Maybe not,” Piper amends. “But his father might. You said he was upset at how much Nikolay told you. Men like that don’t like others to know their secrets.”

  “Piper…” An overwhelming helplessness takes over me. I’m about to ask her if she knows anything about Garrett’s book when she goes on.

  She twists her hair over one shoulder, keeping her chin in the air as if forcing confidence. “Maybe you should go home.”

 
“What?” I stand, leaving her on the bench. My feet chomp the packed snow. She knows my situation. She knows why I can’t, why I came here in the first place. Why would she say that to me?

  Piper offers a placating hand, her eyes shifting to Todd as if needing his reassurance, before looking back to me. “Don’t take it wrong. But none of this would have happened if you hadn’t come here. Maybe you should go back and—”

  “Pretend like it didn’t happen?”

  “I know,” she says, her tone apologetic. She stands too. “I know how it sounds, and believe me, I don’t mean it that way at all. But I’m just saying, if you’re getting messages from ghosts, maybe you don’t want to do what they ask of you.”

  “You’re still dealing with your demons, Piper. Can you just walk away from it?” Anger surges through me.

  “Hold on now,” Todd says, interfering. He angles around the bench to stand beside her. Piper shushes him.

  “Of course we can’t just walk away. I only meant it might stop for you. It will never stop for me.”

  “Yes, it will. I know a way.”

  She freezes, her eyes widening. When I say nothing else, color rises to her cheeks and tears gather in her eyes.

  “Make what all stop?” Todd asks, one hand on Piper’s arm. A flurry swirls around us. I step closer to them, resting a hand on my hip.

  “The doors,” I say. “The time loops. All of it.”

  Piper shakes her head. “I thought I did too, and look where that’s gotten us. Right back where we started.”

  “You only covered two doors, that’s the problem. There are five of them all together. And you didn’t destroy all the aspects that needed to have been destroyed. Nikolay told me of a way to do it. Thoroughly.”

  “You’re serious,” Todd says.

  “As death.”

  Piper and Todd exchange a glance. “We’re in. What do you need?”

  My heart swells with confidence and relief. A smile pricks my cheeks. “We’re missing a book. It would have been leather-bound, handmade…” I think through other ways to describe it. “It belonged to Augustus Garrett, but it’s not in Nikolay’s store with the other books.”