There, on her pillow, is a black feather.
“Joel,” I say with a gasp.
He darts forward, reaching it first. He lifts the long, sleek shaft. “Didn’t you say you saw crows attacking her?”
“They answered what my part was in this,” I think aloud. Now a feather appears on her pillow the very day we realize Layla’s missing. I thought they were done. I was just at the cemetery—I got their message.
“What if they weren’t attacking her?” I say, my body temperature rising.
“What do you mean?”
“The crows weren’t really there at all—I was the only person who saw them. What if it was another message, one meant for me?” One I didn’t understand or even try to comprehend until it was too late?
“I’m still not following,” Joel says.
I step toward him and take the feather, thinking again of my latest run-in with a friendly crow. “I think the crows were warning me this might happen.”
“Crows warned you she might go missing?”
A myriad of possibilities roam through my head. First, the crow leading me to the cemetery. Now it gives me a clue about Layla. My eyes flit to his, which are riddled with despair.
A crow feather can mean anything. They’re used for what? For decoration, for dream catchers. They’re used to make quills. They’re used in writing…writing in books…
An idea emerges. It’s a long shot, but I have to do something.
“I’ll be back,” I tell him.
Joel calls for me to wait, but I dash out, straight to my car.
I drive to Terekhov’s. The back alleyway door remains locked. I kick it a couple times for good measure, but it doesn’t so much as leave a dent.
“Where are you?” I yell on my way around to the front of the store, not caring who hears me. I’m not sure what I expect, for the brick to respond? For lights to spark on within? A creaking sound comes from my right and I glance over to find the front door swinging open.
Adrenaline surges and I rush over, stepping through before it gets the chance to close. I take in the empty shelves, waiting. Any moment now he’ll step out. My footprints tread a trail through the dust. I stagger up the spiral staircase and past the one-time romance section, now layered with grime.
“Nikolay?” I call.
The door stands where it always has, but it’s knobless once more. I rub my hands over its surface, pull at it a few times but it doesn’t budge.
Andrei’s office dozes. Their living room area, where Andrei supposedly wrote my nightmares into his book. Every space is empty. I rush down the brief hall and check Nikolay’s room, but the bed has been stripped, the drawers bare.
“Nikolay, I need your help!” I tell the space. It doesn’t answer. But if anyone can help me find Layla, it would be him.
I scurry back down the stairs and to the display room where the souls are stored in their books. But it’s empty as well. The glass that once protected the volumes throws my reflection back to me, reminding me how alone I am in this moment.
I wander along a small square of floor, puffing my cheeks and releasing the air. I don’t know what to do. The crow wouldn’t be showing me this if there wasn’t some kind of solution it wanted to lead me to. That means she’s safe for now. I have to believe there’s time for me to find her.
I bend for one of the cupboards below the glass, when a voice breaks from behind me. Low, foreboding, with heavy Rs.
“Breaking and entering is a serious crime.”
Andrei Terekhov blocks me from my only exit out of this circular room. My hackles rise at the sight of him, at seeing the damage his doors have cost so many people. One person’s death affected so many. What of Rosemary? What of the man she loved—Piper’s ancestor? What of their daughter who would never know how hard her birth mother was working to try and be with her, who would always think she was abandoned and unloved?
The man who never graduated from college, never changed people’s lives the way he wanted to. The lives he could have influenced. Their deaths are a part of others’ lives—of my life, even now. How can Andrei Terekhov stand here staring me down and not understand how wrong this is?
“Last I checked so was murder. Where is Nikolay? And my cousin—what happened to Layla?”
“I know you’re angry and confused, Miss James, but—”
“Where are they?” I demand, louder, enunciating each word.
Andrei lifts his chin. “He’s been…removed from the situation. For now. These matters are always made worse when one’s heart is involved. If I’d known he would have feelings for you, I never would have agreed to have you work for us.”
I try a different tack. “What’s with Piper Crenshaw’s house? Why is it back? Is Nikolay the one you needed for a new door? And where is my cousin? If you hurt her I swear, I’ll—”
I fade off, not knowing what to threaten, especially since he threatened my life the last time we spoke. “Is that why you took her? Because I wouldn’t back off?” I ask.
Andrei delves his hands into his trouser pockets. “I’m afraid I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Piper Crenshaw’s house is back at the same time my cousin goes missing? It’s not just coincidental.” Questions continue, questions I don’t voice. Like what really happened when he wrote my information in his book? I should have never come to him for help.
Andrei penetrates the room further. I circle around, keeping my attention on him. edging closer to the exit bit by bit. Sensing this, Andrei mirrors my movements, standing directly where I meant to go. Beads of sweat trail down my back and I shuffle over in quick, jerky steps. I can’t get out. He’s blocking my only exit.
“I warned you about coming back here.”
My teeth clench. “My missing cousin made me forget your little warning.”
“It’s time you forgot about us, Miss James. You know by now that I have a certain talent for removing unwanted things from people’s minds. Miss Thompson no doubt told you a little of that. I tried letting you forget us willingly, but it seems I must resort to other measures.”
Dark energy pulses through the room, filling me with dread. His hands begin to glow, almost as if they have an aura all their own and it’s suddenly becoming manifested. Fear grips me. He’s still barring the doorway.
Wings flap past the display room’s entrance, the crow’s black body speared, elegant, and elongated mid-flight. From the main floor, a book thuds to the floor. The sound sends tingles up my spine, as moments ago every shelf was empty.
Sherlock pounces, blocking Andrei’s vision. Andrei lets out a snarl, his hands furling at the white cat, trying to pry it from his face. I reel around, frantic. The book that fell from a minutes-before bookless shelf lies right in my path. I dive for it and break for the front door.
The handle jams. I yank, jumping up and down. Panic sticks in my veins, surging over my blood. It doesn’t give.
The door opened on its own before—I’m not sure how to get out of here.
“I hate that cat,” Andrei snarls, jolting me from behind.
Sherlock. I hope he’s all right.
“Let me out of here,” I say, heart pounding.
Energy surges from Andrei, swirling the air around him so that dust motes flurry in a sort of halo around his head and hands. I search, desperate for some solution. Dust covers his plaques on the wall, the plaques Piper was so concerned about. You know too much, she told me. She was right. I should have walked away when I had the chance.
Too late now.
Andrei steps toward me, channeling his dark energy. It drones, pressing against me, blocking my windpipe. Too much more of this, and I may be meeting Rosemary in person.
Taking a leaf out of Jerry’s book, I drop the book in my hand, heft the empty magazine stand, and smack the glass as hard as I can. It shatter
s in a spark of glass and sharpness. Andrei swears. I ram him back with the tip of the stand. He falls, knocking his head into the registration desk.
I duck for my book. My feet dash through the slush along the sides of the street, but I fumble into my car and peel out before he gets the chance to try for me again.
twenty
four
I speed through town. My car slides at one intersection so I’m sure I’ll crash into the car directly in front of me. I have to veer to the side and wait for my pulse to slow. I don’t linger long. I have no idea who or what might be coming after me.
I pound the steering wheel, anger steaming through me and reddening my vision. Andrei gave me answers about Nikolay, but he avoided saying anything at all about Layla. He denied none of my accusations, which means he knows where she is.
“He has her,” I growl. Why else would he try to destroy me?
Layla. My sweet, perky cousin, my best friend as children and now again as adults. I can’t let anything happen to her.
I pull up to Todd’s house, ignoring the people staring at the newly erected Victorian beside it.
“This happened quite a few years ago, too,” a woman in a baggy sweater says. “House just popped up out of nowhere. Turns out the owners moved it from Shady Heights. Who moves a house?”
I dash over, getting snow in my shoe, and knock hard on Todd’s door. A stern woman I’m assuming is Todd’s mom answers in business attire, a pinstriped blue suit and a crease between her brows.
“Is Piper here?” I ask.
Her mouth downturns. I practically push past her into the warm, cinnamon-scented home and charge up the stairs to Todd’s room. Joel, Piper, and Todd take various places in the small bedroom. Joel stands near the window, arms crossed over his chest, while Piper and Todd sit across from one another.
“Where is she?” Joel demands. “Did you find her?” The flushed color of his neck doesn’t extend to his pale ears. I’ve never noticed the scarring there before.
“I didn’t find her, but I think Andrei Terekhov knows where she is.” I fill them in, telling them all about his renewed threats, his avoidance of any answers where Layla was concerned.
Out of breath, I hand Joel the book. “Any idea how this appeared at Terekhov’s?” I ask.
Joel examines the volume, cracking it open and closing it once more before passing it along. One by one, they each examine it, Todd last of all.
“Whose is it?” Todd asks, setting it beside Garrett’s on his desk.
“Mine,” I say, not caring as he flips through my artwork on the pages. “A crow flew in, and then the book appeared. It’s the same cover, the same designs, the same marble swirl. And I’d recognize my handwriting and sketches in an instant.” Though how it appeared on the store’s empty shelves, I’ll never know.
“Joel went missing just like this last spring,” says Piper. “If I’ve learned anything, it’s that people on the other side aren’t afraid to interfere. Maybe something in there is meant to help you find her.”
“Maybe,” I say. “Nikolay told me it was for protection. I should have had Layla write in it too. I should have made sure it extended to her.” How could I be so selfish?
“You didn’t know this would happen,” Todd says.
Irrational anger settles in. “The crows knew. They warned me. I didn’t see—I didn’t know that’s what they meant—”
“Everly.” Joel steps forward. Spots dance in my vision, hysteria pumping my lungs faster and faster by the minute.
Joel grips my arms hard enough to matter. I stare up into his fierce eyes.
“We’ll find her,” he says.
I draw in a long breath, working to calm myself. His stability helps. “Andrei wants her for the new door, I know it.”
“He said that?” Joel asks, stepping back again now that I’ve got it under control.
“He didn’t deny it. And why else would he take her? He probably would’ve picked me if Nikolay hadn’t given me that book. He hates me.”
“Then she may already be dead,” Piper says.
I shake my head adamantly. She’s not dead. She can’t be.
“Does that door at your old place have a new knob yet?” Todd asks.
“No,” says Joel.
“Then we have time,” I say. Resolution clears away the dust from my vision. “We stick to the old plan. We find a way into the ostium nexu and get the other knobs. If we destroy the path before Andrei can link the final knob to Layla, he’ll—”
“What, let her go?” Joel interrupts with a scoff and touches his ears gingerly as if making sure they’re still there.
I don’t answer. Instead, my rant takes over. “We use the door in Piper’s empty house. If it’s like the one in Nikolay’s shop, we can use it to travel to the other places.”
“It won’t work like that,” Piper says. “That door opened to a staircase, not another place entirely.”
My energy deflates, and I sink against the door. That’s right. Nikolay said his door was the only access point to the pathway. “Then how come Nikolay’s led to other places in time?”
“I wonder if it’s like the mother door,” Todd says. “The one that connects and controls all the others.”
“You play too many RPGs,” says Piper. Todd shrugs.
“Then we go back to Terekhov’s. We go in their door and get the doorknobs—I still have Nikolay’s hitch—”
“You what?” Piper leaps to her feet and stares at me, boggle-eyed.
Uncertain, I pull it from my pocket. “You know what this is?”
Piper backs away, knocking into Todd’s desk. “Do you?” she asks. I don’t like the sound of the question. It implies there is yet something else Piper knows that I don’t.
“Where did you get that?” Joel asks. Concern mounts his brow as well, and I suddenly feel uneasy. Why do they act as if I’ve just brandished some kind of poison that will contaminate everyone it comes near?
“Nikolay gave it to me back when we were looking for a way to fix the doors. Before we knew they needed to be destroyed.”
“He gave it to you?” Piper squeaks out the question.
“Not permanently. I—I take it you’ve seen one before.”
“Yeah,” Piper says, rubbing that spot on her neck where what looks like half a vampire bite scar sits. She glances at Joel. “Ada used it to try and seal me to the house and steal my body.”
My mouth drops open. “Ada—the ghost?”
Her eyes narrow. “How many Adas do we both know?”
Right. I stare down at the tool. Nikolay never told me exactly everything it does. I make a mental note to ask him. If I ever see him again.
“In any case, Nikolay told me we could use it to get the rest of the knobs. We get back in the bookstore and travel to Albion, Idaho, next. He told me there’s an abandoned college campus there. We can get the other knob and—”
Something clacks on the window. I’ve heard that sound one too many times.
“The crows,” I whisper. Is there somewhere else they’re going to lead me? Something else I’m missing?
The group stares at me as though I’m crazy. “It happened when I went back in time to your house, Piper. We were attacked by crows pecking on the windows. But earlier...” My voice trails off. The crow helped me. Led me to find out more about Rosemary.
“Piper. Joel. One of your ancestors knew one of the other victims. Does the name Rosemary Cauthran sound familiar to either of you?”
Piper shakes her head. “What do you mean one of them knew her?”
“She had a fling with one of your ancestors and he fathered a child. But he didn’t find out about it until after took up whatever responsibility was expected of him with your house.”
“How do you know this?” Joel asks.
“The crow showed
me her grave, and then I…saw it.”
“Sounds familiar,” Piper mutters, head bowed.
“Rosemary went to him, but he told her he couldn’t condemn her to his fate.”
“That was noble of him,” Piper says sarcastically.
“No, the name doesn’t sound familiar,” Joel answers. The clicking sound comes from the window once more, and Joel turns toward it. I follow, peering over his shoulder through the blinds below.
“Everly—?” Joel’s question trails off, either because he doesn’t finish or because I don’t hear, I can’t quite tell.
I clutch Joel’s arm, my mouth falling open. Disorientation flutters across every inch of me. On the street below, hands in his pockets… It can’t be. I can hardly register it.
He waves as if in response to my disbelief.
“What is it?” Piper asks.
I glance at each of them, shock streaming through me. Without a word, I bolt down the stairs and push out the door, rushing across the snow until I’m in his arms.
twenty
five
Sparks kindle everywhere we touch. Wet drops of fresh snow pat where my cheek rests on his shoulder. His chest heaves, his heart pulses, his body incarnate and real. And when I pull away, his warm, sweet breath strokes my face.
“Hello, Everly.” Nikolay’s calm, cool voice shatters through my careful composure. I hug him as tightly as I can.
I pull back, just enough to see his face. The glint in his blue eyes, the light hitting his cheeks, the smile crooked upward just that much more than usual. He’s more handsome than I remembered, more painfully handsome in this moment than he’s ever been to me.
“Where? How?”
I cradle his face in my hands, taking in the wonder and delight in his sea glass blue eyes. He takes my hands as he did before, cupping them both in one of his, and places them over his heart.
“I’m here,” he says.
“Where have you been?”
A crow caws a husky, squawking noise from its roost in the large tree in Piper’s yard. Nikolay regards it with a solemn acceptance, almost a secret. “My father put me away, but a crow delivered your message.”
The Forbidden Doors Box Set Page 47
