With another shiver, Evangeline grabbed a robe and threw it on. She had no idea of the time, but she imagined it was several hours until sunrise, which gave her a fair amount of time to covertly search for Glendora’s grave, and Evangeline knew exactly where to start.
Glory in Death—the words printed beneath Glendora’s picture were also the words that had been written on the wall of the secret corridor that Evangeline had ventured into earlier that night. And she’d reached it via a portrait hole that had been home to a picture of Glendora.
27
The trebuchet in the dining hall looked even more horrid in the dark—a giant slumbering beast that might follow Evangeline to the portrait of Glendora and then rip her from the room before she could slip through the passage.
She gripped her gold dagger, which she’d tied to her robe. She thought she heard a movement, but the trebuchet remained inanimate as she scurried past on slippered feet in search of Glendora Slaughterwood’s grave.
With only the moonlight pouring through the stained-glass panels of the dining room, it was a challenge to find the right painting. All Evangeline could see were Glendora’s eyes, still sad, as she opened the frame.
She paused before stepping through, wondering briefly at Glendora’s sorrow. If she had possessed the mirth stone, she should have been much happier, but perhaps Glendora hadn’t been in possession of it at the time of this picture?
Evangeline hoped that was the case as she entered the corridor. Thankfully, torches still burned, lighting her way as she traveled the same path she’d taken earlier that night.
Her stomach clenched as she reached the spot where she’d found Jacks with the Darling girl. The dusty air smelled faintly of apples, and she half expected him to step out from the shadows.
Again, she thought she heard something.
But all she saw were spiders crawling along the walls over the words Glory in Death.
The air changed when she turned a corner. Sconces appeared between the torches—dirty glass filled with skeletal stems and a few dried petals. The scent of apples vanished, and all she could smell was stale dust that made her think of dry bones and dead flowers.
The unsettling fragrance thankfully lessened as she neared the monument. An enormous thing, watched over by two statues of weeping angels and covered with a layer of dust that made her think no one had visited in a very long while.
Evangeline held her breath as she approached, preparing to feel the magic of the mirth stone. But perhaps the coffin was dampening the arch stone’s power?
The casket appeared to be made of marble, a fact Evangeline confirmed when she tried to shove the lid aside and it wouldn’t so much as budge.
“Need a hand?”
Evangeline jumped as Luc appeared from out of the shadows, with a thin gold crown atop his head and a high-collared coat that looked as if it had been sewn together with pure swagger.
“Luc, what are you doing here? Were you following me?”
“I heard you came to the party after all, so I decided to join you.” He flashed a crooked smile. “I was going to sneak into your bedroom, but then I saw you sneaking out, so I suppose I sort of followed you.”
“You can’t keep doing this.”
“Why not? I used to do it all the time. I mean, not the following part, just the sneaking into your bedroom.” He looked at her through his long and lovely lashes. But Evangeline didn’t let herself get caught in his gaze like the last time they’d met.
“Is this because I’m a vampire?” he pressed. “Or are you still mourning your dead husband?” Suddenly, Luc was sitting atop the coffin, dangling his legs and looking far more harmless than she knew him to be.
Although she really didn’t think he would bite her. When she took a moment to look past the princely swagger, Luc seemed to be more lonely than hungry, just like the last time she’d seen him. Evangeline was not an expert on vampires, but she wondered if being a vampire meant more than just thirsting for blood. Vampires didn’t age. They remained unchanged throughout time. Perhaps this wasn’t just physical; maybe their hearts were like that as well, making it harder for them to move on from things in their past.
“It’s not because you’re a vampire,” she assured him. “In fact, there’s something I need to do before the sun comes up, and I could actually use your vampire strength.”
This seemed to brighten his mood. He grinned down from atop the coffin as Evangeline eyed the heavy marble lid, letting her gaze linger.
Like Evangeline, Luc was very curious. It only took a few moments before he asked, “What do you want in the coffin?”