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“You’re not the only one, mon cher,” Leon grunted.

Mrs.Scarborough applied a single drop of the silvery liquid to the rune.It sizzled briefly upon contact and emitted a faint purple glow before fading to nothing.

“The ward is neutralised.”She straightened.“Now for the concealment charm itself.”

She placed her palm flat against the centre of the bookcase and murmured a spell Evander didn’t recognise, her pupils and fingertips glowing with the purple light of her magic.For a moment, nothing happened.

Shaw gasped when the bookcase vanished, revealing a dark opening in the wall behind it.

“Bloody hell!”Viggo mumbled.

“Where did the bookcase go?”Rufus asked, his eyes wide.

“It’s still here, in a manner of speaking,” Mrs.Scarborough explained.“It will return when summoned with the proper counter-charm.”

Viggo stepped forward and peered into the darkness beyond the opening.“There’s a passage.”

Evander’s pulse quickened as he joined him.He removed the folding cane strapped to his forearm and twisted the small crystal at the top.A soft white light emitted from it as the magic it contained activated: it illuminated a short, narrow, rough-hewn corridor that ended at a landing and a staircase that spiralled beneath the building.

He led the way inside, the crystal’s light casting their elongated shadows on the bare stone walls.Viggo followed close behind with Leon and Rufus while Shaw and Mrs.Scarborough brought up the rear.

The air grew cooler as they descended the stone steps.It carried with it the faint scent of mould, old parchment, and something metallic Evander couldn’t quite identify.

The staircase dropped some twenty feet before opening abruptly into a tenebrous, circular room.Evander’s heart raced as he stopped in the middle of it and raised his cane.Shaw spotted a pair of magic lanterns on the walls and activated them.

The shadows retreated as light illuminated the thirty-foot-wide chamber.

“Mon dieu,” Leon murmured.

Unlike the meticulously ordered laboratory they had just left, this space was chaotic.The walls were covered with diagrams and notes, the arcane symbols scrawled across them almost glowing in the gloom.The worktables were cluttered with more paperwork, instruments, and half-assembled devices, while the shelves on the walls were full of research journals and glass containers holding swirling, luminescent substances.A filing cabinet stood next to a bookcase crammed with arcane tomes.

“What in the name of all that’s holy?”Rufus whispered, his usual brisk demeanour momentarily abandoned in the face of their discovery.

Shaw shivered.“This place gives me the willies.”

Evander moved towards the closest table, his scalp prickling with dread.“It seems Whitley was working on something he didn’t want the Institute to know about.”

Leon picked a couple of research journals from a shelf while Viggo crossed the floor to a wall where a series of anatomical diagrams had been pinned.His expression darkened as he examined them.

“What is this?”

Evander joined him.He frowned as he studied the drawings.

There were a dozen of them, all depicting the human brain structure.

“It looks like he was studying neurology for some reason,” he murmured, puzzled.

“Not just neurology.”Leon approached, his expression grim.He indicated the journals he was holding.“These contain information about thralls specifically.”His voice had grown tight with barely suppressed anger.“It seems someone, or rather a group of people, performed detailed examinations of their brain structure.Dozens of them, in fact.This wasn’t Whitley’s doing, Evander.”A muscle jumped in the Frenchman’s jawline as he glanced at the shelves.“Half these journals belong to Professor Chevalier.If I’m correct, this stems from his research when he was part ofLes Prophètes Illuminés.”

Horror drenched Evander in a cold sweat.He glanced at Viggo.

The Brute had gone as still as stone.

“Les Prophètes Illuminés?” Rufus repeated.

Leon hesitated before explaining briefly about the disbanded research group Chevalier used to belong to.“Please keep what I’ve revealed to you in the strictest confidence,” he finished stiffly.“If this secret gets out, it could damage diplomatic relations between our two countries.”

Shaw and Mrs.Scarborough exchanged a troubled look.