Page 113 of Soulbound

"A servant should have answered by now," he sent. "I can't feel any wards in place. Are you coming?"

Cleo slipped onto the porch, holding her breath. "What now?"

He turned the doorknob, and the door opened. Both of them looked at each other as the dark hallway beyond beckoned.

"There should be static wards on the doors," Cleo told him. No sorcerer kept a house without wards. There were too many closely guarded secrets of sorcery, and precious grimoires and relics lying about.... "I don't like this."

"Maybe she didn't ward the house?"

"A woman allied to your mother leaves her back door open, so to speak?" Cleo arched a brow.

His eyes turned dangerous. "Be careful. And watch my back."

There could be numerous reasons to have no wards, but one sat forefront of her mind. "It could be a trap."

Power flooded through him, making his aura emanate around him. "I'm in a mood to spring it."

The grandfather clock in the hallway ticked ominously. Nothing else stirred. Cleo crept through the house on Sebastian's heels, barely daring to breathe. The kitchens were far too clean, and a fine layer of dust settled over everything.

"It feels like nobody's been here for a few days." Cleo ran a finger along a mantle in the parlor. No self-respecting parlor maid would turn a blind eye to this.

Above them, someone's weight shifted. They both froze, looking up.

"Upstairs."

Sebastian moved with starling alacrity, the hem of his coat flaring as he made for the door. He took the stairs almost silently, and Cleo ghosted along behind him. Wearing a blindfold for most of her life had made her hearing startlingly acute, and she was used to moving quietly to avoid her father's notice whenever he was in one of his rages.

No sign of movement in any of the rooms, and they carefully opened each door. The wait ate at her nerves. "Maybe the floor was settling?"

"No, there's someone here." Sebastian eased the next door open, as Cleo kept a watch in the hallway. Sudden horror leapt along their bond, and she turned to see what had struck him so, only for him to wrap an arm around her waist and force her back, out of the room.

"Don't look."

Too late. A bed flashed into view, red streaks painted across the pillows and sheets, and a woman's pale leg hanging from the edge of the mattress carelessly. Dark bruising mottled the woman's skin, hinting at death.

Sebastian shut the door in a hurry.

"What.... Who was it?" Her mouth tasted sour, and terror set a stranglehold on her throat. That poor woman.... Cleo's mind refused to make sense of the shapes she'd seen, and the angle of the bloody gashes in the woman's side, and she was grateful for it.

"Lady Beaumont, I think." Despite the gloom, his face seemed drained of color. It was one thing to wish a woman dead, quite another to see it done so horrifically. "That's why there weren't any bloody wards. The second she died, her wards evaporated. We're getting out of here. Now."

A creak sounded along the hallway. And Premonition, that willful, unruly bitch, began to skate along the fine hairs of her arms.

Cleo's fist curled in his coat.

"What is it?" The midnight taste of his mind brushed against her own.

"Someone's inside the house."

Another floorboard groaned, as if something momentous tested its strength. In the gloom at the end of the hallway, a pair of glowing red embers suddenly lit up.

"Merde." Sebastian shoved her behind him.

"What the hell is that?" she gasped.

"A gargoyle," he said, taking a careful step backward. "Don't move too suddenly. My mother had a house guardian once. It's been primed to take down any intruders, and if we run it will pounce."

"Who the hell ensorcels a gargoyle?" Of all things!