Chapter 6 - Shadows in the East Wing
Darkness swallowed the cavernous house, accompanied by the dull groan of the estate’s heavy breaker boxes tripping in the basement. Outside, the rain lashed the tall leaded glass windows, throwing grotesque, weaving shadows across the walls. Leo let out a sharp, frightened wail. Clara held him against her chest, retreating into the alcove beneath the grand staircase, her heart thumping against her ribs.
""Julian! Where is the generator switch?"" Eleanor called out, her voice echoing with sudden panic.
""It should have kicked on automatically,"" Julian’s muffled voice responded from somewhere deep in the library. ""Someone cut the master lines.""
Clara didn't wait to see who was hunting whom. Clutching Leo under her jacket, she moved swiftly through the gloom of the gallery, relying on the brief flashes of lightning to navigate the maze of marble corridors. Her goal was the private study in the east wing—the only room Arthur had kept sealed under a biometric thumbprint scanner. Before Arthur passed, he had registered her print, telling her, When the wolves close in, Clara, the sanctuary is behind the ledger.
She turned the corner of the corridor. The air was colder here, smelling of old masonry and stagnant water. In the flash of lightning, she noticed the east wing security door was already standing ajar.
A sliver of pale flashlight beam swept across the polished floorboards inside the study.
May you like
Clara froze, pressing herself flat against the flocked wallpaper of the hallway. Someone was already inside, ransacking Arthur’s filing cabinets. She heard the sound of wood splintering, followed by a heavy curse in a voice she did not recognize—coarse, gravelly, and definitively not belonging to Julian or Marcus.
Then, from behind her in the corridor, a leather-gloved hand clamped firmly over her mouth, while an arm encircled her waist, dragging her into the shadows.
