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I turned back to look where I was going and slammed into Beth. She squeaked and fell against a door. We’d run out of corridor. We fumbled for doorknobs, rattled one then the one next to it, both were locked.

The third door wasn’t locked, however, and swung open groaning like a coffin lid in a scary movie. We fell inside another passage and slammed the door behind us. I felt around and found there was a twist-lock, and I twisted it.

We ran down another passage past windows that let in the light of the full moon that had risen outside. For the first time, I felt the moonlight as it touched my skin.

I pulled my hand back as if bitten.

“What’s the matter,” whispered Beth.

I shook my head, rubbing my hand, and then slipped it back into the moonlight. It was an odd sensation, the way normal people feel the sunlight falling on their bare skin. I knew the light wasn’t hot enough to feel it for normal people. But I had changed now. I was part animal. I was no longer a mundane. I’d always heard that our people did feel it. For us, moonlight was like the light of a hot summer day where the wind is silent and the sun is blazing hot overhead. I’d heard of people who had even been burned by moonlight. Even when it didn’t burn, we could always feel it.

We ran a good ways down the passage when Beth pulled me to one side. There was a curtain of some kind hanging down. We hid behind it. We could hear, back down the passageway, the doorknob rattling. Then we heard a jingling sound.

“They’ve got keys!” said Beth in my ear.

“I know, we’ve got to get out of here, but I’m lost.”

“We must have crossed most of the mansion by now. What if we come down in the adults section?” asked Beth. “Maybe we should just give it up.”

I looked at Beth. Even back here, in the shadows, I could vaguely see her scared, glinting eyes. What had I led her into? Her first week at a new school and she would be in all kinds of trouble at the very least. But there was much more going on here than just two school kids running loose at night.

“I want to know what’s going on,” I whispered to her.

“If it’s Urdo, she’ll hear us or smell us or something.”

I blinked in the dark, knowing she could be right. There was more jingling. Someone was fumbling for the right key. At least there was no sign they had any light or any desire to turn one on.

I broke out of my cover and went to the last window. The moonlight warmed my hands, just slightly.

I strained and the window crunched open. It was partly frozen shut and didn’t open easily. I trotted back to Beth and yanked her scarf from around her neck. Her hand jumped to her neck, but she didn’t complain.

I ran back to the window and reached outside, shoving the snow around. Then I tossed Beth’s scarf out on the roof a few feet away. Feeling I had only seconds to spare, I scooted back to our hiding place and fought to control my wild breathing.

We waited, but not for long before the hallway door clicked and swung open on squealing hinges. We felt the figure approach, but couldn’t see it hidden as we were behind the curtain. It came quietly, almost soundlessly. Still, it seemed like I could feel someone approaching, somehow.

There was a crack at the bottom of the curtain and a shadow fell over the narrow slice of the floor that I could see. I held my breath. Beth squeezed my hand very hard.

There was a scraping sound at the window sill. I dared to hope the bait had been taken.

Then we heard another door open, perhaps at the other end of the hall. Boots stepped firmly toward us. This step I knew. I knew the creaking of those black boots. It was Urdo, it had to be.

I almost gave up then. I almost opened up the curtains and threw myself on their mercy. I was just a bad kid and I deserved my punishment. But something forced me to hold back. I think it was my thoughts of Beth. I owed it to her to get her out of this.

“Who approaches me so confidently in my own house?” said the stranger. The voice was deep and it resonated through the room. It was accented strangely.

“It is Urdo, milord, Daughter of Seth and Ralen.”

“Ah, granddaughter,” said the voice in a softer tone. “I knew your parents well and I will miss them. The family blood was strong in them.”

“Thank you, Grandfather.”

There was a quiet moment, and I wondered if they were shaking hands or hugging. I realized my eyes were squinched tightly shut. Beth was digging her nails into my palm, which was hot and sweaty because we were holding hands so tightly. We both knew now that Vater was less than ten feet away from us.

“I wish I could say the same for the rest of this sprawling brood. There are far too many half-breeds. The bloodlines have grown faint. Many have been taking mundanes as mates-”

“-but milord-” Urdo protested.

“No,” he stopped her. “No excuses. Perhaps it is all my fault. In any case. I’ve been gone for far too long. There will have to be a purge.”

I heard him force the window open further. I imagined he was scanning the vast frosted roof. “Still,” he said, as he brushed snow about. “Not all of them are weak. Look at this!” he gave a strange laugh.

“Interesting,” said Urdo.

I chewed my lip, not liking the sound of her response. I thought right away that she might have a clue who had done it.

“Imagine, trying to slip away from me in my own house. The cheek of it!”

“I’m sorry, milord.”

“Oh no,” he said, suddenly serious. “No, no. Don’t be sorry, be proud. As the good emperor Fredrick often said: ‘Audacity is the rarest of traits to be found amongst the weak!’ There’s a spark of my spirit here, and it’s good to see.”

“I’m glad you approve.”

“Indeed, perhaps you’ve not failed completely. I’m going to my suite now, I’m weary after my journey. I do trust you’ve kept it in good order in anticipation of my return?”

“Of course,” said Urdo. Her voice was smooth again.

Vater’s footsteps faded away. But Urdo simply stood there. We waited, but she made no move to leave.

“Your hearts are pounding like drums in my ears,” she said finally.

I didn’t know what to do, but I felt my stomach falling away in a deep hole. We’d been discovered. Worse, we were trapped in this alcove with nowhere to run.

There was a pause. I waited for the curtains to be yanked back, but it didn’t happen.

“You’d best be getting back to your rooms now, children,” Urdo said at last. Her bootsteps moved away rhythmically.

Beth and I let out a long sigh of breath like swimmers coming up for air after a long trip to the bottom of a lake. We drew the curtain open, half-expecting to see them standing there, having tricked us somehow, but the passage was empty. We ran all the way back to the attic access and down the ladder to our rooms. We didn’t even bother putting the stairs back up. What was the point?

That night, I laid awake for a long time listening to Chris Anderson’s snoring. I went over everything in my mind. What did it all mean? Things seemed so complicated now. I’d expected an old man’s birthday party, not anything like this.

And what exactly had he meant by a purge?

Chapter Twenty-Six

Secrets

“I’ve been thinking,” I said in a hushed the voice to Jake the next morning over breakfast. “I’ve been thinking a lot.”

“Uh-oh. You’re going to ruin this lovely breakfast, aren’t you?” said Jake. He said it around the strip of crispy bacon in his mouth. It was a heavy breakfast, and seemed unusual to me since I was used to just getting a bowl of cereal in the morning. We had thick bacon slices and scrambled eggs with lots of cheese baked in. I didn’t really like it that way, but it tasted okay if you put the eggs on drippy buttered toast. My mother would have called this breakfast a “heart-stopper”.