Page 46 of Kiss of Smoke

Please don’t let it be her. Please let me be wrong.

We pulled up outside the apartment building, gliding to a halt at the curb. Carabosse’s house seemed to stare back at us with empty eyes.

I glanced up at my own apartment, wondering how the twins were doing, but the lights were off.

Everything was quiet as we silently exited the cars, surrounding the front door.

Grayfog took point, easing the barrel of his rifle into the cracked front door. Gwyn and I must have left it ajar when we’d taken off in the midst of the riot…

“No one is in there,” I said tonelessly, feeling a horrible, painful pang as I pushed the door open.

I’d done it so many times before, and never imagined I’d be doing it to hunt Carabosse down like an animal.

Grayfog hissed through his teeth, but I stepped in. It was just as empty as when we’d left it.

“Your agent is out of order, Left Hand,” he said through gritted teeth, but Robin cut him a cool look.

“We handle things our way,” was all he said, but I rounded on Grayfog.

“Ilivehere,” I hissed. “She was myfriend. And I swear by the trees, if you kill her before I get a chance to talk to her…”

My throat closed up. I’d wanted to say before I got a chance to say goodbye.

Like deep down in my heart, I already truly believed Carabosse was the Ghosthand, the orchestrator of Avilion’s fall into chaos.

I took a breath. “You will not kill her.”

Grayfog glared at me. “We have orders to kill all Unstained Souls on sight.”

“Well, you can take those orders and shove them where the sun doesn’t shine, as far as I’m concerned. The old woman…we get to speak with her first.”

Because I could not live without asking Carabossewhy.

A sneer marred Grayfog’s face, but he finally clicked his teeth and looked away. “We will make an exception for the old woman. Everyone else is fair game.”

I nodded curtly, turning my back on him and looking over the rest of the room.

Despite how empty the house was, we searched everything, opening every kitchen cabinet, searching every chest, even checking inside the back of toilet tanks.

I hadn’t expected to find the soul lamp simply sitting there in plain sight, but it would’ve been nice to have just one clue that would let me turn around and say, no, it couldn’t possibly have been her…

But that was a castle in the air. We finally came to the back room, and I looked down at the skid marks on the wooden floor.

“Something heavy was here,” Robin said, kneeling down and touching the marks. His sharp gaze followed them to the back wall, and a moment later he knocked.

A hollow echo came back to us.

“False wall,” Gwyn grunted, and strode forward, slamming his boot into it.

The boards splintered inwards, revealing a dark, hollow space.

Jack sighed. “We could’ve used an axe…”

Gwyn stared at him, then kicked the wall in again, widening the space. Several boards snapped free, clattering down on something wooden.

He conjured his ghostly orbs and sent them in, and we all peered in through the shattered wall. A set of wooden stairs led downwards, and as the orbs drifted lower, they illuminated a packed dirt floor.

Ceri was the first to jump in, sniffing wildly and followed by Robin.

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