Page 40 of Gilded Wicked Mirrors
All of which she would have to do tonight.
The wood creaked beneath Quinn’s feet as she walked across a bridge past the Shadow-Prince tables. Her skin tingled. She longed to play the cards. Quinn was uniquely good at Shadow-Prince because she’d learned to spot patterns in the cards at the age of six. She might be a terrible reader, but she was uncommonly good at recognizing patterns. Her brain worked in sequencing. She saw things others did not. She understood things others did not. So much so that people often accused her of jumping to conclusions too quickly. But more often than not, her original guess was correct.
The girls walked the darkened path behind the stage. Along it were nooks, presumably for a lover’s tryst. The songs echoed off the walls and dampened any spoken words. As the path continued, the stalactite crystals formed deeper, and Quinn had to maneuver her head around the crooked daggers slicing from the ceiling.
“There are wooden doors over here.” Giselle pointed to a fork in the walkway.
When they reached the doors, Quinn pulled the key out of her pocket and tried to match it to a lock, but none of the doors worked. So instead, Giselle pulled the pins out of her coiffure, chose a door at random, and picked the lock. In seconds, she had it open.
“Shall we?” Giselle said, her hair falling down her shoulders.
Inside was a brilliant blue, yellow, and orange thermal pool. The heat and steam radiated off the water. Across the cavern, ice crystals surrounded boxes—thousands of boxes.
The juxtaposition of the extreme heat and cold was jarring. And magical.
But there was no visible way to get to the boxes.
“We should take a peek, don’t you think?” Giselle walked over to the side of the cavern. Before Quinn could respond, she hooked her feet into makeshift foot holes on the rock wall and began to traverse the cave.
“Giselle, that pool’s probably hot enough to melt your skin off.”
“Well, what is living if you don’t take chances?” she called back, still fully focused on her task.
Quinn clenched her teeth, causing her face to hurt. Her friend was insane and watching stunts like this was always nerve-racking. But within seconds, Giselle had made it entirely across the room, jumped down onto the ledge, and started opening the boxes. Giselle was all curves, but with her years of acrobatic training, she made climbing look as easy as breathing.
“What is it?” Quinn called.
“Blood bags. Hundreds and hundreds of blood bags.” Giselle held one up.
“What in all the fucking mirrors?” Quinn whispered.
But she didn’t receive an answer because the door burst open, and five Fantômes poured in and pointed their guns at Quinn.
Fourteen
“You’re trespassing, and do you know what Fantômes do with people who interfere in their business?” A tall brunette man in his mid-twenties with russet brown skin asked. He wore a deep purple pinstriped suit with an olive-green cravat, purple feathered pocket square, black glasses, and a smile that would make the gods jealous.
Something about him seemed familiar.
“Oh, probably something horrifying,” Giselle said sarcastically.
The man pointed his gun across the clearing. “How did you get over there?”
“I climbed,” Giselle said as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. “How do you get across?”
“The bridge.” The man matched her tone. “Would you like to come join your friend?”
“Not particularly.” Giselle smiled. “I don’t see a bridge.”
“It’s invisible.” The man took two strides into the room and held his gun up to Quinn’s temple. “Please join us.”
Quinn rubbed her necklace for support as her heart screeched like a violin string off-key, and her teeth chattered. She was going to die. And worse, her friend would be murdered with her.
Giselle threw her arms up dramatically. “While I don’t believe you’d actually do it, I’d prefer not to risk it.”
She maneuvered the climb just as quickly as the first time. If Quinn didn’t know for a fact that Giselle didn’t possess magic, watching her acrobatic skills would make anyone believe she did.
“Hadleigh, bring her here,” the man with glasses said to a brunette girl. She wore a dark maroon pinstriped pantsuit and walked over to Giselle with her gun at the ready.
