Page 21 of Written in Red

“You do more often than you realize.”

She leaned in close. He couldn’t move. Could hardly think. She upended him in the best way.

Tacey lightly kissed his cheek. She lingered there a moment before stepping into her room.

It was all Mercury could do to keep breathing. Did she have any idea how fully she had claimed his heart?

9

Mercury was summoned to the tunnels the next morning by the Cream Canary. She didn’t seem to be doing so out of concern or fear, which made him more curious than anxious. He followed her down the main tunnel, all the way to the one where the Vanns were being held. This must have had something to do with them.

Testy Tolver, Gary the Green, and Weeping William stood where that tunnel branched off, looking exceptionally proud of themselves. They motioned to the tunnel opening. The reason for their excitement became clear. They had erected a heavy door with a very significant metal bar locking it closed. And just as the door to the Vanns’ cell did, it had a slot that, when slid open, could be seen and spoken through.

“It will be easier to guide people down the tunnels we want them in if they can’t access the others,” Gary the Green said. “And preventing any new arrivals from reaching the rooms already holding prisoners would make it less likely they’d open the doors and let them out.”

“A good idea,” Mercury acknowledged. “People wandering the tunnels could lift the heavy metal bar and open this door if they wanted. But that would take time and effort.”

“The windows in the rooms can’t be opened,” Testy Tolver said. “So no one kept down here could escape their cells that way.”

“Rum Nicky will be bringing the Vanns their breakfast shortly,” Gary the Green said. “He’s said he can manage this door and the food at the same time.”

“If it proves too much for him” —Mercury looked at Testy Tolver— “you can assist.”

Testy Tolver nodded.

“Have the Vanns said anything to any of you?” Mercury asked.

“Only complaints about the unfairness of their imprisonment,” Testy Tolver said.

“I am so weary of their complaining.” Weeping William sniffed. “They imprisoned Tacey, and she didn’t do anything wrong. They are horrid kidnappers who told the Violet Giant they were willing to hurt her. They deserve to be in there.”

“Yes, they do.” Mercury’s eyes darted toward the door closing off the tunnel the Vanns were imprisoned in. “And others are coming who are just as dangerous. We need to be ready for them.”

“We will be,” Gary the Green declared confidently.

As Mercury made his way back out of the tunnels and into the dungeon, he thought quickly through the safeguards they had in place and which of Aventine’s secrets could be used as weapons.

The hidden tunnels: they were already in use.

His ghosts erecting more fortifications: they’d taken the initiative with the tunnel doors.

The secret safe: it held items for Tacey.

There were hidden rooms inside Aventine as well. The Scholar’s tower, for example, was unknown to the other ghosts. Any person wandering the corridors of Aventine Manor wouldn’t realize they’d passed the entrance to it. There were other equally hidden corners of the house. And they, like the tunnels below ground, were connected through passageways and stairwells that were tucked away and unnoticed.

He had reached the ground floor, lost in his own thoughts, when Zizzy floated up to him, looking anxious.

“The Winged Monk spotted a carriage coming up the drive,” she said. “It may be someone else who wants to hurt you.”

That was a distinct possibility.

The Violet Giant entered the corridor through an adjacent wall. “I know the man about to step out of that carriage. He is on the payroll of the Forever Flame. Best set in motion whatever plan you have for bounty hunters who brazenly come right to your front door.”

“The Quiet Queen is in charge of our group,” Zizzy said. “She’s given us all assignments.”

“And do I have an assignment?” Mercury asked.

“You wait down in the dungeon and participate the same way you did before.”