“There’re no rooms adjacent to this one, and the only way up has been destroyed. And this tile sounded hollow.”

“Of course it did.” She approached him and peered down at the chasm, barely wide enough to fit her shoulders through. When she bent down, the candlelight illuminated the shape of a ladder, rough and flaky with corrosion. Her magic churned even more restlessly within her.

“I’ll go first,” he said.

Although she wouldn’t admit it, she appreciated the gesture. The darkness beneath her felt hungry and endless past the reach of the flames. When Hal finished climbing down, she passed the candelabra to him and lowered herself onto the first step of the ladder. Her sweat-slick skin clung to the frigid metal, and she hissed in pain as she peeled it free. Rung by rung, she descended into the earth.

When Wren reached the bottom, she smelled wet rock and sweet ether, both dulled by the chill. They stood at the beginning of a tunnel that sloped deeper into the ground. Copper wires shone in the candlelight, and when Wren placed her hand against the wall, she found a switch. The lights strung overhead stuttered and buzzed, illuminating a path forward in flickering bursts. With every step, her heart rate accelerated. What waited for them at the end? Wren often thought the war had shown her the worst of the world, but now she couldn’t be certain. Was it worse for a murderer to hide behind the uniform of a soldier or a gentleman?

At the end of the passage was a locked door, reinforced with an iron frame. As the unsteady lights plunged them into darkness again, Wren held up the candles. Orange firelight flooded into the keyhole. “Damn it.”

They were so close. They couldn’t fail now.

She threw her shoulder against it, but it did not yield. The force rattled her bones. She surged forward again, but Hal caught her by the arm before she made contact with the wall.

“You’re going to hurt yourself.” Although his grip was firm, his voice was surprisingly gentle. “We’ll have to come back with the key.”

“There’s no way we’ll get another chance! How are we going to find the exact key in this enormous house before he’s onto us?”

“We will. As long as we leave everything untouched, he won’t notice anything amiss. There’s always another chance.”

How she yearned for that to be true. Judging by the quiet determination in his voice, Wren supposed he did, too. But in this dark place, she couldn’t force optimism. Not when Byers might be suffering just beyond this door. Not when so much counted on finding concrete, damning evidence.

They trudged back to the ladder in silence. Wren handed Hal the candelabra and began to climb.