“He scoured the house before they departed, so no. There’s hardly a bootlace I can use.”

Phelan sighed.

I was suddenly very thankful my father took such precautions.

“I’ll see if I can locate them from here,” Phelan eventually said. “You should return to Hereswith and gather any information about where they went from the residents.”

“You’re not going to inform Mother, are you?”

“No. You will be the one to tell her if we have truly lost them.”

“Fine. If that is the way you want to play this . . . I should tell you that he was in a Hereswith nightmare, and not too long ago, either.”

“What?” Phelan’s voice was sharp. “Who?”

“You know who I speak of.”

“What happened in the nightmare? What did he do?”

“Ah, unfortunately I can’t tell you the details, brother. Such are the rules of wardenship, remember? Unless, that is, you want to switch places with me and take this dull little village off my hands.”

Silence crackled. I resisted the urge to ease my spell further into the room, for fear of the brothers sensing my intrusion.

And then Phelan said, “Get out.”

“Come now, Phelan. You should—”

“Get out of my house.”

I urgently motioned for Deacon to follow me into the drawing room, and we rounded the corner just as the library doors burst open.

The mirror, I remembered with a hiss.

I dropped to my knees and crawled on the floor, and Deacon mimicked me, thinking I was trying to be covert. I slithered on hands and knees across the rug until the looming threat of the mirror had passed, and then I bolted upright and settled into one of the high-backed chairs, Deacon close behind me. He collapsed on the divan, and we both reached for a book to hold, pretending to read as Lennox and Phelan emerged into the foyer.

Lennox opened the door but paused to glance at me again, and I saw him shake his head, as if disappointed in his twin. My knuckles drained white as I held my book, the words swimming on the page before me. But then at last he departed, and Phelan slammed the door and leaned against it, as if he were overwhelmed.

I didn’t look up at him until he walked into the drawing room and stood directly before my chair.

“Is everything all right?” I asked.

He was pale, and his eyes were distant when he met my gaze. “Yes, perfectly well. Deacon? Will you go and help your grandmama in the kitchen?”

Deacon, who was trying to make himself invisible, groaned in protest but quickly obeyed, leaving Phelan and me alone in the drawing room. “I apologize for my brother, Miss Neven.”

“What are you apologizing for?”

“That he is such an ass.”