I can’t explain the tug I feel. I don’t know if it’s magic or pure desperation, but I follow it.

Lena pulls out the map to refer to it once more. “It should just be a cellar.”

I look to them. I don’t know how to explain it. “Can we please try anyway?”

Maxine narrows her eyes. I wonder if she feels the buzzing too. They both nod.

We climb down one story, ending up in a cellar that houses a few stacked wine crates and a discarded chair covered with a white drop cloth. A single light bulb hangs sadly from the ceiling.

Three of the walls are ordinary, made of stone as old as the city itself.

But built into the fourth wall is a golden gate, gleaming and out of place in this dusty basement. It reaches to the ceiling, made of ornate filigree that twists into patterns resembling human skulls. In the middle is a massive lock shaped like a human heart, four chambers re-created in sparkling gold.

“What is this?” I whisper.

We breathe in tandem, staring at it together. Lined up in front of it, like it might open for us, like we could step right through and find out what hides in its depths.

Ever-present is the same warm buzz of magic I felt upstairs.

“I feel something strange,” Maxine says. It’s nice to have confirmation it isn’t all in my head.

“We have to find out.” I approach the gate, hands outstretched, and whisper, “Briseadh.”

The heart-shaped lock unclicks gently, like it’s been waiting for us.

Without any push, the gate swings open on its own, revealing a pitch-dark passageway.

Our housekeeper’s uniforms are made of thick cotton, but they are no match for the chill of the tunnel. We must be so far underground.

I look to my left and my right, Maxine and Lena beside me, and we push on wordlessly into the dark.

We mutter under our breaths, conjuring light between our hands to illuminate the passageway.

In silence, we walk.

And walk.

And walk.

The dirt floors crunch beneath our shoes and our breathing comes out in small puffs of vapor. I’m chilled to my very core, but still I press on. I have no other choice. I can’t turn back when we’ve come so far, not when this might be my only chance.

We’ve been walking for close to ten minutes when the buzzing intensifies.

It starts in my jaw, sharp and high-pitched, before traveling into the tiny bones of my ear and then up and into my temples.

“Ah!” I cry out as the pain zaps behind my eyes. I stumble forward a few feet, placing my hands on my knees to steady myself.

“Are you all right?” Lena reaches out a hand and pulls me to my feet. “We should go back.”