“I heard that,” Nan harrumphed. “And it isn’t that long. Bastard got drunk and fell out a window. Such a shame. I hear you’re looking for Alice’s box.”
“Do you know where it is?” Grayson asked.
“Not a clue.” Nan jabbed her cane in Grayson’s direction. “And I don’t want to know why you two are looking for it. I don’t want you to tell me a thing about my Alice or her secrets, you understand? Whatever this is, whatever you’re up to, I don’t need to know. I don’t want to.”
“But…?” Grayson prompted.
“But Alice spent a lot of time out here when her children were small,” Nan said, and then she looked at the piano, and her expression changed. “And whenshewas small, Alice’s favorite song, of all those I played, was ‘Für Elise.’”
“Thank you,” Grayson told Nan. Nan harrumphed and took her leave, like she couldn’t bear to witness Grayson bringing his fingers back to the piano’s keys and playing once more.
“Für Elise.”
He made it through the first eight notes, and then the piano and the ground around it began to sink, and Lyra and Grayson sank with it.
Chapter 53
JAMESON
It was one minute until midnight, London time, and Jameson was ready. He’d followed the instructions he’d been givenexactly: He’d gone where he’d been told to go, sat at the table where he was supposed to sit, ordered the food he was supposed to order, pocketed the key card that came with his check, slipped into the proper restroom—and out of it through a hidden door.
All of that had brought him to a secret elevator. He pressed the call button at midnight on the dot. The elevator doors took their sweet time opening. The moment they parted enough for his body to fit through, Jamesonmoved. He was inside the elevator and holding the key card up to a pad in a heartbeat.
The buttons inside the elevator lit up, and Jameson used them to enter the code he’d been given. By the time he hit the last number, the elevator doors were three-quarters closed—and someone else squeezed through them with a fraction of a second to spare.
Jameson had no time to react before the elevator went pitch black—and plummeted.
“Savannah?” Jameson’s voice echoed through the darkness. “Whatthe hell are you doing here?” This couldn’t be happening. Jameson had been givenoneticket to the Devil’s Mercy.One.Xander hadn’t even been allowed to come with him. Jameson had done everything he’d been told to do precisely as he’d been told to do it.
And Savannah was going to ruin his only chance to get into the Mercy… And without the Mercy…
Avery.
“You can’t be here, Savannah,” Jameson gritted out.
The came to a sudden, jarring stop. The doors parted, and Savannah stepped out and into a cavern. “And yet, I am.”
It was eerie how much she sounded like Grayson—the cadence of their speech, their intonations, the maddening surety with which both of them habitually spoke. Jameson would have hated the reminder of his brother even if Savannah’s presence herehadn’tthreatened to ruin everything.
Jameson grabbed her arm. “Savannah, I swear to you—”
“That you are not particularly attached to your right hand? Message received.”
“I’m left-handed anyway,” Jameson quipped reflexively. “And I could take you.”
“Butwouldyou?”
Jameson realized then how hard he was gripping her arm. Cursing, he dropped his hold on Savannah. “Please.Get back in that elevator.”
“Do you see a call button?” Savannah said, and Jameson realized: There wasn’t one. He’d been told once that there were many paths to the Devil’s Mercy: hidden entrances, hidden exits, all roads leading to the same place—for those whose presence was allowed.
Hers isn’t.And yet, here she was. Jameson narrowed his eyes as he came to the obvious conclusion. “Rohan sent you.”
Rohan had known that Jameson was looking for a way in. He’d probably known exactly where—and to whom—Jameson would go to get it.Damn it, Rohan.
“Rest assured, Jameson, Rohan took great pains to leave the dirtywork of finding a way in to me.” Savannah raised her chin and took in the dimly lit world around them. They’d arrived at what appeared to be some kind of nexus. A single torch lit the wall. Five paths spiraled outward.
Jameson had been told to look for the emerald path. It took him a moment to see it—the flecks of green gemstones in the otherwise dark ground. “I won’t protect you,” he warned Savannah, but that was a lie. She was Grayson’s sister, and that mattered, no matter how hard Jameson tried to tell himself that it didn’t.