The sitting room was quiet for a long while.
Thalia looked down at the black ring on her left hand, remembering what had happened outside the museum a few hours earlier.
The first thing the man in the dark grey coat had said when he saw the ring was—
“Finally found it.”
At the time, she had thought he only wanted the ring.
When he said he would take her as well, she had found it strange, but there had been no time to think about why.
Only now, after hearing Acheron’s explanation, did she understand.
They hadn’t left the ring on her finger by choice.
They couldn’t take it off.
To obtain it, they first had to make it lose its current owner.
And she doubted they intended to do that gently.
The unease Thalia had felt earlier returned.
She rubbed her thumb over the ring and felt only its cold surface.
Ivan had clearly reached the same conclusion.
“So Thalia has been a target ever since the ring appeared on her hand?”
“Not necessarily,” Acheron said from the opposite sofa.
“If they had known she had it all along, they wouldn’t have waited until tonight.”
“You mean they only found out recently?”
“More precisely, they only confirmed it recently.”
A place came to Thalia’s mind.
“Because of Eremon Manor?”
Acheron looked at her.
“Most likely.”
The events of the past few days began to come together in her mind: Adrian’s silver pocket watch, the brass key hidden inside it, the marked room in the west wing of Eremon Manor, the wooden box behind the wall, and the four letters written more than twenty years ago.
At first, she had only wanted to find out what Adrian had left behind.
Neither she nor Ivan had expected their search to draw the attention of people who had been hiding for so long.
“They might have noticed us when we went to Eremon Manor?”
“It’s possible.”
Thalia could no longer tell herself the danger had begun tonight.
Someone might have been watching from the moment they entered the manor.
Perhaps tonight was simply when those people confirmed that the ring was on her hand.
She looked towards Ivan.
If they wanted to capture her, her brother, who had spent the past few days at her side, was in danger too.
“Don’t look at me like that,” Ivan said.
Thalia blinked.
“I haven’t said anything.”
“I know what you’re thinking whenever you make that face.” He leaned back against the sofa.
“This isn’t the time to try to leave me out of it.”
“I didn’t say I would.”
“You were thinking about it.”
He was right, and Thalia had no answer.
Ivan’s voice softened a little.
“This concerns both of us.”
She was quiet for a moment, then let the matter drop.
She knew her brother.
Asking him to stay out of it now would get her nowhere.
Ivan turned back to Acheron.
“If the Gravekeepers have been searching for the ring, why didn’t they simply wait at Eremon Manor?”
“Because they can’t enter the place they actually want to reach.”
Thalia immediately thought of the basement.
“The room at the very end?”
Acheron said nothing.
His silence was answer enough for both of them.
Thalia still remembered that door.
It had looked like nothing more than an old, heavy door, yet something about it had made her reluctant to go near it.
They hadn’t opened it that day.
Now she wondered if that had been fortunate.
Ivan fixed his eyes on Acheron.
“You know what’s behind it.”
“Yes.”
“What is it?”
“I can’t tell you yet.”
Ivan’s expression hardened at once.
“There it is again.”
Thalia felt a flicker of frustration too.
Acheron knew where the ring had come from.
He knew what was hidden at Eremon Manor and what the basement door meant.
Yet whenever they asked the question that mattered most, he stopped.
Before tonight, she had been willing to accept that.
The danger had still seemed distant, and she hadn’t realized how deeply she was caught up in it.
Tonight was different.
She had watched the street go dark and seen shadows crawl up from the ground.
She could still remember the cold that had seeped through her right leg when the mark appeared.
If Acheron hadn’t come, she had no idea where those people would have taken her.
She couldn’t keep going without knowing what was happening.
Only a few hours ago, she and Acheron had grown closer.
She hadn’t refused his kisses.
She had even kissed him back.
But now he sat across from her and said he couldn’t tell them, and she was reminded of how much lay between them that she still didn’t know.
“Acheron.”
“Yes?”
“I think my brother is right this time.”
Ivan glanced at her in surprise.
Thalia kept her eyes on Acheron.
“You keep telling me a place is dangerous or that I mustn’t touch something, but you never tell me why.
Those people have already come after me, and I still only know half the reason they want me.”
She raised her left hand.
“I can’t take this ring off, and I can’t get rid of it.
They were willing to take me to get hold of it.
I’m already involved.
Keeping the truth from me won’t make any of this go away.”
She paused.
When she spoke again, her voice was gentler, but she meant every word.
“I should at least know what I’m facing.”
Acheron watched her.
Thalia held his gaze.
The fire crackled softly.
After a moment, Acheron spoke.
“Show me what you brought back from Eremon.”
It wasn’t a direct answer, but some of Thalia’s frustration faded.
At least he hadn’t ended the conversation by saying he couldn’t tell her.
She picked up the bag beside her.
When they had left the museum tonight, they had brought the four old letters, the plan of the basement, and the black metal plaque they had removed from a piece of faded dark red cloth.
Thalia placed the plaque on the coffee table first.
“This.”
The moment Acheron saw it, his expression changed.
It was a slight change, but Thalia had been watching him closely.
“You recognize it?”
Acheron didn’t answer straight away.
He studied the design on the front: a circle, crossing lines, a vertical stroke at the centre, and a small diamond above it.
It was almost identical to the pattern inside Thalia’s ring.
Acheron picked up the plaque.
“Where did you find this?”
“In the box behind the wall at Eremon Manor.
It was with the letters.”
He turned it over.
The lines of writing on the back were the ones Thalia and Ivan had been unable to read.
Acheron glanced at them, and his expression grew cold.
“You can read it?” Thalia asked.
“Yes.”
“What does it say?”
Acheron was silent for a moment.
This time, he answered.
“By blood, the gatekeepers swear their oath, until the throne chooses its master once more.”
Ivan frowned.
“The throne?”
“The Obsidian Throne.”
The sitting room went quiet.
It was the first time Thalia had heard Acheron say its name aloud.
At last, the scattered clues in the old letters, symbols and records pointed to something definite.
“Is it connected to you?” she asked.
“Yes.”
“How?”
Acheron looked at her.
“It belongs to me.”
Thalia caught her breath.
She had known for some time that Acheron was no ordinary man.
Hearing him say it himself was different.
Acheron and the Obsidian Throne had never been separate mysteries.
Ivan picked up on another question.
“So the Gravekeepers serve you?”
“That wasn’t their purpose,” Acheron said, setting the plaque back on the table.
“Their duty was to guard the entrance to the Obsidian Throne and keep out anyone who had no right to enter.
The people who founded the order died, one by one.
Over time, their descendants came to want something else.”
Thalia understood.
“They don’t want to guard the entrance anymore.”
“No.”
“They want to go through it.”
“Yes.”
Ivan looked at the ring on her hand.
“Is the ring the key?”
“Not exactly,” Acheron said.
“But without it, they will never open the final door.”
Thalia looked down at the ring.
Now she understood why they had attacked her tonight.
The Gravekeepers wanted to reach the Obsidian Throne, but they couldn’t open the final door.
They had been searching for the ring because they needed it.
Now that it had chosen her, no one else could simply remove it, so they had tried to take her with them.
She knew why the Gravekeepers had come for her.
But Acheron still hadn’t told her why the ring had chosen her in the first place.