The door handle turned again.
The sound was faint, but in the museum at midnight, they heard it clearly.
Ivan stood in the middle of the corridor.
He glanced at Thalia, still in Acheron’s arms, before lowering his voice.
“Take her to the records room first.”
“There’s no need,” Acheron said.
“She’s awake.”
Thalia was awake.
The sound of the lock had roused her, though for a moment she couldn’t remember where she was.
When she heard her brother speak, she slowly opened her eyes.
The first thing she saw was Acheron’s face close above hers.
It took her two seconds to realize he was carrying her.
“Put me down.”
Acheron looked at her.
“Is your leg steady enough?”
“It’s much better.”
He lowered her carefully and waited until she had her balance.
Thalia tested her right leg.
It still felt a little weak, but the other discomfort was gone.
She stepped back and looked towards the closed door at the end of the corridor.
“You said someone was inside,” Ivan said.
“Did you see them?”
“No.” Thalia thought back.
“I was asleep when the ring suddenly grew warm.
I had the impression of a shadow passing through my mind.
I couldn’t see it clearly, but I was sure there was something behind that door.”
She raised her left hand.
The ring had stopped glowing, though it was still warm.
“It isn’t a Gravekeeper,” Acheron said.
Thalia turned to him.
“Because the ring reacted differently?”
“The protection I placed on it hasn’t been triggered.”
When a Gravekeeper appeared on the woodland road, the dark gold lines on the ring had lit up first.
This time, only the ring itself had grown warm, as though it had recognized something in the collection room.
Ivan remained cautious.
He checked his phone and, finding that it had a signal, called the night security patrol.
No one stayed in the museum overnight, but the guards patrolled several nearby buildings.
They would take about ten minutes to arrive.
He had just ended the call when a dull thud came from behind the door.
It sounded like a box falling from a shelf.
Thalia took a step forward.
Acheron held out an arm to stop her.
“Stay here.”
“I only want a better look.”
“Two more steps won’t let you see through the door.”
Thalia glanced at him and stopped.
Ivan drew her behind him, and all three watched the end of the corridor.
The lock turned again.
This time, the bolt withdrew and the door slowly opened a narrow crack.
Light from the corridor fell across a small patch of dusty floor inside.
The door stopped.
No one came out.
Acheron sent a thread of black light along the doorframe and the wall.
A few seconds later, he lowered his hand.
“There’s no living person inside.”
Ivan frowned.
“Then who opened the door?”
“Let’s look.”
Acheron pushed the door open, and Ivan switched on the light by the wall.
The old fluorescent tube flickered twice before coming on.
Its yellowish glow revealed rows of tall wooden storage cabinets.
Dust sheets covered some of them, and several old crates stood against the wall.
The room smelled of wood that had been shut away for too long.
There was no one in sight.
Ivan stayed by the doorway to inspect the lock.
“It isn’t broken, and it couldn’t have opened by itself.”
Thalia looked farther into the room.
“Something fell, though.”
A wooden box lay on its side beside the last row of cabinets.
Its lid was open, and several yellowed papers had spilled onto the floor.
A clear trail through the thick dust on the cabinet led to the spot where the box had fallen.
Acheron went to examine it first.
Only after he confirmed there was no tracking spell on it did Thalia and Ivan join him.
“Is there anything else left on it?” Thalia asked.
“A little.
It’s very faint.”
Acheron picked up one of the papers.
Its edges had grown brittle, and it bore the registration form the museum had used years ago.
Thalia leaned closer and saw the date at the top.
October 21, 1996.
She looked up at Ivan.
The last letter they had found at Eremon Manor was dated October seventeenth.
Only four days separated the two.
“There’s more written below,” Ivan said.
He used his phone to light another page.
It was an inventory for temporary storage.
The first entries listed silver ornaments, a damaged manuscript and fragments of stone.
The final line read:
One black metal plaque.
Thalia glanced at the inside of Ivan’s coat.
The plaque from Eremon Manor was there, wrapped in dark red cloth.
“Could it be the same one?”
“Let’s read the rest first,” Acheron said.
There was no standard collection number beside the plaque.
Instead, someone had added a handwritten note:
Temporary custody.
Do not catalogue.
A signature appeared beneath it.
Ivan adjusted the angle of his phone until the faded writing became clear.
Adrian Bennett.
Thalia read the name aloud.
“Adrian.”
The last of the four letters was dated October seventeenth.
Four days later, Adrian had brought a black metal plaque to the museum with instructions to hold it temporarily and keep it out of the collection.
It was hard to believe the two events were unrelated.
Ivan took out the wrapped plaque.
Acheron opened the cloth and turned it on its side.
He rubbed away some oxidation with his thumb, revealing a few shallow marks.
21-10-96
“The same date,” Ivan said.
It was the plaque listed on the form.
Thalia looked at the papers scattered across the floor.
“If Adrian brought it here for safekeeping, who took it back to Eremon Manor?”
Ivan checked the form again, but there was no signature for its return.
At the bottom, however, he found a pencil note so faint it was nearly invisible.
He angled the light across the page, and the three of them managed to make it out.
If I have not returned within seven days, contact E.M.
An old telephone number followed.
“Who’s E.M.?” Thalia asked.
“I don’t know yet,” Ivan said.
“I can check the old staff and telephone records.”
Thalia thought of the brass key hidden inside the pocket watch.
It had the letter E engraved on its back.
They had assumed it stood for Eremon because the key opened a room in the manor’s west wing.
Now she wondered whether it meant something else.
She was about to mention it when she noticed Acheron was still looking at the fallen box.
“There’s something else inside.”
Thalia looked down.
The lid was open, and the box appeared empty, but Acheron hadn’t taken his eyes off it.
He pressed the bottom.
Something beneath the wood gave a faint click.