Selene Nightwhisper's Arc

Chapter 4 of 5

Selene came down the inside of the wall and dropped into wet grass. The two towers stood joined at the roof, mirrored, dark. West tower. Top floor. The ghost girl waited at the base, arms at her sides, black eyes fixed on the door. Selene walked around the tower's foot, running her fingers along the stone until she found the lock plate. It was set on the inside. From here she felt only a smooth iron face and a keyhole flush with the wood. No latch to lift. No bar to slide. Forcing it would mean a shoulder against the door, and a shoulder against the door would wake every room above. She pulled her hand back. Her fingers shook. "I can't see how it's held. If I break it, the house wakes." "Then don't break it," Nightshade said. "Give me something better than that." Nightshade tilted her head. "There is a key. It was made for both towers. My father's key. It went with the deed when they took the deed. They keep it in the same room." "That helps me how." "It doesn't. Unless you find another hand to fit the lock." Selene looked back at the graveyard past the wall. Small stones. Scoured names. She thought of the pale woman on the ridge with the moon in her hands, and of the promise she had already spent. She had one more name in her mouth she trusted. "Meridian Gravesight," Selene said. "She finds graves for spirits who died wrong. She's alive. She lives near a marsh east of here. She owes no one in this house." "Fetch her," Nightshade said. "There isn't time." "Then call her the way the dead call. Say the name at the wall and mean it. If she is close enough to hear a grave, she is close enough to hear you." Selene set her palm on the stone. She said the name once, plain. She said it again, and pressed her forehead to the wall, and held the word there until her teeth ached. A woman came out of the dark along the path with a staff in her hand. Purple robes. White hair. She stopped ten paces off and rubbed her jaw. "My back teeth," Meridian said. "You pulled on them." "I need a living hand on that door," Selene said. "Quiet. Now. There's a key inside I can't reach without you." Meridian looked at the ghost girl. She looked at Selene's shaking hands. "Whose grave am I settling for this?" "Hers," Selene said. "After." Meridian nodded once. She crossed to the tower door, laid her palm flat against the wood, and pushed. The door swung inward without a sound. It had never been locked from outside. Only watched. Selene stepped through. The house did not wake. Above her, three floors up, the deed and the key waited in one room, and the stairs began at her feet.