He has fired seven nurses this week, and if your child makes a single sound, you will both be thrown into the snow, Chief Guard Mikhail warned me at the heavy iron gates of the Volkov estate.
The air in the sub-basement grew colder by the minute. My fingers were stiff, my breath fogged. The only thing keeping me from complete panic was the two vials in my pocket. I had the evidence.
Minutes stretched into an eternity. I was about to give in to despair when I heard a faint scratching sound from above.
“Mama?” Lily’s small voice, signed through the door, was a beacon of hope.
She must have followed me. Her acute senses, so finely tuned to vibrations, had somehow led her to me.
“Lily! Mama’s here. I’m locked in!” I signed back, pounding on the door.
A moment later, I heard heavy footsteps approaching, then the jingle of keys. The door creaked open, revealing Mikhail Rostova, his stern face etched with concern. Lily stood beside him, her small hand clutching his trousers.
“Nurse Halloway, what are you doing down here?” Mikhail demanded, his voice gruff. “The child brought me. Said you were lost.”
“I was investigating something,” I replied, shivering. “Mr. Drake locked me in.”
Mikhail’s eyes narrowed, but he merely shook his head. “Mr. Drake says you are… unstable.” He didn’t sound entirely convinced, but his loyalty was clearly divided.
Once out of the freezing cellar, my priority was clear: escape. With the aconite and spectral ashes as proof, I needed to get to the State Police.
“Mikhail,” I said, my voice urgent, pulling Lily closer, “I need to leave the estate. Lily and I. It’s not safe here.”
He looked at me, then at Lily, a flicker of something unreadable in his eyes.
“I cannot allow that, Nurse Halloway.”
“What do you mean?” Dread coiled in my gut.
He slowly drew a handgun from his holster, the metallic click echoing in the grand hall. He didn’t point it directly at me, but the message was clear.
“Mr. Drake has ordered a total lockdown of the grounds,” Mikhail explained, his voice flat, devoid of emotion. “He claims you are mentally unstable and attempting to kidnap a minor.”
My stomach dropped. Kidnapping. A minor. He was using Lily against me, fabricating a story that would make any escape impossible.
“Mikhail, please,” I pleaded, “he’s trying to kill Mr. Volkov. I have proof. These vials…” I gestured to my pocket.
He shook his head, his face impassive. “My orders are clear. No one leaves the estate. You will return to your quarters, Nurse Halloway. The gates are locked. All of them.”
The heavy iron gates, the very symbol of Volkov Manor’s security, were now our prison walls. Trapped. Completely at Drake’s mercy.
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