The Complete Private Collection: Private; Invitation Only; Untouchable; Confessions; Inner Circle; Legacy; Ambition; Revelation; Last Christmas; Paradise ... The Book of Spells; Ominous; Vengeance (289 page)

Eliza pumped her arms as she ran. Her breath was so loud that, combined with the ridiculous pounding of her heart, she could hear nothing else. As she raced up the steep hill, the locket bounced against her chest. All she could think about was making it to the tree line through which her friends had just disappeared. She felt that if she could only get there, somehow she would be safe.

Pressing her lips together against a panicked sob, Eliza hurtled herself into the woods and right into Catherine’s waiting arms.

“It’s okay,” Catherine said in her ear as Eliza’s chest heaved. “It’s okay. No one’s there.”

Alice, meanwhile, leaned back against a tree trunk, sobbing softly. Clearly she had reached her limit.

“No one’s there?” Eliza repeated, relief flooding through her. She turned around to look back toward McKinley. The moonlight bathed the entire campus in a white glow, and she could see now
that the campus was deserted. “Thank God,” she said, leaning into Catherine’s side. “I thought we were done for.”

“So you doused us in darkness?” Theresa demanded, ripping the candle out of Eliza’s hand. “That was my last match.”

“I didn’t want us to be seen!” Eliza replied, stung.

“And now
we
can’t see anything,” Theresa shot back.

“I did what I thought I had to do, Theresa!” Eliza half whispered, half shouted. “Why are you the one who always decides what is right and what is wrong?”

“Girls,” Catherine said.

“I get to decide because I know best,” Theresa replied.

Eliza blinked. She couldn’t be serious. “And who decided that you know better than everyone else?”

“Girls!” Catherine shouted.

“What?” they both demanded, whipping around to face her.

“I just thought you might want to know we just ran one hundred and fifty paces east,” Catherine said with a smile. “Approximately, of course.”

Eliza’s jaw dropped. “How do you know that?”

“I counted while I was running,” Catherine said. “Just in case.”

Theresa and Eliza looked at each other, for a moment united in their awe. “Well, then,” Theresa said. “I suppose we should walk one hundred paces north and see where that gets us.”

“We’re still doing this?” Alice wailed.

“Oh, hush,” Theresa told her. “Follow me.”

She counted the paces quietly as they made their way along a
makeshift path through the woods. Eliza breathed in and out slowly, trying to regain her normal pattern after the terror of her run. She couldn’t help wondering who had closed that window back at McKinley. Whoever it was, what was the person doing there so late at night? And if he or she had seen Eliza and her friends, why not come after them?

“That’s fifty,” Theresa said as they came to the edge of the woods.

“Oh, no,” Alice intoned.

Eliza joined the other three girls on the grass just beyond the tree line and stared up at the stark white façade of the Billings Chapel.

“Another fifty paces will take us right to the door of the chapel,” Catherine stated.

“This isn’t happening,” Alice whined, leaning into Eliza’s side.

The wind kicked up, swirling around the four girls and lifting their skirts. Eliza clung to the map with one hand and held her hat to her head with the other.

“What does it say after that?” Theresa asked. “Once we walk the hundred paces north, where do we go next?”

Eliza looked at the map but couldn’t make it out in the darkness. “I can’t tell,” she admitted. “The moon is strong, but not strong enough to make it out.”

“Perhaps if we still had the light . . .,” Theresa said sarcastically.

“Theresa, please,” Catherine said.

Theresa clucked her tongue but said no more.

Catherine took a step forward and looked up at the spire of the chapel. “Perhaps there are matches inside.”

“Then let’s go inside,” Theresa said, starting ahead.

Alice grabbed her arm. “No! You can’t!” she pleaded. “That’s a sacred space! You can’t just traipse through there alone in the dead of night!”

Theresa glared down at Alice’s hand until the girl finally released her. “Control yourself, Alice Ainsworth,” she said, her tone clipped and impatient. “It’s just a building.”

Alice’s skin was so pale, Eliza feared her friend might faint. She forgot about her hat and reached around Alice’s slim waist, holding on to the girl in case she crumbled. The proximity to another warm body helped calm Eliza’s own nerves a bit.

“It’s not just a building,” Alice said, her voice low and firm. “It’s the house of God.”

Theresa rolled her eyes. “Well, my pastor is always saying that we’re welcome in God’s house anytime.”

And with that, she turned on her heel and walked purposefully toward the chapel, hitching up the skirt of her black dress and taking the lantern with her. Catherine stepped closer to Eliza, but other than that, none of the remaining three girls moved. Alice let out a quiet wail as Theresa shoved open the gleaming, arched door. The motion produced a loud, ominous creak that could just be heard over the whistling winds.

“Girls! Where’s your sense of adventure?” Theresa shouted from the open doorway. Then she disappeared inside, letting the heavy door slam behind her.

An owl hooted nearby, and Alice mewed pitifully. But Eliza swallowed back her fear. “I’m going in,” she said, stepping away from the others. She didn’t want Theresa to think she was afraid.

“No! Eliza!” Alice attempted to cling to her, but Eliza shook off her grasping fingers.

“Would you rather leave Theresa in there alone?” Eliza asked, the wind tugging her hair out from under her hat.

Alice hugged herself, her bottom lip trembling. Eliza looked to Catherine, pleading with her eyes.

“She’s right, Alice,” Catherine said. She took Eliza’s arm and started for the chapel.

“So now you’re leaving me out here alone?” Alice wailed.

“Come with us!” Eliza hissed. Alice clasped and unclasped her hands, looking from the chapel back toward campus—gauging, it seemed, whether going inside with her friends or walking back alone was the worse of the two evils. The very idea of Alice trying to get back to Crenshaw House by herself without fainting or going into hysterics seemed impossible.

“Wait here,” Eliza said to Catherine.

The wind was growing fierce now, forcing tears from her eyes as she hastened back toward Alice. “Look at me, Alice,” Eliza demanded, taking her friend’s hands. The wind tore through the trees around them, creating a vortex of green and brown leaves.

Alice took in a shaky breath, glancing about warily as a gust pushed her forward.

“If you come inside with us, I promise to not let anything bad happen to you,” Eliza said.

“But . . . how can you promise that?” Alice asked, her bottom lip quivering.

“Because I’m your friend and I would never put you in harm’s way.” Eliza had to shout now to be heard over the whistling wind. “I would never put anyone I loved in harm’s way.”

Alice’s expression softened slightly, the creases of anxiety disappearing from her forehead. She looked at the chapel again uncertainly. The wind shoved her forward once more, and she staggered into Eliza. Eliza wrapped her arms around the girl, holding her steady.

“Come along. Theresa is waiting for us,” Eliza said.

She breathed a sigh of relief when Alice’s feet finally started moving. They rejoined Catherine, and the three of them walked with the wind at their backs. Eliza shoved open the door to the chapel, and together they tumbled inside.

“What took you so long?” Theresa asked.

Standing at the center of the aisle, between the two rows of polished oak pews, and framed by the gorgeous stained glass windows above the pulpit, Theresa held two lit candles that she had no doubt taken from the wall sconces.

“Bring the map here,” she instructed.

Eliza did. Theresa handed the candles to Catherine, then bent toward Eliza so she too could look over the map. But there was no text left to read, just simple drawings: arrows and doors and a staircase.

“The arrows seem to be pointing down the aisle and then to the left side of the chapel, where there is to be a door,” Eliza said. “And behind the door, some sort of square room.”

“Then let’s go,” Theresa said, starting in that direction.

Eliza folded the map and followed. The chapel was all creaks and
wails on such a windy night. Catherine and Alice brought up the rear, and Eliza could hear Catherine whispering soothing reassurances to Alice as they moved.

Through an arched doorway at the front of the chapel and down a short hall, Theresa and Eliza came to a solid, six-panel door.

“Shall we?” Theresa asked, shadows dancing across her face.

Before Eliza could speak, Theresa had tried the brass knob, and the door swung open to reveal a small, square office. Just like in the drawing.

“Huh. No ghosts or goblins or mummies,” Theresa joked. “I’m almost disappointed.”

Alice let out a groan as Theresa and Eliza stepped over the threshold into the chamber. The walls were a modest white, and oak beams lined the ceiling. At the center of the room was a plain wooden desk, and bookcases lined all four walls. A huge cross, whittled out of what appeared to be maple, hung on the wall behind the desk.

“This is the chaplain’s office,” Alice whispered from the doorway. “We shouldn’t be trespassing.”

“Oh, Alice, hush,” Theresa said, walking behind the desk. “He’ll never even know we were here.”

“But God will know,” Alice said.

Eliza and Theresa looked at each other and for some reason, even though Eliza knew that what they were doing could be considered blasphemy, and even though she was irritated with Theresa beyond all measure, all she wanted to do was laugh.

It’s just my nerves,
Eliza told herself.
I’m not a bad Christian for being
here. If God didn’t want me to be an adventurer, he wouldn’t have built me this way.

“I see no other way out,” Theresa said, turning in place.

Catherine brought the lamp over and lit it from a candle, and Eliza unfurled the map once more. “It doesn’t make sense,” Eliza said. “There’s a drawing of a set of stairs on the west wall of the office.”

All three girls turned around to face the west wall and were met with an imposing bookcase full of Bibles and other religious works. Had they come all this way for nothing? Had it indeed been nothing but a grand hoax?

“Let’s get out of here,” Alice whined. “Please. Let’s just go.”

Eliza moved around to the side of the bookcase and ran her hand along the corner between case and wall. Her fingertips found something metallic and grooved.

“Girls, you’ll never believe what I’ve just found,” she said. Her mouth was dry as she tried to swallow.

Catherine peeked around the bookcase, shining the lantern at the wall. Sure enough, three huge brass hinges were affixed to the bookcase and the wall.

“Does it open?” Theresa asked breathlessly.

“Let’s see!” Eliza replied.

Catherine placed the lantern on the desk, and the three of them tugged at the opposite side of the bookcase. When Eliza first felt it give, she let out a gasp of surprise. Slowly the bookcase swung free, revealing a small white door set into the wall. Sitting in its keyhole was a large brass key, with a purple ribbon dangling from it.

“This is just like
Journey to the Center of the Earth,
” Eliza said breathily, tingling from head to toe. She instantly thought of Harrison and wished for a brief moment that he could see her right then. But then she realized he’d be seeing Theresa, too, and she quickly banished him from her thoughts.

As Theresa went to open the door, Alice let out another pained wail and leaned against the doorway between the office and the chapel.

“Are you sure about this?” Catherine asked, her eyes concerned.

“We can’t stop now,” Theresa said, as though it was the most obvious argument in the world.

“She’s right,” Eliza confirmed. “We’re so close.”

“Wait,” Catherine said. Both Theresa and Eliza looked at her, exasperated. “I don’t mean to be the dull one,” Catherine continued. “I just want to make sure we’re not doing something we’re going to regret.”

Theresa reached for Catherine’s hand. “I don’t mean to offend you, Catherine, but if you live your entire life wondering what you’re going to regret later, you’ll never truly live it.”

Eliza blinked, surprised to agree so wholeheartedly with Theresa’s words. Catherine appeared taken aback as well. She knit her brow for a moment and then nodded, her chin set with determination.

“All right, then,” she said firmly. “No regrets.”

“Let me get another candle,” Eliza said. She turned and removed one from a sconce on the wall, then held the wick against Theresa’s flame to light it. “All right,” she said with her face newly aglow. “Go ahead.”

Theresa reached out and turned the key. It let out a reverberating click that brought forth another wail from Alice. Theresa tried the knob, and the door swung open easily, soundlessly. Cold air rushed up from the dank depths below, taking the breath right out of Eliza’s lungs. Eliza held her candle aloft, and Theresa and Catherine followed suit.

“What is it?” Alice whined tremulously. “What did you find?”

“It’s a staircase,” Eliza replied. “Just like the map said.”

“A staircase?” Alice managed to pry herself away from the door and join the others. She peered down into the darkness. The winding staircase disappeared around a bend after only five steps. “No,” she said. “No, no, no. You can’t be thinking of going down there. All you’re going to find down there is death and damnation, you realize that, don’t you? That staircase was not meant to be found!”

Eliza clenched her teeth. “Let’s go.”

She took the first step onto the top stair, which moaned beneath her weight. Catherine stayed close behind her and Theresa brought up
the rear as they continued down the winding stairs. All three flames seemed to wax and wane as they went, disorienting Eliza. Each time the light started to dim, she clutched Catherine more tightly, terrified of falling.