House of Salt and Sorrows (Sisters of Salt #1)

I sat up abruptly, startled from sleep. Blinking groggily, I pushed aside my hair, my bedclothes, and the sleep from my eyes. Memories of last night came floating back to me through a deep fog. The Churning Festival…the play and sculptures…Cassius kissing me…

On the boat ride back, snow had begun to fall, more and more heavily. Cassius and I used the cold as an excuse to sit too near to one another, our knees pressed daringly close. By the time we reached Salten, the sky had whipped into a cold fury, blasting the island with howling mistrals. Before I went to bed, I watched waves crash against the cliffs like battering rams.

A shriek pulled me from my heated thoughts. Shouts followed, then a keening wail, like an animal in torment. What on earth was going on? Wrapping my gray robe around me, I wandered out into the hall. The sounds came from downstairs. I broke into a headlong sprint, recognizing Lenore’s wails.

“They’re gone,” she cried as I entered her room. “They’re gone, Annaleigh!”

Camille and Hanna were already there, talking over each other with such force, I couldn’t make sense of it. Lenore flung herself into my arms, her cold, wet cheeks pressing into mine. Her body was a chaotic swirl of flowing hair and layers of ripped nightgown.

“What happened? Where are Ligeia and Rosalie?” I ran my hand over her hair, trying to soothe her. My fingers caught on something snagged in her locks. Working it free, I found a small twig. Red berry buds dotted the little brown branch.

“Were you outside?” I asked, showing her the twig.

“I don’t know, I don’t know,” she howled as Hanna raced off to find Papa. “But they’re gone!”

I barely missed being hit by her flailing arms. “Camille, what happened?”

She helped me guide Lenore to her bed. “From what I can make out, she woke up and Rosalie and Ligeia weren’t in their beds. She’s been raving ever since.”

“It’s the curse!” Lenore sobbed, muffling her cries in the pillows.

I rubbed her back. “Couldn’t they be down at breakfast? Or out on a morning walk? Has anyone checked?”

Camille shook her head. “I don’t know. I can’t get anything coherent out of her.”

“Lenore, you need to calm down.” I kept my voice firm but soft, pushing back a quiver of fear at the mention of the curse. I couldn’t bury any more sisters.

“They’re dead. I know they are!”

“Tell us what happened. Did you see something?”

She shook her head, miserable, and flung back the duvet I’d wrapped around her, eyes feverishly bright. “I’m them. They’re me. And they’re gone. I just feel it!”

I raised my hands, showing her I meant no harm. “It’s okay. We’ll find them. Do you know where they might have gone?”

Lenore sat up straight, making eye contact with Camille. “She does.” Her voice was dangerously laced with accusation.

Camille’s eyes flashed up to the ceiling as a look of rage passed over her. “She’s hysterical.”

I pushed a lock of hair from Lenore’s face, stroking her cheek. “What do you mean by that? Tell me, Lenore.” She fell back, sobbing, and I suddenly guessed her meaning. I turned on Camille. “Did you go out dancing last night?”

“What? No! We got back from Astrea so late, and there was the storm. No one would want to go out in that.”

Lenore’s jaw quivered. “They did!”

My eyes darted back and forth as they hurled volleys at each other.

“I had nothing to do with that.”

“You told them where the ball would be!”

Camille’s mouth dropped open in surprise. “I didn’t.”

“I saw you!”

She turned to me. “Annaleigh, I swear I don’t know what she’s talking about. I went straight to bed last night.”

Papa entered the room, bringing all talk of dancing to an end.

“The house is in total chaos. Servants are running around in tears, wailing about the triplets. What is going on?” He spotted Lenore. “Where are your sisters?”

“Rosalie and Ligeia weren’t in their beds when Lenore woke up,” I interceded, to keep Lenore from relapsing. I pulled him to the side, trying not to recoil—he still smelled like a tavern.

“She thinks they’re missing.”

Papa groaned, wiping a hand over his brow.

“They’ve got to be somewhere. I’ll start the search. Perhaps you could join us…after some coffee? They’ll be found soon.”

I would make sure of it.

Hours passed as the house was searched without finding a trace of my sisters.

“We’ve looked through the entire hedge maze, my lady,” Jules reported, coming in from the blizzard. Sterland and Fisher were with him. “We found nothing.”

As news of my sisters’ disappearance spread throughout Highmoor, our guests volunteered to help in the search.

“Where could they be?” Morella asked. She’d holed up in the Blue Room, entertaining the youngest girls and staying warm by a roaring fire. She looked pale and drawn. I worried what the day’s stress was doing to her and the babies.

I crossed the maze off the list of places to be searched. “Has anyone tried the crypt?”

“There’s at least a foot of snow outside,” Sterland said. “We would have seen their tracks.”

“The wind could have blown them away. I think we should search it. Tell Papa where I’ve gone.”

Cassius entered the room, snow dusting his shoulders. He’d been out searching the stables. His cheeks were bright red, burned from the cold and the winds. My swell of hope crashed as he shook his head.

“You said you’re going out?”

I nodded. “To the family crypt.”

“I’ll come with you. The storm is picking up. I can’t in good conscience let you go out alone. It wouldn’t be safe.”

All morning long, I’d avoided him, trying not to think about last night, about our kiss. I needed to stay focused. But he was right. If I went out in the storm on my own, there’d be another search party just for me.

“I need my cloak,” I said, scurrying up the stairs. “I’ll just be a moment.”

His footsteps trailed after me. As our eyes met, I felt my jaw tremble.

“How are you?”

His voice was low and warm and threatened to undo the hardened facade I’d tried to maintain all morning. I pushed a tear from my eye, as if it was no more than a speck of dust. “Today is most decidedly not about me.”

He bounded up the stairs between us. “You look exhausted. Let me search the crypt.”

I kept climbing. “You don’t know how to get there.”

“Send a servant with me. We’ll be there in no time.” His fingers brushed the hollow of my back. “Annaleigh…”

I stepped onto the landing. “I need to do this, Cassius. I can’t stay here looking through the same rooms over and over while everyone else is out searching. I feel like I’m going mad. Let me do this.”

“We’ll find them,” he promised, squeezing my hand. “There must be a room we missed, or perhaps they’re playing a prank?”

I shook my head. “They wouldn’t do that. They know what we’d think.”

Cassius stopped at the portrait just across from my bedroom, studying it. It had been painted before the triplets were born, back when there were just six of us.

“Those are my older sisters.”

“Ava, Octavia, Elizabeth, and Eulalie.”

I paused. “How did you know their names?”

He froze, his blue eyes dark. For a moment, he looked worried, caught in something. “On the plaque.”

I squinted at the little bit of brass under the picture frame. I couldn’t make out their names in the dim light. “There were twelve of us originally. But one by one, we’ve been picked off. The villagers think there’s a curse on our house. So you see, Rosalie and Ligeia would never pretend to go missing. It would be too cruel.”

“So much loss,” he said, his eyes focused on the painting.

I turned away from my sisters’ gazes. “Oh.”

“What is it?”

I studied the door handle. “I’m certain I left my door shut.”

But it was now several inches ajar. I pushed it wide open, hoping to find Ligeia and Rosalie inside. When I spotted a dark form near my bureau, a startled cry burst from my throat.

Ivor looked up in surprise, his face cloudy but panicked.

“What are you doing in here?” I demanded, and felt Cassius at my back, peering in.

Ivor slowly shut the drawer. One of my silk stockings caught in the latch. “Looking for the twins.”

“In Annaleigh’s dresser?” Cassius’s voice was dark with warning. “And they’re triplets.”

He shrugged. “Thought with everyone busy, I might search for clues.”

“Clues?”

“About the shoes.”

“My sisters are missing and you’re worried about our shoes?” I flew at him, grabbing his arm and pushing him toward the door with all the strength I could muster. It was like trying to move a mountain. “This is my private room. Get out of here!”

Ivor ducked out of my grasp. “I was just trying to help.”

“Help yourself, more like it.”

“The lady has asked you to leave her room,” Cassius reminded him, stretching out his frame.

Ivor glanced back and forth between us, one eyebrow raised. “And just what exactly are you doing in the lady’s room?”

Cassius’s eyes narrowed. He stared him down, silent and unmoving, until Ivor shuffled off. “There’s a trinket in your pocket I’m certain belongs to Miss Thaumas,” he called after him. “Leave it.”

Without looking back, Ivor dropped one of my hair ribbons to the ground, trampling it as he left. Cassius followed after him to make sure he didn’t wander into any of the other rooms.

As I picked up the ribbon, a memory stirred deep within me.

Hair.

I’d pulled a twig from Lenore’s hair this morning. A berry twig. I knew where those bushes were. They grew in a thicket in the forest not far from Highmoor. Lenore must have been there. And the triplets never did anything by themselves….

“I think I know where they might be,” I said as Cassius returned.

“Where?”

I raced down the stairwell, throwing a scarf around my neck. “Follow me.”