The Lady in the Silver Mask

Chapter 5: The First Step

Evelina did not think.

She moved.

Three years of stillness should have made running impossible, but when the floor swallowed Tomas, something stronger than pain took command.

She ran to the opening.

Below was a hidden chamber beneath the house.

Adrian grabbed her arm. "If you go after him, the binding will collapse. You will both die."

Evelina turned on him.

"If I die," she said, "it will be moving toward my son."

Then she struck him.

Mrs. Vale picked up the fallen knife and stood between Adrian and the opening.

"Go," she said.

Evelina climbed down the hidden stairs. Every step hurt, but she followed the red-gold light.

The chamber below was lined with old symbols. Tomas lay in the center of a larger circle, unconscious. Around him stood glass vessels, each holding a thread of light.

Other children.

Other women.

Other lives stolen to preserve power.

Tomas opened his eyes. "Mother?"

"I am here."

She crawled to him and took his hand.

Adrian's voice echoed from above. "If you sever the threads, those tied to them may die."

Evelina knew he was telling the truth.

Tomas whispered, "I can give back what was taken."

"It will hurt you."

"You ran for me."

"No," she said. "We do it together."

She removed her broken silver mask and placed it between them.

"One," Evelina said.

The chamber trembled.

"Two," Tomas whispered.

The glass vessels cracked.

"Three," they said together.

Light exploded.

The stolen threads broke free and rushed upward like birds escaping cages. Across the country, old spells failed. Children woke. Women remembered their names.

Adrian entered just as his inheritance collapsed.

"No!" he shouted.

The red circle stripped him of every borrowed protection. His charm, his control, his unnatural power vanished.

By dawn, Ashbourne Manor had changed.

The west nursery was unlocked. The underground chamber was exposed. Mrs. Vale sent for authorities with documents she had hidden for years. Adrian was taken away not as a lord, but as a criminal.

Evelina spent three days in bed afterward.

Her legs were not perfectly healed. Some days she walked. Some days she needed the chair. But the chair no longer meant captivity.

Weeks later, she returned to society with Tomas beside her.

She walked slowly, with a cane.

It was not graceful.

It was not painless.

But it was hers.