“Not hounds, then,” Lawson said. Silver Bloods? Maybe they’d drained Arthur, and that was why there wasn’t any blood. He hated the thought of it. He’d seen the work of the Silver Blood in the Repository and shuddered to think of his friend as one of their victims.
Malcolm seemed to know what he was thinking. “If it was a vampire, there would be blood,” he said.
“We have to assume he got away, then,” Lawson said.
“Where would he go? And wouldn’t he leave us some sort of sign if he’d had any chance to?” asked Rafe.
Edon nodded grudgingly. “We’ve been digging around, but we haven’t been able to come up with much. Just about everything is ruined.”
“Just about?”
“We found a book,” Malcolm said. “Through the Looking-Glass. Arthur was always getting on me to read it.”
Weird thing to leave behind, Lawson thought. “What’s it about?”
“A fairy tale about a mirror that takes you to another world,” Malcolm explained.
Huh. “Did you go into Arthur’s room?” Lawson asked.
“Of course we did,” Edon snapped. “We looked everywhere!”
“Remember that gold mirror he somehow lugged down here?” Lawson asked. “How strange we thought it was that he’d carry it around with him? Did that get trashed too, or is it still standing?”
“It’s still there,” Rafe said. “We tried everything.”
“I have an idea,” Lawson said. “Follow me.”
They worked their way through the rubble until they reached Arthur’s room, where the only thing left intact was the enormous old-fashioned mirror. Lawson looked at the ground in front of it.
Footprints.
Lawson grinned as he pushed on the mirror.
Nothing happened.
“See? We tried that too,” Rafe said.
Lawson didn’t give up. He ran his hands along its length until he felt a button.
“What are you doing?” Malcolm asked.
“Give me a second.”
Lawson pushed the button, and the mirror opened outward, nearly hitting him in the face.
“So he did leave us a clue,” Edon said. He didn’t sound so annoyed anymore, but Lawson didn’t have time to be grateful.
“There’s a passageway back here,” he said. “Let’s go.”
The five of them entered the passageway single file, with Lawson in front. Rafe closed the door, leaving them in darkness, but Lawson turned on his phone, and the passageway lit up, just enough so they could see their way forward. They only had to walk for a few minutes before they reached a door.
“Is it open?” Rafe whispered.
“No,” Lawson whispered back.
“Should we force it?”