Free Kiera Hudson & The Lethal Infected by Tim O'Rourke Page B

about,” he said, letting go of my hand and stepping inside.
    I followed him into the gloom. Potter closed the door behind me, sending what sounded like a rumble of thunder throughout Hallowed Manor. I peered through the darkness and could see that I was standing in the vast hall. I could just make out the wide staircase that disappeared up into a wall of black. At the top, I knew the stairs spit to the left and the right. One had led to the bedrooms, the other to the forbidden wing. Was it still forbidden to go there?
    There was a sudden flare of light in the darkness. Potter’s face appeared in the glare of the candle he had just lit.
    “Candles?” I asked. “Is there no electricity?”
    “Candlelight creates a certain kind of mood, don’t you think?” he said, the candlelight doing nothing to brighten his jet-black eyes. For a place that was meant to be the location of a birthday party, I couldn’t hear a sound. Perhaps everyone was waiting in the darkness, readying themselves to jump out, surprise me and wish me a happy birthday. I peered once again into the darkness. I could see doorways leading off it. I knew the third door to my left led to the huge kitchen.
    “This way,” Potter said, heading across the hall and away from the kitchen. The sound of his shoes and my heels echoed off the highly polished floor and around the hall. Reaching a double set of doors, Potter looked at me once more. “Ready?”
    “Ready for what?” I whispered.
    Without saying another word, Potter pushed open the double doors. The room beyond them wasn’t in darkness like the hall. I was standing looking into the long dining room. There was a table running from one end of it to the other and it was lined with hundreds of candles. All of them were lit and bathed the cavernous room in a deep, fiery glow. Leaving me standing in the open doorway, Potter walked to the opposite end of the room, coming to rest at the end of the long table. There were several people sitting at it. And as each of them turned their faces toward me, it was as if I was bombarded with a hundred different memories of each of them all at once. Sitting opposite each other at the very far end of the table was Lord Hunt and Doctor Ravenwood. Neither of them looked any different from how I remembered them to be. Lord Hunt still looked pale and gaunt, a nest of wrinkles around his dark eyes and flecks of grey in otherwise black hair. Ravenwood still reminded me of a giant owl somehow. Perhaps it was his bushy white hair and the way his glasses always sat perched at the end of his hooked nose that made me think that. Neither of them said anything, they just stared at me as I stood alone in the doorway wearing my new dress. Both of them wore smart, dark coloured suits like Potter. I looked at Hunt and couldn’t help but wonder if he were at Hallowed Manor with his children, Kayla and Isidor. I looked at the other guests along each side of the table, but I couldn’t see them. Apart from one, I’d already met the others in this world. Murphy was seated at the table, and I was glad to see him. Next to him sat Phebe and Uri. I now understood why they had got Jeremy to cover for them at the Crescent Moon Inn. And seeing them both sitting at the table also made me feel a little guilty. Phebe had obviously only been prying into what my plans had been as they had been intending on throwing this surprise birthday party for me. Sitting opposite them on the other side of the table was someone who I knew but thought I would never see again. Mrs. Payne sat and looked at me. Her face was as wizened and hair silver as I remembered it to be. She still wore the same frumpy grey dress that she had when working as a housekeeper at Hallowed Manor. I had once believed her to be a doting housemaid to Kayla, who had been left in her charge. But Mrs. Payne had been a traitor and had helped plan the murders of the sick half-breeds hidden away in the makeshift hospital in the attic. Kayla had