Chapter 60 060

Chapter 60 060

Rayna
Daylight should have brought clarity, but it didn’t. I had no idea how I had fallen asleep after I'd gotten back from Zero's room, but I woke with Zero’s eyes still pressed into the back of my skull, unblinking and intense, the memory clinging to me like a second skin. I hadn’t slept so much as drifted in and out of something thin and restless, my body exhausted while my mind refused to loosen its grip.

He’d looked at me last night, like really looked at me. He hadn't looked past me, nor through me, but at me.

That single fact replayed itself over and over again in my head, and each time it unraveled something new inside my chest. It shouldn’t have mattered. A look was nothing, a look was harmless to everyone else, except it wasn’t.

It had felt like being seen for the first time and warned at the same time. It didn't help that my emotions were conflicting as well. On one hand I was happy, and on the other hand, I was slightly worried as to what this meant for me.

I rolled onto my side and stared at the wall, my fingers curling into the sheets. The House hummed faintly around me, alive in that way it always was, like it was listening even now. I wondered, not for the first time, how much of it watched and how much of it remembered.

Zero’s silence from the night before clung to me just as tightly as his gaze had. The contrast unsettled me more than either on its own. Silence, I was learning, came in different forms.

Some were empty, some were loaded, and some left me completely confused.

I turned on my back when I was lost at what to do next. I wanted to pretend like what had happened was nothing, but deep down I knew it was impossible. It didn't help that no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't get the thought out of my head.

I was still at a loss of what to do, when something stirred in my spirit.

I couldn’t stay here. I couldn't.

That thought came fully formed, sharp enough to jolt me upright. Lying in this room, replaying last night, letting my mind spiral, it felt dangerous and all too repetitive in a way. If I stayed still much longer, I might start seeing patterns where there were none. Or worse, I might miss the ones that mattered.

So I dressed quickly, movements restless, and my thoughts racing ahead of my hands. As I slipped my shoes on, the Mistress’s voice rose unbidden in my mind, calm and precise.

Do not dig.

“I’m not,” I muttered under my breath. “I’m just walking.”

I told myself that lie as easily as breathing.

The corridors welcomed me with their usual quiet menace, long and elegant and never quite empty. Light filtered in through high windows, pale and filtered, casting shadows that never seemed to sit quite right. Every step echoed softly, swallowed almost immediately by the House.

I walked without a destination, letting my feet decide while my mind stayed half a step behind. I passed doors I wasn’t meant to open, corners I’d learned not to linger near. Staff moved occasionally in the distance, heads lowered, conversations clipped and cautious. It probably didn't make sense, but a for a moment, I actually thought they were talking about me.

Could they though? And even if they were, what reason did they have to do that? Had they figured out that I was snooping? Or perhaps, had they realized that the locket was nowhere to be found?

I pushed the endless questions out of my mind and decided to focus on one thing. Everyone here knew how to mind their place, and they were simply doing that.

That was what made it stand out when I heard voices that weren’t careful.

They drifted toward me from around a bend ahead. I almost ignored it, but they were low, urgent, and stripped of the House’s usual restraint. I slowed instinctively, my pulse ticking up as I recognized the cadence of secrecy.

“…can’t keep pretending she doesn’t know,” one voice said. It belonged to a man, and if his voice betrayed any emotion, it was the fact that he was tense.

“She’s not supposed to know anything,” another replied. This one softer, but no less sharp. “That’s the point.”

I stopped.

My heart thudded once, hard enough to make me dizzy, but I edged closer, each step cautious now, my senses sharpening painfully.

“She’s asking questions,” the first voice continued. “About the girl. About the archive.”

My stomach dropped as realization dawned on me. They were talking about me and referring to Lila.

I barely had time to react before a shadow shifted at the corner of my vision. Panic flared hot and fast, and I ducked back immediately, pressing myself into a narrow recess between two tall shelves that lined the corridor wall. The smell of old paper and polish filled my nose as I flattened myself into the space, holding my breath.

I wasn't sure how long passed, but footsteps passed. That was close, too close. If they had lingered for so much as a second, then I would have gotten caught.

I stared at the wall inches from my face, my heart hammering so loud I was sure it would give me away. Through the narrow gap, I caught a glimpse of them as they moved past. They were two figures walking side by side, their faces partially obscured by the angle and the light.

I recognized one.

Not by name, but by posture. From his presence, I just knew he was someone I’d seen before, someone who belonged here, saomeone who wasn’t supposed to be whispering.

“…the Mistress won’t be pleased,” the second voice murmured as they walked. “If this gets out….”

“It won’t,” the first cut in. “Not if we handle it.”

Their steps faded, the sound dissolving into the quiet like it had never existed at all.

I stayed where I was long after they were gone, my body rigid, and my lungs burning from holding in too much air. When I finally breathed again, it came out shaky and uneven.

My mind raced, piecing together fragments with growing dread.

They knew I was asking questions. They knew about the archive, and about Lila.

Which meant someone had been watching me. Reporting, and probably feeding information back into the House’s veins like poison.

A traitor.

The realization settled in my chest, heavy and cold.

This wasn’t just about Zero anymore, or the Mistress’s warnings, or my sister’s locket hidden away like a sin.

This was bigger.

Someone inside the House was leaking information, or shaping it. Someone who smiled and nodded and followed the rules while quietly deciding who was allowed to know the truth and who wasn’t.

And if I’d heard that much by accident…

I pushed away from the wall slowly, my hands trembling despite my effort to still them. The corridor looked the same as it always had, polished, pristine, and indifferent, but it no longer felt safe.

I straightened my shoulders and started back the way I’d come, every sense on high alert now.

The House had teeth, and somewhere inside it, someone was baring them.