Chapter 26

• Tessa's POV:
• It was another day. I found a loose thread on the edge of my sleeve and began unknotting it slowly, pulling it free with the sort of concentration one would normally use for disarming bombs. Anything to keep my hands busy. Anything to delay the creeping sense of helplessness that had been yipping at my heels since Amelia said it, “We didn’t find anything.”
• The room was quiet again, except for the soft sounds of the curtains and the occasional creak from the old floorboards beneath us. It was well past midnight now. Everyone was too tired to speak, but too wound up to sleep. We had been at it for hours, thinking of what to do. Grace sat cross-legged on the floor, playing around with a broken quill. Amelia paced quietly near the fireplace, eyes flicking from the flames to the closed wardrobe like it might burst open and offer us answers. I almost snorted at this. If only.