Chapter 5 - The Sister Erased from the Family
Adrian blocked the officers from reaching Lily.
“You will not take her until my attorneys review the warrant.”
The commissioner placed the document on the table.
“It was approved by a family court judge.”
“Which judge?”
“Elliot Crane.”
Theo cursed quietly.
Judge Crane had served on the Royal Heritage Foundation board for eleven years.
Adrian read the warrant.
It named Celeste Vane as Lily’s temporary responsible guardian.
“This is not protective custody,” Adrian said. “It is a transfer.”
The commissioner’s expression revealed discomfort.
“I enforce court orders. I do not write them.”
Lily moved closer to Adrian.
“Will she take my hairpins?”
“No.”
“You cannot promise that.”
Adrian looked down at her.
“I should have protected your mother. I will not make the same mistake twice.”
He handed the warrant back.
“You may search the room. Lily remains with me.”
The commissioner signaled to the officers.
Theo closed the library doors.
A tense silence followed.
Then an alarm sounded in the hotel kitchen.
Theo touched the earpiece hidden beneath his collar.
“Smoke detected on the first floor.”
The officers looked toward the corridor.
Adrian did not believe in convenient alarms.
Neither did Theo.
“Take Lily through the archive passage,” Adrian said.
The commissioner frowned.
“What passage?”
Adrian pulled a book from the lowest shelf.
A narrow door opened behind the portrait of Queen Amara.
The police officers moved forward.
Theo stepped between them and Adrian.
“No one is being harmed. We are evacuating a child during a fire alert.”
Adrian guided Lily into the passage.
The door closed behind them.
A stone staircase led downward.
Lily held his hand as emergency bells echoed through the walls.
“Did you build this?”
“My grandfather did. He believed every important room needed two exits.”
“Was he afraid?”
“He was king. Fear was part of the job.”
The stairs ended in a corridor beneath the hotel.
Adrian used his phone as a light.
“Why was my mother called Elena Ashbourne?”
“She was born Princess Elena Amara Ashbourne.”
“Was she a real princess?”
“Yes.”
“Am I a princess?”
Adrian stopped.
Lily’s expression held curiosity rather than excitement.
“That depends on whether the old succession laws still matter.”
“Mommy said crowns make people forget they have heads.”
Adrian laughed before he could stop himself.
“She used to say that to our father.”
“Was he the man who carried me?”
“No.”
“You saw his face.”
“I saw someone who looked like him.”
Lily looked ahead.
“Maybe people do not stay dead in this family.”
They continued walking.
The corridor opened into a private underground parking area. Theo’s driver waited beside an armored car.
Adrian helped Lily inside.
Theo joined them two minutes later.
“The kitchen alarm was caused by an electrical fire,” he said. “Small and controlled.”
“Celeste?”
“Almost certainly.”
“Where are the police?”
“Searching the library.”
The car moved through the private exit.
Adrian placed the seven hairpins on the seat between them.
“Tell me everything your mother said about these.”
Lily touched the first pin.
“She said they were seven silver flowers that opened seven doors.”
“What doors?”
“She did not tell me.”
“The fourth opened with the lullaby.”
“Miriam said the others open in order.”
Adrian arranged them by the tiny marks inside the clasps.
A1 through A7.
Lily pointed toward the first.
“My mother said the beginning was hidden under the music.”
Adrian examined the wooden music box from Miriam’s bag.
It was scratched, ordinary, and older than Lily.
He turned the key.
The same royal lullaby began to play.
Halfway through the melody, the music slowed.
Adrian noticed that four notes repeated incorrectly.
He pressed the clasp of the first hairpin in the same pattern.
It opened.
Inside was a strip of thin paper.
19-7-3-11.
Theo studied it.
“A code?”
Adrian looked at the music box.
“The notes correspond to letters.”
He matched the four numbers to the lullaby’s musical sequence.
S-G-C-K.
“That makes no sense,” Theo said.
“Not letters,” Lily replied. “Books.”
Adrian looked at her.
“Mommy taught me library codes. Nineteen means the nineteenth shelf. Seven means the seventh book.”
The car was traveling toward Adrian’s private residence, but he told the driver to change direction.
“Return to the hotel’s eastern archive.”
Theo stared at him.
“The police are still there.”
“The eastern archive has a separate entrance.”
“What do you think is hidden there?”
Adrian looked at the brass key marked B13.
“My family records contain a section that does not appear on any public floor plan.”
The first hairpin’s numbers led them to shelf nineteen, book seven, chapter three, line eleven.
Adrian remembered the title of the book.
The Winter Kings of Varelia.
Line eleven contained only five words.
Beneath the music, truth waits.
The hotel had one room located directly beneath the orchestra platform.
It had been sealed since the night Queen Amara died.
Before Adrian could explain, Lily lifted the second hairpin.
A tiny red light flashed inside its clasp.
Theo grabbed it.
“That is not part of the original design.”
A transmission device had been installed inside the hairpin.
Someone was tracking them.
The car turned into a narrow street.
May you like
Headlights appeared behind them.
Then another vehicle blocked the road ahead.
