Sacrificed Riley to the King novel · Chapter 5 of 24

Chapter 5: Thirteen Locks

I put my ear against the iron.

It was so cold it hurt, and the song was so quiet I had to hold my breath to follow it.

A woman's voice, low and unhurried, going into the second verse.

I knew the second verse.

My mother had always sung it a little flat on the high note.

This woman sang it flat on the high note.

I put my hand on the first lock.

It was a heavy brass thing the size of my fist, and it did not move.

I tried the second and the third.

By the sixth my fingers were numb and my eyes were burning.

"Mom," I said to the door. "Mom, it's Wynn."

The singing stopped.

I stood with my forehead on the iron and listened to the silence on the other side.

Then a boot scraped behind me.

"Step away from the door."

Torin stood at the mouth of the passage in a black shirt and bare feet, with his hair standing up on one side.

He had not made a sound getting there.

"Is she in there?" I said.

"Step away."

"Is my mother behind that door?"

"No."

I stared at him.

"Your mother is not behind this door," he said. "That is true, and it is all I'll say about it."

"Then who's singing?"

"Wynn."

"Who is that woman?"

"I told you," he said, and his voice dropped lower. "Thirty days."

"You told me. You didn't tell me you were keeping a locked door in your house with a woman singing behind it. You let me come all the way down here in the dark to find it."

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