Blood Child by Lucinda Rose Page B

built. Two huge unicorn topiary hedges secured the entrance. Emily wove her way through the leafy walls, her hand trailing the sides until we finally came upon the construction site. Both Adam and I had lost all sense of direction. We had been too busy watching Emily glide to our destination.
    It was the solution to the problems posed by living in the house where her beloved brothers were massacred, even with the changes. The cottage and the maze provided a mental and physical barrier between her and the house. Until it was finished, she was bunking with Maggie, when she didn’t fall asleep on the sofa in the game room.
    She flatly refused to give up the estate. She kept reiterating that it was her responsibility. Adam raised an eyebrow in response. He was clueless as to why she felt responsible for the property. I was having a bit of trouble understanding it myself, but I let it go. Emily seemed more mature here on the estate than she had in sunny Florida. She had stopped running and had returned to face her demons. Part of me wondered how literal that last part would be for her. The person—or more likely, the persons—responsible for the massacre were still out there.
    The tour stopped short of going down into the basement to see the crypt before we were called back into the house for dinner. The sun had begun to set and with it our desire to head into the depths of Atalik’s palace. Despite all of Emily’s talk, we felt like the basement and its morbid treasures still belonged to him. Ms. Maggie had saved us before logic could talk us out of what our intuition was screaming at us. Tomorrow the crypt would be open and Atalik’s remains removed for cremation.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN
    D inner was banquet-style. Simon and about twelve others boys were there, in addition to the construction crews. Most were in the same Stepford uniforms that Michael and Ben were wearing earlier. They were all at the estate as a part of a state program. If they completed the program, it would expunge their juvenile transgressions and give them job experience. Em beamed with pride as she explained that the boys had all completed their GED requirements and were set to complete the program by the end of the summer. Then they would go on to college, the military, or jobs in the city.
    Ben, one of the young men from earlier, was absent. He had pulled guardhouse duty. He would eat the remnants of the buffet later. Simon winked at me as he made his way to a table close to mine. There was little conversation in the dining hall. Everyone was too busy eating Ms. Maggie’s excellent fare. Even Alex was chowing down, ignoring the scenery. It had been a grand ballroom once upon a time, with gigantic murals depicting the battles between the Titans and the Olympians. Only one of the murals was intact: Zeus standing in triumph over his father, Cronus. The symbolism of the youngest child defeating the wicked, corrupt father was not lost on me.
    Everything about the new Bath manor was a departure. The grand bedrooms had been torn out and replaced with dorm rooms. Formal sitting rooms were now classrooms. Everything, including the communal meals, was all a part of Em’s plan to combat the memories of the past. Joyful memories would replace each of the negative ones that haunted her, or at least that was the hope present in every action taken and planned for the manor.
    Once we finished eating, everyone hung out, catching up and playing card games. A few moved into the game room, which had been renovated to include a movie theater. The men and women who worked and lived at the estate were open and friendly, freely talking to me and letting Alex snap picture after picture. None of them seemed spooked about living and working there. They all knew the history and the plans for the estate. The past is the past, they said, and everyone wanted to be a part of the future Em was planning here. The only time their smiles dimmed was when I mentioned the crypt. The basement