Read A Drop of Night for Free Online Page B

reflecting the branches and the sky.
    We’re approaching something: a wide white house squatting at the end of the avenue. It’s a château, stark against the muddy greens and grays of the countryside.
    I nudge Jules with my foot. “I think we’re here,” I mumble.
    He doesn’t wake up.
    The cars pull up in front of the pale château, curling like a fiddlehead around the wide circular driveway. The locks on our doors click open.
    I step out into the cold. Car doors are opening all around, disgorging Red Spikes, the other bodyguards, Will. Miss Sei is clicking toward me.
    â€œWhere are we?” I ask her, looking up at the house. It’s symmetrical, two floors, square windows. Probably mid-nineteenth century. Solid and big and old, like a country stronghold.
    â€œChâteau du Bessancourt. It’s part of the Sapani portfolio,” Miss Sei says. It’s the first time I’ve heard her talk. She has a perfect cut-glass English accent. She opens Dorf’s door. Murmurs something into the dim interior.Turns back to me. “They bought it several years ago and began a restoration. That’s why you’re here. Professor Dorf will explain inside.”
    â€œWait, we’re staying here ?” Jules is climbing out behind me, groggy, his hair sticking up in wet-cat spikes.
    Dorf chuckles and unfolds out of the passenger seat. “Of course!” He stamps twice on the cobbled drive. His leather wingtip shoes are polished to mirrors. “This is our site. One hundred feet below us lies the entrance to the mythical Palais du Papillon. Best be close by, I thought.”
    I stare at the cobbles. Peer up at the house again. Somewhere in the blue folder it was mentioned that the original château burned to the ground during the revolution. This one must be the replacement. It’s weird to think about French people in wigs and stockings running around here a couple centuries ago. That there was another world here before us, people going about their lives with no idea what was coming for them. I look back down the avenue, stretching away, nothing on either side but trees and fields.
    Hayden and Lilly walk up, Lilly jabbering, Hayden glowering straight ahead like he wants to punch something.
    â€œEverybody?” Dorf says. His voice hangs in the frozen air, dull and muffled. “Listen, please. This will be our base of operations during the expeditions. While the Sapanis are not here at the moment, we will be guests in their home. Be careful and conscious of that while you are staying in the château. Now. There will be attendants to bring in your luggage. Follow me.”
    Lilly slips back into one of the Mercedes and shoulders her huge backpack.
    â€œHe said leave it,” Jules mutters to her, and I see her look at him like, Over my dead body . We follow Dorf up the steps to the dark, polished doors. They’re carved with hatchets and roses, just like the coat of arms on our documents. We step into the high, echoing hall. Miss Sei and the four bodyguards enter behind us. I’m still not sure why the bodyguards are here. I get that the Sapanis are rich and powerful, but it’s not like there are going to be paparazzi leaping out of the hedges and sticking microphones in our faces.
    The floor is tiled in black-and-white marble. The walls are paneled in dark wood. The air is cold. Damp. The kind of air that comes when no one’s breathing it, when it just sits and stagnates like still water.
    I’m walking right beside Dorf. He leans over. “Anouk,” he says quietly, pleasantly. “It’s really wonderful you could be here. We were worried we wouldn’t fill the last spot, but then, there you were! And with such a fortunate family! We’re so pleased for you.” He spins, and his voice goes up about ten decibels. “Everyone! Miss Sei will take you to your rooms now.”
    I stare at him, confused. He smiles at me, all