I started to get up and head towards the door, but Sophie caught my wrist.
"Wait, let's talk this through," she said.
"We've left him alone long enough," I said. "He's so isolated and despairing. We can't leave him like that a moment longer."
"I think you're projecting," Sophie said.
"What are you talking about? We just felt everything he was feeling," I said.
"I didn't," Sophie said. "I knew he was on the third floor. I sensed that. But as to the rest?" She looked over at Brianna, who shrugged and then shook her head.
I sank back down to the floor. "We were all seeing the same thing, right?"
"A projection of the house like a dollhouse with blots of color inside," Brianna said.
"I didn't see the dollhouse," I said. "I guess I was just in it. But the blots of color were people."
"Yes," Brianna agreed.
"I saw the dollhouse," Sophie said, "but my colors were more like streaks in a stream. Moving, like dancing, but never quite fading away."
"So we created a thing together, but we all have different perceptions of it," I said. "Didn't you two see Edward?"
"I sensed him upstairs, where we already knew he was," Brianna said. "I was worried about who Charlotte might be talking to, so I tried to focus on Coco and her. But Coco hasn't found her yet, and I couldn't sense Charlotte anywhere."
"I didn't either, but I wasn't trying too," Sophie said.
"Nor I," I said, but turned to Sophie. "What were you trying to sense?"
"I was focused on the library," Sophie said. "I thought perhaps a malevolent heart would either be one of them, or in their custody, or just as interested in what the police were up to as we are."
"But you didn't find anything?" I asked.
"No," she said. "Otto is still being questioned. He was in some discomfort. I'm not sure they are being kind with their questions."
"Great," I said. "Another thing we have to stop. The police are botching this. We really have to step in."
"And do what?" Brianna asked. "Declare ourselves witches and command everyone to obey us?"
"Obviously not," I said.
"Then what?" she asked.
"I don't think Otto would want us to intervene," Sophie said. "He knew what he was up against when he let them take him into the library. I don't think it's gone outside the realm of things he was prepared to face."
"All right," I said. "But I'm still going upstairs to see Edward. And no one is going to stop me."
"How are you going to get past our guard?" Sophie asked.
"Through there," I said, pointing at Coco's little secret door.
"It's going to be tight," she said, swinging the door open to look inside. "And dusty."
"Well, it's not like I was ever going to wear this dress again anyway," I said. But even so, I gathered the long skirt up around my waist and tied it up so I wouldn't trip on it while I was crawling.
The crawl space smelled like old dust and mouse droppings, and it was bone-chillingly cold. By the time I reached the far door which opened out onto a shadowed corner of the back stairs landing my hands were numb, and I had an angry red scrape down the side of one knee from when I'd brushed up against a protruding nail.
When Sophie and Brianna were out of the door we all three headed up the stairs to the third floor.
The guards that had been distantly visible from the top of the main staircase were only a few feet away from us here. I quickly ducked back behind the corner, and we crept back down to the second-floor landing.
"There's still two of them," I said.
"Awake?" Sophie asked.
"Very alert," I said. "They nearly saw me."
"I can try being flirty," Sophie said. "It worked for Charlotte with Ricci."
"These are older guys," I said. "Maybe not immune to your charms, but better trained at being professional when on the job. I don't think we're going to be able to talk our way past them or even distract them long enough for me to slip by."
"I have a sleeping spell," Brianna said, and Sophie and I both started to perk up. But her face was glum. "It's not great, though. It comes out of my wand like sand and takes a moment to work. I'm not sure I can get close enough, or get it in their eyes, or not get nabbed before it has a chance to work."
"Maybe we should find Coco," I said. "If Edward is in one of her brothers' rooms, there must be a passage that leads there as well."
"Wait," Sophie said. "Let's go back to Brianna's plan."
"No, getting Coco is a better plan," Brianna said. "Mine's bad. Not doable."
"Maybe not for you alone," Sophie said. "But I think together we can make it work."
"One of your breezes?" I guessed. She nodded. "Can you do one strong enough to carry sand?"
"I guess we'll see," she said. "I'm going to the top of the stairs. Once I get moving, Brianna, you toss up that magic sand from your wand. Then we'll see."
"And if it doesn't work, they'll see you," I said.
"Then you two run for it and figure something out without me," Sophie said. "Ready?"
Brianna took out her wand and gave it a little flick then nodded.
Sophie slipped off her shoes and handed them to me before creeping back up the stairs. Then she began to dance. This was nothing like her dancing at the party earlier. I could feel the power flowing around her as she enticed the very air around her to dance with her in ever more powerful waves that I could almost see.
There was a murmur of male voices, one of the guards speaking to the other one. Sophie kept on dancing, building momentum.
"Miss? You're meant to be downstairs," one of them said, and I could hear his footsteps as he got up from this chair and came down the corridor towards Sophie.
"Now," Sophie called to us.
Brianna spoke a word and made a gesture with her wand like a fly fisher casting off. Golden grains showered out of the end of her wand, falling at once towards the floorboards.
But Sophie's wind snatched most of them up, whirling around her body once then moving in a wavering line like a gymnast's dancing ribbon down the corridor.
Sophie stopped dancing, her arms wrapping around her body as she came to a halt. She rose up on tiptoe, peering down the dark corridor. Then her face lit up.
"It worked!" she said.
"But for how long?" I asked as Brianna, and I joined her on the landing.
"I've only ever seen it used on children," Brianna said. "I don't know how long it will last on a grown man, but I would think it would be something short of all night."
"That's a little bit open-ended, don't you think?" I asked, handing Sophie her shoes.
"I'll stay here as lookout," Sophie said. "In case anyone comes up the stairs."
"I'll be lookout outside the bedroom door," Brianna said, and the two of us went down the corridor to where the two police officers were slumped on their chairs, snoring loudly.
"I guess we'll know if they start to wake up," I said.
"I can dose them again if they start to stir," Brianna said. "Take all the time you need."
"Thanks," I said. I grasped the doorknob, but it wouldn't turn. "Locked."
"Oh," Brianna said, looking down at the guards. "Maybe one of them has the key in his pocket."
"No worries," I said, catching her arm before she could start pawing through their clothing. "Let them sleep. I have a workaround."
She raised one eyebrow in question, then both when she saw the golden key I pulled from my beaded bag.
"You brought that with?" Brianna asked. "To a party?"
"So far it's been more useful than my wand," I said and slipped it inside the keyhole. It turned with a soft click, and the door was open.
"Don't forget why we're here," she said as I put the key away.
"To solve a murder," I said. "But also to comfort a friend."
"One is more time-sensitive than the other," Brianna said.
"Is it?" I asked. Then I slipped through the door, shutting it behind me before she could respond.