Mara walked out of the Glass House and into the cold ocean air at noon, with her employment secured, but no place to sleep. Her heart, fueled by the morning's intense confrontation, began to sink under the weight of the coming night. She had secured the job, but the motel room was paid for until only Tuesday morning, and she could not afford another night.
By 6:00 PM, Mara swallowed her pride and returned to the staff entrance. She had to ask for the room. Elias's rules were absolute, but her necessity was greater.
She found Mrs. North looking worse than she had at noon. The house manager was slumped at the kitchen table, clutching a teacup, her complexion ashen.
"Mrs. North, I need to speak to Mr. Vale. My situation has changed," Mara said, keeping her voice low.
Before Mara could press further, Elias's voice cut through the kitchen's thick silence from the doorway. He was leaning against the frame, still wearing the black turtleneck, his bandaged arm visible.
"Your situation has not changed, Miss Quinn," Elias stated, his voice tight with controlled exhaustion. "You are broke. But my situation is... Mrs. North," he glanced toward the housekeeper, his expression hardening with unsentimental care, "She needs to rest. The doctor made that clear."
He stepped fully into the room, his proximity commanding. "The truth is, I need a functional house manager, and you are the only person available. You need money, Miss Quinn. I need a ghost."
He paused, letting the cold calculation sink in. "The terms are simple and non-negotiable. You take the room in the laundry annex, the staff quarters. You will be invisible. You will not use the main stairs, you will not speak to me unless addressed, and you will never approach the study. If you cause disruption, or if your curiosity gets the better of you, you are instantly gone. Is that perfectly understood?"
The conditions were cold, humiliating, and utterly absolute. But Mara saw her lifeline, not just the job, but the physical key to the house. The thought of sleeping beneath his roof, of existing in his proximity, was terrifying and thrilling.
She met his intense gaze, fighting the heat that rose in her cheeks. "It is understood, Mr. Vale. I will be silent."
Mara retrieved her pitiful suitcase and descended the steep, dark servant's staircase to the laundry annex.
The room was featureless. A cot, a shelf, and a bare concrete wall. But as Mara ran her hand along the wall near the cot, searching for a place to hide her pouch, her fingers snagged on something.
It wasn't concrete. It was painted wood.
Mara dug her nails in and pulled. A small, square section of the paneling swung inward on rusty hinges, revealing a dark recess. Her heart hammered against her ribs.
Inside the cramped hiding place, resting on a bed of faded velvet, was a small, smooth object carved from dark, translucent jade. It was shaped like a stylized wave, cold to the touch, and it hummed with a deep, unsettling thrum. The energy she had been seeking.
Mara stared at the first talisman, the key to the Siren's power, tucked into the wall of her tiny, borrowed prison. She was now officially a thief under Elias Vale's roof.
...
Late that night, unable to sleep, Mara was restless. The cold jade talisman pulsed beneath her pillow, a weak, insistent heartbeat. She retrieved it and clutched it, letting the energy spread through her, seeking a sympathetic vibration in the house itself.
It was instantaneous.
The humming in her hand intensified until it felt like a vibration against bone, pulling her like a weak magnet. She slipped silently out of the annex and ascended the servant's stairs. The house was pitch-black and silent, save for the rhythmic roar of the sea.
The jade talisman guided her unerringly through the main hall, past the silent Grand Library and the darkened Glass Room. The trail was precise, leading her directly toward the locked, heavy mahogany double-doors.
The doors to Elias Vale's private study.
The signal was strongest here. A dense, cold pressure that confirmed a major piece of the Siren's power, perhaps the central talisman, was hidden inside. This was the vault.
Mara stopped, her heart hammering wildly against her ribs, the jade pulsing a frantic rhythm against her skin. She was inches from the greatest secret in the house, separated only by a thick wooden barrier.
She looked up. A sliver of light was visible beneath the door, and the air here was thick with the faint, metallic scent of ozone and the heavy silence of secrets being kept.
Elias was awake. He was inside.
You clean the surface. You do not dig beneath it.
Mara stepped back, forcing the jade to quiet, forcing her ambition into cold control. She had found the vault. Now she just needed the key.