The Admont Abbey Library was an exquisite masterpiece of Baroque architecture and the crown jewel of the city. The moment Semele stepped through the doors, a wave of calm descended on her. Every stone and piece of marble had been laid for one purpose—knowledge. Semele could feel its light shining all around her.
She remembered her visit to the abbey as a child with crystalline clarity. She had broken away from their tour to go look at the books.
One particular book had drawn her attention, and she’d pulled it off the shelf. The text was in German so she hadn’t understood the words, but the pictures of children from World War II had mesmerized her. They were black-and-white photos; the children dressed in old-fashioned clothes that were ratty and torn. Aid workers, nuns, and nurses stood hovering in the background of each of the pictures, but it was the children whose images broke the heart. They stared straight into the camera lens with eyes that said they had suffered too much.
Her father had found her sitting on the floor next to a bookshelf.
“What are you doing?” he whispered. When he saw what she was holding, he took the book away. “Darling, this is a historical archive, very precious. We can’t touch.”
“What is it about, Dad?”
He glanced at the title with raised eyebrows. “Orphanages in Austria During the War.” He returned the book to the shelf and led her back to the tour. Semele had thought about those pictures for weeks afterward. It was as if every image had been imprinted on her mind.
The moment returned to her with a strong feeling of déjà vu, showing her a memory carefully preserved within these walls. In that book was a picture of Nettie standing with the children in front of the Engel House Orphanage in Vienna.
Semele had found her grandmother twenty years ago, and she knew without a doubt it was the place where her mother was being kept.
Ten of Wands
They were en route to Vienna when Viktor called again.
“Semele, I grow tired.”
“We’re coming! We’re on our way to Engel House. Is my mother all right? Let me speak to her!”
Viktor ignored her. “Your words fill me with profound relief. Your little field trip took longer than I expected. We are almost done with this phase of the experiment. Now don’t let us down, dear girl. And come alone, just you two, or you will never see your mother again. You have until sunset, and then she dies.”
He hung up. Semele began to shake.
Theo looked over at her in concern. “What did he say?”
“My mother’s there. We don’t have much time.”
*
The next few hours were an intense whirlwind. Theo chartered a helicopter to take them to Vienna, brushing off Semele’s lingering concerns about the cost. “Your family is my family,” he insisted.
Semele was choked with gratitude and could only nod her thanks. It was true that Nettie and Liliya had become sisters at Makaryev, bonded by something stronger than blood. It was a bond that would survive well beyond their deaths.
Semele looked out the helicopter window at Vienna, a sprawling city of over a million and a half people, where her grandmother had spent her years after the war. This was where her mother was born.
Another feeling of déjà vu enveloped her.
The dream.
She knew this moment—had experienced every second before—a moment so powerful, the memory had imprinted itself in her mind before it ever took place. Just as she had in the dream, Semele leaned over and kissed Theo.
He pulled away, their lips inches apart, and whispered, “You know you’re not going to get rid of me after this.”
She kissed him again as her answer, for the first time understanding her gift. Her intuition had been her shadow all her life, always there, always a part of her, speaking to her in dreams and thoughts and inklings. Because of the darkness surrounding her now, she could finally see.
*
The Engel House orphanage and the Academy of the Blind stood side by side, and when she saw them, Semele felt like she was meeting her grandmother and grandfather for the first time.
The orphanage was boarded up and had long since shuttered its doors. Several buildings on the block had construction signs posted outside them, and the four-story building that had once housed the orphanage would likely soon be refurbished.
The heavy wooden doors resembled the entrance to a church. A bolt and chain wrapped around the wrought-iron handles like a snake. It had been cut by someone to allow them entry—an ominous welcome.
Semele felt like she’d located a needle in a haystack. She couldn’t believe she had managed to find her mother in all of Europe with the sheer force of her mind. She watched Theo take the chain off, and her pulse began to race. Whoever—whatever—was waiting on the other side of those doors terrified her.
“Semele, you can do this,” Theo said.
She nodded, knowing she had no choice.
Ionna had foreseen these events and had tried to prepare her: The road must be walked whether you are ready or not.
The World
Semele stepped inside and let her eyes adjust to the darkness. The boarded-up windows allowed in little light. She moved through a hallway filled with cobwebs and dust. Cracks riddled the walls like veins.
“Apropos. Don’t you think?” Viktor’s voice rang out from a room up ahead. “Nettie’s sanctuary for years. The place where she tried to forget. The place where you must remember.”
Semele walked toward the voice, leaving Theo to follow behind.
She found Viktor Salko in what could only have been the library, though its bookshelves were now empty. He sat on the far side of the room in a high-back chair, like a king at court waiting for an audience. An oxygen tank stood next to him and a mask covered his mouth. He had thinning hair, and a pained expression dulled the hawkish lines of his face; he wore an ivory suit with a matching shirt and tie, as though he were dressed for a wedding … or a funeral.
Her eyes landed on her mother.
Helen was gagged and strapped to a chair twenty feet away. Wires had been hooked up all over her body and led to a strange contraption at the center of her chest. Semele had no idea what she was looking at.
Her mother’s eyes watered when she saw her, and she tried to call out through the gag. The sound brought Semele out of her stupor and she took a step forward.
“That is close enough,” Viktor ordered in a sharp voice. He had taken off his oxygen mask. “Stand still and let me look at you.”
Semele glared at him, her body emanating cold hatred.
“I’m quite impressed you made it in time. It seems my experiment worked.” He laughed in relief. “I really wasn’t sure it would.”
“Why are you doing this?” she demanded, her voice unsteady.
He answered her question with a question. “What battles intuition? The haze of doubt, the fog of the mind. You have been in a fog all your life. Now it is time to step out of it if you want to live.”
Semele’s body quivered. Every atom within her vibrated with fear and anger.
“Your grandmother hid you away, and your intuition was buried with the help of a workaholic father and an alcoholic mother. I’ve been attempting to liberate you. It’s been very difficult.”