Brooke Beretta __top__ -

The first floor was mostly intact, though water damage had ruined the parquet floors and wallpaper hung in sad ribbons. The second floor held six bedrooms, each with a fireplace and a view of the overgrown garden. The third floor was a labyrinth of servants' quarters and storage rooms, many of them locked. The keys were long gone.

She never touched another Victorian again. brooke beretta

Silas believes the house will open a door to something he calls the "True World"—a place of pure potential, where thought becomes matter and matter becomes thought. The Order believes that if they can open the door and step through, they will become like gods. The first floor was mostly intact, though water

The basement opened into a single large chamber, circular, perhaps forty feet in diameter. In the center stood a pedestal of the same black material, and on the pedestal, a book. It was huge—two feet tall, a foot wide, bound in leather that might have once been brown but had aged to the color of dried blood. The pages were not paper but vellum, and they were covered in handwriting so small and precise it looked more like engraving. The keys were long gone

Brooke knew she should leave it alone. The will had been explicit: no research, no digging into the house's history. But the book was right there, and she had never been good at following rules she didn't understand.