She stood before the gates, looking up at the aged iron and hesitating to touch them.

It was close to eleven o’clock at night, and here she was, standing outside the Diviny manor, cowering like a mouse before its yawning gates. It was safe to say she was scared of her own shadow and anything that remotely resembled something that breathed.

It did not help much that the Diviny manor looked like someone had just grabbed it out of the pages of a Victorian gothic novel and plonked it into the center of the estate. The spires seemed to tear into the blue-black sky, rending the night’s fabric apart with their tapered ends.

Taking a decisive gulp, Elinor slipped past the gap in the gates and stood in the beginnings of the courtyard of Diviny Manor, trying to catch her breath and still her heart.

Something was afoot here. Most definitely.

She hugged her jacket, keeping her brown eyes fixed straight ahead as she walked purposefully towards the manor.

She was going to find Lisha, no matter what it took.