Chapter 54 Isabeau #2
“We’re trapped,” I said, panic rising like bile.
“No.” Alain’s voice was steady, his gaze calculating as he assessed our chamber. “There’s always a way out. You’ve escaped prisons before. So have I.”
He was right. I’d survived Gaspard’s touch, the drowning cage, and Alain’s tower room. This was just another cage, and I refused to die in it.
“The wolves will be drawn to our scent,” I said, mind racing. “If we can create a distraction, make them think we went one way while we go another...”
Alain nodded, already gathering items from around the room. My hairbrush with strands still caught in its teeth, the blanket we’d slept under, a scrap of bloody bandage from his wound.
“Something with our scent,” he said, bundling it all together. “Throw it down the hallway to the right, while we go left toward the main staircase.”
“Will it work?” I asked, shouldering the pack as he tied off the bundle.
“It has to.”
Another howl, closer now, followed by the click of claws on stone. They were coming up the stairs. We had moments at most.
Alain moved to the door, ear pressed against it again. He held up a hand for silence, listening intently. Five fingers. Four. Three. Two. One.
He pulled the door open just enough to squeeze through, his movements deliberate and silent.
I followed, heart hammering so loudly I was certain the wolves would hear it.
The corridor stretched in both directions, shadows pooling at either end despite the morning light filtering through high windows.
To the right, a series of other chambers.
To the left, the grand staircase that led down to the great hall and, eventually, the main doors.
The growls were louder now, punctuated by snarls and the scrabbling of claws. They were almost here.
Alain met my eyes, his own steady despite the fear I knew he must feel.
Without a word, he hefted the bundle of scented items, drew back his arm, and threw it as hard as he could down the right corridor.
It hit with a satisfying thump, bounced once, and rolled, trailing our scent like a line of invisible breadcrumbs.
We didn’t wait to see if it worked. We ran left, our footsteps as quiet as we could make them on the stone floor.
Behind us, a chorus of excited yips and growls told us the wolves had found the bundle.
A temporary reprieve, but it wouldn’t last long.
They’d realize the deception and follow our true scent soon enough.
We reached the grand staircase just as the first howl of frustration echoed through the corridor. They’d discovered the trick. Now it was a race.
Down the stairs we flew, my skirts hitched up to avoid tripping, Alain just ahead of me. His injury didn’t seem to slow him. Adrenaline or my healing magic kept the pain at bay. The great hall loomed before us, its massive doors our salvation if we could reach them in time.
Behind us, claws clicked on marble as the wolves reached the top of the staircase.
I risked a glance back and immediately wished I hadn’t.
These were shadows given form, their eyes burning red and yellow like hot coals, their fur writhing with the same darkness that infected the sacred acre.
They moved wrong, as if their joints bent in directions nature never intended.
“Don’t look back,” Alain commanded, grabbing my arm to urge me faster. “Just run.”
We sprinted across the great hall, our footsteps echoing in the cavernous space. The doors were just ahead, massive oak panels bound with iron. I’d never asked if they could be barred from the outside. I prayed they could.
Alain reached them first, throwing his weight against one panel while I pushed at the other. They swung open with surprising ease, morning sunlight blinding us for a precious second.
We stumbled out into the courtyard, gasping for breath. Behind us, the shadow-wolves poured down the staircase like living nightmares, their howls raising the hair on the back of my neck.
“The doors!” I cried, turning to push them closed.
Together we heaved against the massive oak, our combined strength barely enough to move them. The wolves were halfway across the hall now, gaining with each heartbeat. The doors groaned, shifting slowly under our desperate efforts. Three more feet. Two. One.
They slammed shut just as the first wolf launched itself at the gap. A sickening thud, then silence from the other side. Had they given up? Or were they seeking another exit?
“The bar,” Alain panted, pointing to a massive beam leaning against the wall beside the doors. Together, we lifted it into place across the doors’ center, slotting it into iron brackets on either side. It wouldn’t hold them forever, but it might buy us time.
I turned, taking in the courtyard with new eyes. The stone walls were crumbling in more places, covered in the same creeping darkness that infected everything. And beyond them behind the castle, visible now, lay the sacred acre—or what remained of it. It was no longer hidden, the magic failing.
From out here, the devastation was even more apparent. What had once been a lush paradise was now a patchwork of decay, healthy sections shrinking like islands in a rising black sea. The animals I’d seen earlier were nowhere in sight, either fled or claimed entirely by the corruption.
“It’s worse than I thought,” I whispered, horror making my voice thin. “If the wolves got in, the sacred acre is failing...”
“We have only one horse,” Alain said, his practical mind already on our escape instead of my spiral. “Mine may have returned to the stables, but I can’t be certain.”
I shook my head, a desperate plan forming. “We don’t need your horse for two. I have something, something I hope the corruption hasn’t touched yet.”
“What are you talking about?”
Instead of answering, I stepped away from the doors, moving to the center of the courtyard.
The claiming mark on my shoulder pulsed with each heartbeat as I closed my eyes, reaching out with senses that went beyond sight or hearing.
I’d done this before, called to the magical creatures of the sacred acre.
Last time, the gryphon had answered. This time, I prayed for a different response.
“A unicorn,” I whispered, remembering the Dark Lord’s words about them and how they only let their rider touch them, and this one had in the grove near the waterfall.
Many books spoke on how they couldn’t be corrupted, how they remained pure even as darkness spread around them.
“Please, if you’re still there, if you can hear me. ..”
For a moment, nothing happened. The courtyard remained still except for the distant rattling of the doors as wolves threw themselves against the other side. Alain watched me with a mixture of concern and confusion, clearly wondering if I’d lost my mind.
Then a soft whinny drifted across the courtyard.
From behind a crumbling wall stepped the most beautiful creature I’d ever seen.
Pure white, its coat glowing with an inner light that pushed back the shadows around it.
Delicate legs carried a perfectly proportioned body, and from its forehead spiraled a single horn that caught the morning light and refracted it like a prism.
A unicorn, untouched by the corruption, its eyes wise and ancient as they fixed on me.
Alain made a strangled sound beside me, his composure finally cracking in the face of such impossible beauty. “That’s—that can’t be—”
“A unicorn,” I confirmed, taking a step toward the creature. It didn’t flee, watching me with calm assessment. “The darkness can’t touch them. They’re immune to the corruption from how pure their light is.”
The unicorn approached, each step deliberate, its gaze never leaving mine. When it reached me, it lowered its magnificent head, nudging my hand with its velvety muzzle.
“I need your help,” I told it, stroking its neck with trembling fingers. “My beasts are trapped by a curse. I need to free them, to stop the corruption before it claims everything.”
Behind us, a splintering crack told us the wolves were making progress against the barred doors.
The unicorn seemed to understand the urgency. It bent its front legs, lowering itself in clear invitation for me to mount. I turned to Alain, who stood frozen, his eyes wide with wonder.
“Get the mare,” I said, already swinging myself onto the unicorn’s back. Its body was warm beneath me, radiating the same pure energy that made its coat glow. “We’re leaving.”
“Where?” Alain asked, still staring as if he couldn’t believe what he was seeing.
“To find the witch who cast the curse.” His stable horse came then as if knowing she was needed. Alain didn’t hesitate getting on her. Once he sat on her perch, and I nodded like the answer had been easy all along. “We’re going to hunt her down and end this, once and for all.”
“We’re hunting the hunter, as we’re being hunted,” I said as the unicorn sprang forward. Alain’s mare knew to follow and did just as the raven’s caw greeted me from above, ready to guide me. “And this time, we won’t be the prey.”