Chapter Nineteen #2
She burst out of the water with a gasp. What if this is her doing?
She’s trying to tell me something. Hyacinth kept repeating yesterday if she could only speak to her, they could work it out.
Maybe the nightmare was the woman’s way of getting her attention.
At the very least, I need to learn her name!
It was rather annoying to keep calling the woman in the mirror the woman.
Hyacinth glanced at Dahlia, who stood with her arms crossed but eyebrows up into her hair.
“I think I need to go to King’s Fall. I think I need to find out who she was.
” Hyacinth pulled the plug on her bath, climbing to her feet swiftly.
Snuffles thumped from beside the tub, but she didn’t have time to apologize to him for the water she splashed over the edge.
She ripped a towel out of the basket by the tub and dried off haphazardly.
“How do you imagine you’ll do that?” Dahlia cocked her head to the side.
“Melody and Smith are investigators, right?” Hyacinth hopped on one foot while she tried not to step on her bunny or the puddles. Soon she was bent over, drying her legs and shaking out her wings. Snuffles rushed to take up refuge in the bedroom.
“You could say that.” Dahlia smirked, nodding to the bedroom. “Come on, let’s find you some decent exploring clothes. If you’re going into the city with them, you’ll need comfortable shoes.”
Hyacinth was dressed and strapped into hiking boots within moments.
A simple, cream cotton gown under a purple over skirt.
It was tucked up into a leather belt to keep her legs free and also give her pockets.
She filled those pouches attached to her hip with a notebook, pencil, sewing needle, and thread.
Agatha wrangled her hair into a high ponytail with only a curl or two escaping in front.
Melody was downstairs with something wrapped in parchment paper.
Hyacinth found out it was a stuffed croissant full of bacon, eggs, peppers, and cheese.
It steamed around her face as she took a bite into it.
Smith left his office quickly after, tucking a notebook away into his jacket pocket.
“To the city, shall we?” Smith bowed at the waist as he opened the front doors to a glistening morning.
Hyacinth stepped out into a cool autumn morning where the sun was shining but the air was frosty.
The grass squished underneath her like it was mostly mud.
Her legs ached from the extra effort for the first half of the lawn.
They finally hit a patch where the water was soaked up and let the three of them stride with ease.
Hyacinth stopped at the gate, unable to tell why her heart thumped so erratically.
She glanced over her shoulder at the house.
The sounds of trees being cut and someone laughing echoed around the back of the massive manor.
I should have told Austin we were leaving.
But there was no time. The pressure on her skull told her she needed to do this.
Do this right now. She ducked out the gate into the damp forest.
Leaves crunched like soggy lettuce as they trudged through the forest. Half the trees were broken in half.
Branches blocked the way at every turn, and they were slowed down by having to clear a path.
Melody used clawed hands to swipe through heavy brush stuck between trees and Smith threw logs out of their way.
Hyacinth tried her best to help but she didn’t seem to be in control of her functions.
They were sluggish and delayed. Seconds before she could help tug away a branch, Melody already chucked it aside.
Smith waited for her once to help hoist a log, but her fingers slipped and it fell.
The log felt like it shook the very ground.
“That’s alright,” Smith murmured, hoisting it up with one arm and throwing it javelin style away from them.
“I don’t know what’s wrong,” Hyacinth chattered until she glanced down at her palms. Blink, blink.
They were trembling. She stuffed them into her skirts, pretending to pick them up even more.
The heavy purple wool didn’t look thick, but in hand she could feel its dense fibers.
It eased her shaking nerves as she clambered further into the woods.
Her feet seemed to know where to go and she worried that was because…
the woman knew where to go. The woman flashed behind her eyes as she started to jog.
Melody and Smith’s voices echoed around her, asking her to slow down, but she couldn’t.
Legs stretching out in front of her, she ran for the city like it was the only thing that could fix this. Whatever this is.
Get inside. They can’t hurt you inside the walls. Get inside.
Hyacinth repeated the words over and over. Her arms pumped in tandem with the chant. Boots smacking against the earth, she raced. Something shimmery came into view in front of her. It almost made her wheeze out in relief.
There it is! She felt tears well up in her eyes and the tension built up in her shoulders eased.
Her wings fluttered behind her. The trees began to part away from her.
Roots ripped up and out of the ground, their long bodies skittering away like roaches in the light.
Branches swiped at her and cut into her cheeks and forearms. There should have been a sting, but the only thing she felt was buzzing within her bones.
Home. I’m going home! I’m going home!
The moment she should have pierced the shimmering curtain between King’s Fall and the outside world rushed up to meet her.
Then she ran smack into a hard wall. A howl of surprise tore out of her as she was stopped suddenly, then was flung backward by sheer force.
Her wings fluttered, hoisting her inches from the ground.
Somehow she’d twisted and faced the soggy earth.
Her palms touched the ground, and she stared, wide eyed, at all the worms writhing beneath her.
They wiggled away from her as fury pumped through her veins.
No!
“Hyacinth?” Smith called her name again as she forced her legs underneath herself. Hyacinth whirled around and smacked her hand against the forcefield. A pearlescent film, hard as stone, slapped back against her palm. Hyacinth roared in outrage. Smack-smack-smack!
“Let me in!” She shrieked, heat creeping up her collar to her cheeks. Hyacinth pounded her fist against the impervious wall. Anger, untold rage, twisted up into a thick thread that wove through every inch of her. No! They can’t lock me out. No! They can’t do this to me! No!
This is my home!
I was here before those insects! Those worms! This is mine! Mine-mine-mine!
No!
No! No this is all his fucking fault! That putrescent priest with a silver eye!
That’s when Hyacinth realized those weren’t her thoughts.
Those weren’t her words. The sensation of fingers crawling up her spine cooled her rage like a spear of ice embedded in her cauldron belly.
All of the bubbling, frothing liquid within her turned to sludge.
Hyacinth stumbled backward, hands flying to her mouth.
The tears returned with vengeance as she gazed up at a solid forcefield.
It lit up red. Like the nightmare. That wasn’t the sky.
It was the protective shield. It flashed once before a strip of paper fell out of the city. Smith lurched forward and caught it.
“No…no, this can’t be—this doesn’t make any sense!
” Smith snarled, waving the paper. Melody stood beside him, reading over it.
Hyacinth couldn’t help but let her legs walk backward.
Awkwardly stumbling over soggy debris until something firm pressed against her back.
It was icy. And wet. She hoped it was a tree.
She knew better. Those hands slithered up her spine further, scraping fingernails along her tingling flesh.
The woman’s fingers curled around the top of her shoulders and applied pressure.
Hyacinth’s eyes widened as someone melted out of the woods.
A man in a heavy black cloak. His salt and pepper hair was slicked back.
It curled down around his ears in thick sideburns.
There was a scar across the bridge of his nose that wasn’t as obvious unless one was looking for it.
Hyacinth’s gaze, however, focused on the silver eye that glinted at her.
It flashed from deep in the woods as he stalked forward, one hand to the hilt of a sword, and the other holding up a paper. With my face on it.
My face.
“Accept it, you unholy abominations. Proof of her transgressions. Your beast has been called to heel. While the city may not call for your head without so-called thorough investigations, my lord knows of her crimes. No more innocents will die by your rotten hand, you pestering scourge.”