Chapter Twenty-Three - Wilder
Selene hasn’t changed at all. She refused to help me, telling me it was my funeral and muttering about how I was a nuisance before walking back into the woods. But I’m not dying today.
The castle is a fortress with heavy chains hanging from the wooden doors and bars covering all the large windows. There’s no way I’m getting inside to find Leigh, unless someone lets me in.
Which means I need to get caught.
I circle the property, heading toward the stable. If I can rile up the Dullahan’s horses, I can lure out the Dullahan themselves. I’d ignite a fire, but that’s not an option right now. I can’t start a fire without magic either, since everything is so wet.
The musky scent of hay and animals hits me when I enter the stable.
The horses, standing about fifteen hands tall and likely weighing around twenty-six hundred pounds, snort upon seeing me.
I unlatch each of their dwellings and stand back, expecting them to rush from the barn.
They don’t move. Nothing can ever be easy, can it?
Entering the nearest stall, I carefully maneuver around one of the giant beasts.
“You better not trample me.” I slap its wet hide.
The horse whinnies, then takes off in a gallop. I target the next few horses, and they take off out of the barn. Following them, I see the horses running around the castle grounds. Wherever their daemon owners are, I know they’ll come for me, and at least they will be on foot.
They can take me to Kosac.
It takes less than a minute before a Dullahan appears from the castle to inspect the noise. The rider spots me, and upon seeing me, lets out an earsplitting screech, likely alerting the entire kingdom that there’s an intruder.
I clutch my ears. Pain radiates through my body, and I feel like I’m about to be sick when I notice the Dullahan unsheathing a sword. Shit. I figured they’d bring me to Kosac before straight up killing me. Rainwater drips down the formidable blade, and I swallow the bile creeping up my throat.
I’d run, but the plan was for them to capture me.
Despite the heavy armor, the Dullahan pursues me with incredible agility. I barely have time to lift my arms in surrender before more Dullahan appear, their weapons drawn. I’m outnumbered, and with no magic, this isn’t a fair fight.
“I surrender—” One blade slices through the air, and I jump back just in time to avoid it.
Another blade arches overhead, and I twist to avoid that, too, only to align myself perfectly with the third Dullahan’s weapon. I jerk out of the way, narrowly escaping being skewered.
“Stop!”
Frustrated shrieks escape from behind their armored masks, and I know I can’t outlast all of them. My fingers grip the wet blades of grass as I stare into the chasm-like eyes of my attackers.
I’m unable to move as one sword crests above me. But the expected pain never comes.
As if held back by invisible strings, the Dullahan freezes in place.
I blink as the other two Dullahan sheathe their weapons.
Have they been ordered to stop? I glance at the castle as they reach for me, their grip strong enough to make me wince, but I don’t cry for mercy.
I am dragged toward the exit they used to come out here, where an open door beckons me into the dark abyss with open arms.
I smile.
I pound on the bedroom door. I’m trapped inside the castle in a random room on one of the lower floors. One Dullahan discarded me here, nowhere near its master.
Fifteen minutes have gone by. And I’ve spent every one of them thinking about Jax and the others lying unmoving on the muddy beach. Did they catch all the daemons, or did some slip past? I shove back those thoughts to focus on Leigh.
They are both somewhere in this castle, possibly hurt, certainly afraid. They could be together and in a room like this one.
Either way—no matter what—I’m not leaving without them.
“Let me out!” I rattle the door on its ancient hinges. I’m seconds away from turning it into splinters. “You can’t just keep me in here.”
The brass doorknob turns. The mechanism clicks, and I prepare to bolt, but a large creature blocks my exit. It drifts closer, forcing me deeper into the bedroom. Its hood nearly grazes the ceiling. The air curdles around the tall figure. What the hell is it?
“I see you’ve come to wage war against me and my castle,” the creature says in a voice that reminds me of mourning bells, of grave dirt falling on coffin lids.
The hair on my arms stands at attention. “Who the hell are you?”
The long dark robes conceal the creature’s face and body. Though it talks like a man, it isn’t human. It isn’t a witch, vampire, or werewolf. It is something else. Something otherworldly.
There’s something wrong with it, as if he’s encased in shadow, his body entirely comprised of sorrow. My eyes prick with tears I can’t explain, a burden of grief pressing against my chest that isn’t mine.
“You already know me, seeing as you stumbled into my lands, attempted to break into my house by picking a fight with my rangers, who would have had no qualms about killing you if I hadn’t intervened.”
I narrow my eyes. “You’re Kosac.”
The name springs to the forefront of my mind, and everything Leigh said about the creature back at Traum Castle follows.
I should have guessed she had something to do with the rift right then.
She failed to mention that this reaper-like creature was over eight feet tall.
Its robes are blacker than an abyss, which is saying something, because everything else in this realm is a lifeless gray.
“You need to leave,” Kosac says. “Only the dead are welcome here.”
I refuse to move. “I want to see Leigh. And the boy, Fynn—light hair, blue eyes—disappeared last night. One of your rangers took him. I’ll leave when I get them both back.”
Kosac drifts closer. The adrenaline pumping through my veins tells me to run, but I stay still. The only thing in this room I could put between us is a bed and an old trunk. There’s no use trying to hide.
“Leigh is attending a party I am hosting. You, however, are not invited.”
Kosac has a plan. I don’t know him well enough to guess what it is, but I suspect it’s dangerous and involves my fiancée and a little boy who is somehow linked to all of this.
“What fucking party?” We have our own party to attend back home. One we’ve been excited about for years.
“It doesn’t matter. You do not have an invitation, and last I checked, Leigh told you to leave.”
“How do you know that?” I ask. Did Leigh tell him?
“I have direct access to all the ghosts here. Selene’s mind is mine to rifle through at any time I want. And you two had quite the conversation down by the water.”
I suppress the chill skittering across my skin. He had been listening to my conversation with Selene. He might have been talking to her the entire time.
“Leigh is coming with me. So is Fynn.”
“No.”
“Yes.”
“She does not wish to leave with you.”
My eyes drop to the floor. Leigh wouldn’t willingly stay here because she’s trying to get out of marrying me, would she?
“You don’t know the first thing about Leigh or what she wants,” I bite out.
“If Leigh were in such a hurry to marry you, then why would she agree to stay?” Kosac asks.
“For Fynn.”
“Go back, Wilder. You will soon feel the effects this realm has on your mortal body. Leave or regret it.” Kosac turns on an invisible wind, floating out the door. The temperature drops another ten degrees in his wake.
It takes me several solid seconds to regain my composure before I hurry after him, reaching for the door handle. I twist. It opens.
To hell with Kosac and his threats. I came here for Leigh and Fynn.
I step into the hall just as a woman—or rather, a ghost—wearing a mourning veil and with ice-covered eyes rushes toward me.
She has a bundle of clothes and a creepy mask in her hands.
Without a word, she shoves them into my arms. I stare at them, ready to ask a thousand questions, but she turns on her heel and walks away.
What was that?
Returning to my room, I drop the clothes on the bed.
I pick up the black leather plague doctor mask, then set it aside.
I unfold the garment next. It’s a tuxedo—old-fashioned with a white bow tie and pleated shirt, but it’s not dusty.
The black fabric is cold, as if it had been stored in a crypt for two hundred years.
Is the ghost working for or against Kosac?
If she defies his orders, does that mean I can trust her?
There’s no time to overthink. If Leigh’s going to a party, then so am I.
I shrug off my wet jacket and pull off my shirt.