Chapter 16 #2
I force myself to look around even while panic keeps climbing. "I don't know. There's a portrait here. Some old guy in a black suit. Stained-glass windows. I think I'm in one of the upper corridors."
Behind me, footsteps echo somewhere lower in the stairwell. The sound makes my pulse jump so hard my vision swims.
"Ciaran," I whisper. "It's getting closer."
An engine roars to life on his end.
"Stay on the line," he orders. "I'm on my way."
The call stays connected as I keep moving through the upper corridors, my breathing echoing too loudly through the dark stone hallways while somewhere below me another door opens and shuts.
Then silence settles over the hall again, thick enough to make the panic crawling beneath my skin feel horribly justified.
"Rowan." Ciaran's voice breaks through the panic rising in my chest. "Talk to me."
"I can't hear them anymore."
"Yeah?" His voice turns even colder. "That doesn't mean they're gone."
My pulse jumps harder.
I shove through another corridor lined with old portraits and towering stained-glass windows gone black with night, the ancient walls of Caervast feeling too narrow around me, too full of blind corners and hidden stairwells and places for someone to stand without being seen.
"Fuck," I whisper, gripping the edge of my multi-slate tighter against my wrist. "I hate this."
"I know." His voice roughens through the speaker, turning darker, and something wrenches in my chest. "Keep moving, little mouse. Don't stop for anyone."
Somewhere far below, an engine roars through the night.
Relief hits so hard it almost makes my knees weak, and what terrifies me most is how fast my body recognizes the sound as his before my mind even catches up, like some part of me already knew Ciaran would come for me if I called.
A minute later, heavy footsteps thunder through the lower corridor beneath me, followed by sharp voices and the metallic crackle of comms echoing up through the stairwell. Then someone shouts my name.
"Rowan!"
Ciaran.
I nearly stumble as I turn toward the sound of him.
He appears at the end of the corridor a second later, Rafe beside him and two Virel security guards spreading out behind them through the shadows of the hall. Dark coats move sharply against the old stone walls as they split off toward the adjoining corridors without waiting for instructions.
Ciaran reaches me fast enough that I barely have time to breathe before his hands are on me, one against the back of my neck, the other gripping my jaw.
His eyes drag over my face with frightening intensity before dropping to the medical band flashing red against my wrist. "Did they touch you?"
"No."
"Are you hurt?"
"No."
He keeps staring at me anyway like he doesn't believe a word coming out of my mouth.
Behind him, Rafe stalks straight past us and down the adjoining staircase with one of the guards struggling to keep up beside him, rolling his sleeves higher like he's disappointed there isn't already blood on the floor somewhere.
Farther back in the hall, one of the Virel guards murmurs into his comms.
"We're clear on the lower level."
"Nothing outside east access."
Ciaran barely even glances away from me when the guard finishes speaking. "Keep looking," he snaps. "Somebody was here."
The guard nods and disappears back down the hallway.
Only then does Ciaran look at me properly again, his hand still curled at my nape like he forgot to let go of it. "Your breathing's a mess, baby."
"I am breathing," I manage, though the words come out uneven between shallow breaths.
His eyes flick toward the warning still flashing across my band before returning to my face. "Yeah," he mutters. "Technically."
He's right. My hands are shaking hard enough now that I can feel it in my fingers, still clutched around the multi-slate, the adrenaline finally catching up with me now that he's here, now that I'm no longer alone in the corridor convincing myself I was imagining everything.
"Maybe it was nothing," I whisper. "Maybe I just—"
"No." Ciaran's hand tightens against the back of my neck.
Behind us, Rafe returns from the stairwell, jaw tight. "Nobody. Unless your stalker learned how to vanish into walls."
Ciaran huffs at that and takes the multi-slate gently out of my trembling hand, his gaze dropping to the warning still pulsing across my medical band. It has dropped to amber now. "Your heart's still spiking."
I swallow. "I'm okay. I can just go back to my room. Damaris is back anyway. He'll keep an eye on me." I try for a weak smile. "He's used to it."
Ciaran stares at me for a long moment like the suggestion itself offends him. "You're not sleeping in that dorm tonight."
"Ciaran—"
"No." He presses his thumb against the side of my neck beneath my pulse, his gaze dropping to the amber glow of the band before returning to my face. "You called me scared out of your fucking mind, little mouse. You don't get to act brave now."
Behind him, the stained-glass windows throw fractured moonlight across the corridor floor while the old halls of Caervast settle back into silence around us, ancient and watchful and full of shadows that feel much less empty than they used to.
I should argue. I should tell him no.
Instead, I let him guide me down the corridor with his hand still resting against the back of my neck, steering me through the dark halls of Caervast like he's finally gotten his hands on something he plans to play with properly.
I know I should fight him on this. I shouldn't go anywhere with him after everything that's happened tonight.
But I'm too tired. Too wound up. Too scared of being left alone in the dark again.
So for the first time since arriving at Caervast, I go willingly.