Chapter 20
As I lie wide awake in my room, the wraith appears.
She hasn’t visited me since the incident with the fae creature in the dungeon. I’d assumed that was all she needed to show me, like unfinished business finally put to rest. It seems not.
She floats at the end of my bed, long after the bonfires were doused and the villagers retreated back to their homes.
All I want to do is sleep. And maybe, if I’m lucky, dream about a certain cave bathed in the light of a hundred sea stars. Of the strong hands of a Wolf at my waist. And, if I’m still dreaming, even lower.
The wraith’s eyes darken, as if she knows I’m considering throwing the blanket back over my head so I can resume dreaming. Begrudgingly, I sit up against the pillows. It’s not like I can sleep after what happened tonight, anyway.
“What do you want this time?” I sound like a petulant child, but I don’t have it in me to be polite to the ghost who nearly got me killed.
The woman’s long, dark hair floats around her head in an invisible breeze. She opens her mouth as if to speak, but no words come out.
I sit up a little taller. Can she speak? But even though her mouth moves, no sound comes out. It’s as if she’s talking underwater or behind thick glass.
“I can’t hear you.”
Her eyes narrow. Her mouth moves again, like she’s saying the same sentence over and over, but I still can’t hear her. I shake my head, concern welling up inside me as she grows more frustrated by the second.
“I’m sorry.”
She points toward the window. I turn to look, but there’s nothing out of the ordinary.
The moon is still bright, though I can’t see it from this side of the castle.
The Spires are bathed in silver, as if they’re glowing.
A storm hovers on the horizon, blanketing the mountains in a new, thick layer of snow.
I turn my eyes back to her and shake my head slowly.
The wraith closes her eyes, as if she’s trying to rein in her irritation. There’s something different about her tonight. She seems less menacing and more … I’m not sure. Afraid? Can ghosts even feel fear? There’s something in her black eyes that screams of desperation.
I throw the blankets off my legs and get out of bed.
“Show me.”
Something like relief flashes across her pale face. I grab my red cloak and follow her out the door. The wraith leads me through the darkened corridors and out into the castle yard. The castle grounds are eerily silent at this time of night. I look up to see that all the windows are dark.
The wraith floats ahead of me, leading me toward the east side of the castle, where the cliffs meet the sea. A thick fog has blown in from the water, coating everything in swirling mist. The farther I follow her, the thicker it gets until I can barely see three feet in front of me.
But I can see her. Even through the fog, the wraith remains impossibly visible, as if natural elements don’t affect her.
“Where are you taking me?” I call out, even though I know it’s useless. She can’t speak, and our game of charades wasn’t helpful.
I can’t see where we’re going, even though the mist is bright with reflected moonlight from the clear sky overhead.
It’s beginning to feel like there’s a blanket over us, muffling all sight and sound.
Despite the cold, sweat coats the back of my neck.
I’m getting nervous. Memories of the borderland fog and the hungry cursed wraiths flicker across my mind.
Something deep and primal sends a warning jolt through my spine. I stop walking.
As if sensing my hesitation, the wraith turns around to face me. She begins gesturing ahead, pointing in the direction she was leading me. Her mouth opens wide, as if screaming for me to follow. Her fingers curl into claws and her long white dress billows around her like she’s caught in a storm.
But it’s her eyes that frighten me the most. They’re wild and black with a frantic energy that I don’t know how to interpret.
I shake my head. “No!” I yell back at her. “I can’t follow you any further. I can’t see anything!”
All around us, the fog swirls. Panic claws at my chest. Where are we?
The wraith just keeps screaming, silent and terrifying, as she points ahead toward a point I can’t see.
Something grabs my wrist.
I whirl around, my heart in my throat. Tristan is there, his eyes wide with fear.
“Red! What are you doing?!”
I grab onto his shoulders. “Do you see her?!”
Concern etches across his face. “What? Who?”
“The wraith!” I’m yelling now. My heart hammers in my chest. I turn to point back toward the woman in white, but she isn’t there. And neither, I realize with a start, is the fog.
A sudden strong wind blows a mix of snow and rain that pelts my face. I look down and see that I’m soaking wet. My red cloak hangs from my neck, heavy as a noose. My feet are bare and white with snow. Only now do I feel the sharp bite of cold against my skin.
A mere three feet ahead of me lies the edge of a cliff.
The sea crashes below, while a tumbling maelstrom thunders overhead. Icy whitecaps crash so far up the shore that white water sprays up into the sky. Lightning flashes overhead. There is no moon in sight. No fog. No ghost.
Just the edge of a cliff and a raging storm.
Tristan pulls me back from the cliff’s edge. “Red!” he yells above the thunder and the crashing sea. “Step back! The cliff isn’t stable!”
But I’m frozen in place, bewildered and afraid. “I don’t understand!” I yell out into the rain, hoping the wraith can hear me.
Tristan yanks me back. “What were you thinking coming out here in a storm? You could have died!” I don’t miss the sharp edge of fear in his voice.
“Tell me you saw her!” I yell, feverishly.
“Who?” He’s still trying to pull me back, away from the cliff’s edge.
“The woman!” I yell, my voice edged with fear. Am I losing my mind? “The one that led me out here!”
His face is pale, his gray eyes wide. Icy rainwater streams over his face as he shakes his head slowly. “I didn’t see a woman.”
Thunder clashes overhead and we both flinch.
“No, not a normal woman.” I growl in frustration. “A … a ghost. Or specter? Something … not human. At least not anymore.”
He stares at me for a long time, his expression unreadable as icy water streams down his face. “I didn’t see anyone. Only you, walking through the storm.”
My body begins to tremble, whether from the cold or the shock, I don’t know. I rub my palms over my eyes. Am I going mad in this awful place?
“How did you even find me out here?” I ask. It sounds accusatory.
“I saw you from my window.”
I don’t need to ask what he was doing staring out his window in the middle of the night. No doubt he couldn’t sleep either.
“I saw you walking through the storm. I recognized your red cloak.” His eyes drift over my cloak as it whips around me in the violent wind and pelting frozen rain. “I followed you.”
“I swear. She was here.” My voice is pitched high, almost hysterical.
He pulls me toward him, and I allow myself to fold into his chest. Why would she do this? Why torture me? Why try to kill me again?
Far below us, waves hammer against the stones scattered along the shore.
Beneath my cloak, my white nightdress is soaking wet.
I look down to see it’s translucent, clinging to my body like a sheer second skin.
I should be ashamed to have my nakedness on full display out here.
But all I feel is afraid. How could I have been so easily fooled?
I’m vulnerable in a way I’ve never felt before.
What must he think of me, standing on these cliffs of death in nothing more than a nightdress, in the middle of a winter storm?
“Come on,” he says, tucking me under his arm. “You’ll catch your death out here.”
But even as I turn to go with Tristan, the memory of the wraith’s panicked gestures makes me pause. I stop.
“What is it?” Tristan asks.
“I—I don’t know.” I turn back toward the sea and shield my eyes from the pelting rain and snow. The sky is dark with storm clouds, the sea a roiling force below. Lightning flashes, and something makes my breath catch.
Am I seeing things again?
I stand stock still as Tristan tries to pull me back toward the castle.
“No!” I point out past the cliffs and the pounding shore.
Lightning flashes again, and Tristan sees it too. “That can’t be …” his voice is lost to the wind.
Thunder booms, and we watch as a ship is swallowed by the raging sea.