Chapter 30 #2
Clement was immobilized against the wall. The gargoyle hovered over his head, its gaping maw spitting a single pointed icicle that inched toward his face. His hands were flattened to the castle walls, legs pinned. His eyes bulged as he fought, my name dying on his lips.
The prince stood in the open. His hands outstretched, vibrations thrumming through him. “The spirits only listen to me, Tam. Valiant effort though.”
Slowly, the snow beneath my back crackled. The slivers of ice meshed together, hardening into a stretcher. My body moved. The castle looming higher above me.
I tried to claw at the ground, to dig my heels into the ice, but my muscles seized. The castle walls shifted before me, grinding open to reveal a passageway. Rose, blood, and rot smothered me.
My feet were dragged inside. The pressure of the castle popped my joints, squeezing the fluid from between my bones. The prince walked slowly toward me, his palms still lifted skyward, his mouth murmuring words I couldn’t hear.
I should be screaming for Siobhan, pleading for my life, but the only name on my lips was Clement’s.
Our gaze met and he kept it, holding it steady as my body was swallowed by the wall. The pressure wrapped around my chest, entombing me in darkness. If it closed behind me, I would never get out.
I opened my mind as I’d done in the tunnel. Let the pressure filter inside but not swamp my senses. The garbled voices returned, the chanting rhythm equalizing with my pounding heartbeat.
Let me go.
My body stopped moving. The invisible bindings around my torso slackened, the tendrils wrenched from my mouth.
I scrabbled to my feet, clawing at the narrow opening.
It still held me, sucking me deeper. Hands fisted into my dress, pulling and slipping until they held skin.
I burst out of the wall, the pressure lifting, my lungs finally filling and collapsed against Clement.
He lifted my face and kissed me with such passion, I lost my breath again. “Fuck, Tamara, I thought...”
“I know.” I clutched at his tunic, keeping his body safely pressed against mine.
“I don’t really think we have time for that, do you?
” Siobhan materialized beside the prince.
Her chain mail suit tinkled faintly as she turned to him.
“Nice to make your acquaintance. A wonderful wedding, Your Highness. What a shame you didn’t beg me for your deal all those years ago, or we’d be in quite a different situation right now.
” She tapped a long nail over his heart. “Tut, tut.”
She clicked her fingers, and the gargoyle shuddered to life. It clambered down the stone walls and toward the prince who remained frozen. It stretched out its arms, a bat-like membrane flapped taut and encircled the prince. He roared, woken from his trance and thrashed against the bindings.
“We can’t have you spilling our secrets before the collection now, can we?
” Siobhan reached toward him. The prince squirmed in the gargoyle’s unbreakable grip.
She forced open his mouth and tore out his tongue.
It flopped onto the cobblestones, twitching as blood pulsed out.
The prince’s cry was lost amongst the gargling choke of blood pooling in his mouth.
I stared at his tongue, remembering the feeling of it tracing the lines of my neck, forcing its way inside my mouth. My stomach lurched.
Siobhan flapped a hand at us. “Off you pop, my dear.”
Clement grasped my arm, gently shaking me back to the present. We turned together, only making it twenty yards before ice spiderwebbed beneath our feet, cracking the ground. The gate loomed above us, a rift between the castle’s magic and freedom.
Just outside the castle grounds, two strangers halted. Between us, the spirits hovered, forming a black cloud. It pulsed, its tendrils sucking in the surrounding air, gathering more of the darkness.
Through the black mist, the strangers’ features were blurred, but my heart squeezed.
The man wore the same silver spectacles he’d always worn, the lenses so thick his jade green eyes were magnified.
His hair curled, messy and artistic, a well-worn path visible through the center where he’d run his hand through it.
The woman wore what she always did—an old cream blouse and blue overalls. When it was hot, she’d flap one of the straps down and roll up her sleeves, but she’d never take it off.
Where were their weapons? Where was the magic? Why was the air not filled with gunpowder snaps and flashes of power?
The woman rolled up her sleeves and cracked her neck, lowering into a crouch. The man stood behind her, his hands hidden within deep pockets, his wiry body wound like a spring. They both leaped over the threshold.
The spirits swarmed toward the couple.
“Go!” Clement shoved my shoulder. “They’re distracted, go now.”
I couldn’t tear my eyes away as the roiling darkness descended on them. Clicks, scrapes, screams spun into the air. How long would they be able to hold them off?
The spirits slipped into a whirling tornado, encircling them. Dark streaks broke off and lunged inside, shrieking, the air clouded with drifting ash.
I couldn’t leave them to die.
The spirits’ chant filled my mind, urgent this time, desperate, but there was an edge of sadness. It swamped me, prickling my skin, tugging at my soul.
Stop! I screamed at them.
They hesitated. The black mass flickered.
The Collectors passed through the swarm, advancing toward the prince, but the thread linking me wavered.
The pressure increased, removing my control and the spirits flashed back into motion.
Siobhan had vanished, but the gargoyle still gripped the prince, and he was reclaiming them.
Blood trickled over his lips and down his chin, soaking into the membrane that enclosed him.
His mouth moved in a silent command focused on the spirits.
No.
I wrestled back control. Sweat ran in a line down my back, my entire body rigid. I forced their chant to calm, binding them to the rhythm of my heart, making them mine.
The Collectors reached the prince. The man withdrew a hatchet from his waistband, bringing the butt down upon the gargoyle.
It shattered like glass upon the cobblestones.
The woman caught the prince, tugging his head back to expose his neck.
The man flipped the ax around and sliced down the prince’s neck.
His blood didn’t spurt but trickled slowly, congealing into sludge as it hit the cold air, steam hissing into the night.
The connection between the spirits snapped tight like reins. The opposing force eradicated.
Go rest.
With the prince dead, they’d be able to return to haunting the castle, waiting for another master. Until then, they could be in peace.
The Collectors held their positions, watching the blood drain from the prince, his struggles ebbing.
“Go!” Clement pushed me.
Fires ignited in the courtyard beyond. Guests clattered toward the exits carrying flames. The telltale march of the guards led the charge, their pace determined, hunting for the prince.
I kept staring at the dying prince, at the Collectors fixated on their task.
Clement lunged toward me, but I sidestepped, spinning around to watch again. “Go now, or I’ll throw you over my shoulder like a bale of fucking hay.”
The woman’s eyes lifted to mine. Eight years of happy memories flooded my mind, but I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t forgive them. I backed away slowly with my palms raised as Clement advanced, unable to rip my eyes from the scene.
“Fine,” I snapped.
He grabbed my hand and spun me around, dragging me down the central street. The shops blurred as we ran, their windows dark, signs blank and flapping in the wind. My feet were leaden, the fear barely outweighing the guilt at abandoning them.
“They’re your Collectors, aren’t they?” He kept my hand gripped within his, my only anchor in the rising panic.
“Yes.” I glanced behind, but he tugged me onward, my legs barely able to keep up with his long strides.
“And you know them well.”
“Yes,” I panted.
“But you haven’t forgiven them for binding you into their deal?”
I kept my eyes fixed on the straight road, the gate barely visible in the distance. “No.”
He veered left, towing me behind him down zigzagging alleyways. Ice glistened between the cobbles. My feet slipped as they skimmed the ground, barely able to land before Clement urged me onward.
Finally, the glow of the stable lights emerged around a bend.
“Who are they?” He halted, still tucked inside the alley. He poked his head out, whipping it back and forth across the street before searching the sky above.
“My parents.” I doubled over, my hands on my hips, trying to wheeze silently.
Clement froze. He bent down and scooped my chin in his palm, making me straighten. He wagged a finger in my face. “We’ll talk about that later.”
I groaned.
“Come on. Quietly.”
I rolled my eyes. Quietly.
The stables were silent. Torches guttered along the aisle, casting dancing shadows into the stalls. The wind screamed outside, tearing around the sturdy walls, unable to find a way in.
“My horse has been turned out. I need to go find her.” I shoved my hands under my armpits, biting back a shiver.
“No, she’s not. She’s in here.” He nudged me forward, leading me to the end stall.
“I had her brought in and tacked.” He undid the heavy chain, gently lowering it to the straw so as not to make a sound.
“And I prepared these.” He hauled two stuffed saddlebags from the corner.
“It’s all the stuff you tried to collect.
Clothes, food, and a few added items.” A faint blush rose on his cheeks, and my throat tightened.
He extracted my cloak and boots, throwing them toward me, before turning and attaching the bags to the saddle. He handed me the reins.
“Thank you.” I swallowed. The horse nudged my neck, her muzzle velvety soft against my frozen skin.
Clement backed against the wall and folded his arms across his chest. He nodded, eyes falling to the floor.
I led the horse down the aisle, her feet clopping in the stillness. As I reached the street outside, I turned. “Well, what are you waiting for? Hurry up, grab a horse and elope with me.”
He threw back his head and barked a laugh, diving into the adjoining stall to pull out an already tacked black gelding. He joined me, grinning. “I was waiting for you to ask nicely.”
“You’d have been waiting a while.” I grinned back, my heart expanding.
We led the horses quickly toward the gates, hugging the shadows. Clement positioned himself on the outside, sandwiching me against the stone wall. His gaze never stilled, flitting between the skies and the surrounding houses.
“Are we going to get through the gates?” I whispered.
“I thought you knew everyone in the queendom?”
The woman at the gates sat perched on her three-legged stool, half-hidden in the gloom.
Her hand rested on the lever with the gates open beside her just wide enough to slip through.
She kept her attention on the long street before her, eyes focused on the castle churning in the distance. She didn’t say a word as we crept past.
We slipped through the gate, and it immediately creaked shut behind us. We mounted our horses and faced the expansive moorland beyond. The chill air tore through my hair, reawakening my body, purging the lingering scent of roses and refreshing my soul.
“Where to?” he asked.
I tugged out the compass and watched the needle adjust. “South.” I urged my horse onward; her hoof falls light on the frozen grass. “To rescue your sister.”
Hope flashed across his face, followed by fear, then pain. He let out a shaky breath and my chest squeezed. “Why?”
“Because I love you.” Even as I uttered the words foreign to my tongue, I knew I meant it. I’d do anything for this man, even if it meant I’d never be free.
He smiled at me, his dark eyes bright, and I grinned back.
We urged our horses into a gallop, tearing into the rising night.
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