Chapter 21
My mouth feels like it’s cracking. I peel my tongue from the roof of my mouth and sit up, taking stock of what’s around me.
I desperately need water, but all I see is champagne.
I could use my magic to fill one of these glasses with water, but I’m also feeling a headache beginning to form, and I need to take some medicine.
As much as I’ve learned to do with my magic, curing headaches isn’t one of them.
Koa lays beside me, his head on the pillow and his mouth wide open. His long lashes flutter as I move, but he doesn’t wake. He’s lying on his side with his arm still draped over me. I shimmy out from his grasp as gently as I can, careful not to wake him.
Outside the library, the halls are dark and quiet. It must be the middle of the night. It’s never been this dark or this quiet. I don’t see anyone, not even a guard. I’m not wearing shoes, so my feet are quiet through the halls as I make my way to the main kitchen.
I down two glasses of water and some medicine for my headache.
I toss the bottle of medicinal herbs into my pocket (pockets really should come standard on all dresses) in case Koa wakes up with a headache, too.
As I’m getting ready to leave the kitchen, a little girl dashes past me, running down the hall.
I freeze. She’s dressed in all black, her dark hair bobbing along her back as she runs. She makes no sound as she moves, not even the slapping of her footsteps on the wooden floors.
“Hey!” I whisper-shout, trying to get her attention. I’ve never seen any children in the castle except for the coronation. I look in the direction where she came from, but the hallway is empty.
“Hey!” I try again, but she veers down another hall instead.
I follow her, turning down the hallway that she went down. When I find her, she’s standing stock-still, her back turned to me.
“What’s your name?” I call to her.
She turns to me, but her face is covered by shadows. It’s too dark in here. She turns quickly and sprints away again. What the fuck? Again, I follow her. Something feels weird here, but I can’t describe what it is. The little girl leads us through another hall and to the front doors.
What the fuck is going on? My magic is tingling in what feels like warning.
“Are you okay?” I ask.
Suddenly, the little girl darts out the front door. No, she darts through the front door, not even pausing to open it, which I’m not sure how that’s possible. I open the doors and run after the girl. It’s dark outside, the path only dimly lit by the lights coming from the castle.
“Hey! Stop!” I yell at her now.
She stands at the top of the stairs, then turns to me with eyes drenched in shadows. “Come, High Queen. Your High King awaits.” Her voice is angelic. It chills me to my very bones.
My entire body is screaming at me to get back inside the castle, but I feel like I can’t resist the pull of the little girl.
I follow her down the stairs and then down the path.
She’s no longer running. Instead, she waits for me to catch up to her, and then she wraps her hand around mine.
Her fingers are ice cold as she tugs me further down the path.
“What’s your name?”
No response.
“What are you doing here?”
No response.
“Do you live here?”
No response.
“Where are we going?”
The girl ignores all my questions as we walk, and my magic flares inside of my body. We approach the guest cottage, a single light illuminating one of the rooms on the second floor.
“Let’s stop here,” I say to the girl. “These are my friends.”
She looks up at me, and I can finally see her now. My blood turns ice cold, and my magic dies, retreating deep into my core, hiding at what I see.
What I thought were dark eyes are just hollowed-out sockets where her eyes should be. Her smile reveals sharp teeth, sharper than any animal I’ve ever seen, ending in points.
I can’t look away from her. I can’t move. I can’t scream.
She says in that same high-pitched voice, “Are they?” She begins to move down the path again, but something snaps in me.
I begin to resist, trying to break her grasp, but her hold doesn’t break.
I reach for my magic, but I can’t grasp anything.
It’s like it fled as soon as it saw her eyes.
Panic floods my senses, and I dig my heels into the ground, desperately trying to yank my arm from her grasp.
My breath is coming quicker now, and I feel myself fighting off a panic attack.
I need to remain in control. I need to think.
I need to get the fuck away from this…thing.
Wicked things are afoot. Evil is coming…
“Your High King awaits,” she repeats, but this time, her voice is low and demonic, no longer the high pitch of a little girl. Her grip on my forearm tightens as she yanks me down the path.
“No!” I yell. Fuck this. I will not go without a fight.
Since my magic is nowhere to be found, I do the next best thing.
I scream. “HELP!”
The girl snarls at me and tightens her grip. I cry out in pain. She yanks me so hard that I stumble toward her.
Oh, absolutely not.
“HELP!” I yell again, praying to the Mother that someone will hear me.
She pulls me again, and we stumble down the path. Further and further from the guest cottage. I scream again. She tightens her grip on me, and agony floods my senses as she burns my arm.
I scream from the pain.
“Keep screaming, little queen,” the thing says, voice deep and guttural. “Your screams are music to m—"
The thing’s head is gone, cleanly separated from its body.
I look around, pain and panic threatening to overwhelm me. I want to cry, but I can’t. What the fuck just happened? I try to run back down the path, but the thing’s arm is still attached to me.
I peel at the fingers, but they’re too stiff, and my hands are too shaky to peel each one. I’m fighting back tears, desperate to get away from this thing.
Footsteps are quickly approaching. Someone’s running toward me, but all I can do is focus on the hand still gripping my arm, my skin bubbling underneath it.
“Mae!”
I whip my head toward the sound. Asmo is running toward me. His eyes look crazed, panicked. “Are you okay?” he asks, rushing to me.
I don’t respond. I can’t speak.
His hands cup my cheeks, forcing me to look at him. “Are you okay?” he repeats. I nod, but I’m holding back tears.
He steps back, visually inspecting me.
“Get it off me,” I croak.
He immediately peels each finger off my arm, revealing the imprinted burn marks. My magic comes flooding back to me in a rush, and I want to drop to my knees in relief.
“What the fuck was that?” I ask, my voice low.
“What did it say to you?”
I shake my head, trying to remember. He forces me to look at him again, one hand under my chin.
“Mae, this is important. Think. What did it say to you?”
I swallow. “It said my High King was waiting for me.”
“Fuck,” he swears, running a hand through his hair and looking around.
I turn, glancing around the forest, but don’t see anything other than the trees surrounding us. “What does that mean? Asmo, what’s going on?”
“Marik’s missing. That must be what it meant.”
“It was trying to take me into the woods. Do you think he’s in there?” I freeze. “What about Koa?”
“What?” he asks, his brow furrowed. “What are you talking about?”
“I left Koa in the library. We have to go back,” I say, my voice coming out panicked.
He waves his hand in dismissal. “He can take care of himself. I have to find my brother.” He glances around again, his fingers twitching on the knife he’s holding. “Listen to me. Go back into the castle. Go into your wing, and do not open the door for anyone. I’ll come get you when it’s safe.”
I stare at him. “What are you talking about? I’m coming with you to get Marik.”
“Damnit, Mae. No. You’re the High Queen. I can’t put you in danger like that.”
I’ll be damned if he thinks I’m leaving his side and walking back to the castle by myself. How is that any safer than staying with him?
“Shut up, Asmo. I’m coming. Tell me what I need to know,” I say, forcing steel into my voice even though I’m fucking terrified.
He shakes his head but then says, “Fine. Listen to me closely. That thing was a cambion. They’re designed to lure you into a dangerous location before they torture you.
They feed on fear. Do not trust what you see.
Trust me, and stay by me. Do not let any of those things touch you.
They mute your magic. Do whatever you need to do to kill it or incapacitate it to keep it from touching you. ”
That explains that.
He hands me the knife and says, “Use your magic first. Use this as a last resort. They usually travel alone, but if Marik was taken, I’m assuming there’s more of them.”
I nod. “How did you kill that one from so far away?”
“Magic,” he says simply.
“Oh, duh,” I say, rolling my eyes.
“Come on.” He takes off down the path at a brisk pace, scanning the path as we walk. Dawn is far off, the moon’s crescent form providing almost no light to guide us.
Asmo stops suddenly and asks, “What do you hear?” I look at him, confused. “You’re a deer. I’m a snake. Your hearing is better than mine. Do you hear Marik? Do you hear anything?”
I focus my senses, tilting my head a bit. I hear something—voices—further down the path. I motion for us to keep going. “I hear voices, but I can’t tell what they’re saying.”
He nods and says, “Probably more than one, then.”
My pulse quickens as adrenaline floods through me, fear running rampant through every cell in my body.
He takes the lead again, quickly but lightly navigating the path. I stop him when I hear a groan, but it’s not coming from further down the path. Instead, it’s coming from the forest to our left.
“Asmo,” I whisper.