35. Raven
With a thump and a scrape, the monstrous, pale creatures unceremoniously tossed me into a stone room with one door and two high windows covered in bars.
Several feet inside the door, a wall of bars ran from one side of the space to the other, blocking my access to the only exit. Dual tables sat back-to-back on either side of the bars, beneath a slot only big enough to pass through a tray of food.
My gown was tattered and torn, plenty of feathers missing, and I had no shoes.
My palms were cut (again) and my knees skinned, but I was otherwise all right.
Or all right enough. Physically, anyway.
I had, after all, been through an ordeal and was covered in the blood of the reaper I’d watched get cut down in front of me by the Killian.
A blow that he’d intended for me.
I breathed in a centering breath and stilled my trembling hands.
I can handle this. I’ll find a way out of this predicament.
The questions were, where was I? And if not the Killian, who had me and why?
The creatures of monsters and moonlight had bound me, dragged then tossed me into darkness, and brought me here…wherever here was…with the parting words, “Get comfortable. You’ll be here for a while.”
A far from uplifting promise.
A chorus of crows had followed my journey most of the way until something stopped their calls of worry. I prayed the change had been due to magic and not because my feathery friends had been hurt…or worse.
Pushing up on my toes, I peered out the high window to a landscape of trees.
A scattering of dark buildings nestled between my location and the tree line, but the woodland consumed the majority of my view.
Several crows zigged and zagged across my sight, as if searching for something they could not find. Me, I suspected.
Magic, then. Magic had confused the birds’ tracking.
A thin line of golden amber kissed the horizon, blending into a rich sapphire, and morphing to midnight, marking the hour as predawn.
My breath wheezed, the new collar around my neck―an unwanted gift from the pale monster twins―uncomfortably tight. I danced my fingertips over the band’s smooth surface for the fifth time, unable to identify the material and finding no clasp by which to release it.
The purpose of the collar was at present unknown, but I suspected and had no doubt I’d find clarity relatively soon. After all, hadn’t I seen something similar used on Winter when he became drunk on magic?
I padded over to the next window. The second view offered a stretch of the citadel. Soft sounds of partygoers making their way home shimmied on the pre-morning air. Groups of crows flew in complete chaos and confusion. And in the distance, the lights of the castle still burned brightly.
My heart squeezed to a stop. I was far from where Chace and the others knew to search for me. Far from the palace and the Killian protection it offered.
Not that those protections had done me any good when I’d met Chiara in the chamber.
The anti-Killian wards covered the palace and not the ground beneath.
Chiara had wanted to end these cursed conditions she’d been trapped living in. We could have figured out a way to work together, but now… Now that alliance could never be.
What had the reaper meant when she’d implied Prince August was somehow responsible for the current circumstances? Had she been talking about the curse directly? Or suggesting a relationship…one between her and the prince…had indirectly played into the unfolding events?
I loosened my shoulders with a sigh.
At least I put an end to the specters.
With them gone, the queen could remove the magic throwing off the balance of life and death in Veritas. I hoped she’d do so soon, for the sake of all.
My gaze flittered from the castle to the crows.
Turning back to the room, I slid down the wall until my butt hit the ground. Pulled my feather skirt-covered knees into my chest and hugged myself. My feet were cold, bare against the stone floor, and I curled my toes into the chilly bite.
The room in which I resided was furnished for minimal comfort. A desk and a single bed consisting of a thin mattress laid upon a cement slab and layered with several blankets. A small washroom with no door was set in the only wall not offering a barred window or inaccessible exit.
So much for privacy when bathing…or anything else.
If magic confused the crows’ tracking ability, would Chace be able to find me here? Would the Killian? Winter with all his resources? And what of the queen? What would she think of my disappearance?
If the queen suspected me of breaking our agreement, could the ramifications reach me in this place?
I sucked back a ragged breath and closed my eyes on the release. My body ached, my head throbbed, and everything about me was exhausted. I rested my cheek on my knees.
Just for a short while, I told myself. I would only sleep for a short while. Then I would take note of everything about my surroundings and start formulating a plan to break free.