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“Are we going to the portal?” Fern asked, wiping her brow.
I nodded, my mouth suddenly dry and my heart pounding in my chest. It’d been over an hour since my parents left. They could be back any moment.
“Yes. We have to make it. Come on. Let’s go now.”
Fern and I grabbed the spindle as it sparkled in the sun and began to carry it toward the portal behind our house.
I prayed it was there like Kellan said it would be. Replaying his voice in my head made me smile. His kiss. His touch. Everything about him replayed in my head like a slideshow.
It felt great knowing I was going to save us all. I had the spindle to hand over as we planned to kill her.
We’d kill her, and ... I didn’t know what.
What would happen? I couldn’t come back home to Mother. She’d know I took the spindle. Would she hurt me? I wasn’t sure. I didn’t know the person I called Mother anymore.
Fern searched my face as we began to maneuver through the trees. “Are you okay?”
“I don’t know what’s gonna happen after this. My Mother isn’t someone I can trust. I can’t come back home.”
She frowned as the twirling of the vortex hit my eardrums. “We’re almost there,” I said, stepping over overturned roots.
The closer we got, the more my heart thumped. Fern giggled excitedly as we put the spindle next to the vortex. “It’s fun being a hero,” she said.
I laughed at the same time that Mother’s scream ripped through the woods.
“She’s coming.”
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Kellan
My head tilted to the side, and I woke at the feeling of falling toward Ernest’s shoulder. My gaze felt hazy from sleep. I rubbed my eyes with the heels of my palms and looked around the dungeon.
Ernest snored beside me, while a rat scurried over the top of my boot. I jerked my foot away, splashing the ankle-deep water around me.
Ernest jerked awake. “What is it?”
“Just a rat,” I whispered. I couldn’t help but keep quiet and listen for any signs of Deidamia. It’d been a quiet morning waiting on Josephine. I had no idea of what time it was or if Deidamia was in the castle.
I’d fallen asleep with the hope that a portal would open in front of me and Josephine would walk out with the spindle. It hadn’t happened, obviously. I was still sitting next to several skeletons that had died at Deidamia’s hand.
“What time do you think it is?”
Ernest looked at the window on the opposite side of the room. There were thick bars trapping us inside, but through it, the sun looked high in the sky.
“Midday,” he groaned, attempting to stand up.
I helped him to his feet and did the same. My jeans were soaked from the leak down here. I’d appreciated the hiding spot, but it smelled like rot and death. I was ready to get out. I was ready to see my girl.
Feeling something in my pocket, I pulled out the picture and ran my thumb over it. “Do you have any light?” I asked.
Ernest waved his hand and offered a light in the center of his palm. I showed him the picture.
“I found this in that diary upstairs.”
“It looks like Deidamia and her mother. Maybe a sister?”
I nodded, and shoved the picture back into my pocket. “The bird wanted us to see it. I don’t know why, but he did.”
