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I stomped over the bones littering the ground and toward the window. Picking myself up, I looked out into the bayou. That was where the leak was coming from.
“Is there another way out?” I asked. “I mean besides walking into her room and hoping she’s not there?”
Ernest looked around. “I could possibly get us out of the window if I have time. We need to wait on Josephine.”
Doubt began to leak into my mind. It’d been a long time. I couldn’t imagine what she was going through. Had her parents accepted her back? Had they stopped her from coming back into this realm? Had she not found the spindle?
Ernest seemed to have hope in her, and I was her soulmate. I needed to keep my hopes high. She was smart. I just needed her to find the damn thing.
I ran my palm down my face and leaned against the wall. “Will the portal open here?”
Ernest shrugged and picked up the edge of his robe from hitting the floor. “It should open here with us,” he said.
My fingers touched the picture in my pocket. “Why would that crow want us to see that?”
Ernest shrugged. “Who knows? It’s a bird.”
“That was once a person. That’s what the wolf told me. I’m not sure how much I can believe of what comes out of a wolf’s mouth.”
A shadow drew over my face from the window. I ducked at first, hoping it wasn’t Deidamia, but it was the crow. Ernest reached his forearm up, and the crow slipped through the bars and hopped onto him.
The crow cawed loudly, and my skin began to crawl.
“Shh,” Ernest whispered, stroking its feathers. “Are you a person?” he cooed.
I gave him a weird look. I didn’t trust the bird enough to touch it. The bird began to caw loudly. Ernest kept calm, though the bird didn’t stop squawking.
“Shut him up before I knock him into tomorrow,” I mumbled.
Ernest wrapped his palm over the bird’s beak, but he slipped from him and flew toward the railing of the stairs. My heart fluttered at the eyes staring back at us from the stairwell. Those green eyes would scare any grown man, and when she stepped into the light, that smile felt like evil incarnate.
“I have visitors,” she said softly. Her horns shimmered in the sunlight as she stepped down into the dungeon. The water splashed around her feet the closer she grew to us. I attempted to swallow my fear, and she laughed.
“It’s rude to trespass into someone’s home. Even ruder to hide in the dungeon and plot someone’s death.”
Ernest kept oddly quiet as he studied her. I couldn’t understand his calmness. I wielded my sword and prepared for her to attack.
“Where is Josephine?” she asked.
“Don’t you know?” I asked. “Your little bird spies on everyone.”
She glanced over her shoulder at the bird gawking at us. “She’s been different lately.”
“Josephine is coming back with your spindle, so you can let us go.”
“She left the realm? Clever girl, isn’t she?”
“Stay back,” I said, pointing my sword at her. I couldn’t let her kill me. I hadn’t seen if Josephine made it back yet. I deserved to live. I deserved another chance at love.
I tightened my fingers around my sword as the sound of the portal materialized in front of me. It knocked Deidamia back onto her ass while colliding into the wall of the dungeon, bashing bricks and debris around us.
It left a giant hole, so we could escape. I couldn’t focus on Deidamia or the hole. I searched the portal for Josephine. My heart drummed in my chest so loudly the portal seemed lightyears away.
Minutes ticked by when Fern stepped out and onto the dungeon floor. The golden spindle was in her hands. My fingers twitched as Josephine stepped out seconds later with the other end in her hands.
There was a mixture of emotion on her face. Fear. Confusion. And then she saw me. Tears coated her cheeks as she dropped the spindle and raced into my arms. I pulled her close to my chest and rested my head on top of hers. “I’ve never been so scared in my life,” I whispered, pulling back to kiss her deeply.
I didn’t care that Deidamia watched or that Ernest pulled the spindle behind him in protection from Deidamia.
