“Sir? I am your betrothed. You will not refuse me.”
Finn felt anger bubbling up in him. He declared, “The lady will dance with whomever she chooses.”
“She will be my bride,” Elliot insisted.
“She is not acting like your bride.” Finn paused, then went on, prompted by a curious sense of fate. “Indeed, if I asked for her hand as well, she would prefer me.”
Elliot glared at him. “She would not! I am better born, and the better man.”
“Birth is no guarantee of nobility.”
“You impugn me!”
“I state a fact. And I will state another. You are not worthy of this lady.” As Finn spoke words he hadn’t even intended to say, he turned to Camellia, only to find she had drifted farther away. Her dance partner was no longer there, but Camellia didn’t return to where Finn stood. Instead, she was walking toward a pair of heavy oak doors on the other side of the ballroom, the ones to the hallway that eventually led to the tower.
“Lia?” he asked.
Elliot took a step forward. “My lady?” he called out again.
The Silver Lady looked back once at the men. “I must go,” she said, her words faint in the air. Finn saw confusion in her face, and wondered if Camellia was conscious of the ghost possessing her, if she knew what was happening.
“Please…” Lia said. Then she suddenly turned, as though hearing something they could not.
This is wrong, Finn thought. Time is all tangled up.
The lady ran out of the room.
“You scared her away,” Elliot accused him.
“Or you did!” Finn was suddenly worried for Camellia. “We must find her.”
Elliot had a new, sly look in his eye. “Indeed. We will both look. The first man to find her can claim her.”
“No, that’s not what I…” Finn forgot what he wanted to say. Did it matter? He shook his head. He must find his beloved. Nothing else mattered. “Fine. Just find her to see she’s safe.”
Elliot took off running toward the doors the Silver Lady passed through. Finn grinned and started running in the opposite direction. He knew where his love was going. He would reach her first.
Finn ran down the corridor he’d chosen, hoping his recent explorations would lead him to the tower doors faster than his rival. As he ran, though, he stopped picturing the castle’s layout in his head. He’d remembered these walls. He’d been down them countless times before.
His feet took him past branching hallways and closed doors, but he left all to instinct. His sword rattled in its case as he ran. Sword? When did I get a sword? he wondered.
Never mind, a different voice said inside his head. Just find her.
He ran, and when he reached the tower doors that the Silver Lady had vanished through before, they stood open. He didn’t wonder how that could be. He just plunged through the doorway and began to charge up the stairs. Behind him, he thought he heard footsteps, and more faintly, a woman’s voice, calling after him. He ignored everything and ran on.
His progress halted suddenly when he reached a small room halfway up the tower. Elliot barred his way, his face calm.
“Let me go by,” Finn ordered.
The other man produced a sword from behind his back. “I will reach my lady or die trying.” Elliot definitely never carried any type of weapon with him, yet he too was somehow armed.
Finn stepped back, out of range of the gleaming blade, deciding where it came from wasn’t his concern now. “I’m not going to get into a duel with my friend.”
“If you were a friend, you would not be attempting to steal my beloved from me! I’ve been sick with love for her for years, and you sneak in under my nose and court her. She is better than you deserve.”
Years? thought Finn. Elliot didn’t even sound like himself anymore. “I won’t fight you.”
“You will, coward.” Elliot lunged forward. With unexpected grace, he attacked, forcing Finn to defend himself.
