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She whispered, “You sense it too, don’t you?”
He didn’t move. Only stared towards the forest. Towards the chapel and graveyard.
Was it more than a wraith?
She tried to sleep in the bed, but couldn’t.
Chapter 15
Something woke her.
Idonea's eyes snapped open, her hand already closing around the needle she'd tucked beneath her pillow. Her heart slammed against her ribs as she lay perfectly still, straining to listen past the wind whispering in the eaves and the low creak of beams settling in the cold.
Sleep had come badly. Every time she drifted off, something in her body jerked her awake again.
A soft thump from the front room.
Someone is inside.
"Witch?" came a whisper from the dark. "Don't kill me."
Idonea's breath rushed out of her, relief and irritation tangling behind her ribs. She set the needle back on the bedside table with a soft clink, though her pulse refused to slow.
"Kitsa." The name came out sharp.
"Please don't be cross." Kitsa's voice trembled, pleading.
Idonea pushed herself upright, swinging her legs over the edge of the bed. The cold floorboards bit at her bare feet as she fumbled for her glasses on the bedside table. They settled crookedly on her nose as the room sharpened around the edges.
She crossed to the front room, lifting the lamp from its hook. Warm light bloomed outward, chasing the shadows back.
Kitsa stood in the centre of the rug, snow still clinging to her white hair, her cloak clutched around her with both fists. The rug had been pulled crooked behind her, and at her feet—
A hatch. Set into the floor of her own cottage, standing open.
"There's a hatch." Her voice came out flat with disbelief.
Kitsa wouldn't meet her eyes. "Yes."
"In my floor."
"Yes."
"To where?" Idonea took a step closer, the lamp swinging in her grip, casting wild shadows across the walls.
Kitsa hesitated, her gaze fixed on the toes of her boots. She looked exhausted suddenly, too young for the shadows beneath her eyes.
"There's a passage," she whispered. "Just the one. It links your father's house to here. He lets me into his rooms sometimes, when the other witches are unwell and need attending but not enough to be sent to the hospice. I've come and gone that way before." Her voice grew smaller. "I knew the hatch was here."
Idonea's pulse hammered against her ribs. A passage to Alcaeus's house.
"You came through my father's house?"
Kitsa nodded miserably. "I let myself in. The side door is loose. He's never said anything about it."
"Kitsa."
"I know." Her green eyes lifted, wide and luminous in the lamplight. "I should not say all that aloud. I shouldn't have come tonight either. But I needed to, and the lane was watched, and the older witches taught me to use what was given."
