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Almost Free
Avelyn closed her book and headed back to the castle. If she could, she would have avoided the three werewolves who were chatting on the porch, near the heavy wooden door of the main wing. But that meant she would have had to take one of the side doors, which provided easy access to the left wing and the right wing of the Schloss. She didn’t know the castle well enough to use a different entrance without the risk of getting lost. The man was leaning with his lower back pressed against the stone railing. He was taller than Max and so buff that Avelyn almost expected his muscles to pop like balloons. The women were young and beautiful, one with short black hair, the other one with light blond locks that almost touched her waist. When she went past them, they ceased their chatter and nodded their heads in greeting. None of them offered to open the door for her. Avelyn gathered all her strength, concentrated it in the weak muscles of her arms, and pulled as hard as she could. “Friggin’ gate of Mordor, dammit,” she whispered under her breath. The door budged, making it easier for her to pull it just enough to squeeze inside.
The immense entry hall was empty, and Avelyn stopped in the center to admire the majestic staircase and the old, gold chandelier.
On both sides of the staircase, there were two other doors, smaller than the front one, which led to long corridors, more doors, locked rooms, a labyrinth in which Avelyn could be lost for hours. She was determined to break the mysteries of the Schloss and learn it by heart, but today she didn’t feel like exploring. The silence didn’t last long because Daniel entered two minutes after her, maneuvering the door with obvious ease. Avelyn answered with a bright smile to his whispered “Hello, Miss”, and sighed in frustration.
She had spent the first part of the day in the courtyard, on a bench, pretending to read her book. Across the court, she could see Caleb doing something on his laptop, under a beech tree. On the stone table in front of him, next to his laptop, he had a plate of sandwiches and a mug of… something. Avelyn couldn’t have known what. From time to time, he would lift his light green eyes to look at her, but he quickly dropped them back to his screen each time she caught him staring. After she had come back from lunch, she saw that Caleb had disappeared. She had been preparing to make herself more comfortable and study the activity around the gatehouse, when she caught a glimpse of yellow fur in the corner of her eye. The werewolf crossed the courtyard and approached a girl who was just walking out through the door of the right wing - The Lunar Wing. She told him something Avelyn couldn’t hear, laughed lightheartedly, then walked past him and went through the iron gates. Avelyn had noticed how she pulled her shirt out of her jeans and started unbuttoning it. She was probably going to turn before she went into the forest. She knew the yellow wolf was Daniel, so she was not surprised when he strolled lazily to a patch of grass and plopped his heavy body on it, letting the spring sun warm his fur.
It had been like that all day. Max had gone to his office in Dunkelstadt in the morning, but not before kissing her forehead and telling her she could explore the Schloss as much as she wanted.
“Oh, one more thing,” he had said before walking out of the room. “The right wing is Jocelyn’s, and the left wing is Karl’s.”
“So, they are off limits.”
“No, not at all. You’re the lady of this castle now, so nothing is off limits to you. I just wanted to let you know. Karl’s wing is almost deserted anyway.”
The only thing he forgot to mention was that Caleb and Daniel would be taking shifts shadowing her. What kind of freedom was that supposed to be? However, she tried not to be absurd. Each time anger boiled in her chest and threatened to explode in a scream or a punch to the wall, she inhaled and exhaled deeply a couple of times, reminding herself that he was, in fact, right. Since last night, when he had taken her out and took her to the glade, she couldn’t stop thinking of finding a way to escape. The fake ID was in the inside pocket of an old jacket, patiently waiting for her to get the hell out of this mess and put it to good use. Max was right not to trust her. To some extent, the fact that he proved to be so careful and calculated pleased her. Most certainly, he was not an idiot. “Good. Because I don’t like idiots.” He wasn’t making it easy for her, was he? No matter, Avelyn had always been a resourceful woman.
Daniel’s T-shirt was crumpled, and his jeans hung low on his waist. He was barefoot, and his dirty blond hair was disheveled, as if he’d just thrown his clothes on without paying much mind to how he looked. “Where do these people stuff their clothes before they turn? And why do they even go through such a hassle when they could simply stick to one bloody form?” Avelyn had many questions about many things. After Max left, Christine had shown her around. She had taken her to meet Harold, the cook. The kitchens went two stories below ground, and the narrow staircase had almost made Avelyn claustrophobic. Harold was a lovely middle-aged man with a belly as big as a church bell. Also, his eyes were of a pleasant, human brown. She wanted to ask him why a human would ever want to work for a clan of werewolves, but she thought it might be inappropriate. She decided to save it for later, when she’d know him better. Then, the old woman had shown her the library, which was on the fourth floor, and taken her up in the Crescent Tower, from where the view was much wider and more revealing than what her bedroom windows offered.
Daniel went through the door to the right. “It must be one hell of a job to follow someone around and try not to let them know they’re being watched.” Daniel was doing a much worse job than Caleb. Avelyn decided the only reasonable place to go was the library. She climbed up the stairs slowly, lost in thought, trying to analyze the possibilities. It was improbable that she could ever go through the front gate without being seen. She was sure there were at least two werewolves up in the gate towers, guarding the entrance at night. And the damn castle was like a maze. Christine had pointed to some parts of the property which Avelyn didn’t even know existed, like the smaller, inner court with its rose garden and romantic gazebo, and the city of Dunkelstadt, vaguely visible through the thick fog, at the foot of Mount Halbmond. Avelyn had made a note to self to go up there again, alone, and take her time to study her surroundings. However, there was one thing she had to do first: browse the library for any book or document that could offer her a map of the castle, or, even better, of its famous dungeons. “If my little trick worked at Alma Venus, why not try it here as well?” She couldn’t know if the tunnels under the Schloss had been designed to lead anywhere outside of the castle, but she could only hope. There was a fair chance they had only been intended as a sort of prison.
Avelyn had reached the landing on the second floor when she almost bumped into a woman she had never seen before. She had very good visual memory, and she could recognize most of the wolves she had seen in and around the castle.
“Watch where you’re going!” the woman yelled at her, annoyed. She was so tall that Avelyn had to throw her head back to see her dark green eyes. She was one angry she-wolf. Her hair was black, cut very short, and her red tank top and skinny blue jeans outlined her athletic body and complete lack of curves. She almost looked like a boy.
“Sorry, I didn’t see you,” apologized Avelyn pleasantly. Then she added: “It might be because you were moving at werewolf speed.”
“So it’s my fault you’re a halfwit?”
“Oh, wow. She doesn’t like me much. Who is she anyway?”
It was like the girl read her thoughts. “I’m Jocelyn.”
“Oh my! I’m so pleased to meet you!” Avelyn was genuinely excited to finally meet the infamous Jocelyn, even though she was suddenly feeling so nervous that her hands started trembling. “I’m Avelyn.”
“I know.” Jocelyn never smiled back. Her body had taken a straight, imposing posture, and her arrogant eyes studied Avelyn from head to toe as if she were some kind of parasite the she-wolf was trying to decide whether to crush under her boot or not. “Max kept talking about you so much that I was forced to make up a new rule and impose it even on my own wolves: no one is allowed to mention your name around me. You just broke it.”
“Well, how was I…,” started Avelyn, confused. “What?” Indeed, what was she apologizing for? Jocelyn intimidated her so much that it took her a few seconds to realize she had been insulted. “I’m sorry you don’t like the sound of my name. It’s Latin.”
“I couldn’t care less about your name. I don’t like you.”
“I… err… don’t know what to say to that.”
Jocelyn folded her arms over her chest, and fixed Avelyn with her cold, piercing eyes. “Just make sure you stay out of my way, okay? You’re moving so slowly, that you’re making me feel tired. And stay out of my wolves’ way too.”
“What have I ever done to you?”
Jocelyn raised a thin, straight eyebrow. “You… are. I’ve no idea what Max sees in you, because it’s sure as hell that you’re neither pretty, nor very smart. What do you even do all day? Eat? He was supposed to bring home a bride who would offer Clan Blackmane some sort of political advantage, or, at least, a bride he could take out in public without any fear that she’d embarrass him. You’re clearly none of that. And, to make things worse, you’re a vixen. I mean… what the hell? I almost kille
d him when he told me.”
“I’m not a vixen,” whispered Avelyn, trying to hold back her anger. “I never chose to be put in House Vulpes. We don’t have a say in that.”
“Does it fuckin’ matter?” Jocelyn rolled her eyes in exasperation. “You are what you are, and you’re going to be trouble for this whole clan. I don’t even want to think of what the fox-shifters will whisper around corners and behind Max’s back when they find out you’re a Vulpes bride. It’s going to be beyond humiliating.”
Avelyn simply looked at her, hands squeezed into painful fists at her sides. There were so many things she would have loved to spit right to her face, but she had to keep her temper under control.
