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A nightshirt.
“That will do,” I said, shrugging.
I pulled the stiff white fabric over my head until it draped loosely around my ankles. The sleeves were long and baggy, so much so that I had to roll them up to prevent them from getting in the way.
Before a golden mirror I stood and inspected myself. The glass was scratched and worn; the surface almost impossible to see a reflection.
“Jak, you need a wash,” I told myself. My feet were still stained black with soot from the fire. My face pale and blue eyes ringed with tiredness. I pressed a hand to my stomach as it rumbled again. “But first it is time to eat.”
* * *
The doorto my chamber had been destroyed. Except not by the fire. No. It lay in parts across the charred room, even the brick of the wall that held it up by the frame had come away. It had been caved in. From the outside.
I inched cautiously into the room, careful not to step on an iron nail or splinter of wood. It was early evening and I had been without shoes all day. After waiting in the great hall for someone, anyone, to come in, I had finally given up and went to retrieve my boots.
Luckily they were where I left them. Neatly lined up beneath the window that overlooked the garden. Now, as the sky was painted a dark purple, it was hard to see the world beyond.
I pulled my boots on, thankful for the break from the ever-cold floor of the castle.
The chamber was close to destroyed. Yet the fire had been put out — by what or how I did not know. Nor did it matter. My potentially dramatic action resulted in what I required.
Attention.
The scorched scars reached as far as the outer walls but it had been stopped before spreading beyond. The bed was in ruins. Sheets no more than crispy ashes. The posts of the frame now leaned against one another amongst the mound of burned wood and material.
“What a clumsy boy I am.”
There was a glint of metal nestled within the pile of ashes. I reached for it, pushing the dusting of destruction out of the way until I got a grasp on the item and pulled it out.
The scrying bowl. It had warped slightly. Not completely broken, but enough to feel as though I would not be able to use it again.
It was the perfect excuse not to call upon Mother or the coven. For a moment, a wink of orange flickered across the dull metal of the bowl. It happened so quickly I almost passed it off as something in my eye. But then it happened again. A reflection of an amber glow. I turned behind me, facing the window to catch what I had seen.
Beyond the window, in the darkening view, I could see it.
What if it was Marius? No. The moon had not reached its apex yet. That was all I knew of the creature before he appeared. It was only in the dead of night that he roamed.
Then it must be the people that live here. The very ones that had done their best to keep out of my way, no matter how I longed to see them.
My heart slammed in my chest as I raced out the room, discarding the scrying bowl back on the floor without a thought. A short run down the corridor and I was there, at the front door ready to find out who lurked beyond it.
But it was locked.Fuck.No matter how I tugged and pulled at the large, circular hand, it did not open. Giving up with a breath of frustration, I ran back to the room, hoping to catch the direction the bobbing glow moved in.
I was left with one choice.
It was easy, pulling myself onto the thin ledge of the window and slipping through the gap that it allowed as I pushed it open. I was thankful for the overgrown grass that I landed upon. It not only cushioned my short jump, but kept my footfalls quiet.
The nightshirt did little to keep out the chill of the evening. Mist swirled around my ankles and for a moment I remembered my first night and the hand that reached for me.
I did not stay in one place to find out if that same apparition returned.
Through the darkening gardens I moved, looking for another glare of light to signal where the intruder was heading. My heart thumped in my chest, palms damp with sweat. But on I pushed, desperate to find someone — anyone that was not the beast.
Blindly, I waded through the gardens. Lost among the towering hedges, pathless walkways and monstrous roots and weeds that seemed to have overtaken what must have been a glorious garden once upon a time.
Then I caught it again. Through the gaps of the hedge I almost walked face-first into, amber light that moved beyond it.
I quickened my movements, frantically looking for a way around the hedge wall before me. The twigs scratched at my hands as I searched for a way through.
