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Did he see my magic?The thought sickened me, but soon melted away as I caught sight of the limp arm of the girl he carried. Guilt fuelled me to get off the floor and follow after him.Slow, sloppy.Mother’s voice filled the darkness of my mind.My pace only urged to quicken from the fear that the strange creatures would return for me.
Marius did not complain that I trailed after him. He knew I was behind him from the subtle glances over his shoulder. I half expected him to scream at me to leave. But he didn’t.
I stayed on the stone path through the gardens, not deviating from it, heeding the warning the young girl had said to me before the creature had hurt her.
I was soon thankful to be back in the castle with the door shut behind me, leaving the reaching mists and moving shadows behind lock and key.
Marius took her to his room. The one I had woken in this morning. I kept my distance as he entered, laying her across the freshly made bed.
A bed I did not make upon leaving the room earlier.
“Will she be okay?” I asked from the corner of the room as Marius ran his hands across her. He did not reply. He carefully pulled at the cords of the dark corset she wore, revealing the top of her chest.
Even from my distance, I could see the dark bruise that had already bloomed across her skin.
He released a breath, one that whistled through gritted teeth. “Broken ribs. She will survive and you… you may live to see tomorrow, Jak.”
“Can I help?” I stepped forward cautiously. “It is my fault.”
I said it because it was true, and it would have been what he wanted to hear. In truth I did not care for his reaction, but it was clear she meant something to him. And such things become weapons in the right hands.
“Pray tell, what can you do to relieve the pressure her broken ribs are currently causing as they press on her lungs? Do you harbour such power to heal her?”
I harboured power, just not the kind that could heal. Bowing my head, I kept quiet, watching from the corner of the room as Marius moved into action.
He rolled the loose sleeve of his shirt up to his elbow, brought his own wrist to his mouth and bit into his pale skin. My stomach twisted as I watched on. Beneath his lips blood spread, dripping down his chin as he lowered his hand towards the girl’s parted mouth, not caring about the drips of ruby that splashed across the white sheets.
He cupped a gentle hand beneath the head of the young girl, lifted her up ever so slightly and held his bleeding wrist over her mouth. My stomach coiled in revulsion. To watch on as his life force fell like fat drops of rain across her paling lips. As if she registered it, her mouth parted, and her tongue slowly unfurled outward to catch the blood.
It was an innocent action, one a child would make during the first rains of spring. Catching the fresh drops of water and drinking from the clouds themselves. But this, this was wrong.
“I smell your disgust,” Marius muttered, lowering the girl back onto the pillow. He pulled a laced cloth from his breast pocket and wiped at the blood across his wrist. “Remember it would not have been required if you had not caused this. Be thankful I have the means to help her heal. For your sake.”
I closed my gaping mouth shut and tried to clear the revulsion from my expression. “How was I to know that those… things would attack us? It would not seem a handbook is provided upon arrival to this haunting place.”
“Blood hounds,” Marius said, ignoring my jibe. “Creatures of shadow that hunger for the same thing as I. Now you know, so keep away.”
“Noted,” I snapped, glancing at his now clean wrist to see not a single mark upon his skin.
He followed my gaze and lifted his wrist up. “Miraculous, isn’t it? How a curse can hold such… beauty. My blood has healing properties and keeps me sustained for years but can also heal others if ingested.”
I could not answer. It was far from miraculous, but also far from anything Mother or the coven had warned me about.
“Who is she?” I asked, happy to change the topic.
Marius took his time rolling down his sleeve and buttoning the cuff.
“And you believe you deserve an answer… as if she concerns you?”
My face warmed. “It is a simple question. I know you have people living in this castle. I spoke with one. Is she your… servant?”
“She is no servant of mine.”
“Then what?”
The corner of Marius’s ashen lips curved into a smile, one of intrigue. “I have never been fond of questions.” His sudden laugh bounced across the stone walls of the chamber. “And I have never known a Claim to be so… intrusive. Let me assure you, Jak, there is no living soul inside this castle. She —” he waved to the girl on the bed behind him “—simply visits as did her mother and her mother before that. How else am I supposed to keep in touch with the ever-changing world?”
A shiver spread down my arms. He had an informant from Darkmourn. I looked back to the girl, the traitor, unsure why I did not recognise her.
