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“It is not how I would describe it.” My hands fumbled against the dusty windowsill, then to the iron latch that had rusted shut before I had pried it open. “I am fonder of the morning if I am honest.”
“Shame you will not see it,” he replied so quickly it hitched my breath.
I clambered up onto the windowsill until I was in a perch. Readying the element of air, I willed for it to listen for when I called. Its cooperation was imperative to my next plan. I buried the anxiety of the possibility of falling to my death before Marius got to me. An image of him drinking from my broken, shattered body at the ground far below the window sliced through my mind.
No. Focus.
The night beyond the room was crisp as the air swaddled me. It impressed me just how well the thin glass of the window kept the cold out of the room. It was the final night of the final month of the year and the chill of winter was intense. My jaw clenched as I braced against the chill, twisting my wrists and willing the air to follow my command. It was a simple gesture, but one that would keep me airborne for as long as it required to reach the castle’s towering roof.
Looking up, my stomach tugged downward as I took in the height. During the daylight it did not seem so impossible. Now, looking upwards, it seemed that the spires moved away from me before my very eyes.
Focus, Jak, I warned again, my hands shaking at my sides as the wind began to listen.
The trick was to hold one’s breath, not wasting precious air on breathing when it was needed to keep me afloat.
I closed my eyes, ready to throw myself backwards into the night when a brush of breath tickled my ear.
I spun so fast from my perch that I tumbled onto the chamber’s floor in a knot of limbs. Panting, I pushed myself back up to see Marius climbing through the window.
His gaze was obsidian, not a single slither of white left. His lips sliced into a smile, cutting through his cheeks, exposing rows of sharp teeth.
I crawled away from him as his black-tipped fingers bent the wiry frame of the windows and cracked the panels of glass. One leg inside, then another until he stood before me.
“I thought it would take longer than this.” He seemed taller, but crooked. And his tone was almost… disappointed, his low lip pouting slightly as he regarded me. “It would be crude to admit that I was hoping for more of a chase. You have made this far too easy.”
This was the creature I expected during my years of preparation. And he was far from the man I had come to know. To love.
This being before me was twisted and dark. His face was not soft, but sharp and creased with lines. His tongue, the very same that had explored every inch of my skin, now lapped hungrily across his pale, almost non-existent lips.
“I did not invite you in,” I said, forcing as much strength into my tone as I could muster.
“You seem to forget that this is my home. One I do not need an invitation to do what I desire.”
I scrambled backwards until my back was, once again, pressed against my barricade. He could not be here. Not like this. His presence ruined the next steps in my plan in a single, horrifying moment.
“You are speechless… it is becoming of you.”
My lip curled upward. “If this is what you warned me of, you do not frighten me.”
“Don’t I?” He rested his hand on one hip, flashing his fangs. “Shame…”
I looked between the open window, feeling the remnants of wind that was still waiting for my command, then back to Marius. “I do not want to hurt you… trust me.”
Marius opened his mouth to respond but was silenced as my power slammed into him.
He did not see it coming. Or perhaps the slither of the man I knew simply underestimated me.
The build-up of power still lingered in my bones, waiting patiently for its release. As I raised my hands, and held my breath, billows of wind thrashed across the room at him. It conjured from nowhere and everywhere at the same time. The force crashed into his chest, doubling him over like a doll, and ripping him from his feet.
The window shattered into pieces, flying out into the night with Marius. I closed my eyes, waiting for the nick of pain to spread across my uncovered skin as glass rained down around me.
But the wind I commanded kept a barrier of protection.
Once the element was expelled completely from my being, I sagged to the ground, opening my eyes to see nothing but destruction. The nightly, natural wind caused the ripped curtains to dance in place of where Marius had stood seconds before.
Panicked, I pushed myself up and ran for the gaping hole my power had created. I hardly cared as I gripped a hold of the glass covered windowsill and peered out to the ground far below.
I expected to see a broken body amongst the scattering of shattered glass.
