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Water.
I dash toward it like a fiend. It’s an odd water source, swelling up from the earth and filling a pool that expands all around it. I wonder how it doesn’t overflow? The water is clean enough to see my face as if in a mirror. Just as I suspected, I look like a complete wreck.
I reach my hands in again and again, lapping it up in ravenous gulps. I splash my hair and cheeks. God, that feels good.
The sunlight catches on a shimmery thing, and I stop to peer inside the pool. There are dozens of those shimmery things. Little circular discs, with faces on them. What…the fuck.
Where the hell kind of place am I?
Why aren’t there any fish?
I’m jolted away from my episode of bemused staring when a BANG! goes off. The explosion sends my hands over my ears as a splash of color lights up the sky. Okay that is weird and terrifying. Whatever that was I need to get as far away from it as possible, as soon as fucking possible.
A door to the castle opens and as several people come out of it, all laughing and smiling giddily, I duck down behind the pool. It’s either get in that castle through that door, or…I glance over my shoulder at the dense wood…go back there.
I wait until the people have made their way to a sprawling open field that’s like nothing I’ve ever seen—it’s so open, so spacious—where groups of others are sitting on blankets, legs out, chins tilted toward the sky. Seemingly in wait to set the sky on fire again.
With a dry gulp, I book it toward the door. It opens seamlessly. Phew. That was easy. Really the best idea I’ve had all day.
The view inside of the castle takes my breath away. It is a huge open space a dinosaur could fit into. Buttery-soft leather couches are situated around a massive stone hearth. There are spiraling staircases to my left and right. I can see the upper level, where there must be at least twenty, maybe fifty rooms. And the scent…it’s entrancing. Rustic yet clean and fresh, like cedarwood and lemon, with notes of black amber, plum, and old books. My mouth tries to salivate but can’t as I imagine biting into a juicy plum right this moment.
I hear another deafening blast from outside and I suck in a shallow breath. My hairs go stiff. What am I doing, I can’t stand here in this wide open space, I need to hide. I need to find someplace to sit or lie down and think, think.
I double-check my surroundings, all clear. I make my way up the stairs. I fall in step behind a man and a woman holding each other’s hands. They give me a long, curious stare as the man produces a small flat card. He swipes it across this little doohickey on the front of a door and the door opens.
The bedroom is over-the-top luxurious when I peek inside. The door swings shut behind them, clicking with finality. I wonder if they are a king and queen. Do all of these rooms look like that?
So I guess I am going to need one of those cards. Or maybe one of these doors is unlocked…
I test them one by one, cursing a breath of frustration when I find them all locked tight. This isn’t working. I need to figure out something else. Maybe I should just go back… No.
I turn around swiftly at the end of the long hallway, and almost break my nose when I smack my face into a towering slab of pure muscle.
I stumble a step as the owner of said muscles peers down at me through thick, black eyelashes. My heart performs an overenthusiastic flip. Now that is a man. He has so much poise, so much presence. My eyes fall to his lips, then lower. His arms are as big as cannons, crossed firmly over his chest. I crane my neck all the way back. My insides twist and burn.
Oh god. You think he knows about Maximillian? Will he summon him here to take me away?
“Can I help you?” a low, ferocious voice comes out of him. Deep as a well. Followed by a series of even-louder blasts that seem to shake the castle and my bones. Pop-pop-POP!!!
The last of the adrenaline drains out of my limbs as worry paralyzes me. My body goes weightless. The walls make a slow blurry spin around me, and then down, down I go, as every light flickers out.
I fall into the Darkness.
