AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I almost laugh. “Yeah, good girl, go. Councilman Lawrence should be waiting for you, anyway.”
She looks like she’s thinking about arguing. She’s already changed her clothes once, and the rain is getting worse by the minute. I wish I’d brought different clothes for myself. There are only so many drying runes I can cast before I’ll start to fatigue. I’d do it all again, though, just to spend another hour on that balcony with Etta.
Etta flings her door open and dashes out of the car and up the soaking wet marble stairs. I watch her disappear inside before pulling my car around back of the building to the parking-lot.
This might not be what she pictured. Might not do what she’d hoped to accomplish, but maybe it will all work out, anyway.
Once it’s done, no one will be able to stop it. Once it’s done, we’ll still have the same leverage arguing that our parents will have to get along on the council and in real life—only now with slightly less leverage since Etta won’t have pledged and they could hold that, the threat of never using magic, over her. It’s not perfect, but if she’s willing to make that sacrifice to be with me than I’m just selfish enough to let her.
I never claimed to be a good or moral person. I never claimed to be the hero. I only want her.
Ipark and run around the opposite side of the building in the dark. The whole place is giving a ‘dark and stormy night’ kind of energy that I try to ignore. I don’t want to start looking for omens in every cloud and metaphors in every line, it will drive me insane. More insane than I already am.
Three windows are lit up along the west side of the castle, all in what looks like the same room. I assume that’s Lawrence’s office. He was only too thrilled to make the drive out here when I called earlier, though surprised that we didn’t want to wait to do the ritual officially with all the witnesses.
Yeah, no. I’m not waiting another fucking second. Not when I have an alternative within reach.
I jog up the steps two at a time, smiling slightly as I pass the spot where Etta took my jacket—I never got it back—and reach the heavy double doors. I reach out for the handle, then jerk back when the door doesn’t budge. My arm nearly rips out of the socket with the force of my own weight, like whiplash, as I had no sense idea the door wouldn’t open, and I wince. What the fuck?
I try the other door. Nothing.
Grinding my teeth at the freezing rain still pelting down all around me, I glance around. I could swear Etta went in these doors.
It takes me a moment to remember the symbol to unlock a door, as I’m getting wildly out of practice with runes, but it comes to me and I scribble it over the handle.
Still, nothing.
Growling in frustration, I go to pull out my phone and realize it won’t work because of all the runes I’ve been casting. Fucking hell.
I’m inches from getting almost everything I’ve ever wanted and a set of fucking two-hundred year old doors are going to stop me from—
My mind goes blank, my thoughts stuttering to a halt as a set of headlights illuminate the steps. A car peels out of the parking-lot too fast for it to be normal, turns right and speeds away. My heart starts beating hard against my ribs, an ominous feeling churning in my gut. What the fuck just happened? Am I losing my mind—for real this time—or is something actually fucking wrong?
Giving up on the door, I sprint down the steps to the opposite side of the building. There’s a side entrance over here somewhere…ah, there it is. Between two perfectly groomed rhododendron bushes is a smaller back staircase leading up to a much less imposing door.
Thunder cracks overhead and the sky illuminates for a moment as I jog up the slippery stairs and try the knob. Also locked.
I’m starting to fatigue slightly from all the magic. It’s like working out for the first time in months, or even years. The motions are familiar but my muscles are screaming.
I ignore the slight shake in my finger as I draw the unlocking rune again. I’m sure I had it right before. My relief is palpable as I try the knob and it turns. Except, then, why wouldn’t the other doors open?
It doesn’t matter. It won’t matter because everything is fine and I’m overreacting. The gods fucking know I only have two moods: dead or destructive.
Sprinting down the back hallway and up the stairs, my breath heaves and my heart pounds too hard. I burst through the doors at the top of the stairs and look around.
There’s a light coming from the office, just like outside, and I dash toward it. “Etta!”
No answer.
“Councilman Lawrence!”
There’s nothing. Only silence. A silence so profound it can only be the silence of the dead.
* * *
I’ve never driven so fast in my fucking life.
I would launch armies for her, slaughter thousands to protect her. She has changed me yet again for the final time. I am no longer Paris, I am Agamemnon launching ships, I am Achilles marching into battle.
