AllFreeNovel
Share Us
A scream echoed against the walls of Merritt’s bedroom.
He froze, shirt halfway unbuttoned, changing for the night. The hairs on his arms rose. He spun around, confused. That scream... It had sounded far away, yet so close.
It had sounded like Hulda.
Blood rushing through his veins, he searched the room, wondering if it was a trick of Owein’s, but he’d never done sounds before. “Hulda?” he called, crossing to his dresser.
His eyes landed on his communion stone just as the magic seal on it faded.
His bones shifted to butter. Grabbing the stone, he pressed his thumb into the seal and shouted, “Hulda! Are you there? Hulda!”
He waited for an answer. He didn’t receive one.
Rushing through the door, Merritt barreled down the hallway, stone in hand. “Hulda!” He peeked into the library. Turned back and flew down the stairs. “Hulda!”
Baptiste stepped out from the lavatory. “What is happened?”
Merritt held up the stone, as though it could explain everything. “Where is Hulda?”
Baptiste shook his head.
“Mr.Fernsby?” Beth came in from the dining room.
“Where. Is.Hulda?”
Beth bit her lip. “I haven’t seen her since she went out. I thought to study the tourmaline...”
Owein might as well have opened a sinkhole in the floor beneath him.
“Find Hulda.” He spun to Baptiste. “Find hernow. Something is wrong.”
He barreled for the door, then paused, letting Baptiste go in front of him. Taking the stairs two at a time, he bounded back to his bedroom and grabbed his rifled musket from the wall, then the Colt Paterson from his drawer. As he tried to leave, however, an invisible barricade slammed into him, striking his head and knocking him off his feet.
“Not now!” He leapt up and rammed the butt of the rifled musket against the wardship spell once, twi—
The shield gave way, and he dashed through the house without second thought. Outside, wind stirred his hair over his face, temporarily blinding him. The sun was a golden tracing on the horizon, nothing more. He cursed. Baptiste’s low voice bellowed Hulda’s name. Beth bounded toward the gravestones.
“Hulda!” Merritt called. He tried the stone once more, but no one responded. Picking a direction, he started running. “Hulda! Hulda!”
A rabbit hole nearly snapped his ankle in half.
The rifled musket was slick in his hands. “Hulda!”
A cold breeze blew through the vegetation.Sssssshhhhhhhheeeeeeeeeee,it whispered.
A shiver coursed up Merritt’s neck. “Hello?”
Sssssshhhhhhhheeeeeeeeeeeee...
“Owein! Where is she?” He trudged through thistles, voice hoarse. “She! Where is she?”
Ssssssshhhhhhheeeeee,the air wheezed, and in his head, Merritt saw a coastline far from where he was standing.
He ran.
Hulda’s face pressed into reeds. Her wrists stuck together with nothing but a spell, stronger than any manacles. The sun abandoned her, leaving her to the darkness and Silas Hogwood’s hands, one of which stayed at the back of her head, shoving her mouth into mud.
She felt the exact moment a necromancy spell oozed beneath her skin, beckoning her life force away.
