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One second, I was bracing for the horrific impact that would break me.
The next…I pressed my palm to my chest to make sure I was still alive. To make sure my frantic heart still pounded in my chest.
I didn’t know what happened, but I wasn’t on the horse anymore.
I wasn’t even in Blackcastle.
I was somewhere else. This place was like being underwater, where everything was blurry and muffled, except…there wasn’t any water.
I barely made out fuzzy shapes beyond the veil surrounding me and overhead, the blur of blue sky, but I was trapped inside some kind of…bubble, I supposed, for lack of a better description.
“Hello?” I yelled, but the word echoed back to me, my voice trembling in time with this infernal shaking of my body. Perhaps Iwasdead.
I need to get out of here.The murky veil changed, became a door. An iron door with spikes, exactly like the ones in the Fae King’s prison.
No thank you.As much as I wanted out of here, I was not desperate enough to leave that way.
I ran my finger along the cold edge of the veil, which shuddered, as if my prison walls were alive. “Please let me out.” I pleaded softly, wondering what sort of strange magic this was, realizing at the same time the slumbering power at my core had awoken. I checked, and one of the bands was gone. I must have lost it when I was thrown from the horse.
“Let me out.” I said again, but the veil only shivered, then settled, as if it had heard, but was unable to obey. “Take me somewhere safe.” I asked instead and this time, a pale wood door appeared, with wide hammered hinges and an intricate handle.
I’d seen this door somewhere before, but in the blur of the past weeks, I could not pinpoint where.
Still, I’d asked to be taken somewhere safe, and there was no other way out of this bubble that I could see. I could either stay here.
Or take a chance.
The iron handle was cold to the touch, but I turned it clockwise and couldn’t stop my gasp at what the door revealed.
* * *
I’d endedup in Torin’s room.
The tall, sagging bookcases were the same, the heavy smell of incense hung in the air, the fireplace was cold and no heat filled this room. This place was abandoned, even Torin’s skull-throne was empty.
Above me, angry storm clouds rolled overhead through the open ceiling, lightning flashed and thunder boomed, but no rain came in.
“It’s spelled against the elements.”
The Oracle of Tempeste scuttled from behind the throne, baring sharp, black teeth in a parody of a smile. I’d asked the magic to take me somewhere safe.
Perhaps I should have been more specific.
“It is done then?” She tilted her head and horror shivered through me at the inhuman motion. She moved like an unnatural spider, every jerky step made my skin crawl. I glanced at the locked door…but it was closed and I was trapped.
My chest heaved as I waited for her to pounce, but she chuckled and shook her head.
“Don’t worry, little one, you are safe enough, for now. We went to a lot of trouble to create you. I will send you back to Solarys when we have finished here.” Another rotten smile and my stomach heaved. “No need to fear me, I have as much riding on your survival as everyone else.”
She stopped, inhaled deeply, her dead eyes flashing. “You claimed the magic for your own. Very good. Who told you how?” Something scraped inside my head and her black eyes gleamed. “Ah. Adele. Very good. Was it the king’s general who took your innocence?”
I couldn’t so much as breathe; I was that frightened. I didn’t know what nightmare this creature crawled out of, but she wasn’t Fae. She wasn’t even an aberration of nature, like the Howlers or the stonewraiths.
The Oracle was something else entirely.
She leaned in and sniffed me again. “Ah, the slave. A good choice, now he is bound to you and the cause in a way he was not before.”
“He is not bound to me at all.” I was still angry at myself over last night, andhow did the Oracle know my secret?
