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I shouldn’t be here, and I knew it. Of all the places a Death Maiden could roam, the temple of Eiria was not one of them. But the overgrown willow tree in the back of the temple, its gnarled roots breaking the marbled tiles on the floor, beckoned me. Beyond the dust and dirt, beyond the crevices of filth and abandonment, a force of nature had claimed this temple.
Breaths short, with a bit of fear coursing through my veins, I shuffled through, noting the stone archways and sculptures of naked women draped in fabric circling the room like porcelain guardians. Time had worn down the details, but their eyes still followed me as I moved.
“Where is she?” I whispered, as if the room could answer. “Tell me how to find her.”
The tree, though growing in a solid stone building with no access to sunlight beyond the small bits that likely poured in through the stained-glass windows, shifted. I whipped around to the door, wondering if a phantom breeze could have swirled through, but I’d shut it behind me.
I stood within inches of the temple’s intruder, the delicate branches of timber lending to the cascading leaves kissing the floor. But it’d moved. I knew it in my soul and felt it in my bones. Pushing the branches to the side, I stepped under the lush canopy, feeling a pulse so strong that all sense of fear vanished. A perfectly laid trap as I shuffled forward and placed my palm against the trunk of the mysterious tree.
Bright, searing light blinded me. Burned me. Raced through my body so ferociously, my back arched to a degree it wasn’t supposed to. I screamed. From pain and regret. From the life I’d been given. From the image of every face that flashed across my mind, reminding me I was an abomination in this temple. Of Death. In a place so pure. I thought my spine would snap and my veins would burn to ash. My skin would turn to forgotten embers. I’d ignored the warning in my mind when I’d stood at the door of this forbidden temple and still, I’d entered. Still, I’d damned myself.
“She needs me,” I croaked. “I must find her.”
I crashed to the floor, my legs eagerly giving out.
“Please,” I begged the residual power. “Please help me.”
But, though the static of lingering magic drifted in the air, and though I’d begged from the depths of my soul, there were no answers. Not from a goddess. Not from a damned tree. Not from a neglected temple in the heart of a decaying city. Nothing.
There would truly only be one way to get the answers I needed. And though I could hear my earlier self fighting with Regulas, refusing to cater to his desire for torture, I’d finally seen the truth.
Pain.
And malice.
The wrath of Death’s Maiden would be the only thing that opened the lips of the silent, tortured people living in fear of a mysterious king and a powerful crime lord.
And so, I prowled.
Chapter 26
The abandoned halls of the castle I’d once called home shook me. I’d met no resistance at the gates. In fact, there was no one at all. Not a guard, not even a vagrant who’d gotten brave enough to try to climb the wall. The echoes of my footsteps were my only companion as I walked the familiar steps and stood outside my old bedroom. In another life, another reality, I was a princess, too. Royalty. Revered. Now? I wasn’t sure what I was.
I’d climbed the clock tower and sold off valuable jewels, convinced my father’s castle was full of traitors, yet every treasure so far remained. Each painting untouched.
My room hadn’t changed since that veil had fallen over my face. Not a pillow out of line. But someone had been here. Orin had stolen clothes at some point. Or had it been Paesha or Thea? Surely, not Hollis.
As I walked around my room, I considered the old man and the hope he’d placed in me. As if I could make right the wrongs of his sister, Dahlia. Maybe he hadn’t trusted me, and that was wise, but he’d been kind and warm. He’d been more than most. And when he was near, there was a sense of calm unlike anything I’d ever known. Unlike anything I’d ever gotten between these walls.
I changed from the outfit I’d borrowed from Hollis, covered in the blood of the castle guards no matter how hard I’d tried to clean it. I preferred my own leathers. Black as night, perfectly fitted, with tall leather boots, straps for weapons, and my beloved hood and mask.
Sitting on the edge of my bed in every bit of clothing that marked me as Death’s Maiden, I considered ripping it off. I considered wandering the castle in search of a woman’s gown, with delicate lace and layers of skirts and corsets and giant bustles to distort my figure into something that stroked a man’s desire. I wondered for a fraction of a second if Orin would prefer that before cringing and shoving that thought into the trash.
But still, his words lingered in this fateful room.
“Marry me, Princess Deyanira Sariah Hark…. You could have been anyone. Any age, any beauty. And yet, it was as if the heavens conspired, and fate itself intervened to grant me this privilege.”
We’d been standing in front of Ro’s mirror. He was so handsome, with dark hair and a perfectly pressed suit. The flawless emulation of the part he played. And he’d looked at me without the darkness that I’d known him to harbor. As if that light-hearted man I’d married was actually in there somewhere, hiding behind his hatred and the black veins surrounding his heart.
The deep patterns of the rug were worn thin before Ro’s mirror. I moved to dig my boots into the fibers, remembering how many times I’d stood there and been denied access to her. When I was young, I’d never wanted to leave her sanctuary. The home of a woman who showed me kindness and genuine smiles when no one else dared look me in the eye.
Something in my reflection was different, though it took me several minutes to figure out what it was. Not the pout of my lips, nor the light dusting of freckles along my cheeks. I stepped closer, blinking several times until I realized a few clusters of my lashes had turned white. Drained of color entirely.
The residual power in the temple had left a permanent mark on me. Nothing glaring, but a warning to stay away, all the same. I should have burned it to the sodden ground out of spite.
I slid my hands over the filigree, watching the silver reflection, waiting for Ro to welcome me into that space that’d saved me from so many nightmares. From myself, just as Orin had said. Nothing. I was unwelcome.
I wondered if I could stay. How long would it be before the new king’s men came to claim this castle as a second stronghold in this world? On that thought alone, I packed a bag, mostly with my prized weapons, plucking a few to replace the ones of Thea’s I’d lost. I snagged a handful of jewelry for security and a couple of changes of clothes before heading to the single room in this castle I’d never been allowed.
