by RuNyx .
They finally stood in front of the little brick and wood cottage, and Corvina’s eyes fell on the door. It was unlocked.
“Are you sure it had been locked last time?” Ajax asked in a low voice, pulling out a knife from his boot that Corvina hadn’t even seen.
“It was Troy who’d noticed the lock,” Corvina told me. “I didn’t look at the door.”
“Then it was locked,” Ajax said as they crept closer. “Troy was always good with details. Which means someone has been here recently. Stay behind me.”
Corvina felt her stomach tighten as Ajax cleared the space around the shack, coming back to inch the main door open. The pungent scent of rotten flesh assaulted them immediately.
Corvina covered her nose as nausea rose up, trying to block it out, Ajax wincing at the awful scent, pushing the door open completely. A small room came into view, with a kitchenette and a fireplace, a seating area, and two doors leading to the back.
Corvina ventured in slightly, the phantom ants that had always crawled up her skin doing so with a magnified intensity at the sight.
A body lay on the floor, body charred, with scavenging insects feeding off it.
Corvina felt the vomit rise up her throat and ran outside, spilling her breakfast in the bushes, panting as she vision of that ugly, ugly death imprinted itself on the forefront of her mind. Wiping her mouth, she steeled her spine and went back in to see Ajax covering his nose with his hand, examining the body, completely unruffled, which made her wonder how many corpses he must have seen.
“From the decomposition, I’d estimate she died anywhere between the last five years and a few months,” he spoke, his eyes scanning the body.
“She?” Corvina mumbled, trying to get her eyes to stay on the burned body long enough to observe.
“Definitely female,” he nodded. “And the burns are postmortem. See the legs,” he indicated the portion of the body beneath the knees. It was a pale grey and swollen. “Whoever it was began to burn the body and then stopped. Either they were interrupted or they only wanted to burn the upper half.”
He turned to her. “Are you sure you saw something moving here that day?”
Corvina nodded. “Yes. A long silhouette.”
“The body would’ve been here already,” he grit his teeth. “Let’s get back. I need to get the forensics here.”
Corvina gladly left the shack, her arms pebbled with goosebumps, unable to understand how she even knew any of this. Had her subconscious mind picked up some clues the day they’d been there? And who the hell was the female?
“Corvina,” Ajax said after locking the door as they started their trek up. “How well do you know Vad?”
Corvina paused on the incline. “You think he had something to do with that?”
Ajax put his hands up defensively. “Hear me out. I like him but my personal feelings cannot get in the way of the investigation. That body,” he pointed to the shack, “has been there for a long time, longer than most people here. And this is a part of the woods even I, an ex-student who loved roaming in the woods, never knew about. He knows these woods like the back of his hand. I would bet anything he knows about the shack. And I’m certain he had something to do with a suspicious death before. Question is, could he have done that?”
Corvina shook her head even as snippets of memories flashed through her brain.
Him coming out of the woods immediately after their group that day.
Him getting angry that she’d gone to the shack.
Him not telling her what happened to his grandfather.
She hearing the female voice for the first time right after talking to him.
Corvina walked up, and considered, truly considered if the man she loved with her whole being was capable of murder. She didn’t have a single doubt that he was. She could admit that he was dangerous, but she also knew he respected the circle of life, and he wouldn’t mess with it, not unless he had to.
More importantly, despite the flashes, she knew, just knew in her heart of hearts, that he hadn’t done this.
“No,” she told Ajax firmly. “He knows these woods because they’re his. But he didn’t do that. Because if he had?” Corvina turned to the man beside her. “It would’ve been another suspicious death. Not a… grotesque horror like that.”
Ajax considered her words carefully as they emerged into the clearing, life continuing exactly as it had been like a horrific secret hadn’t been hiding minutes away from them.
“You’re right,” Ajax finally spoke, heading towards the Admin Wing. “I will talk to him anyway.”
He paused, studying her for a minute. “He’s a lucky bastard, you know. Most women would’ve run away from him a long time ago, especially after what we just found.”
Corvina huffed a laugh. “You got it all wrong, Ajax. I’m the one people would run away from, and he’s not. He’s the mountain I build my castle on.”
Ajax gave her a little smile at that. “And you really believe he’s not responsible?”
“No,” Corvina vehemently denied. “He’s dark and mysterious and has secrets I’m slowly discovering, but he’s not the evil we saw in that shack.”
Ajax nodded and left her to go find his team, and Corvina headed to the towers, her mind wrapped up in everything she’d witnessed in the shack, confusion and sadness and horror mingling together in an amalgamation she couldn’t differentiate between anymore. She climbed the stone stairs to her room, running her hand over the cool stone railing, gazing out the window on the stairwell at the beautiful day.
She wondered who the female had been, and how her mind could have picked up on her location. She wondered why she had been so brutally treated in death, and how she could’ve actually died.
And she wondered most of all who the silhouette in the locked shack had been, and if it was now out loose on the grounds of the castle.
CHAPTER 26
Corvina
“Holy smokes, your dress!” Jade squealed as she entered the room.
Corvina gave her a grin in the mirror, fixing her long, raven hair up in a fancy high ponytail, a style she’d never tried before, one that absolutely rocked with her entire look. She’d gone all out for the Ball – exfoliation, waxing with the homemade wax she used, deep skin moisturization with her lightweight oils. After her shower, she had returned to an empty room, taken out the breathtaking dress, and put it on. Then, she’d started to brush her hair, over and over and over, until her arms hurt and it was falling in a sleek curtain, ready for the updo.
“Your dress is gorgeous,” Corvina complimented her friend’s reflection. A light pink color that brought out the popping green in her eyes and melded with her white shock of hair, Jade’s wispy strapless corseted gown made her look like a fairy princess, exactly like she deserved to feel.
Jade twirled, her laugh a tinkle in the air. “Isn’t it perfect?”
Corvina agreed, clasping the star pendant around her neck and starry danglers from her ears, swiping a smudge-proof (she’d tested this one) lipstick the same shade as her dress on her lips, winging her black eyeliner to make her tilted eyes pop even more. She stepped back and looked at herself, amazed. She looked good, really good, so good she was going to test her man’s patience after their week away from each other. She couldn’t wait.
Jade did her makeup as well, both of them ready, and put on their masks, hers a white and pink feathery half-mask, Corvina’s a shimmery silver.
“Your mask is going to blind everyone,” Jade said wryly as Corvina clasped it carefully under her ponytail. “It looks so expensive.”
Corvina didn’t say anything to that. She had no idea about the cost of any of this. She didn’t want to think about it, not knowing the thought behind his actions.
“Should we go?” Corvina asked instead, looking out the window at the clear starry night, a huge dark grey full moon rising steadily to the sky. The Ink Moon.
“We’re actually a little late,” Jade laughed, taking her hand as they
exited the room and locked the door. “Don’t forget, we all stay in visible sight tonight.”
Corvina nodded, focusing on going down the stairs in the heels that made her feel tall. Hopefully, she would stand closer to his face in these.
They walked out of the tower into a throng of masked students on the cobblestoned path, all heading to the Main Hall, laughing and chattering excitedly. The air of the castle was pulsing with celebration for the night, and for that Corvina was glad.
The students didn’t know about the body found at the shack. Since the investigative team had already been there, they all thought nothing of them staying a bit longer, writing it down to the Black Ball.
Corvina tilted her head back and looked up at the castle building, tearing the sky with a looming silhouette lit with yellowed lights from the ground that faded into darkness higher towards the roofs, the moon a big orb hanging behind it. It was a vision, a moment of realizing how small everyone was in the space of time, that these walls had been exactly as they were today hundreds of years ago, that they had seen many dances of death.
It was a chilling, sobering realization.
Corvina shook off the gloomy thoughts and focused on walking the cobblestoned path in heels, which was trickier than heels in the lawns, the split in her dress allowing ease of movement, exposing her leg to the thigh with each step. The wind was cool on her half-exposed torso, her nipples slightly hard but thankfully hidden by the color and thickness of the dress.
The Main Hall building was more lit up than she’d ever seen it before, actual fire torches stuck on slots in uniform distance, lighting up the entire area around the square building.
As they met with their friends outside, all of them dressed up and masked, of them complimenting each other, Jax’s eyes lingering a little too long on her cleavage, Corvina kept swiveling her eyes around, trying to find the one man she wanted in the crowd.
Not many people towered over the others, and those who did didn’t have that very distinctive streak of grey in their hair.
Curbing her disappointment, she turned to her friends. “You guys wanna go in?”
They moved to the wide open doors. The dining hall was redone, all the tables and chairs lined against the wall with a buffet of food on one side and a space for sitting on the other. The door to the Vault was locked from the outside. A giant bronze sculpture of two embracing lovers stood on the side of the staircase, their hands holding multiple lamps. It was glorious to see.
She and her group made their way upstairs, stopping to greet a few people on the way, girls from their tower, people from their classes, others.
And finally, they entered the Main Hall, one that the building was named after but one that had remained locked for years.
“Fuck,” Ethan looked around the hall, his eyes wide behind his golden mask. “This is some grand shit.”
It was.
It was a ginormous open space, with a row of arched windows on the opposite wall with a direct view of the woods, the lake, and the mountains. The biggest chandelier she had ever seen, one with at least two hundred candles, hung from the high ceiling, wooden slabs, and thick pillars supporting the weight of the roof in an architectural marvel. Fire torches stuck out from every pillar, from iron stands that looked so ancient she wouldn’t have been surprised if they were hundreds of years old.
Looking around, it dawned on Corvina all over again that this was the legacy of her lover, that his ancestors had been the one to create all of it. Up until a few weeks ago, it would’ve made her feel small. Her legacy was mental issues and a possibly tough future. She had nothing to give to him.
But she had changed. Her outlook had changed. She didn’t have anything to give him but herself, and he seemed to want nothing more. A man with everything material and nothing emotional wanted her nothing material and everything emotional. They were an odd but perfect fit.
A grand piano, the one from the Vault, the one she’d been spread open on many times, took one corner of the room, top up.
But he was nowhere to be seen.
A few musicians besides the piano played music on violins, and couples began to gather in the hall, pairing up for dances.
Corvina moved her eyes all over the room and over the various masked people, lingering on the men, trying to find him. Her eyes scanned the room once, twice, and on her third round, she came to a stop on a man standing in an alcove beside a window, wearing a black cape over his black attire, glass in his hand, watching her.
He was wearing a crow mask, of all the things.
One with a long, crooked black beak, holes for eyes, and a tall forehead that covered his head.
Corvina grinned. “I’ll see you guys in a bit,” she told her friends, weaving her way through the crowd towards the man standing alone, knowing no one would recognize him.
She came to a halt in front of him, a wide smile stretching her lips. “A little too on the nose, isn’t it? Literally,” she indicated his mask.
He tilted his head in a move that was so him. “I wanted to leave you breadcrumbs.”
Corvina stepped closer a bit, taking a hold of his free hand. “I missed you.”
He leaned closer a bit, touching her lips with the beak of his mask deliberately. “And I missed you. But I hear from the rumor-mill that you’re secretly dating Ajax. Should I be worried?”
Corvina chuckled. “Oh yeah. In the one week we’ve been apart, I’ve had to settle.”
His fingers trailed up her hand. “It would be settling indeed. You told him I’m your mountain?”
Her breath caught at the deep rumble of his words, his silver eyes warm behind the mask.
“He told you?”
“He told me,” Vad stepped closer, tilting his head to the side so the beak didn’t touch her as his lips did. “And this mountain would crack before it let anything happen to your castle. Remember that.”
Corvina swayed towards him, wanting his taste, feeling his lips so close but so far.
“Things are going to heat up very quickly tonight. Don’t let anyone else touch you,” he breathed in her ear, his wording sending a delicious shiver cascading through her. “Now go to your friends. They must be wondering what you’re doing.”
Loathed to leave him but having to, she returned to her friends.
“Where did you go?” Jade demanded.
Vad moved across the room.
Corvina shrugged, watching as he went to the piano in the corner. He pushed his cape behind him and slid on the bench with more grace than his big body should have been capable of. The violinists behind him fell silent, and the room came to a standstill as the music stopped, everyone turning to see what was going on.
And he began to play.
Corvina leaned against the wall for support, a glass of drink in her hand, heart expanding in her chest as the melody drifted to her. It must have been a known composition because the violinists chimed in, playing a symphony together. Her eyes stayed on the man she loved, watching his fingers dance over the keys in a way so familiar, his eyes closed, his body curved, his posture devoted to the music.
He had spread her open on that piano and eaten her for the first time. He had pushed her flat on her back on that piano and fucked her in the quiet of the Vault with people right outside in the hall landing. He had let her kneel between his legs as he played, the race between his fingers and her mouth, and she had won.
That piano held so many shared memories and secrets of the two of them, and as he played it, Corvina felt her entire body reacting to it. He had always existed between the black and white when he played, and now he had brought her in that space with him, no longer alone in his existence.
One song weaved into another, melodies shifting, changing, increasing in intensity as people danced, watched, drank, and the night got a little wilder. Corvina stayed in the corner with her drink while her friends danced, watching him with such pride swelling in her chest, a pride that this man was hers as much as she was his.
/> Slowly, as the night wore on, something shifted.
Maybe it was brought on by the masks, maybe it was brought on by the anonymity, but a vivid shift happened in the crowd on the first floor. The music got darker, the hall filled with more and more couples until there was barely space left on the floor, the musicians hidden from the view.
The candlelight slowly dimmed.
Tension crackled in the air.
Corvina felt her nape prickle as she watched the way people swayed together, closer than before, with deep sensuality that made her breath catch. A girl in the corner began to make out with the man next to her. Another man held her breasts, kneading them over her gown. Many people simply watched, a few others began to come together, dancing, kissing, fondling each other, most probably not even aware of who they were doing it with.
Inhibitions ran low.
The music stopped, and for a moment, all she could hear was loud breathing. Some people clapped and cheered, enjoying the party, some didn’t bother, lost in their own space.
Another song began, and she spied his tall form finding her, indicating her to come on the dance floor.
Corvina looked around, surrounded by uninhibited masked bodies, and felt a sudden thrill go up her spine.
She found herself in the middle of the crowd and felt him come up behind her. She turned, the top of her head reaching his mouth in her heels. He pulled her by the waist, slowly swaying them and moving towards a more shadowed area behind a pillar, still surrounded by people.
She looked to her side and found herself staring at a girl in a red mask having her breasts sucked by a guy in a gold mask, right in the open for anyone to see.
Corvina kept her body loose, letting Vad guide her, curious to see what he would do as her body got aroused with the sex running rampant in the air.
“You want to play with the devil tonight?” he asked her in her ear and her breathing hitched.
“Yes,” she gasped.
He made her stand against the side of the pillar, a clearly visible portion from anywhere in the hall, and turned her out to face the room, with the view of all the dancers and spectators and lovers, much like in her dream.
