by Brea Viragh
My heart swelled with love for her, despite her myriad mistakes.
Tied to one of the rose arbors near the entrance to the garden, Rudy waited for us, his breaths creating a cloud of mist in the cold. I was elated to be reunited with my old friend, but riddled with sorrow to be leaving. I took a final glance back. The spires of the castle towers rose like two stone pillars in an eternal stretch toward the sky.
I would see this place again, I promised myself against the yawning pit opening in my stomach. I would see this place and I would make it a home and there would be nothing but joy within those walls. I was determined to make it a reality.
When I turned away, I saw Patricia nodding, her sharp chin turned toward one of the windows on the second story. A shadow flashed behind the pane and was gone in seconds.
“The men will surely follow our tracks through the snow,” she said after I helped her onto Rudy’s back. “We will have to hurry.”
I climbed behind her and we situated ourselves. The horse huffed under our weight, eager to be gone from this place. “If the snow keeps falling at this rate, it should cover our trail.” I urged Rudy to more speed. “At any rate, they won’t have expected that you rode ahead to warn us. Merek was right. At least we have a bit of a head start on them.”
“The prince seems kind enough,” she said over her shoulder as we made our way around the castle, away from the woods and toward the other road where supplies were brought in regularly. “He adores you, clearly.”
“We are in love,” I said with no little satisfaction.
“I know. Now.”
“You’re convinced of my love for the prince now? What about five years ago?”
“Well, I must admit I thought it was a strange match,” she replied. “Until I saw the two of you together again, I didn’t fully understand. You’ve always had so much love for each other, Reila, even though I disapproved.”
“You…disapproved of us being together?”
“I did, because I felt you were reaching beyond your station because you had to, not because you loved the man. And I felt he had lowered his standards out of the force of your beauty. Not everyone saw the goodness in you, Reila, and I am ashamed to say I doubted His Highness’s motives for courting you. Now I understand.”
My tongue doubled in size, throat going dry, and I knew I had little to say to that. I stowed the information away for later. We didn’t have the time for me to pick it apart just yet.
I tapped my heels against him and sent Rudy into a brisk canter as I tried to adjust to the stride while holding onto my mother. Snorting, the horse fought his way through the drifts. Leaving felt wrong. I couldn’t shake the sense that I shouldn’t be running away. But if I stayed, the consequences could be dire. Anger and violence—and magic—were not the answer.
We made it no farther than the first bend in the service road before I knew I’d made a mistake.
After so many years of living in solitude, both Merek and I, we’d found each other again. We’d found the will to make it through to the next day, to fight for the future, and damn if I would give it all up now.
I was no hero. I’d never wanted to be the one who fought the war, who saved the day, and because of that I had never moved forward, content to simply exist. Hide myself away from humanity. Losing my memories had made that easier somehow, but now they were back with a vengeance.
Wrong. All wrong.
No matter what Merek may think of me deep down or how he worried for my safety, I refused to abandon him again.
“We have to turn around.” The brisk wind blew hair around my face as I pulled the reins and brought Rudy to a halt. “We can’t leave. Not like this. I’m sorry, Momma.”
“Reila?”
I used the reins and my heels to head Rudy back in the direction we’d come. “Momma, I refuse to leave him again when he needs me the most. And the mob about to hammer at his door is only there for one reason. I’m going to make them pay for it, too.”
Patricia said nothing but grasped tighter to the saddle horn. I had to give my mother credit. She held on for dear life and kept her opinions on my change in attitude to herself.
Rudy plowed back through the trail he’d recently created in the snow. “What if this puts your brother in harm’s way?” Patricia moaned at last.
“You take the horse and return to the village to find where Gray is keeping Thomas. Pack your belongings and make for the coast with him. I will find you the moment things are resolved. I won’t let anyone hurt you,” I vowed.
I did not need rescuing. Not anymore. I would help Merek, find my brother, and right the wrongs I’d done so many years ago. One way or another, I’d fight for the happiness I’d been lucky to reclaim.
The ride back to the castle seemed to take longer than the scant minutes of our hasty exit. Leaving Patricia seated on Rudy’s back beside the main entrance, I jumped off, landing in a drift of snow.
“Now go!” I told her, and gave Rudy a sharp slap on the rump to get him moving again. My mother shot one glance over her shoulder at me then put her head down and galloped off. I strained to hear any sounds of people approaching. So far so good. Satisfied that Patricia was safely on her way, I turned to the front doors of the castle.
The emptiness of the castle greeted me as I stepped over the threshold, yet there was no desolation this time. Nothing but the soaring ceilings and abandoned luxuries I’d come to love. The dusty chandelier remained dimly lit, the candles perpetually gracing the foot of the winding staircase leaving pools of wax behind. It was all familiar now.
My home.
“Merek!”
He’d find it insane I’d returned of my own free will, right as I’d completed what I came here to do. I’d have to be mad to voluntarily face the crowd hell-bent on hunting me.
Shoving all thoughts of my madness aside, I ran across the foyer and up the stairs, with each footstep echoing through the castle. “Merek, where are you?”
Moments later the door to his room burst open and I found myself looking into the face of a man prepared for battle. “Reila, what the hell are you doing?” he said immediately. “You shouldn’t be here.”
I cupped his cheek. “There is nowhere else for me to be.”
He drew me against his chest and I realized then he’d changed into a pair of sturdy breeches, long-sleeved shirt, and a leather vest. And for a crazy, mad moment I wished he could have kept some of the heavy fur from before. At least it would have provided some protection for his newly human skin, since he was now a lot more vulnerable.
“They’re coming fast. You need to hide,” he urged. “The staff and I should be able to halt their progress and keep them from entering the castle right away but there is only so long we can hold them off.” His face contorted into a fierce scowl. “They will not have you. That I vow.”
“It’s too late.” The knowledge settled inside of me and everything went still. “I’m sorry. They’re already here.”
Chapter 22
Surprise, surprise, the mob carried torches. A typical witch hunt accoutrement but one that frightened me nonetheless. I half expected to see pitchforks too as I watched from the upper window as they swarmed the courtyard, trampling the snow, destroying the gardens. Their shouts rose in a crescendo of chaos.
Kill the witch!
They had come for me but we would all pay the price. These determined men would not stop until they’d painted the castle with our blood. A roll of thunder sounded in the distance, though I doubted the snowstorm caused it. Had I conjured it myself?
Clusters of men separated themselves from the mob, still shouting as they wielded their guns and chains toward the castle’s front doors. Straight toward the heart of the home.
Except for the handful of servants, who no doubt were terrified for their own safety by now, we had no one on our side to help us withstand the attack.
Merek put a hand on my back, hustling me from the room with a push. “Go to your room and stay there. Barri
cade the door. And do not even think to argue with me on this.”
“What are you going to do?”
A crash of glass sounded and the smell of smoke filled the hallway. I could hear them battering against wood as they turned their attention to breaking down the front doors. Already the smoke was curling around corners, creeping up the staircase, causing a lightheadedness I couldn’t shake.
I let Merek push me toward the bedroom I’d used since arriving, too dizzy to fight back.
“Stay inside,” he barked, shoving me into the room and closing the door behind me.
“I want to help!” I yelled, to no avail.
I knew it didn’t matter what I said at this point. The danger was here, on our doorstep, and Merek was determined to hold them at bay alone. Smoke slid beneath the door in curling tendrils, and I feared they were going to burn the castle down. With us inside.
I raced to barricade the door, flipping the lock as though it might offer some small protection. Then I grabbed a chair from the vanity and shoved it under the knob. Not enough to keep out a determined mob, but it might stall them for a few precious moments.
The gathering storm clouds blocked the sun and shadowed the world in shades of gray, but I didn’t dare light a candle or lantern to mark my presence in the darkness.
The shouts grew louder as I heard the distinct sound of splintering wood, and I guessed they’d broken through the front doors. Soon those men would surge through the castle hunting for us. Hunting for my people.
Not this time.
My gaze whipped to the door and it wasn’t long before fists pounded upon it. Then fists gave way to stouter weapons, rifle butts, axes, cudgels, who knew, but eventually the wood shattered and I counted four faces peering inside. They each were gruff-looking.
Gray’s men. I recognized a couple of them immediately from past glimpses in the market.
It hadn’t taken them long to batter through the door. And Merek thought I’d be safe here?
“Lookee what we have here,” the one on the left crooned, his voice sardonic. A hat obscured his eyes.
Smoke billowed in through the holes in the door to burn my eyes. I steeled my resolve and kept my stinging gaze on the intruders instead. The uneasy sensation inside of me grew and morphed, the urge to shatter their bones almost impossible to ignore. Sparks began to burst to life along my fingertips.
“What do you have here?” I questioned the not-so-gentlemen. “Perhaps you’d care to enlighten me?”
“The X on the treasure map, I reckon.” The one on the right knocked his shoulder against the door and the chair I’d wedged there shifted an inch.
“Except this treasure comes with a curse,” I took joy in telling him.
Come for me at your own risk.
The man with the hat reacted first. He jolted upright and stumbled away from the door, swearing. “It’s the witch, Bobby. That damn witch is really here, just like Gray said she would be!”
“I think we can do without the name calling,” I said. I moved closer to the door, smoke curling around my ankles as though drawn to me. The shadows shifted and I knew there were more in the hallway than these buffoons.
“She’s the one Master Matthews wants,” the other man whispered from the corner of his mouth. “The one we came here to get. We can’t hurt her.”
“Yeah, but what does he want to do with her?” Bobby asked.
“He wants you to get out of my way and out of this castle,” I answered for him.
A thought sent the smoke billowing back toward the door on an unseen breeze, the same way I’d made the feather levitate without a thought, or the eggs in the basket explode. The same way I’d formed a snowball to launch at Merek in a fit of giggles.
Magic.
The loss and pain and guilt had had to go in order for me to access it completely. I knew that now. The second I pushed them aside, the power grew inside of me like an unfolding rose, and for the first time in a long time I felt like I controlled it instead of the other way around. Still, my biggest fear was that I would backslide into the same person I’d been before my curse erased a huge portion of my personality. Along with my memories.
Well, with great risks come great rewards and all that…
I had to believe in the rewards. Because physically I didn’t have enough strength to do anything other than run my mouth.
“Sorry, guys.”
The apology barely left my lips before the magic rushed out of me in living flames. They burst through the door, disintegrating the wood instantly, leaving scorch marks on the stone walls. I felt my energy wane the moment the flames extinguished.
Bobby and his friends bolted in the opposite direction, screaming. Their terrified shouts echoed down the hallway.
No time to waste, though. Less now than before. The chants of the mob grew louder and louder.
I rushed into the hall, urging my steps faster and faster. Monique popped her head out of one of the rooms, her arms full of laundry, the same moment two more men rounded the corner. She cried out at the sight of them, at the weapons in their hands and their leering grins. With my heart jackknifing, I ran, pushing past a sudden chill and the queasy tilt of my stomach, and sent a wave of magic toward them.
Ignorant assholes. They thought they could come here and hurt my people?
Monique continued to shriek as the wave of power pushed the two men back down the staircase they’d recently climbed, sending them ass-over-elbows until their bones broke in a multitude of places. She shrank closer to the wall, with the laundry clutched to her chest as though it would protect her, her whole body trembling.
The same thing I’d done to her. The same—
“Monique!”
I called her name twice more before she finally turned to me, her terror evident. I pointed to the room she’d recently vacated.
“Go back inside and stay there. Lock the door. Push something heavy against it if you can. Find a place to hide and stay there. And whatever you do, don’t try to fight back. You hide. Do you understand?”
I didn’t ask her where her mother was, and I could only pray the older woman was safe and out of the way, along with the other castle servants.
Monique squeaked in acknowledgement and bolted without waiting to hear what else I had to say. It seemed there were more apologies in order once this day ended. I swore under my breath, moving toward the lower level of the castle, jumping over the bodies of the two men I’d sent flying.
Dear God, would I be required to shed more blood before this day came to an end? Probably, and I would not be squeamish about it. My thoughts sharpened to an edge and the slim bit of guilt I felt for those two quickly dissipated.
Rounding the great staircase toward the foyer, I stepped into a living nightmare. Fate had taken a cruel twist and I found myself walking through great puddles of blood where the mob fought to pillage the castle and the castle fought back. The two women who worked in the kitchen as scullery maids lay lifeless on the marble, their knives at their sides, eyes open and vacant.
They were innocent in all this and yet had given their lives trying to fight off the attackers. My fury heated from a simmer to a full-blown boil and threatened to take down everyone in the immediate vicinity. No, bad idea. I didn’t know who else might be close to me, maybe more servants though I hoped they’d found suitable hiding places, and no idea where Merek had gone.
I gathered my wits. I couldn’t lose it now, not with the danger pressing closer. Following the sounds of struggle, I made for the front parlor and the swords I remembered hung on the wall above the fireplace. If I could grab one—
And suddenly I was pushed, my back slamming against the stone wall.
“Well, well, darling,” the man holding me purred. “Aren’t you a sight for sore eyes!”
Chapter 23
The breath knocked out of me, I could only stare at Gray and the revolver he held in his left hand, his right clenched around my throat. My screams raged inside of me yet I couldn
’t make my body respond when he tightened his grip.
The muzzle of the gun pointed directly between my eyes. My stomach churned, throat burning. I felt trapped, prey to the predator standing in front of me.
“Did you not think I’d find you?” Gray asked, moving a step closer. His hand at my throat slipped lower to press firmly below my collarbone, and the pressure of his fingers had me growing cold with repugnance.
“I didn’t think of you at all,” I managed to get out.
His brows drew together and his smirk turned sinister. “You ran right back to your prince, I see. Why is that, Reila? No matter what happened to you, you still believed deep down I was not worthy of you. Isn’t that right?”
I fixed him with my most ferocious glare. “Where is Thomas?”
Dear God, please let my brother be safe.
Gray pushed me back harder, his forearm against my throat and the gun jammed to my forehead. “You will answer me.”
I fought desperately hard not to focus on the gun and the way Gray’s finger itched to pull the trigger. He’d dressed himself to the nines for this; the ermine coat hanging to his knees probably cost more than our cottage. Not a speck of dust or debris on him, which told me he let others do his dirty work for him. What a disgusting excuse of a man.
“Did you really think I would choose you over Merek, no matter the state of my mind? No matter what I remember or don’t remember?” I asked, voice sharp and thin. “You aren’t fit to lick his boots. Now I suggest you call off your dogs. You have no business here.”
I guess my insult hit home because his grip loosened just enough for me to squirm away, although now he had me cornered in the front parlor with no escape. Gray stalked my movements, a rage I’d never seen before turning his handsome face into a parody of himself.
