by Emma Hamm
The two women turned toward the door with one of the men. All three had round faces and dark eyes. Perhaps they were siblings?
The two remaining men hesitated. The man with the knife reached out a hand for her to take. “My name is Ivan. I’ll not leave you.”
Amicia pointed to her leg and arm bound to her chest. “I’m broken. I won’t be able to keep up with you, and I’ll only slow you down. You have this one chance for freedom. Please. Leave me. Knowing you are free is enough.”
“It’s not.” He bent down and tucked his shoulder into her good armpit. Hoisting her in the air, he grinned down at her. “Together. That’s the only way we’ll best these beasts.”
Amicia felt no guilt in leaving. She nodded once and together they hobbled toward the door. The other man held it open for them, checking to make sure none of the beasts were following them before they raced through the halls.
It felt like years ago when she had burst into this forgotten kitchen. When she had seen the molding fruits and vegetables and assumed this place was abandoned. The door still stood open. Had she left it like that? Or had the women in their escape?
Their footprints stood out in the snow like stains. The Dread would follow them, but at least they stood some kind of chance. They weren’t delivered like cattle for the beasts to feast upon. To change into their own image with no memory of who or what they were.
She’d done the right thing. Amicia couldn’t save them in any way other than to give them a few more moments of freedom.
Her feet touched the snow once more, and all she could think was the bitter wind beyond was the most beautiful thing she’d ever felt in her life. Ivan’s hand at her waist was real. No claws marred his fingertips pressed into her ribs. The hand of a man had never felt as good as in this moment.
The pots and pans hanging on the wall behind them rattled, and a great roar echoed through the chateau. She’d heard it before. It was the sound of a king ordering a hunt.
Amicia met Ivan’s horrified gaze and whispered, “Run.”
She used her good leg to push forward, hopping with him although he carried most of her weight. Her broken arm was squished against his side. Spots of black and white danced in front of her vision as the pain caught her breath. But she wouldn’t make him stop. This was their chance. She could see the forest. She could see the trees that would give her cover, and they were closer than they had seemed from within the walls.
Ivan tossed his knife to the other man. The blade arced through the air, glinting in the dying sunlight. “Die well!” he shouted.
“Go!” the other man replied, turning to stand his ground against the Dread who raced after them.
Amicia focused on keeping her breathing even. She watched the sky in horror as a wave of Dread flew above them. Ten, no, fifteen, monsters tracked the three women who had barely made it to the edge of the lake.
They swooped down in one movement. Vultures. They all reached for the women with claws as long as their forearms, slashing down upon their backs and faces. Their shrieks echoed through the air just as the man behind them started swearing.
“Left,” Ivan snarled. They pivoted around the fifteen Dread and started in a different direction toward the lake.
He moved like lightning, slicing through the snow as if it didn’t bother him at all. Muscles bunched against her side. He moved them forward with a speed that should have been impossible for a human. Maybe he wasn’t.
For a second, she believed they would make it. The moment their feet touched the frozen lake, she believed they could get to the forest. If anyone could, it was this strange man with icy eyes and a determined set to his jaw.
Ivan tossed her forward into the snow as something struck them from behind. She soared through the air, turning just in time to take the impact on her good shoulder before skidding a few feet away.
The King of the Dread crouched above her would-be savior. His wings spread wide, he lifted his clawed hands above Ivan’s head. Straddling the human, there was no chance for Ivan to survive. But he wasn’t looking at the man.
He was looking at her.
Her chest heaved as she stared back at him. Red eyes, inhuman and so unfeeling. She hadn’t been able to escape them every time she closed her own. Those nightmarish orbs that glowed from within the sockets of his skull had plagued her every dream.
The King could have turned Ivan into a Dread like the others. She could hear the women’s screams turning from pain into victory as they joined the ranks of monsters.
But the King of the Dread didn’t turn Ivan into a creature like himself. No. Instead, he brought his claws down and sliced the man’s throat open.
Rivers of blood poured out of Ivan as he gargled his last angry words. “A curse upon you.”
What he didn’t know was that they all suffered a curse already. A curse she had somehow managed to entangle herself in as well.
Blood mixed with snow, oozing toward her like veins. Amicia couldn’t stand to stay here a moment longer with these beasts. She would rather die than watch this repeatedly.
Gasping, she pulled the crutches from her back, scrambled onto her feet, and raced across the frozen lake.
“Stay where you are!” The order cracked through the air like thunder.
But she didn’t want to listen to him anymore. She couldn’t listen to someone like that. A beast should never masquerade as a man.
Her feet pounded the snow-covered ice and it let loose a grumble. The sound was like that of a giant in the fairytales. Like a water monster hid underneath the surface, just waiting for an unsuspecting traveler to set foot upon the surface so it could launch itself through the ice.
But Amicia was light, and she had already made it across the frozen lake once before. She didn’t pause or hesitate as she fled the chateau. Her leg screamed in agony, deadened and dragging behind her. The crutches pressing against her broken ribs refused to allow her to draw in a deep breath.
She wouldn’t let it stop her. She was so close to freedom as the sun set on the horizon and darkness blanketed the land.
“Woman!” the King of the Dread screamed behind her.
She would not stop. She didn’t have to listen to him or any other who was so heartless.
The ice cracked. The sound was that of bone snapping, porcelain shattering, glass breaking. Amicia froze, waiting for the breath-stealing water to rise over her head. She wouldn’t be able to swim with a matching broken arm and leg. She’d try her best, but the icy waters would win.
Her breath remained in her lungs and her clothes remained dry. He had not caught her, when all logic said he would.
“What?” she whispered, turning to see the King of the Dread had fallen through the ice.
The King held onto the edge of the ice, but the water dragged down his wings that kept getting stuck underneath the ice shelf. He dug his claws into the snow, losing purchase now and then, sending him deeper and deeper into the water. Shaking his horns, he scrabbled harder. The muscles on his arms bulged as he tried desperately to save himself.
The others remained on the shore, screaming out their anger, but none moved to help their king. She stood in the center of the lake, watching them.
Not a single one followed him. Some took to the air, flying circles around their fallen leader and diving close, but never close enough for him to catch their outstretched hands. Why weren’t they helping him?
It was a losing battle.
She could stand here and watch him die. It wouldn’t take long. The frigid waters would slow down his heartbeat, and soon he would slide into the lake. Likely to join many souls who had died in its waters.
Or she could turn around and not know what happened. Maybe one of the Dread would save him. She didn’t understand why they weren’t crossing the ice to get their king already, but it wasn’t her problem.
This was the monster who had thrown her off the roof of his chateau. He could drown for all she cared. She’d flee to one of the other kingdoms. M
aybe even Omra which he seemed so fond of. Let him track her all the way there.
Amicia turned away from him, staring at the edge of the dark forest. It was right there. Just a few more rambling steps and then she could run again.
But she couldn’t do it. All she could see was her father. Trapped, blood pooling around his body and she had done nothing. Something bone deep inside her refused to walk away again. This time she would at least try to save someone.
Snarling, she spun and shuffled through the snow toward him. Her crutches pierced down to the ice, crunching as she went.
Amicia dropped onto her knees a body’s length away, not wanting to test the ice any further. “You couldn’t have just let me run?” she huffed.
The King sank his claws deeper into the ice, snapping his fangs together. “After all the trouble I went through to keep you?”
“What trouble? You threw me from the roof of your chateau!” She situated herself onto her bottom, digging her good heel into the snow until she had enough purchase to hold herself. Reaching out one of her crutches, she grumbled, “Grab onto this.”
“I was trying to save you,” he replied, not moving to grab onto the offered crutch. He stared back at her with those red eyes, something flickering in his gaze that she couldn’t name. That same, soft expression he’d had just moments before he’d thrown her to her death.
“Save me?” She scoffed and waved the end of the crutch in his face. “Allow me to show you how to save someone, King of the Dread. Take it.”
“I don’t need saving, petite souris.”
“You are a grand imbecile! You will freeze to death in that water if you don’t get out soon. I can help you.”
“Why would you help me?”
He raised a good point. Amicia struggled to find the words before she blew out a ragged breath. “Maybe because I want to redeem myself, and not let anyone else die because of me. Even a monster who just killed a man without remorse.”
The King of the Dread relaxed his hold on the ice, claws slipping as he drifted deeper into the waters. Waves crested his shoulders and his teeth chattered together. “Maybe I was saving him, too.”
“Oh, don’t you dare,” she snarled as he slid into the water.
Amicia lunged forward and snagged a hand on one of his horns. The texture abraded her palms, but she refused to let him go. She would not live with the guilt of his passing for the rest of her life just because he was a coward.
His weight pulled her forward into the water with him. Amicia tried to hold herself in the snow, but she couldn’t hold onto him as well.
Together, they slipped into a silvery, moonlit world. They hovered, suspended in the waters, staring at each other in shock.
Here in this otherworldly place, he looked almost handsome. Like a demon who had risen out of Hell itself to find her. Floating wings spread wide, horns stretching up from his skull, he painted a picture of sheer darkness against the beams of moonlight. A few air bubbles escaped from his loincloth. They traced a path up the broad planes of his chest, then decorated his horns like pearls.
A chunk of ice slid by her, and Amicia’s lungs squeezed. She hadn’t taken a deep breath and even if she had, the cold would have stolen it. Looking up, all she could see was a sheet of ice above them.
Where was the hole? Where had they fallen through?
Panic tightened her chest, but she still tried to kick up toward the surface. Her broken leg refused to move. Her pants helped her to swim with her good leg, but the muscles soon froze. Lungs screaming, she looked to the King with wide eyes.
She didn’t want to die with him. She’d wanted him to disappear from her life, certainly. But she’d always thought someone good and kind would be with her in her last moments. Not a monster who had been born out of her nightmares.
The King of the Dread flapped his wings and swam toward her with the speed of a shooting star. He struck her hard, gathered her against his chest, and broke through the ice with his horns. Together, they rose into the air, raining shards of ice and frigid water in their wake.
Gulping air, she shivered against his icy chest as he flew them back to the chateau.
“You should not have tried to save me,” he said, barely affected by the cold now that they were in the air once more.
“Watching you die like that isn’t defeating you,” she said through her teeth. “And I want to defeat you, King of the Dread. In more ways than one.”
He chuckled. “Feisty as ever, petite souris. Shall we get you warm?”
“If only to live another day, my captor.”
“You are no more a prisoner than I am.” His words were quiet, though, and she wondered if there was another meaning in them.
Was he a prisoner? Was that why he’d been content sinking into the lake?
Amicia stared up at his granite hard face and wondered at how little she knew this creature who had tried to take her life only to save her. Twice now. Perhaps there was more to him than she had thought.
Chapter 19
Amicia hobbled after Bernard, her crutches clicking on the floor and her breathing already ragged. The race across the frozen lake had re-broken a few of her ribs, which made it difficult for her to use the supports.
Bernard had re-wrapped them the best he could when he didn’t know what he was doing. The bindings were much tighter than before. They constricted her breathing and made her lungs feel heavy. She could do nothing other than lay in her cot, staring at the dried herbs hanging from the ceiling.
Two days had passed since the frozen lake. Two days spent in silence as her unwilling keeper had been so livid at her he’d barely been able to speak. And now, he was taking her somewhere in the chateau with an angry clip to his step. His claws left scratch marks on the marble floor everywhere he passed.
“Bernard?” she tried again. “Can you at least tell me where we’re going?”
He grunted and turned a corner, taking her in a direction she’d never been before.
At least, she didn’t think she’d been this way. Traveling through the walls differed significantly from making her way through the chateau as one should walk through a building.
“Bernard?”
He flared his wings wide and glanced over his shoulder. “You’ll see soon enough. Still afraid we’re going to kill you?”
The insult stung, but he wasn’t wrong. Amicia was slowly letting go of the concern. After all, their king had saved her from certain death twice now. He’d caused both, but that didn’t mean he hadn’t saved her. Something in him had changed from the monster desiring nothing but death.
The fear remained buried deep in her chest, however much she tried to banish it away from her thoughts. She wondered when they would stop being so kind. When they would finally give it up, and her fate would be nothing more than the rest of the humans.
He still hadn’t explained what made her different. Even Bernard didn’t know the answer. And she liked to think her manservant was at least a little happy she was still around.
The others, she wasn’t so certain about.
They passed by one of the Dread, a new one. The features were familiar, a little more delicate than the other Dread she’d seen. Female? Her chest was as flat as the others, her body muscular and her legs still strangely bent. But there was something feminine the way she walked that set her apart.
As they passed, Amicia made eye contact with the creature in hopes it would give her some kind of reaction. If it were one of the women she’d attempted to save, then it should at least be mad at her. She’d been the one who had them run. Maybe they had another plan to save themselves. Maybe…
She walked by the Dread female and saw nothing in her gaze. There was no flare of the wings, no set of the jaw, nothing more than a morbid curiosity.
This one didn’t remember Amicia at all. This one only remembered the last few days since it had been born. That was all.
Her heart throbbed in sadness. Even if this wasn’t one of the women she tri
ed to save, this Dread female didn’t know who she was. Who she used to be.
None of them did.
Bernard stopped in front of a door that might have once been beautiful. Chips of gold paint had flecked from the surface long ago. Tiny remnants of the paint glittered on the floor. Pale blue wallpaper had once decorated the hall, only a few strips remained fluttering in the slight breeze. The others hung like wilting flowers, drooping toward the floor and tattered from neglect.
He reached out and flicked off a piece of paint flaking from the wooden door. “This will be your room, mademoiselle.”
“My room?” she repeated, wrinkling her brow in confusion. “I don’t have a room. I stay in the kitchens with you.”
“The master would no longer like you living in the servants’ quarters. He said it’s long past time for you to have a room of your own.”
She didn’t want a room of her own. Had the master of the chateau thought of that? Amicia enjoyed being around Bernard, the herbs, the smell of cooking. It reminded her of the home she’d left behind and the one that still made her chest ache at the mere thought.
Her heart skipped a beat at the possibility of being… alone. Eyes wide, fists clenched on the rungs of her crutches, she stared at Bernard like he could help her, or at least change her fate. “My room?” she repeated.
Perhaps there was pity in his gaze this time, although she wasn’t confident. It was still difficult to read the expression on their stony faces. “Mademoiselle, please.”
So there would be no arguing on this. Only the order existed, and she would stay in this room whether she wanted to or not.
A part of her planned to stalk right back down the hall and scream for the master of the castle. King of the Dread. The title was not one he had earned, nor one she respected. He needed to know she was angry, and she wasn’t going to do whatever he ordered her to do.
The logical side of her brain reminded her she was still broken. Still healing and trying to make her place here because there was nowhere else to go.
