Page 103 of Gothikana

Corvina shuddered, remembering the dark water, not understanding any of it.

The fire crackled, finally warming the room. Ajax sat still, looking into the flames. ‘I went into the fucking water to get her out, and I don’t know if it’s Deverell’s fable or fucking fish, but I felt things… moving around me in that water. Nothing touched me, but something moved. For a moment, I thought we wouldn’t get out.’

Exactly how she had felt, even though she didn’t voice it.

She didn’t know what was in the water, but something was.

Roy began to mumble, moving her head restlessly, before slowly opening her eyes.

Corvina let go of her feet, sitting back on her knees on the floor as Ajax looked to her. ‘Hey, hey, you’re okay.’

Roy blinked, dazed. ‘Where am I? Fuck, my head hurts,’ she groaned, gripping her forehead.

‘Yeah, almost drowning will do that to you.’ Ajax nodded. ‘Why did you go in the woods?’

Roy began to sit up, and Corvina helped her, adjusting the blankets around her for modesty. ‘I-I don’t remember.’

‘What do you remember?’ Ajax asked, his tone one of an investigator.

Roy looked around, leaning against Corvina in her weakened state. ‘I remember dancing. Going out to get some air. And then nothing. It’s all a blank.’

‘You have no idea how you got in the lake?’

Roy looked panicked. ‘I was in the lake? I don’t like that lake. Shit, my head is pounding.’

‘She needs to rest in the medical room,’ Dr Larkin, the residing doctor on campus, interrupted from the door. ‘We have to keep her under observation for the night.’

Ajax gave a weary nod. ‘You rest. I will have more questions for you tomorrow.’

Corvina followed Ajax as he left the Main Hall, her eyes scanning the perimeter, finally taking a moment in what seemed like a rapidly devolving night, everything happening so fast she could barely process it.

‘Vad hasn’t come back yet.’ She gnawed at her lips, looking at the woods.

Ajax frowned. ‘It’s been over two hours, Corvina. He should’ve been back.’

‘Maybe he got lost in the tunnels?’ She knew how stupid it sounded even as she said it.

‘He knows this mountain better than anyone else.’ Ajax shook his head, his face grim. ‘I… are you sure he’s the man you think he is, Corvina? Don’t you think it’s all too linked to him? Doesn’t it make you even a bit suspicious?’

His questions hit her like little stabs, not enough to maim but enough to bleed.

She looked down at the ring on her finger, considering for a long minute if he could have manipulated her so well. She couldn’t believe that. He was her anchor in this madness. If she doubted him, she would drown.

‘I trust him,’ she told Ajax firmly, her eyes returning to the woods.

‘Then let’s give him another hour. Some of those tunnels are long.’

Corvina took a deep breath, reassured by that, just as a ringing sound filled the air, one she hadn’t heard in this castle at all.

A phone.

Corvina watched as he took one out from his pocket.

‘Your phone works here?’ she asked, surprised.

‘Special satellite,’ he told her, pressing a button. ‘Squad members have these phones.’ He put it to his ear. ‘Hunter.’

He listened to whatever the person on the other end said for a minute, his body tensing. ‘Are you certain?’

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