Corvina nodded. ‘It was a bad dream.’ And that worried her. She’d never been prone to nightmares but the very few she’d had in her life weren’t good signs. Her mother had told her they were ominous, especially with her. The doctor had said they were damaging. She needed to get a grip of herself.
Swinging her legs out of the bed, she rubbed a weary hand over her face. ‘I’m going for a walk.’
‘It’s the middle of the night,’ Jade told her, her eyes cautious. ‘Are you sure?’
Corvina nodded. ‘I need some air. I need to walk it off. Don’t worry, I’ll be back soon.’
Pushing her feet into her boots, still clad in her blue nightgown, Corvina pulled her hair over a shoulder and took a candle from the drawer beside her. Her eyes fell on the tarot deck sitting beside it. Picking it up as well, she stuck the candle in a holder and lit it, giving Jade what she hoped was a reassuring smile. ‘Seriously, go to bed. I just need to walk it off.’
Jade bit her lip, eyeing her flickering candle. ‘I’d suggest a lantern if you’re going outside the walls. The wind is sharp tonight.’
Corvina glanced outside the window. The grotesque gargoyle loomed like an ominous monster screamingat the moon. An almost full moon. She’d be fine. Nevertheless, she nodded to her friend, wrapped a shawl around herself, and walked out.
The corridors were empty at this time of the night, the candle providing enough light for her to make her way down the stairs. There was no piano being played, it hadn’t been for a few days. She needed to go to her place, the quiet place where it was only her and no one else to interrupt.
Emerging into the foyer, she pushed open the entrance door of the tower with the hand holding her deck, and looked outside, to check any guards patrolling the grounds. Seeing her path clear, she slipped outside.
The wind cut into her face, cold and biting and enlivening. The flame on her candle danced with the wind for one wild second like a paramour, flickering and resisting its passion, before surrendering and extinguishing itself under his demand. The scent of the forest beckoned to her, the scent of rich soil and sleeping foliage, the scent of trees unknown and flowers unseen.
Still keeping the candle holder with her, she made her way to the forest and turned left toward the ruins. She’d never been to the woods at night here, but as she made her way to her destination, with the sounds of the forest and its creatures to keep her company, she felt herself relaxing. The woods at night were the same as they had been in her hometown. Nocturnal insects chirped, reminding her she wasn’t alone in the dark. Bats flew overhead, flittering to secret places. A bird cooed on every count ofthree.
One. Two. Coo.
Corvina matched her steps to the cooing, touching the bark of the trees on her way in greeting, silently thanking them for sheltering her as she made her way under the muted light of the moon.
After a few minutes, the ruins came into view, her place of peace, and she felt herself smile.
And then she froze.
Because in her space of solitude sat a large man on one of the broken benches, with a tarp thrown on the ground beside him. He looked up as a branch crunched under her boot, his silver eyes searing, arresting her on the spot a few feet away.
‘You’ve got to be kidding me,’ he muttered, his voice carrying over in the open space between them as he turned fully toward her. ‘What the fuck are you doing here?’
Corvina swallowed, her fingers tightening around the candlestick. ‘I come here all the time.’
‘I meant,’ he clarified, putting something metallic in his hand on the bench beside him, ‘what are you doing here at this time of the night?’
She didn’t want to tell him about her nightmare. She hadn’t even processed it herself. So, she gave him the truth, as much as she could. ‘I couldn’t sleep.’
‘And you thought a walk in the woods in the middle of the night would be the most logical solution?’ he demanded, his tone furious. Why the hell was he angry, especially since he was doing the exactsame thing she was? Ugh, she hated confrontation. Well, she was a free person and it wasn’t his place, so it wasn’t like he could stop her.
Corvina ignored him, choosing to simply go to her spot — an overturned rock that had once been a part of the wall beside the graveyard. The rock had crumbled in such a way to make a seat big enough for her to sit and lean back in, with the view of the broken fountain at the front, thankfully away from the weird one-eyed tree, the graves at her back, and the pile of furniture including the piano on her right.
She could feel his eyes on her as she took a seat on the rock, and set her deck of cards in her lap, completely ignoring him. She heard him begin to tinker with something on the piano, the sound of metal hitting something solid permeating the silence, and she looked back, too curious to resist. He was sitting on the bench he’d probably dragged from the pile of furniture, with some kind of pliers in his hand, pulling away at something inside the belly of the piano that looked ancient.
‘Is it yours?’ she asked, unable to contain the question.
His hand paused before he pulled another piece of something from inside the piano. ‘No,’ he replied succinctly. ‘It was here with the other junk.’
She bit her lip. ‘And you’re repairing it?’
Silver locked with her violet.
‘Yes.’
‘I don’t know anything about pianos,’ she offered, looking at his hands with the tool. That was why he had the calloused palms.
He stared at her for a long moment, before looking down at her lap. ‘Are those tarot cards?’