Page 106 of Where Shadows Bloom

The king’s pupils shrank. The color drained from his face. He looked at me and then at the door. He lunged for the door handle, tugging at it with both hands, but the door did not yield. His cheeks growing redder and redder with exertion, the king glared at me over his shoulder.

“You’re dismissed,” he said.

“No!”

He flinched at Ofelia’s command. I bit down on my lip to hold back my smile.

“I’ll let you in, Father,” she said. “But Lope will come, too. After all, she knows what it is you’ve done to me.”

Once more, his dark eyes met with mine, narrowing with recognition as I removed my helm. For the first time, looking at him, I felt more powerful than he. I felt like I had more strength. More knowledge. For just a moment,Iwas more worthy of his crown than he was.

The lock clicked.

With a rough push, the king burst into the library, marching forward. Using all the stealth I’d been trained to possess, I silently closed and locked the door behind us. On the floor to my right, a few feet away, the hand mirror lay. Eglantine left it there—she must have hidden herself away when she heard the king approaching. I swept it up and hid it behind my back.

Glancing about the library, King Léo turned on his heel, scowling at me. “Where is she?”

“You know very well where I am, Father. Where you put me. Where you put all of us.”

My determination soared at the rage that shook Ofelia’s voice.

The king narrowed his eyes at me, the only source of the sound. “What sort of trick is this?”

I withdrew the mirror from behind my back and showed it to him. He gasped, staggering back.

“Oh, Father, you look horrible,” Ofelia said. I could almost picture how fury would have painted her eyes dark. “How did you explain your appearance to the court? Didyou say that your skin had aged from worry? Or that you’d been blessed again? Some other lie?”

He squared his shoulders—and then began to walk back the way we’d come.

“You’re dead,” he said. “I do not fear you.”

My heart skipped. He was leaving. No, no, I needed to draw him closer to the portal. I stepped backward, closer to the aisle where it was hidden away. “Wait!” I called out to him. I brandished the mirror. “You may not fear the dead, but the court—when they see their beloved Ofelia, when they hear her voice, they’ll know what you’ve done.” I held my arms wide as he looked back at me over his shoulder. “I’m no more than a servant, and one look at your many shadows was enough for me to know what kind of man you truly are. You are not blessed. You’re a serpent. A selfish wretch.”

He turned fully toward me. He looked like the illustrations of wolves in Ofelia’s fairy tales, hungry, ready to pounce.

“I suppose you want the mirror, then,” I said, holding it out to him.

He quirked an eyebrow, taking slow, measured steps toward me. “What would you like for it? A title? A girl? Would you like that scar removed from your face?”

Yes, I thought.Come get me.

“What would I like?” I hesitated, as if drawing out the thought while I stepped backward, closer and closer to thedoor’s hiding place. “You’ll have to find out.”

With that, I darted into the bookshelves, around one corner and past another. I could hear his footsteps behind me, always. After another turn, I stood before the black door with its metal handle, the door that had grown from my own blood.

Something grabbed the back of my hair.

I cried out. The unseen force behind me threw me onto my knees, sending the mirror skittering across the wooden floorboards.

The king loomed over me, pulling me onto my back, his knee pressed hard into my ribs, his hands wrapped tight around my throat.

“Do you know what becomes of those who defy me?” he hissed, his thumbs pressing into my windpipe. His dark eyes were flat as stone. “You do not know. Because those who defy meare not found.”

Kick, I begged my legs, but no—thanks to the sacrifice, it was as if they’d forgotten how.

Scrape, I begged my hands, but no—they, too, refused to move.

“My servants will come and sweep you up like refuse,” he hissed. “Your body will be tossed in a river. Or perhaps I’ll feed you to my dogs.”

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