Page 38 of Kingdom of Locks

“If you know how, please do,” she said, spreading her hands in a silent appeal. “I’m extremely ready to be free.”

“How long have you been up there?” he demanded.

She shrugged. “As long as I can remember. More than seventeen years.”

“Your whole life?” he repeated, horror once again in his eyes. His voice dropped so that Aurelia barely caught the words. “And I thoughtmylife was restricted.”

His look of dismay was so exaggerated, it was almost comical. But as his eyes once again traveled up the tower, they became determined.

“I’m coming up,” he said. “Where’s the door?”

“There isn’t one,” Aurelia replied. “And I already told you, no one can get inside except the man who trapped me here.”

Amell’s face lost none of its determination. “So you say, but I’ve never been good at following restrictions. You said your captor gets in and out. How does he do that if there’s no door?”

“He comes in through the window,” Aurelia said.

Amell seemed to be waiting for more, but she didn’t elaborate. “How does he get to it?”

“Well, he climbs up my…my hair.” Aurelia could feel her face heating. She didn’t need to have experience of the world outside to know that Cyfrin’s method of entering the tower wasn’t normal behavior.

“Your what?” Amell’s face was completely blank.

With a sigh, Aurelia reached back and pulled on her dark braid. Grunting, she tugged it over her shoulder and dropped it out the window, being sure to hold on close to her scalp, to avoid the hair tugging too painfully at her head. Confined as it was in its complicated triple braid, the hair didn’t fall to the ground like normal, but she knew it was still shockingly long.

“I don’t…understand.”

A little amused by the look of utter astonishment on Amell’s face, Aurelia reeled her hair back in and untied the bottom of the braid. Once she’d tugged the dark locks loose, she threaded them through the metal hook with a practiced flick, feeding it all the way down. Freed from the braid, her hair reached the grass, the odd strand waving idly in the breeze, but the bulk of it too heavy to do more than just hang limply.

“He climbs it,” she repeated.

“Doesn’t that hurt you?” Amell asked.

She shrugged. “Not anymore. I’ve gotten good at bracing myself.”

Amell stepped up to the dangling hair, looking fascinated. Craning his neck again, he looked up at her as he lifted a hand. “May I?”

Aurelia blinked, surprised and pleased by the question. Cyfrin had certainly never asked her permission to touch her hair. The thought of the familiar feel of his hands tangling through his beloved vessel made her shudder slightly, but she nodded to Amell.

With a touch so light she couldn’t feel it at all, the stranger picked up a loop of hair. He ran his hand over it, shaking his head.

“It feels just like normal hair.”

She laughed. “It’s not exactly normal, but it is still hair.”

He grinned up at her again. “It looks like a dark waterfall.”

“Does it?” Aurelia asked, her smile a little twisted. “I wouldn’t know.”

“Do you…” Amell hesitated. “Do you want me to try to climb it? See if I can get inside?”

Aurelia stared. He was asking whatshewanted? Another pleasant surprise. She bit her lip, thinking. She didn’t think he’d be able to get past Cyfrin’s enchantment, but then, she hadn’t thought anyone would be able to get past the concealment magic that disguised the clearing. What did she have to lose, after all? Nothing that compared with the chance, however slim, that he might be able to help her and Mama Gail escape.

“If you want to try, I don’t mind,” she said. “I know what I’m doing. As long as you don’t let go, I won’t let you fall.”

Something unreadable passed over Amell’s face, although his voice was perfectly polite. “Thank you.”

Hesitantly, he grasped hold of two thick fistfuls of hair. But he made no move to pull himself up.

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