Page 55 of The Devil In Blue
Rune did not attempt to stop me as I stormed out of his room. Once in the hall, the dam inside my body began to crack. I knew it would burst soon, so I pressed a hand to my chest and I sped up. Looking back, he was not following me, but that didn’t stop my panic from clawing its way up to the surface. It would smother me soon.
I needed Petris.
Of all the people in that place, he somehow had a way of calming me down. Of talking to me in ways that distracted me from the demons playing at my mind. Were I still with Lucien, he would have bled me to expel such horrible things from my thoughts. But I wasn’t with Lucien and I was beginning to doubt I ever would be again.
I was beginning to doubt my “sickness” had anything to do with my blood, either.
I didn’t know what to think.
I needed to find Petris.
I headed for the kitchen, hoping I’d find him there preparing something delicious. But just as I turned the corner, Elanor was there in the shadows. I nearly crashed into her.
Her gaze was pointed and stern. The way she looked down her nose at me would have made me shrink away any other time, but in the state I was in, I just wanted to hit her. She wrinkled her nose at the blood on my lips and sniffed like she smelled something foul.
“You wreak of greed and indecision,” she said, stepping forward.
I held my ground, planting my feet and balling my fists like she was one of the sisters come to buckle me into my cloth prison.
“What are you talking about?” I asked.
She moved toward me again, her lips pressing into a flat line as if she were angry with me.
“My king did not bring you here to give you luxuries and leave you to wander and waste time.”
“No, he brought me here thinking I’m someone I’m not.”
She moved further into my space. A full hand taller than me, she had a demanding and overbearing presence. Her sharp cheekbones made her face a canvas of shadows and dips.
“What do you want?” I asked.
“I was his first. I’m closer to Rune than anyone. I can feel almost everything he does. The way he pines after you is nauseating. Especially after seeing what you’ve become.” Her gaze moved over me once, dissecting me.
I growled out my frustration and tried to skirt past her. “I can take no more of this. I know I am mad, but I’m beginning to think you all are equally so.”
A cold hand coiled around my wrist. Thin as Elanor was, when I tugged against her grip, she was unmoving. I nearly tripped over myself when she started walking, dragging me behind her like a child.
“I will show you what madness truly looks like, little one.”
“Stop,” I said, my voice much too meek to persuade anyone.
Elanor walked with purpose, holding her black skirt with one hand and pulling me along with the other. I didn’t know where we were going. I recognized the halls for a while and then suddenly we were descending a stairway deep underground to a place I didn’t even know existed. The steps were rough stone and scratched at my bare feet. Wooden torches lined the walls in such a rugged fashion that it was like we’d entered an entirely new building. The air was cold and smelled of dust and mold. To keep my balance as we rapidly descended the narrow stairwell, I dragged my hand along the wall, barely avoiding tripping on my skirts.
“Where are we going?” I asked. “Stop this. Please.”
“You’ll find that being gentle and delicate is not in my nature. Neither is waiting. I know what the king desires and he desires the truth. So should you.”
I wanted to scream at the top of my lungs that I knew the truth, but if I was being honest with myself, I knew nothing. I was doubting everything I had ever been told since meeting Rune. It made it all so much worse. My mind was a bog. Tar was everywhere and I couldn’t make sense of the mess nor could I move through it to find my way.
“Elanor, please,” I said, realizing the further we went, the darker the place became.
The rooms where the sisters locked me in were always dark as if the moment they closed the doors, they forgot about me. I’d learned to love the darkness for a while, but the longer they left me, the more I hated the silence. Now, those awful feelings were coming back. I tried to pry at Elanor’s fingers, but her grip remained too firm.
“Please,” I repeated.
We came to a door. It was simple and wooden with a round metal handle. When Elanor shoved it open, the wood cracked and squeaked on rusted hinges.
Utter darkness lay beyond it.
