Page 44 of Unraveled
“Yes. Most of the lunargyres in the halls aren’t feral yet, but it’s best to be careful.”
“And outside, in the courtyard?”
“Don’t go there unless one of us is with you.”
“In that case, I’m ready. Are you going to give me a training dowel?”
“Where’s the fun in that?” He lifts a brow as he finishes rolling up his sleeves and cracks his neck to either side.
“How else am I going to stop you?”
“I’m sure you’ll come up with something,” he says right as he disappears between two columns. The shadows of the room swallow him whole, and I’m left alone. Only the sound of my heavy breathing remains.
There is no way I can detect him in this vast room without my amulet. Back in the library, the forbidden grimoires spoke to me when I touched them. Same with the roses. I guess I could walk through this open area trying to feel my way around, but I doubt that’s what Ash is looking for.
My heart drums in my ears, and blood rushes into my head. Panic coats the back of my tongue, tasting bitter and wrong. I take a tentative step forward, not knowing where to look.
“Start moving around, Monster. There is nothing worse than being a sitting duck when a predator is on the hunt.” His voice comes from everywhere and nowhere at once.
I try to find him, to discern the shape of something familiar, like a wing or strands of hair, that might let me know where he is.
But I can’t tell how deep the room is or where the nearest wall might be. How low the ceiling is from where I stand. Only that there is a deafening silence that remains in his apparent absence. I take another step forward. The click of a heel echoes mine. I turn, following the sound, unsure if it’s him approaching or if it’s the sound of my own steps going around and around, intensified by a spell.
There’s magic I’m supposed to sense, and there is no way I’ll be able to do it if I let myself spiral into a panic attack. I take a deep breath and focus on finding a familiar gentle buzz of power. It should feel similar to when I’m near my mother’s necklace.
The subtle scent of pine needles and leather come with the shift of air right before his words break the silence. “If you don’t breathe, you’re going to pass out.” His breath washes over my neck, warm, sending a shiver down my spine. I spin, swinging my arms around, trying to smack him.
A chuckle pierces the space, but I find nothing but stale air around me. I whirl again and meet Ash’s gaze on the other side of the room. His smile is a sliver of white teeth that catch what little illumination is around us.
How could he be behind me one second and all the way over there the next?
“Don’t rely on your human senses. Feel the trace of magic I leave behind, nothing else,” he says, then whooshes back into the shadows.
The question must’ve been written all over my face, even from where he stood a moment ago. How did he know I would follow his scent? It doesn’t matter.
I told Skylar the night Ash took me, I’m not powerless. It’s about time I believe it too. Inside my mind, hiding in my memories, are all the strange spells I paged through once upon a time.
I could never really understand what the texts said as they were written in old languages, perhaps even in the tongue of the fae. But I could feel the meaning and what each spell would do. Ash doesn’t know this, but I once read a revealing spell. A casting that shows what one is searching for.
A mixture of exhilaration, adrenaline, and fear takes ahold of me as I debate whether I should use it now. Could I, even if I wanted to, without the amulet? Would my magic answer me?
Taking a deep breath to calm my erratic emotions, I focus on the memories of reading that spell. On how it felt when the grimoire’s power graced my skin. Surely a revealing spellwouldn’t cause harm. It shouldn’t do anything other than show me where Ash is hiding, which is what he tasked me with.
I can almost smell the scent of freedom as I picture the words—the feelings—in my mind. I recall the warmth of the grimoire’s magic wrapping around my fingers as I paged through it. Blocking out all distractions is easy since I can’t see much.
My skin glows in sputtering tones of gold, and when I reach my hands out in front of myself, I empty my thoughts, except for those of what lies within the room. I want to see every dark corner and crevice where he might be.
A wave of bright yellow light explodes from my hands. I hear a distinct pained sound from somewhere in the distance, though I can’t tell if it’s me. The exhilaration I felt before vanishes, and panic takes over my body. The spell doesn’t stop. My skin burns, and I’m blinded by the light as it continues pulsing through me.
I shut my eyes, but inside my head, I can see every detail of the room. The roses that climb the walls in every direction. Broken furniture piled up by the walls. Dusty curtains hastily closed over boarded windows.
Ash is running—no, flying toward me, cutting through the space with the precision of a bird of prey as I flounder back two, three steps. My back hits a column, and something wet runs down my cheeks.
A high-pitched scream pierces the room, tearing through my eardrums. I press my hands to them, trying to drown out the sound right as something heavy crashes into my side. We tumble onto the hard ground, and a cocoon of dark feathers wraps around me, sheltering me from the bright light that continues shining on.
“What the fuck are you thinking, Mia?” I can hear his snarl far from me. My head hurts so much, but I welcome the reprieve from the brightness inside his protective embrace. Evenif everything hurts. “The grimoire didn’t seem dangerous when I studied it.”
I didn’t intend to say that out loud, but I’m too scattered to really make much sense of anything.
