Page 27 of Forgotten Monsters
“Will you at least unbind my powers?” I motion to the cuffs.
“No.”
“Why not?”
He inches closer ever so slightly, surveilling me like a bird of prey watches the juicy little mouse he plans to tear to pieces for dinner. “You’re supposed to be dead.”
I tilt my head to the side. “I’m obviously not.”
Cole tightens one fist around the hem of my towel, and his arm shakes. He looks about to tear the fabric off me and punish me for all the pain he endured, his jaw sets in the hardest line it has ever known. I can see him calculating the fastest way to get inside me, and how desperate and rough it’d be.
I swallow a gasp, my skin still prickling from the heat of the bath, but I want him—needhim to touch me, to make me his again and erase the years between us.
Before I can move, his hungry gaze suddenly flies to the corner of the room, and the restless energy between us wavers. “Get dressed. We’re going back to Mellen.”
10
BLACK AND WHITE
“Eleven years?” My heart jumps in my throat. Lydia’s news acts as fresh snow, the shock of her explanation slowly sinking deep in my skin, both cold and numbing.
“Give or take.” The seer motions for me to sit in the chair in front of her desk.
The library was reworked into cubicle-styles workspaces. Paint brushes, acrylics tubes, glasses of tainted water, wood-carving instruments, and a chessboard clutter her desk. The chandelier flickers above our heads, but old Pembrooke is nowhere to be seen.
I watch Lydia again. The roundness of her cheeks betrays not one inch of a wrinkle.
“Why didn’t you age?” Goosebumps scatter on my arms, and I wrap them around my frame, feeling smaller than I have in a long time.
She smacks her lips. “I stayed here, in Dark Falls, to help Rose with research and force fields. We’re the only ones who can see the hollows. The time in Dark Falls now goes by slower than anywhere else on earth.”
I wiggle on the seat. “What happened?”
“An earthquake rocked the school the night you disappeared, and Darkwood told everyone you’d died. Dark Falls sank into a timesink—that’s what we call the slow time zones. Hollows wormed their way inside the realm through the crater that was formed at the epicenter, so the Magisterium erected force fields around it and closed down the school.”
I grip my forehead, trying to process.
A dry snicker grates her throat as she declutters her desk, arranging her instruments and brushes into a straight line. “We’re actually going to open again for the Saturnalia quarter this year. That’ll be another world of disaster. Darkwood apparently found a way to strengthen the barrier spell and trap the hollows, but I’m sure he’s up to no good.” She pauses on a deep sigh before she continues her explanation. “The veil between Earth and Faerie also thinned near the crater, so Cole ordered his men to patrol the borders in case another tectonic shift sends hollows directly into his kingdom.”
My eyes widen. “You’re speaking as though Cole is…”
“King of Faerie? Yes. Kirkan died in battle a couple of years after you disappeared.” She picks up a paintbrush and dips it into black paint.
“Fucking hell.” I eye the black, shadowy figurine in her hands. “I didn’t know you played chess—or carved wood.”
She plays with the end of her red braid. “I don’t. I just had this…compulsion to make this set.”
I take a closer look at the board. “Wait, this is Dark Falls.”
The checkered squares have been painted with the Academy’s colors, and the shape of the school crest—a raven with a feather in its talons—creates a shadow on the board. The pieces all ring a bell.
On the white side, the king has a long, pointy beard, and a splash of blood colors his mouth. The resemblance to Theodore Darkwood is spot on. The queen’s long yellow cape and blond hair steal my breath. “My mother…is she alive?” I swallow hard, bracing myself for impact.
The seer doesn’t glance up from her work. “Yes, of course. Why wouldn’t she be?”
An audible gasp tears my throat. “Wait…she’s alright?”
“Yes. She inspected us a week ago—with her usual charm, I might add,” the redhead grumbles, sarcasm thick in her voice.
