Page 70 of Summoned
“You’ll be happy it wasn’t a real trial when you fail.”
His last words come too close. I catch the scent I know too well—hisscent. I try to pinpoint the direction, breathe it in, hold it. The moment I inhale deeper, it’s gone.
“Are you ready, Baroness?”
This time, the question comes from behind me. Fine. I’ll have to follow him if I want out of this.
“Little Red set out into the woods seeking the thing every little girl dreams of. Do you know what that is?” His voice drifts in from the far end of the next corridor.
“Her grandmother?” I guess.
“What does every fairy tale girlreallywant, Nicole?”
Disney again. Of course. I scoff. “Love?”
“Is that disdain I hear, Baroness?”
I catch a trace of his scent again, but the words seem distant. “Fairy tales teach us that a woman’s only purposeis to find love.”
“You sound like you don’t agree. Tell me, then, whatisher purpose?” Gaetano asks, somewhere to my right. I swear there’s a smirk in his voice.
“To become independent. To leave amark.” Maybe that conversation with my father is still burning at the back of my mind, lighting a proverbial fire to prove my point.
Silence falls. I look around, unsure of which pathway to take.
“You don’t dream of finding a great love, Baroness?” His voice is so close, it brushes my skin. I shiver.
Fixing my attention on the flickering leaves of the closest hedge, I imagine he’s standing behind it. “Strange question, coming from someone who swears he’s never been in love.”
His laughter echoes through the maze. “Fair enough.”
I take a few hesitant steps forward. I can’t see Gaetano’s features, but I picture them in my mind, along with the fathomless black shade of his eyes.
“How can you have lived this long and never fallen in love?” I ask.
“Aha… so youdobelieve love is out there somewhere, waiting to be found?”
His words stop me in my tracks. I open my mouth to deny it, but he cuts me off. “Good thing that inourfairy tale, no one’s chasing love. We all want power and control, don’t we?”
“I suppose you’re right,” I mutter, shrugging.
He chuckles. “Little Red Riding Hood threw on her confidence cloak, picked up her basket full of big expectations, and set off down the road to fortune…”
I walk toward his voice.
“She didn’t carry much weight, but she had sturdy shoes gifted by her father…With them, she crushed the tall grass beneath her feet and charged ahead, never realizing she would have tripped at the very first step without them…”
The last words drift past me, then echo several meters ahead. It takes me a few steps to process what he said. Is he mockingme? I grit my teeth and keep chasing his voice.
“Little Red wandered into the woods. This forest wasn’t full of flowers and birdsong. It was dark, damp. Imagine lips waiting to be parted.”
The words whisper into my ear, and I shiver at the uninvited images flashing in my mind. His scent swirls around me like mist. He’s close. I’m sure of it. Maybe even right beside me.
“Found you!” I call out, bluffing.
“Not even close, Little Baroness…”
Now the voice drifts from another corridor, so I change direction.
