I gaped too, a knot of dread coiling in my stomach as Uriah stood bare before me. His one eye, that hidden eye, wasn’t gone. Instead, it gleamed a bright yellow, as though liquid gold had been poured inside. Around it was a series of scratches, deep and red as though—my breath caught—as though a beast had clawed him.
Instead of letting me go, he pressed me more tightly against him while chaos erupted around us. “Aria.” The rough edges of his voice sent a thrill through me. “If our love meant anything to you, will you do one last thing, for me?”
Our love. How could he jump to such a conclusion and yet, it was true? My lips trembled. “It wasn’t you, was it? You did not cause these murders? These terrors? Tell me you didn’t!”
His lips brushed my cheek as he took me in his arms, shifting my body to face the audience. But I wanted to look at him, to see him. Dancers hurled themselves across the stage, screaming in hysterics. They believed the ghost had appeared, that the devil was within and they fled.
Distantly I heard Zorik cry, “Guards! Kill him!”
Swords and stones. They were coming for us. Nay, for him.
“If we survive this, I will explain everything,” he said. Chills went up and down my spine as he spoke the command I’d only heard in a dream. “Now sing, Lady Aria, sing for your life.”
I gasped, flashes of my dark dreams swirling around me, the beast with one teal eye, one gold eye. Uriah. The tantalizing presence in my room. The command to sing for my life. It had all been a premonition, leading up to this very moment. There was no running, no hiding from the madness that gripped High Tower Castle, and the music ripped out of me. How could I not sing when my voice might be the magic that stopped it all or brought it to its ruin?
A wordless song soared out of my throat, vaguely I recognized it was one that Uriah had taught me, and the notes soared across the room while the ground beneath my feet trembled as though it were a beast on the edge of explosion. Uriah’s arms held me steady and there was a warm comfort to it along with his words:if we survive this.
The theater was in an uproar and emptying rapidly. Surely they were not that frightened of a man with a golden eye? Or was it the shaking? The portent of impending doom?
And then I saw it… Shadow creatures flickering out from the dark curtains, a swirl of blackness covering them yet I caught a glimpse of bone-white fingers, hollow eye sockets and a black mouth, open in a silent scream. They were eerie, frightening as they moved among the people. Guards struck out at them as they shielded fashionable ladies in hysterics. Lords in masks fled, the musicians tripped over their own instruments in haste to escape. The shaking became more violent, and I wondered if the castle was about to cave in on itself, but Uriah remained firm.
Above me the chandeliers swung, adding to the sound, and Count Zorik stood out amongst the crowd, a snarl on his handsome face. He was the only one who wasn’t panicked, who wasn’t running, almost as though he expected something like this to happen. Coolly, he took off his coat, unbuttoned his shirt and rolled up his sleeves. Shadows swirled around him as he approached the stage, and a deep foreboding rose. My voice caught, I choked as Uriah steered me away from Zorik.
“Sing, Lady Aria,” Uriah encouraged. “Sing for your life.”
The ruby at my throat pulsed as the music soared out of me again like a wave and with a snarl Zorik went down on all fours. “I see your game, Uriah!” he shouted, anger riding his tone. “You’ve done it again, haven’t you? Stolen one of my singers for your dark sorcery of music? You can’t have it all, you can’t win!”
“She is stronger than you could imagine, Zorik. You’ll not get away with this, not this time.”
A hoarse laugh burst out of Zorik’s throat. “If I die, you die.”
Breath sailed out of me again as I stared from one man to the other. They knew each other, and suddenly I saw the similarities. Uriah in the tower, Zorik in the castle, both tall, handsome men with pale skin and sharp features. Both were drawn to the music. Uriah created. Zorik organized. Yet the spell that hung over High Tower had to do with both of them. How had I not seen it before?
Zorik threw back his head and a loud snapping echoed through the air as every muscle in his body cracked. Before my eyes, his spine straightened and stretched. His arms and legs elongated, and his hands and feet transformed into sharp claws. Hair covered every inch of his body until his transformation was complete. A wolf, dressed like a man. He stood in his new form, on two legs, legs of a wolf, his arms long, his head a snout with curved fangs. When he looked at us, his eyes had changed, one gold, the other green. A gold eye, just like Uriah’s.
Black spots danced before my eyes and bile rose in my throat. I screamed and flailed, desperate to get away from the monster that had transformed before my eyes. Uriah held me firm. He lifted a hand and pulled on a rope as Zorik lunged for us. We were hurled into the air, swinging at a terrifying rate as the curtains closed and a boom erupted.
Distantly, I heard the splash of water and frantic cries as we landed. Uriah dragged me through the darkness and upward to a door and then a set of stairs. We climbed until at last we burst out into frigid air. It was the dead of winter and we were high on the roof of the castle. A thick darkness gripped the night. Below the eerie shapes of floating lights, lords and ladies fled as the castle broke and shuttered, coming apart as if the music had driven it to devastation. Or perhaps those shadow creatures.
Teeth clattering, I half-turned in Uriah’s arms, trying to see his face. Seeking reassurance. “What is happening?”
“Sing,” was his haunting reply.
Mist closed around us as he turned me to face him and took my hands. The aching song that poured out of him begged me to join him. Cold rolled around me like an oppressive cloud. Somewhere behind me I heard a snarl… Zorik, or whatever he’d become. I spun toward it, but Uriah guided my face back toward his.
We sang as the growling grew louder. The screams below faded, but the terrible booming sound did not cease. The very rocks shook and trembled and yet, the more our voices climbed, the less the darkness plagued us. The fingers of mist shrunk and rolled back, the ice in the air thawed and the fear of death and betrayal that haunted me lessened.
I held tight to Uriah as I sang. Hot, salty tears flowed down my cheeks. Memories took me, plunging back to the night we made love, those first heated kisses, the stories we’d shared, the pain that bonded us together. When at last I came back to myself, a weariness rode me, forcing me to slump against Uriah. My legs felt boneless, my body hollow, and it was cold. Oh, so very cold.
I lifted my head, and out of the corner of my eye, Zorik bounded toward us on four legs before swinging a claw toward Uriah’s skull.
On instinct, I yanked Uriah away, screaming, “No!”
In an instant, Uriah and I were torn apart and Zorik hurled through the space between us, shouting and swinging. His momentum carried him forward as the tower shook again. A sliver of moonlight cast its pale face over us. Uriah lifted his hand, a hand that still carried a rope and tossed it. Zorik snarled, ducking away as the rope lassoed over his foot and caught him. Uriah pulled at it, muscles straining as he shouted in a language I did not understand. Zorik fell over the edge just as something dark as night reached up and snatched him. White bone flashed, socket-less eyes stared up at me, and the rancid odor of old moss and water grew stronger. The thing stretched out tentacle-like arms, to embrace Zorik. The dark and evil monster floated over him and a sucking sound came, as though it were drinking the blood out of his body.
Zorik went down with a cry. There was a jarring crunch of bones snapping and then nothing at all.
Strength left my body, and the coldness enveloped me as though that dark creature would come for me next. I fell backward into Uriah’s arms. He caught me before I hit the ground just as the floor dropped away and the castle disintegrated beneath our feet.
