5
A ROOM WITH A VIEW
He shook her so hard and fast and brutally the back of Diana’s head hit the wall and dark spots bloomed across her vision.
“Give it back!”Apollo demanded, shaking her again.
Her head hit the wall again.Her arms felt, beneath his punishing fingers, as if they might lose all feeling.She prayed to lose all feeling.
“Please,” she squeaked.“Please… Pollo… stop.”She reached for the magic curling inside her, a sleeping cat.Hers.Shouldn’t be, but it was.And it never behaved.Never woke up when she wanted it to.She feared it.Perhaps that’s why it stayed away.
But now she feared death more.Right now he shook her, but what would he do when he realized she could not give it back?
Mine!The word screamed along every inch of her, and then there was the magic, hissing and arching and sizzling along her veins.Yes,hers.For now at least.She grasped her cousin’s wrists and dug her fingernails into his skin, kicking at his legs.
“I need it, Diana!”he sobbed.“Why won’t it come to me?”
She grasped the magic and shifted the world to her liking.
Then…
Nothing.Only Apollo’s beating heart and desperate eyes, narrowed in mindless determination, then… blinking, something pouring into them as his grip loosened.Something like fear, like sorrow.Like disgust.What was he seeing?She couldn’t see anything but him, the darkened room beyond his shoulders.She’d done something to herself with the magic, but what?She flicked her gaze to the mirror, her heart stopping.
It reflected her.Limp and pale, eyes bulging, arms and head limp.
Spirit gone.
Body dead.
“Oh, God.”Apollo jerked away from her and held his hands up before his face.“What have I done?”He dropped to his knees before her, his hands trembling, hovering over her frame.She was still standing.But she wasn’t.Her reflection had slumped to the ground, heavy and lifeless, blood oozing from the back of her head.
Diana slapped her hand over her mouth to hold back a scream.Her throat burned, and her fear rioted in her belly.She must leave before the illusion vanished.No idea how she was doing it or how long it would last.But she couldn’t move.Apollo clutched at her skirts.How strong was her magic?Some glamours were stronger than others.Would the illusion she’d cast move with her?Would it look like a dead body sliding across the floor.The image almost made her laugh, a sickening feeling.
Stuck.She was stuck until he left.
But he wasn’t leaving.His watery gaze darted about the illusion of her lifeless form, and his hands still hovered over her, wanting to touch her, not daring to.“I’m so sorry, Di.Oh, God.You can’t be dead.I didn’t mean to.I swear, I didn’t mean to.”He flipped his hands over, looked at his palms.“Where is it?If you were dead, it would come to me.Wouldn’t it?”The last two words mumbled.
Then his hands steadied, his eyes cleared.
“Wouldn’t it?”he repeated, rising slowly to his feet.
He knew.He suspected.
And the glamour of her corpse flickered.
Diana bolted for the door, not daring to see if he followed.
He did follow, though.Of course he did, his footsteps loud and relentless behind her.
But not quick enough this time.They slowed, the echoes of his steps hesitant.Reluctant?Her desperate imagination.She threw the door open and ran, pushing shopgirls and customers out of the way.
“Diana!”That Lady Tascott, confused.“Diana!”Indignant that time.
Diana didn’t slow down, not for her aunt, not for anyone, and soon she pushed out onto the street.Where to, though?Nowhere to go that Apollo would not find her.And once Lady Tascott knew her secret… she would not stop Apollo from his deadly purpose.Her comfort and social position more important than Diana’s life.
To hell with that.
She hurtled down the street.What direction didn’t matter.Away.Escape.
