He snorts. “But I might have ended you right there. Even the magic of the candle couldn’t have stopped me.”
“But you didn’t,” I say again. Damn, this is really shaking him.
“You would be human and happily living your life if not for me.”
I grab his face with both hands and slap him lightly on the cheek. “Enough! Snap out of it! I’m right in front of you, and I’m exactly where I want to be. I don’t want to be human. I don’t want to be on Earth. What I want is to find our way out of this fucking room and make it to Thanesia. And I want to do it before that clock strikes midnight.” I point at the minute hand.
He blinks rapidly and rubs the back of his neck. “I didn’t expect that anything along this road would have to do with me. It’s like the challenge in Night Haven all over again.”
I think about that for a minute. “You thought you were coming down here to protect me. But you’re walking the path too. And our histories are enmeshed in many ways. We should have expected this. The point of the path is for us to prove we are worthy of reaching Thanesia.”
He nods. “You’re right. We should expect that what we face will challenge us both. Even try to play us against each other.”
I nod. “So, through the window?”
“We can try.”
I pick up one of the end tables and attempt to break the glass with it, but the wood bounces off, just as Damien’s fist had bounced off the wall. Damien attempts to stab through the glass with his broadsword, and we’re both disappointed when even his heaviest blow delivers no results. It doesn’t even chip the glass.
He resheathes his blade. “The walls and the glass are impenetrable. There must be another way.”
The ticking clock grows louder. I turn back toward it and the fire. Other than the vines and the filth, this room is exactly as my parlor was the night I called Damien the first time. What am I missing? What does it want me to prove?
“This is Thanesia’s road, and she’s testing us,” I say slowly. “Why would she choose this scene?”
“Perhaps to force me to confess to you the dark thoughts I had that night,” he says. “Perhaps she wants you to see that you deserve better than me.”
“Right. And then what? Am I supposed to get angry? Is she expecting us to fight?”
Damien frowns. “Maybe this test is for you. Do you have any regrets, little bird? Would you have freed me if you’d known I’d once dreamed of killing you?”
My eyes fall on the candle just as the clock begins to chime midnight. Behind him, I see the fake Damien, who up until now has been as still as a statue, turn his monstrous head and bare his teeth. I glance at the chiming clock, then back at Damien. “Yes, I would.”
I lunge for the candle, scoop it off the floor, and hurl it into the fire. There’s a flash, and a shower of sparks that blinds me, but just like before, Damien breaks into shadow and protects me from the worst of it. I blink, and when I open my eyes, I’m safely in his arms.
As the smoke clears, the opening to the hallway appears again. The clock stops. The monster freezes in place.
“You’ve solved it,” Damien says.
“You gave me the idea. Thanesia wanted me to prove to her that I’d break the curse all over again, knowing everything I know now, everything you were thinking. I have no regrets, Damien. I wouldn’t do a thing differently.”
He kisses me quickly, then takes my hand. “Thank fuck. Now, let’s get out of here before the road has time to change its mind.”
Hand in hand, we rush from the parlor into the hall. Our walk turns into a run as the hall stretches on and on, until I wonder if we’ll ever be free of this rat’s maze. For a stretch, the wood becomes bricks under my feet, but the walls are still those of haunted Harcourt manor. Finally, our journey ends at a door. My stomach ties itself in knots.
The shadowpath has led us straight to my mother’s art studio.
41
Watch Me
ELOISE
The door to my mother’s studio is both the same and different. The dragon stares at me from its place curled at the bottom of the door, but the paint is chipped as if a hundred years has passed since I was home. I hate the way that makes me feel. Already, I am disconnected from my family and my magic. Disconnected from my past. Vines of thorns grow around the doorframe, purple roses filling the hallway with a heady scent that is suffocating in the small space. My eyes dart to Damien’s, and then I open the door.
Only, when I cross the threshold, I am not in my mother’s studio.
I’m in Valeska’s bedroom.
