“She has rather bewitched him, hasn’t she?” Lydia’s gaze slid over in their direction.
All of a sudden, it felt as if the entire ballroom were watching her and whispering about her. They must all see her as an upstart. The bodies seemed to be surrounding her. She couldn’t breathe. Couldn’t think. She grasped at her throat.
“Catherine, is anything the matter?” Edward asked. He reached for her, but she backed away from his touch.
“I’m fine, just need a bit of fresh air,” she mumbled and pushed past him, rushing out of the ballroom.
The double doors at the front entrance were open, and Catherine rushed out into the night. She drank in the cold night air, and the scent of apple blossoms and pine drifting on the night breeze. She could breathe a little easier.
What was she thinking? She could pretend all she wanted, but she was beneath Edward. Maybe not a madwoman but inferior just the same. Even now, Edward must be making excuses for her running out. Like Mama and Papa had always done. How long could she keep deluding herself into thinking she could be a part of society? That she belonged here.
Footsteps crunched on the gravel. She couldn’t see much beyond the light cast from the foyer. Catherine took a step back as a shadow approached. Was it Mr. Thorn come to kill her? She backed up another step. She should run for the safety of the house. What had she been thinking coming out here?
“Catherine, is everything alright?” Mrs. Rosewood stepped out from the shadows.
She exhaled in relief. It was just Mrs. Rosewood.
“You scared me. I thought you were Mr. Thorn.” She tried to force a smile, but Mrs. Rosewood’s expression was grim.
“Do you fear he will come for you again?” she asked.
There was a strange note to her tone, and it made the hairs on the back of Catherine’s neck stand on end.
“Yes.” She said it like a whisper. The wind picked up and sent a chill down her spine as it rustled the leaves of unseen trees.
“I think I can help you. Will you come with me?” Mrs. Rosewood held her hand out to her.
Despite her growing unease, she replied without meaning to. “Yes.”
17
Ray paced beneath the rows of crab apple trees. The wind rustled through the leaves as an owl cried in the night. Was that his father’s messenger sent to give him a warning? He looked up at the starry sky. The moon had turned her face away. Dark night, they called it. In Faery dark of the moon was a time of quiet reflection. And tonight’s was the deadline. Father would expect answers. All signs pointed to Lady Thornton. After he had escaped the manor, he had been determined to go straight to Father. But as he approached the forest, he had hesitated. What if he were wrong about her?
Doubt lingered at the back of his mind. He had been wrongly accused before, and his conscience wouldn’t allow him to point fingers unless he was completely certain. Either Lady Thornton had crafted the perfect deception, or she was innocent, and her life was at risk. If only he could go back to the murder site and search for clues. Or if he knew where the first girl was killed. But as many times as he had searched Thornwood, he had not seen a single indication of ancient magic. Father’s spy had been quick to destroy the evidence.
Ray stopped his pacing and frowned. Father had never been lenient before. When the king had been killed, his intervention had been only to have him exiled rather than executed. Why would his father destroy any evidence that might help him find the real killer? At first, he had simply assumed it was to cover up his murders, but if that were the case, why give him a deadline to find the killer? It didn’t add up. He shook his head.
It wouldn’thurt to try and talk to Lady Thornton once more. Maybe there was something she’d seen, some new evidence she might give him. He had until sunrise before Father would come looking for answers. He looped around and headed in the direction of the manor. As he approached, he heard a multitude of excited voices, and he slowed his pace. Easing back into the shadows cast by the manor house, he watched a line of carriages pull into the circular drive. Servants from inside the manor rushed forward to greet the arrivals. The air stank of iron, and the collection of carriages and horses with their metal shoes made his stomach twist unpleasantly. The humans must be having their own dance tonight.
Normally it would have made the perfect cover to sneak into the manor. He’d slipped into more than a few dances over the years. They were stiff and the music terrible, but rather predictable. But after his disastrous encounter with Lady Thornton this afternoon, it would more than likely end with her accusing him of murder in front of all the humans. Perhaps if he hadn’t exhausted all his magic trying to help her escape Faery, it wouldn’t be much of a threat, but in his current state... No, it was better to resolve this one on his own.
The voices of the party-goers faded as he headed away from the manor and back to the forest. What was the point of any of it? Father wouldn’t believe him anyway. Maybe instead of waiting for him to come and make the decision, he ran away at last? He could slip into a gateway, travel through Faery to faraway realms where even his father couldn’t reach him. He was nearly to the forest when he caught a putrid scent on the wind. It made his stomach turn. He covered his nose with his hand. Blood magic. Had the killer struck again?
Though every instinct told him to run, he followed it to its source. It made his skin crawl the closer he got. This was stronger than the girl he’d found with Lady Thornton. It was fresh. One pale hand splattered in blood peeked out from behind a nearby ash tree. He approached cautiously, eyes flickering around the forest in case the killer was still nearby.
The young woman wore a maid’s outfit. The apron was soaked through with blood. Her sternum carved open, and an empty cavity left where her heart had been. He hadn’t thought too much about how the girls had been killed. Ray knelt down beside her and pulled out a rag from his back pocket to cover her sightless eyes. They’d cut out her heart. Poor girl. Ray stood. Father had been certain that the killer would strike again. Why had he been so confident?
Bloody tracks led from the body and ended at the grass where they had presumably wiped them the best they could. But the stench of blood magic would have followed them. Ray followed it across the lawn and toward the manor. Could it really have been Lady Thornton? Everything he’d learned about the forbidden magics said that they corrupted the wielder, twisting their magic and creating death and destruction. He’d felt her magic, and it had been pure as the spring at the Great Tree. If it weren’t Lady Thornton, who was it?
If only he knew more about the old magics. These girls had been killed for a purpose. Three girls. Each with their heart cut out. Perhaps for a purpose? Could blood magic cure the wolf’s curse? The wolf might not have been chasing him, but Lady Thornton, and hadn’t he heard the servants talking about a cure? It must be Lord Thornton... Why hadn’t he thought of it sooner?
Without a second thought, he dashed toward the manor house to the back kitchen entrance, but as he came around the corner, he spotted Mrs. Morgan pacing the yard. Lord Thornton must have put her there to guard. As soon as she had tried to glamour him, it should have been his first hint that something was wrong. The only other choice was the front door. Maybe he could blend in with the crowd coming in for the dance?
He dashed around to the front drive, and as he approached, he saw Lady Thornton speaking to a second woman who had her back to him. Ray pressed his back against the wall. He needed only to wait for a moment when Lady Thornton was alone, and then he could try and speak with her to warn her that her husband had been killing these women.
He couldn’t hear their conversation from a distance, but the second woman turned. Bella. Ray’s mouth fell open. It had been a century since he’d last seen her, and she’d hardly aged a day. Her dark hair, her heart-shaped face. It was all vivid in his mind. How she had danced in the Thorn’s Court, how his king had loved her, and how she had betrayed him. She was alive.
The two women crossed the lawn and headed for the forest. Ray kept staring long after they left. He shook himself. What was she doing here? Perhaps his eyes were playing tricks on him. Unless she was the one using blood magic, to extend her life.
