“What?” The knife dropped out of Narcisa’s palm, clattering to the ground. “No!”
Shadows bubbled and bulged, their form bursting forth from decaying wood and stones. The mass stood on four legs, crossing the threshold into the moonlight in heinous awful beauty. Shadows rose to the surface of its flesh, a mess of eyeballs flickering into our direction as its black body shifted in iridescent light.
I suggest you run, little child.
It lunged for Narcisa, clamping its maw around her arm and clawing at her. Shadows shot upward and meeting the mass’s attack. Blood streamed down her arm, enticing the beast more. It came again, snapping onto her leg.
I did what it said and ran to the ladder connecting to the roof, not looking back at the terrible sound of ripping flesh and Narcisa’s or the mass’s hallowed screams.
Thirty-Four
Iclung to the ladder, forcing myself to climb. The door to the roof was there as the cries of Narcisa died down, replaced by haunting wails. I threw open the door, cold wind gusting snowflakes into the blood moon’s glow. The world turned into a haze, dipping in and out with dark spots clouding my vision. I broke out in convulsing shivers, fingers slowly turning icy blue.
The blood from my abdomen had slowed. Leaning against the tall spire, I noticed the trail of blood gave away where I was hiding. There was no masking and death breathing down my neck, kissing me softly.
I dug my fingers into the stone, preparing to climb again but, instead, collapsed. “No.”
Legs shook as I attempted to stand. I shuffled one step at a time, refusing to raise an eye an inch above the ground before collapsing to my knees. I panted out clouds of air, the silver of the gown matching the moon’s eerie glow as did the snow.
I clawed at the stones, vision blurring.
“There you are,” Narcisa whispered in my ear. She held her arm tight with a sneer and limped forward on my leg. It appeared the shadows had taken a piece of her before scattering. “Nowhere left to run, I see. Once I put you out of your misery, he will succumb to this curse and do what he should have done all those centuries ago—die.”
I tilted my head up, and Narcisa was bathed in the light, ash hair aglow in scarlet, painting blood onto her shredded dress. Cuts and scrapes were bleeding slowly, but she had suffered heavy losses with her limbs.
Shutting my eyes, I steadying the world in my mind as it tilted and spun. I heard everything in the heavens and on the Earth. The falling of a snowflake onto a warm stone, the soft whispers of the moon rays kissing the grounds, the cries of the battles of the living and dead with none of them knowing the implications. I heard the soft trickle of blood from Narcisa’s wounds and knew she would also die tonight.
Did she kill Silas? Was he alright? I forced a breath into the burning storm building in my chest. I needed to stay alive a little longer, just a little longer.
“Isn’t it enough that I will die? Why go through all the dramatics? Aren’t you tired?” I rasped, the energydraining me as I cracked an eye open to Narcisa holding a knife limping closer in heavy clicks.
One, two, three. I counted each of her steps, trying to stay lucid.
She stopped, blood droplets streaming down her arm and leg with anger clouding icy blue eyes. The flat stone of the upper deck had a trail of blood leading to where we stood.
Perhaps Silas would find my body quickly if she managed to get this far.
I gripped the knife at my side. “You killed Cecilia and tried to kill Silas. You drank the same poison and had been cursed the same as he. Except you preyed on the villagers while he sat with his demons. For centuries, you have rotted in a village, waiting to kill Silas. Why? What for? Power? A throne? All of it is gone, so what does it matter anymore?”
Narcisa grinned from ear to ear, continuing her advance. “You make it seem so much more mundane than what it is.” She laughed, baring my neck against the cool metal. “You see, I did all of this simply because I loved the man so much that I hate him. All I wanted was power—to rule, and he just tossed me aside. I became something for him only to be tossed aside for what—a woman from a country who was continually causing war. I saw how happy they were, and I hated it, so I killed her.”
She traced the blade downward to the center of collarbone. “Little did I know Silas chose to heed the words of the same crazy witch, sending Amaris into chaos with a silly little curse. The difference betweenhis curse and mine is that he chose his tomb. Mine was one crafted as long as he remained alive.”
“And the villagers—the people in the ballroom that night.”
“They hardly know they are fighting among ghosts. Forgotten people barely held together by flesh and bone. Trapped the same way he and I are. And all you had to do to free them was kill the monster, and this would have been dealt with. I could have gone on to much better things than to be trapped in this bubble with these ghosts.”
Hot blood trickled down my chest, the knife biting into flesh and the black spots overtaking my vision.
“You are the monster, not him.”
Blood and fear tasted heady upon my tongue.
I yelped as the knife plunged deeper into my chest. “Such a trivial matter now. Although I should have killed you well before now.”
Head dropped to the side, I spied Ebony floating with an army of the resident ghosts and shadows at her feet. It appeared the ghosts had expounded, some of the villagers among the faces I had come to know so well. Narcisa had yet to acknowledge them, and Ebony nodded solemnly as if she was waiting—as if she knew we were both damned.
“Let me ask you,” I gargled out, blood gushing through my teeth as the blade pierced deeper, “you preyed on the villagers... ”
