A shiver spread through my body. “Are they going to attack?” I asked, dropping my hair. Orin shrugged. “They haven’t before, but things are different now that their Commander of Death is back.”
He reached into his pocket and pulled out a pocketknife, pressing it into my palm and closing my fingers around it.
“For your…” He hesitated. “Troubles.”
He kissed me on my cheek before walking back down the stairs. I stared down at the knife, the thing inside me almost growling at the thought of spilling my own blood.
I won’t,I assured it.
I didn’t understand the darkness that lurked beneath my skin, but I knew it wanted to protect me. It had grown stronger every day I went without a bloodletting and Ilikedfeeling strong. I climbed the stairs alone, and while a part of me was disappointed, the other part was grateful not to have to wear the mask of the princess he preferred.
Eleven
Find the Pieces
Iwasn’t sure what woke me. One moment I was tangled in dreams of chains and knives, the next I was blinking into the dark. The glow of the dying embers of the hearth was the only light as I looked around. Soft snores and the rustle of blankets were the only noise breaking the eerie silence. Something moved through the darkness. I whipped my head around, but nothing was there. A gentle ache blossomed behind my ribs, syncing to the now frantic beat of my heart. I pressed a hand to my sternum, feeling the faint raised edge of the silver birthmark. The ache deepened, sharp and insistent, until it was no longer just a feeling, but an instinct.
Come,a voice whispered from the darkness.
Cold air slid over my damp skin, raising gooseflesh. My breath bloomed in front of me as the air grew colder by the second. Around me, the others slept, but I knew something was wrong.
I froze.
Hollow eyes watched me from the corner of the room. Awareness crawled over my skin like cold, damp fingers.Her long hair billowed around her like pale water as she drifted closer. I could see through her body as though she was stitched from moonlight and mist.
It was the woman from the woods.
My heart beat tripped. I knew that cold, voiceless pull. I had felt it all my life. I hadn’t seen a ghost since my bloodlettings started. Until coming here.
I opened my mouth to sing, knowing that my voice would send her away. But the woman with the floating hair lifted a ghostly finger to her lips, shushing me silently. My voice froze in my throat as I watched her with curiosity.
She pointed towards the far wall, where I knew the woods behind the barracks laid. The same woods that had pulled me near every time I had run past. She floated towards the door, waiting for me to follow.
My heart fluttered violently against my ribcage as I swung my legs over the edge of the bunk.
A voice broke the hush as my feet touched the cold stone.
“Lyra?”
Dreya was sitting up on her cot, watching me with sleep-filled eyes, hair unbound in a wild tangle of black curls. “What are you doing?”
Before I could answer, Riven pushed himself up onto his elbows in the bunk across from mine, his hair falling in front of his eyes. “Why in the Seven Hells are you two talking at this ungodly hour?”
I swallowed, mouth ashen. “I…I have to go.”
Dreya frowned. “We are on lockdown.”
I gestured to the drifting woman before sighing heavily. Anyone who I had tried to explain this to in the past labelled me mad, had me punished and bled for being evil.
“I just need to check something, I won’t be long.”
Dreya sighed heavily then tore her blankets off, muttering as she pulled her boots on.
“Right, well, we’d better be careful. I don’t want to know what happens if we’re caught.”
For a heartbeat, just one, I swore Riven’s eyes fixed on the ghost as he flexed his jaw.
But then he blinked, and his mouth curved into that careless smirk. “I love a midnight stroll.”
