The story of Sylum’s late betrothed gnawed at me as I wandered. Had she walked these halls too? Had Elizabeth felt this same suffocating stillness pressing against her ribs?
A creak behind me froze my steps.
I turned slowly, pulse quickening. The corridor stretched long and empty, the moonlight fractured into uneven shards. Nothing moved.
My lips parted in a shaky laugh. “You’re being foolish,” I told myself. “There’s no such thing as ghosts.”
Still, I moved faster.
Another sound came closer this time. A slow, deliberate creak. Like a footstep. Like someone matching my pace just behind me.
I spun again. “Hello?”
Only silence answered, thick and smothering.
My pulse thundered in my ears as I pressed on, turning corner after corner until the manor seemed to close in around me. Then, from far down the hall, I saw it. A faint golden light spilling from a door left slightly ajar.
I hesitated. Then curiosity, ever my ruin, won out over intelligence.
I crept forward, bare feet silent as I stepped lightly, and pressed myself into the shadow of a doorway near the end. Voices drifted through the crack, low and urgent.
“You’re sure this will work?” a woman asked, her voice sharp with unease.
“You worry too much,” came a man’s reply.
My heart seized.
Sylum.
I inched closer, straining to catch more.
“You don’t worry enough,” the woman hissed. “Perhaps this isn’t such a good idea—”
“Do as I’ve said,” Sylum interrupted, his tone clipped. “You know what’s at stake.”
The voices lowered further. I caught fragments, muffled through the stone.
“…Sleep…”
“…The plan…”
“…What if she finds out…”
A chill swept down my spine. She? Who were they speaking of?
Me?
I pressed closer, holding my breath, but the floor betrayed me. A soft creak beneath my heel, sharp as thunder in the silence.
The voices quieted instantly.
Footsteps, slow andheavy, moved toward the door.
My heart lurched. I pressed myself into the shadow of a nearby alcove, praying the darkness would swallow me whole.
“It was probably just the wind,” the woman said at last, her voice so near I could hear the fabric of her dress rustle.
A pause. Then the footsteps turned and receded.
