Go back.
Clement studied the ladder with his arms crossed and feet planted, completely oblivious. He turned to frown at me.
I moved forward, the pressure around my skull releasing once more and the sound vanished. I wiped my face, gasping and gesturing toward the wall. “We should go back. They want us to go that way.” My finger shook as I waggled it toward the ladder. “Not up there.”
“We can’t go back. We need to get out.”
I moved in front of him to reclaim his attention. “No, but?—”
He shushed me, motioning for me to stay behind him. I stomped alongside him and glared until he sighed. “You can’t trust them; they still obey him. Wait here, I’ll go first. Check that it’s safe.”
The blocked tunnel behind us quietened. The rocks had plugged the gaps, and the dust settled as if it had been present for hundreds of years. Creeping veins of diamond glistened in stray shards of moonlight.
A light, tempting breeze seeped down from above.
I scoffed. “No way. I’m not staying here by myself.”
I moved for the ladder, but Clement grabbed me, my feet dangling in the air. He spun and settled me behind him before turning back and climbing the rungs quickly. The ladder screamed, grinding its teeth under his weight.
I scurried up behind him, too close to react to his muffled warning.
Cold hands latched around my wrists, my ankles, my neck. My back hit the ground with such force that my spine was only spared from shattering by the carpet of snow. I tried to scream but icy tendrils squirmed into my mouth, snuffing out any sound and blocking my air.
I gasped, thrashing under the invisible weight. I dragged in oxygen through my nose, my nostrils flaring, breaths not enough to smother the rising panic.
Clement was immobilized against the wall. The gargoyle hovered over his head, its gaping maw spitting a single pointed icicle that inched toward his face. His hands were flattened to the castle walls, legs pinned. His eyes bulged as he fought, my name dying on his lips.
The prince stood in the open. His hands outstretched, vibrations thrumming through him. “The spirits only listen to me, Tam. Valiant effort though.”
Slowly, the snow beneath my back crackled. The slivers of ice meshed together, hardening into a stretcher. My body moved. The castle looming higher above me.
I tried to claw at the ground, to dig my heels into the ice, but my muscles seized. The castle walls shifted before me, grinding open to reveal a passageway. Rose, blood, and rot smothered me.
My feet were dragged inside. The pressure of the castle popped my joints, squeezing the fluid from between my bones. The prince walked slowly toward me, his palms still lifted skyward, his mouth murmuring words I couldn’t hear.
I should be screaming for Siobhan, pleading for my life, but the only name on my lips was Clement’s.
Our gaze met and he kept it, holding it steady as my body was swallowed by the wall. The pressure wrapped around my chest, entombing me in darkness. If it closed behind me, I would never get out.
I opened my mind as I’d done in the tunnel. Let the pressure filter inside but not swamp my senses. The garbled voices returned, the chanting rhythm equalizing with my pounding heartbeat.
Let me go.
My body stopped moving. The invisible bindings around my torso slackened, the tendrils wrenched from my mouth. I scrabbled to my feet, clawing at the narrow opening. It still held me, sucking me deeper. Hands fisted into my dress, pulling and slipping until they held skin. I burst out of the wall, the pressure lifting, my lungs finally filling and collapsed against Clement.
He lifted my face and kissed me with such passion, I lost my breath again. “Fuck, Tamara, I thought...”
“I know.” I clutched at his tunic, keeping his body safely pressed against mine.
“I don’t really think we have time for that, do you?” Siobhan materialized beside the prince. Her chain mail suit tinkled faintly as she turned to him. “Nice to make your acquaintance. A wonderful wedding, Your Highness. What a shame you didn’t beg me for your deal all those years ago, or we’d be in quite a different situation right now.” She tapped a long nail over his heart. “Tut, tut.”
She clicked her fingers, and the gargoyle shuddered to life. It clambered down the stone walls and toward the prince who remained frozen. It stretched out its arms, a bat-like membrane flapped taut and encircled the prince. He roared, woken from his trance and thrashed against the bindings.
“We can’t have you spilling our secrets before the collection now, can we?” Siobhan reached toward him. The prince squirmed in the gargoyle’s unbreakable grip. She forced open his mouth and tore out his tongue. It flopped onto the cobblestones, twitching as blood pulsed out. The prince’s cry was lost amongst the gargling choke of blood pooling in his mouth.
I stared at his tongue, remembering the feeling of it tracing the lines of my neck, forcing its way inside my mouth. My stomach lurched.
Siobhan flapped a hand at us. “Off you pop, my dear.”
