Reality rushed forth like blood from a slit throat as Lukas dropped me, jerking away as if scalded.No.There was an angry red welt on his chin from where he’d brushed against the silver chain.Hehadbeen scalded.
‘Does your beloved know you wear silver to bed?’he spat.
I turned to run, but Lukas’s hand caught mine in a vice before I could do any more than spin around.He dragged me back to him, pressing our chests together, laughing at the way my breath stuttered.His breath was like acrid copper, sending a ripple of revulsion to my toes.
‘If you truly love each other, why delay the wedding?Why the separate rooms?Why the separate sleep schedules?’
I twisted my hand from his grip, mind racing for the right words to keep up the pretence.‘Are you really questioning our love?’
Lukas’s laugh was one of derision, a cold mockery I felt right to my bones.‘He never told you about his deal, did he?’His sneer revealed a flash of fang.‘He doesn’t love you, pet.He’s trying to prove a point.’His thumb pressed against my lips.I could feel the tendrils of his glamour curling back around me, slipping into the tiniest cracks of my mind no matter how hard I tried to push them away.‘Our queen could love you more than Raleigh ever could.Return to court with us tonight,withoutRaleigh, and there will be pleasure awaiting that you could only dream of.But first, tell me the truth.Do you love Raleigh?’
‘I …’ I clutched my necklace, clarity firming up at the corners of my mind.‘I love him,’ I said.‘But …’ I looked over Lukas’s shoulder, doing my best to play the lovesick maiden.I had to distract him, at least long enough to make it out into the corridor.While I would never be able to outrun Lukas, with any luck the corridors might protect me under the same enchantment that protected Raleigh.If not … well.The outcome would be the same as if I did nothing.‘I don’t know if Raleigh knows how much I really love him,’ I finished.
Lukas looked at me like I was pathetic.Good.
I kept going.‘I tell him, of course, but my heart is just so full.’I stepped to the side, trying to keep my face straight.‘Lukas, you’ve known him longer than I.How can I make him understand?’
‘You don’t love him,’ Lukas said.I could feel the glamour in his words, creeping around me.I tightened my grip on my necklace, trying to push the feeling away as it closed in.But I hesitated a beat too long.Lukas cut off the ground I’d gained towards the door, put both hands on my shoulders and pushed me against the wall.‘You’ll forget about him.Think only of me.’
My mind slipped further, his spell clouding all but his lowering face.I couldn’t outsmart someone who could take control of mymind.I knew I couldn’t fight him either, but when I felt the edge of his teeth graze my skin it was a choice of dying immediately or dying in a minute.I chose the minute.
I tore my necklace off, a new fury burning through me, ‘Don’t touch me.’I shoved the cross into his face, his skin giving a satisfying hiss as the metal made contact.He howled in rage and agony, both hands flying to his smoking wound.
In the moment I’d bought myself I threw open the wardrobe and, with all my strength, swung the Orlfen crucifix out, right as Lukas lunged for me.His head snapped back with a sickening crack.He crumpled.Red welts began to rise where the cross made contact, but I didn’t have long to admire my work.
I flew to the door, tearing off into the corridor before he could find his feet.The world around me swayed.I sprinted through the darkness, my nightdress rippling around my ankles, relying on the castle to guide my way.
‘You can’t run from me.’Lukas’s voice drifted down the corridor, but when I whirled around, bearing the crucifix, the empty corridor stretched on eternally behind me.My heart hammered.Was that part of his game?Or had I really lost him in the enchanted halls?
‘Protect me,’ I whispered to the castle.
The walls creaked as if in reassurance.I kept running, racing down passages I’d never seen before.With every corner I expected to see a flash of gold or feel the sharp graze of talons, until I collided with something hard and the breath was knocked from my lungs.
I cried out, thrusting the Orlfen cross towards the figure.
‘Argh,Christ.Clara, it’s me!’
I dropped the cross and threw my arms around Raleigh’s waist.He stood frozen while I caught my breath, arms askew at awkward angles to avoid returning the hug.Eventually he choked out, ‘I can still see it, Clara.Cover it … please.’
I released him.He turned away at once and shed his coat when asked so I could conceal the cross once more.He visibly relaxed.
‘What happened?’
I tried to stammer out an explanation, but my heart was still racing too quickly to thread the thoughts with any needle of logic.
He understood enough.‘I’m sorry,’ he said.‘I should never have left you alone.’
I didn’t want an apology, I wanted an explanation – a real one.‘Tell me what’s happening, Raleigh.Why are they here?What deal did you make with the Queen?’
‘Not here,’ he said.‘Come on.Let’s get you somewhere safe.’
He set off, and when we reached a tightly coiled staircase I realised he was taking me to his tower.We had to snake our way upwards single file, curling in on our tracks again and again.The stairs were well worn, the stone concave under the feet of ten generations of Linfords.Had these always been the prince’s quarters?It would be impractical for any human to trudge these stairs day in, day out.In a siege it would be defensible, but inescapable.Unless you had an enchantment to protect you.
Raleigh’s quarters lay waiting at the top of the tower.Though he’d been in my room a handful of times, it felt so much stranger being in his.His bedchamber had the pokey feel of a room that longed to be larger but had been crammed to fit into the roof space.It was furnished in the same deep Linford crimson as my own room, with heavy drapery concealing four windows, one for each point of the compass.Something littered every available surface – a stack of books, a discarded coat, unread letters bearing the Queen’s arms – but it was the frame of a shattered mirror hanging on the wall that struck me most of all.The glass had long since been cleared away and in its place was a collage of sketches I recognised as being from Moira’s hand.Each one bore a rendition of Raleigh’s facecaptured perfectly again and again from every angle imaginable.Raleigh smiling, Raleigh frowning.In profile, from the front, his hair mussed, groomed, allowed to grow too long.
It had never occurred to me until then to consider how it must feel to live with no reflection.Even without a mirror, a passing glimpse of myself in a puddle or darkened window grounded me in reality.I couldn’t imagine losing myself so completely that not even that part of me remained.One day I wouldn’t need to.
‘You’re safe here.’Raleigh must have mistaken my expression for fear.‘No one can enter unless they can break through the enchantment.You can sleep without worrying.’
