“I don’t believe you.”
“You’re already cracking,” he said. “The confusion and the fear. It’s begun.”
“Stop,” I whispered, pressing my hands to my head.
“Look at me,” Fionn commanded.His gaze pinning me to the spot “Face the reality you’ve been running from. If you don’t choose soon, you’ll die. You’ll be trapped in this nightmare forever.”
“When the three moons complete their cycle and the blood moon of Elora ascends into the heavens, your time is up,” said Fionn.“Every ten years, Vareth marks and demands a soul, and this time, his stars have chosen yours.”
He stared deeply into my eyes. I looked for lies, for anger, for any flicker of human emotion, but I found none. Instead, I saw only a terrifying sincerity, as if he weren’t threatening me at all. He was simply stating a fact.
My stomach twisted. I felt an unwanted tremor in my hands. I forced them into fists at my sides. “If this is true. Then I’ll choose how it ends,” I said. “I’d rather die than live cursed.”
“Tilly, we don’t want this curse any more than you do,” Cillian said. “We’ve all suffered.”
“Who has that kind of power?”
“Vareth the God of Elora.” Cillian said his attention drawn to the sky.
The light shifted. Birds fell silent. The fountain stilled.
“Not again,” I whispered.
“We must leave,” Fionn said. He took Seraphina’s hand. “This conversation is over. You know what we must do.”
They stepped toward the vortex. Cillian lingered, but the air around us crackled with unspoken tension.
Seraphina set the mirror down, her voice softening despite the tension. “Nourishmenthas been prepared in the West Wing kitchens. You know the path beyondRosenwacht-Halle.You’refree to roam within the wardsof Sternwacht Manor until we return.” They turned and left, the air rippling as the vortex winked out behind them.
NINETEEN
BETRAYAL
.I broke into a run, heading toward the direction I’d thrown the stone, but just as I neared the line of trees, I slammed into something hard and invisible.
Angrily, I raised my fists toward it and pummelled it until my frustration faded away. Feeling along the resilient surface, it seemed no more substantial than jelly, yet I was helpless to penetrate it. The realisation weighed my heart down.
I gazed longingly at the serene landscape so tantalisingly near yet so impossibly distant. Once again, my anger surged. I wouldn’t let them win! I pushed myself to follow the boundary as far as I could. Perhaps there was a gap, an overlap somewhere that like an unevenly stitched seam, might provide enough space for me to squeeze through.
By the time dusk settled, I’d walked in a full circle. I was back looking at the manor as it glowed in the distance, ablaze withlights. Exhausted, hungry, and thirsty, I had no choice but to return though I felt more apprehensive with each step.
***
I found myself moving with the leadenness of a sleepwalker as I approached the Moonspire gates and made my way past the creepy statues and toward the rear doors of the Manor. Though I stepped into welcoming warmth and the appetising aromas of food, the sadness I felt weighing my soul drowned out any other emotions.
I wondered how the lights had been turned on as everyone had left hours before. It was a question I couldn't be bothered to answer, though it planted the seed of whether I was actually alone or what I saw was yet another prop for the next scene of the play.
Overcome by fatigue, I decided to eat something later and instead go rest in my room. My legs barely carried my weight as I made my way upstairs.The tapestries lining the wall had shifted,but I couldn’t focus long enough to care. It wasn’t until I noticed the faces, women I had never seen before, turned toward me.
I paused, feeling the eerie sensation of being watched creep over me. Reluctantly, I approached, almost afraid of whom the faces might be, but I found myself irresistibly drawn to them. Inscrutable eyes watched me from behind the most exquisite masks of finely beaded gold brocade, black jet and mother-of-pearl, iridescent crystals and rainbow-coloured feathers. I longed to touch the masks yet was afraid in case I awakened something beyond an image on a tapestry.
Keeping my eyes averted from the walls, I rushed to my room, where every light was ablaze. A familiar scent lingered in the air, and as I opened the doors, I sensed that someone had just stepped out of the room. At the end of the corridor, soft footsteps fadedinto silence, too light to identify, yet too real to ignore.There were people here. The maids, the servants, or was it those creepy Ecliptuari guards?
My skin prickled with paranoia, and I kept turning my head, as if expecting someone to leap out from the wardrobe. I glanced toward the darkness encroaching from the balcony doors. The drapes billowed gently in a mild breeze, but the phantom shapes of the sheer fabric unsettled me. I felt uncomfortable being alone in my room. I lacked the strength to
***
I looked out through the balcony doors and up at the stars. I couldn’t stop thinking how I missed my life. I missed how Terry my neighbour’s scruffy little cat would appear at my window every morning, crying for milk like he paid the rent. I missed how old Terry would stomp up the path after him, muttering
