What would Fionn think of this?
I bounced again, harder and I’m sure the air shifted behind me.
Then came a sudden sound, a knock, then a scrape. I froze.
I turned just in time to see the Ecliptuari mask strike the floor, bounce and then skid across the polished wood.
It stopped right at the bottom of the bed. It’s empty eyes stared up at me. My blood went cold.
I had not touched it. I had been nowhere near it. Yet there it was, lying at an angle as though it had thrown itself from its stand to look at me.
For one sick second, the room no longer felt empty. It felt occupied with an unseen presence, watching.
The lights along the wall flickered on, shadows moved across the maps and constellations, making the stars engraved onto the bed post glimmer and writhe. I stared at the mask, unable to breathe, and noticed then what I had not seen from afar.
Its colour was different.
Not the same pale bone white as the others.
This one was darker, embellished with silver symbols.
And on its brow, engraved so faintly I almost missed it, was a symbol the others did not bear: a star crowned with a half-moon.
My mouth went dry. Did he wear these costumes like the Ecliptuari. Like the men in the chamber, when the girl was crouched on the floor pleading for her life.
Why did every inch of this room feel less like a bedroom and more like a shrine.
From outside the room, I heard footsteps in the corridor. They were real and near.
I jumped off the bed so fast my boots slipped on the polished floor. Panic tore through me as I cast one last look at the mask, still lying there with its dead eyes fixed on mine, I hurried to the door as fast as I could.and pulled it open.
At the far end of the corridor, a maid stood half-turned in my direction, a basket clutched against her skirts. Her eyes widened when she saw me emerging from the room, she nodded left to right.
I did not wait to see what she would do.
I turned and ran the opposite way, my pulse was no longer a flutter it was pounding, the image of that fallen mask chasing me down the corridor like it was alive.
And somehow, as I fled, I could not shake the feeling that Fionn would know if he ever returned that I invaded his space.
I didn’t stop running until I burst out of the manor and into the damp afternoon air. My breath came in sharp, panicked pulls, my boots slipping in the wet grass as I stumbled toward the edge of the grounds. I needed distance from the house.
Suddenly, I smelled the change in the air. The skies clouded over, and a light drizzle began to fall. An unpleasant energy coursed through my flesh. The light shifted before my eyes, causing the birds to erupt from the rustling trees around me.
The vortex shimmied in the air and opened before me.
I skidded to a stop.
TWENTY TWO
ORDER OF ELORA
Quelling the rage surging within me, I watched figures appear from the swirling cone of light. Seraphina appeared first, followed by the brothers, and then someone else emerged from the light. Peering into the shifting light, I noticed that Cillian carried what appeared to be a young girl, lying limply in his arms.
Alarmed, I rushed toward them as the vortex winked out, ushering once again the balmy afternoon sunlight and the serenade of birds. The young girl Cillian carried seemed to be unconscious, judging by the way her head bobbed. She seemed very delicate, almost frail in build, and the scarlet mane of hair flowing to the ground was a burnished colour I had never seen before. Curious, I approached them, but I could only get as far as the barrier.
Though Cillian glanced at me, he said nothing and hurried to keep up with Seraphina, Fionn, and Torin, literally jogging toward the manor. Still clad in breeches, white shirts and boots that theyhad left in, they looked somewhat dishevelled, as though they’d travelled on a long journey. Their faces were serious, almost grim. The anger I felt at seeing them after being abandoned for so many days transformed into anxiety when I glimpsed the young girl’s angelic yet oddly proportioned face.
It occurred to me that she didn’t look quite human. Her body was petite and elfin, almost like a creature I'd have imagined residing in the forest. Her skin was creamy but mottled with pink blotches. Clad in a fine silken empire-wasted teal gown, it harkened from a modern Renaissance-era and was adorned with ornate jewellery of pearls and emeralds.
