He pressed against the window, peeking inside before trying to shove it open. Then he moved onto the next and the next. I followed him around the entire castle. He tried every window and door onthe ground level, becoming increasingly red in the face. The most disturbing part was the fact that he never made a sound.
Finally, when he reached the front door again, he let out a frustrated growl. He marched down the main path to the nearest ornamental rose bush, leaned down and palmed the largest stone bordering the bed. I knew what was about to happen and almost betrayed myself by laughing.
I had forgotten about the enchantment that my visitor was about to discover. Perhaps it would stick in his mind better, since he had chosen a rock the size of his fist. I had only made the mistake of throwing a pebble at a window when I was a boy.
Standing only a few feet away, he hurled the stone at the glass. Rose Castle protected itself, sending the rock flying back the way it had come at twice the original speed. It hit the constable in the gut and sent him sprawling. His jacket fell open, and I spotted the letter again.
I had seen enough. With a twitch of my paw, I summoned the letter from his pocket. Pulling on a second strand of power sent the man flying back to the bottom of the hill. I felt him attempt to cross back onto castle lands, but the power of the node, directed by my will, repelled him over and over.
The letter was addressed to me, not Isa, and my name was written in the familiar hand of my butler. Had Berklay sent the constable to find out what was going on? I would have expected him to use a more subtle approach—he understood how important secrecy was to me.
Flipping the letter over, I broke the seal and fought to unfold the paper. Then I read the news Marc had conveniently forgotten to deliver after his last trip to Leort.
Twenty-Nine
Isabel
???
I read Demeretbecause I needed a distraction. I knew that the node would allow me to avoid Felix if I was actively researching magical theory, but I didn’t actually expect to find a way to break the curse. But that was exactly what I stumbled over shortly before suppertime.
I marked the page and made my way to the dining room, the book tucked under my arm. It wasn’t the solution Felix expected, I was sure, and it depended on factors outside our control, but it was a solution. Not a step toward understanding the curse, but an honest to goodness way to transform him from cat back to human.
The dining room was empty when I arrived. I had too much energy to sit, so I placed the book on the table and paced. I stopped by the door and checked the hallway every time I reached that end of the table. Not only was I excited to share my discovery with Felix, but I also missed the duke. I had found myself wanting to share my thoughts on Demeret’s writing style constantly. I wanted to hear his dry replies and scathing indictments of the book.
But the duke didn’t come.
Perhaps, after I had avoided him that afternoon, he had assumed I wouldn’t want to eat supper with him either?
I grabbed the book again. Food could wait. I needed to tell him what I had learned, and not because the node’s magic was forcing me to act.
Where would he be? A flicker of awareness washed over me, an echo of sound coming from above me and across the castle. His spire room. I must have accidentally invoked the Truth that Felix used to monitor where people were in the castle.
I hurried upstairs. At the outer door to his suite, I paused, manners forcing me to knock, but I didn’t turn away when I heard no response. Unless he was checking my location, Felix wouldn’t even know I was outside his rooms. He wouldn’t have heard the knock from the spire room. And even if he wanted to be alone, I was confident he’d forgive my interruption when he heard what I had to say.
When I reached the spire room, I didn’t see him, but the magic of the castle came to my aid once more. I followed that sense to a pile of cushions near the wall. His black nose was the only bit visible under a plush blanket. Though I hadn’t tried to hide my arrival, he didn’t even twitch.
I dropped the book and knelt next to him. “Felix? Are you all right?”
I threw back the blanket, and he blinked up at me with gold-green eyes that held a wealth of misery.
“What’s wrong?”
His front paw twitched, and a creased piece of paper materialized next to my hand.
I read the letter, skimming quickly over the contents until a familiar name caught my attention. “Frederic? Berklay sent his brother to Rose Castle? What was he thinking?”
A spark of life lit in Felix’s eyes. “That is the first thing you notice in that letter?”
I lowered the paper. “Berklay may be your butler, but I know Frederic. He’s looked out for me ever since an investigation of my father made our paths cross. If he was suspicious about my suddendisappearance, sending him here was the worst thing Berklay could have done. I’m actually shocked he isn’t still outside. I wouldn’t have expected him to leave without talking to me. Even if you lied and said I wasn’t here.”
“I didn’t talk to him. I watched him try to break into the castle, summoned the letter from his pocket, and banished him from the hilltop. He might still be at the base of the hill for all I know.”
“He can’t approach Rose Castle again?”
“Not until I let him.”
“He is really going to be suspicious now. He’s going to stir up trouble.” His intentions would be good, but he’d draw attention to Truthhold, and that was the last thing Felix needed.
