It seemed like it was more than just the fact I was a lot different than what he’dwanted.
After a moment of strained silence, Kael let out a bitter sigh. “The reason I want you to study the plants is because knowing them may come in handy one day. Winter Moonbeam looks a lot like another flower, one that can heal a Redcap bite wound if used quickly enough.” He looked over his shoulder and met my eye with a pained expression. “That one is called Winter Starlight, and it’s very difficult to tell the difference between the two flowers unless they are studied veryclosely.”
I swallowed hard, my head ringing at his words. “So, it could have savedBree?”
“Perhaps.” He pursed his lips. “Perhaps not. Some wounds are too deep and too fatal, but othersare...”
He trailed off as he clenched his hands around the window ledge. That was strange. Had he lost someone to the Redcaps? Had he tried to save them but been too late? They were questions I was dying to ask, but I never would. Not with him. He’d only brush me aside like an irritating fly that wouldn’t stop buzzing around hishead.
And as much as I hated myself for it, I felt a small piece of my heart soften towards him. But only a small one. Because he was still ajerk.
“Well, can you show me then, please?” I asked. “If there’s something out there that can help save someone who gets attacked, I want to know what it is. Hell, I want to know everything I can about theRedcaps.”
With a nod, he strode back over to the table and dropped into the chair. His dark eyes met mine, and for a moment, my breath caught. He no longer looked as though he couldn’t stand the sight of me. He almost looked as if...as if the raw depths of his soul were yearning to make me see something no one else could. But then he blinked and satback.
“As with everything, there’s a lot you don’t yet know about the Redcaps.” He held up a hand when I began to ask what. “Don’t worry. I’m going to fill you in, but there’s a lot to learn. We’re going to continue with the basics. How to fight them. Then, we’ll get into exactly who and what they are, and why it’s essential to prevent them from taking more lives. For the future ofOtherworld.
* * *
Itookthe books back to my apartment. Sophia’s door was ajar, and her light snore drifted toward me while I tiptoed past the sofa and into my bedroom. Kael had taken me through plant after plant for the entire next hour, pointing out the various properties of each. I had to admit, my eyelids hadn’t been as quite as heavy as before, mostly because I finally understood the importance of what he was trying to teachme.
There was a plant out there that could cure a Redcap bite. A flower that could save someone’slife.
I didn’t understand the how or why of it, but a lot of things about Otherworld didn’t makesense.
After changing into sweats and a tank top, I settled into bed with the books, scanning the words until my eyelids finally drifted shut. I wasn’t sure how long I sat there like that until a long, sharp screech whispered through my open window. Immediately, I was on my feet, eyes wild and heart pounding madly in mychest.
The curtains fluttered in the soft summer breeze, bringing with it the stench of sweat and blood. And then a long, sharp claw slid onto the window-frame, hooking around thewood.
I stumbled back, wildly casting around my eyes for anything I could use as a weapon. A broom handle. A kitchen knife. Anything atall.
But I only hadme.
Another claw hooked around the frame, and I watched in horror as a Redcap slid through the billowing curtains, landing heavily on the hardwood floor of my room. My heart thundered in my ears as the dark creature, covered in mounds of grimy black fur, cocked its head and stared atme.
Those eyes, I thought as I stumbled back another step. They were a rich, deep blue. So different than the black eyes of the Redcap I’d fought on the cliff. For a moment, I almost forgot I was facing off against the creature of my nightmares with nothing but my fists. There was something so familiar about those eyes. And they looked so horribly, horriblysad.
The creature began to shudder, its dark mangy fur trembling in the night air. For a moment, I thought it was a strange form of pre-attack, like it was readying itself to launch my way with its claws. But then something different began to happen. The fur transformed, the thick darkness of it melting away to reveal paleskin.
The fangs began to shorten, and the claws disappeared into long and slender fingers. I stumbled back, barely believing my eyes. For the first time since I’d arrived in Otherworld, I suddenly wondered if I was going crazy again. Because the beast was melting away, to reveal a form that was very muchhuman.
A human that looked a whole lotlike...
A girl, one with long dark curling hair that was matted around a pixie face. The girl glanced up at me from where she heaved deep breaths, clutching the ground as her entire body trembled. Those deep blue eyes locked on my face, and everything within me exploded at thesight.
I stumbled back, eyes wide, my hands clutching frantically at mythroat.
“Bree?” My voice was small and timid. My mind wasunbelieving.
“Oh, Norah,” she said with sob. And when I heard my best friend’s familiar voice, all I could do was fall to my knees and weep. I crawled toward her and took her dirt-painted face in my hands, searching those familiar eyes for thetruth.
“Is it really you?” I asked as the tears streamed down my face. “I thought you were dead. That thing. It killed you. How are you here? How are youalive?”
And why did you look like one of the monsters two secondsago?
She shuddered, her body soaked in sweat. In an instant, I ripped the sheet off my bed and draped it around her shoulders. Her body felt like ice. I stayed there silent next to her while her chest heaved, waiting until she felt as if she couldspeak.
Finally, she said, “When that thing attacked me, it turned me into one of them. I’m a Redcap now, Norah. That’s how I’m here. And it’s how I’malive.”
