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My quiet voice was almost breaking.

His grip loosened slightly, but the next moment I felt the gentle fingers of his other hand on my chin.

I took a shallow breath, noticing the almond fragrance that mingled with his overly pleasant body scent and made my chest tremble.

His thumb rested under my lips, and the gentle touch sent warm, tingling waves across my skin.

Then he lowered his voice.

“Tell me that would bother you.”

My heart stopped, only to then race completely out of control.

And my chin... It burned as if his tender touch had set it ablaze and now the flames were ready to consume my entire body until nothing was left of me.

My heart ached from the pain of this whole situation.

I would burn myself on him.

His eyes were a mirror of my emotions.

If I didn't leave now...

And with my last ounce of strength, I did the only right thing.

I took a step back, looked away from him, and turned toward the door. And then I left him behind.

Chapter 22

Bayla

Camera Obscura

Angus MacRae

As cautiously as possible, I tried to catch up with my best friend, but I was simply too slow. Larissa's abnormal speed would have been desirable in this case.

So much for Bastien's theory that I was a Ruisangor.

The only strange thing was that several times by now, my eyes had worked much better than usual, such as when I had woken up after the Ruisangor attack.

Whatever was wrong with me, right now I was just Bayla Adams, the loudest of them all. Even if there were any powers lurking inside me, they did not seem to plan on helping me in in this moment.

Of course. Just when these unsettling powers might have been useful, they refused to manifest.

No matter what everyone thought I was, the fact that I was not only breathing, but also moving very audibly through the corridors with the stones protruding from the floor – which one constantly stumbled over here – was clear evidence that I hadn't died on Halloween, unlike Larissa.

On top of that, she seemed to have developed a gift. Just like that. Out of nowhere.

Although I wanted to learn more about it, the focus was on something much more important right now.

Ever since Emely and I had found the mysterious invitation, my hope of finally finding out more about Alice had grown far too strong.

My clumsy legs carried me further through the corridors of the east wing.

If I could see more in the dim light of the wall lamps, I would look for more snakes. But unfortunately, I didn't have hyper vision and was therefore more human than I would have liked to be at that moment.

The thought shocked me a little and made me slow down.