Page 32

By this point I definitely didn’t need Indy to yellWhat’s wrong withyou,new girl?Because I’d seen manic episodes like this before. I’d bet money that somewhere in Sophie’s chart was a diagnosis of Bipolar 1 or 2.

If I had any money, that is.

“My mom hates my boyfriend because he’s twenty-eight,” Sophie went on. “Like he can help what year he was born? He has a Tesla Roadster. God, I wish I had my phone.”

Sophie didn’t seem to notice that I wasn’t really listening. I could feel myself sinking down deeper into the mattress. A fog began swirling around in my mind, and her voice got quieter, like it was coming from farther and farther away.

Then the temperature in the room started dropping, and I shivered in the sudden dampness.

It’s happening.

The white hospital walls were receding, and other walls were taking their place. I could hear my heartbeat as loud as a drum.

“Hannah?” Sophie said. But she was calling me from the other side of the world, and from the other side of centuries.

The shadows are advancing.

They’re turning into men with dark, cruel mouths.

“Hannah has a visitor in the castle,” I heard myself say. “You’ll never guess who it is.”

CHAPTER 32

I was dreaming of Otto. His hands—always warm, even in winter—slowly eased my dress from my shoulders, pulling it down the length of my body. His fingers, touching me everywhere, were roughly callused but infinitely tender. Desire burned beneath my skin, hot as flames. He was whispering, but I couldn’t make out the words—

“Rise and thank the baron for his mercy!”

The beautiful dream vanished. I lurched to my feet. “Is mercy what you call it—to bring me back to the dungeon and leave me here to die? The baron should have had me hung,” I said.

“Well, that remains a possibility,” came the smooth voice.

I felt a jolt of sickening surprise. On the other side of the cell door, the baron stepped into view, the torch he held illuminating his haughty face.

I would’ve torn out his eyes if I could have. Instead I spit out my words like poison. “How dare you come here and think I will thank you!Mercy? You have no mercy. You killed my sister, and you killed Otto!”

“I did not kill them. Others did.”

“Underyourorders.”

“I was only protecting my castle,” he said, “and the resources within it. Surely even your limited mind can understand that.”

“Being born poor doesn’t make me stupid,” I hissed.

“It does seem to make you defiant, however. I had hoped for a touch of gratitude for sparing your life and those of your friends, not to mention an apology for the inconvenience you and your unwashed companions caused my men by ransacking my kitchens in the middle of the night. But since I’m obviously not going to get what I want, perhaps I should take you back to the courtyard gallows.”

“Do it, if it pleases you.”

He sighed as his fingers ran up and down one of the window’s iron bars. “There is often little pleasure in duty.”

“So you would look at it as a duty to kill me? Tell me, why was it not your duty to help the people in my village? Why have you let us starve and die?”

“Surely thievery was not your only option.”

“Imagine being so hungry that you’d want to eat meat you knew was rotten, just to fill your belly for an hour before you retched it up again!” I said. “But you can’t, can you? You are castle born and castle bred. You wouldn’t last a day living the way I have. You can’t even fathom it.”

The baron lifted an eyebrow. “If village life is so difficult, my dungeon should be a pleasant change.”

“I’d rather starve in freedom than dine like a king in your dungeon. But it isn’t up to me, is it?”