Page 234 of Bitten & Burned

That one, I touched through the fabric of my skirt, turning the knob and opening it. The corridor stretched out in front of us, endless, but I knew that couldn’t be true, considering what I knew to be the footprint of the house.

I checked the doorway for runes, for sigils, for wards. Once I was satisfied, I stepped through, and the others followed me. We moved forward slowly.

It was like this for a while before I saw it. A flash of black wool. Green eyes. Dark hair.

Me.

I swallowed and stopped, squinting into the low light before me. “Did you see that?” I murmured.

“See what?” Quil asked.

Footsteps, then a small sound, like a squeak. Similar to the sound I made when something surprised me.

“Rowena?” Dmitri was the first to break ranks as he stepped forward, ready to chase my likeness down through the halls, but I shook my head. “No, Dmitri!”

Cassian stopped him, but just barely, nodding over his shoulder at me.

Dmitri blinked like he couldn’t believe his eyes. Then he shook his head. “Fucking hells, I’m sorry… you’re right here, what… I don’t understand.”

“It’s alright,” I soothed. “It’s a good double of me. It calls to you. That’s what it’s supposed to do.”

“I was nearly ready to give chase, too, but I saw her here beside me,” Quil added.

“What do we do?” Vael asked, clearly shaken.

“We go in the opposite direction of my double. Now, she’ll be showing up again as we make our way to wherever this leads. You have to be strong and remember I’m right here. I’m safe. I’m with you. I slipped my hand into Dmitri’s, and we began walking again.

Just as expected, my double reappeared, again and again. Through the walk, Anton nearly had to turn back because he swore I was gone, for the split second he saw the double, and panicked.

Even Vael had to stop walking and blink, rubbing his eyes and staring at me, therealme, before we continued. Once I saw a doorway at the end of the hall, it felt like it was over. At least, this part of it.

Just as I reached the door, my sigil flared again, I looked back, and my double was…

Fuck, she wasburning.

Screaming, silently, as the visage burned into cinders.

My thigh throbbed, and I nodded at the door.

Vael opened it and gasped.

The others froze.

I straightened and shouldered through them, stopping cold when I saw why.

A table stretched out before us, set and dressed with all the trappings of a gourmet meal. Except that, laid out on the surface, were no serving dishes, no salads, no slabs of roast beef to carve.

No, instead, there were bodies.

Twitching, writhing bodies.

Worse still, they were bodies I recognized. I lurched forward, a cry stuck in my throat as I approached the table.

My father, split open chest to navel, heart beating visibly as his chest rose and fell in shallow breaths. His mouth opened as if to speak, but all that came out was my name.

“Rowenaaaaaa.”

The voice was ghastly and full of air and blood.