Page 63 of Cruelest Kiss and Fairest Blood (Tales So Wicked #2)

Lenore

“ H elp! Is there anybody out there?! Please. Ah!” I scream until my voice is raw.

Where are the servants? The guards? What has happened to all those who are loyal to Roseheart’s crown?

My throat is raw. My lungs ache. My desperate pleas finally subside.

I’ve run out of tears. There’s blood steadily spilling from beneath the rope burns on my wrists and ankles.

Everything has gone wrong.

I thought at least one person would come to save me.

The broken look on Harrow’s face as I was ripped from his arms haunts me. Where is Harrow? What if he’s trapped in that place? Tears of frustration and anguish spill down my cheeks. He came to save me before and it may have sealed his fate.

I won’t resign to my new fate so easily. I’ll scream until my lungs are ragged and blood-soaked. I will find a way out of here.

The unexpected sound of stone grinding against stone has my whole body tensing. Craning my neck, I stare at the corner of my room that sits closest to my window. There’s a soft ripple beneath the floral tapestry that my mother wove for me when I was twelve.

More movement from behind. I can’t reach a single weapon. I’m still tied to the bed. If Cassius is back already, I’ll have no way to fight him off. If he gets close enough, I’ll bite him. If I can inflict enough damage it might deter him long enough to come up with another plan.

I hold my breath as the fabric pushes aside.

A familiar face peers at me from around the edge. I gasp. “Melly? Where have you been?”

“Are ye alone?” Her voice is no more than a whisper.

I shoot a quick glance toward the door. “Yes. Yes!” She ducks fully into my room, rushing to my bedside. “You’re alive! What has happened?” My voice cracks as relief powers through my despair.

Melly is quick to reach me. She works on the ropes at my ankles first. It gives me a minute to observe her. Melly’s disfigured face is gaunt and pale. Deep purple crescents dominate her under eyes. She looks terrible.

“Melly—”

“Shh,” she hushes me, glancing toward the door. “Not ’ere.”

Her fear is contagious. My own pulse picks up as I stare at my bedroom door, listening for any sign of Cassius’s return.

The markings left behind from the ropes weep as I rub my wrists, drawing blood back to my hands.

Our movements are silent as I follow Melly back through the passage in my bedroom wall.

The initial corridor is short, leading to a steep stairwell that dives several stories down.

We reach the bottom, turning down another darkened hallway before Melly stops and pulls me in for a hug.

“Where ’ave ye been all this time?” she asks.

“It is impossible to explain. It seems our new queen and Prince Cassius have been working together to eliminate my family.”

Her eyes narrow. “I never liked ’im. Too pretty. It’s unnatural.”

What a ridiculous thing to say. “A murderer disguised as a noble prince. It is a waste of a pretty face.”

“But he didn’t get ye.” Melly wraps her arms around me again.

“Is it true? My father, is he dead?”

“He is. Poor soul. Right after ye fell ill. I thought ye were gone for good.” Her voice shakes.

“I’m back now.” I squeeze her tightly. It’s so good to see her. Her embrace brings me such comfort, but I need answers. “Melly, what has happened here?”

She takes a deep, steadying breath. “I don’t know where to begin.”

“Tell me everything,” I encourage.

“The castle gates ’ave been shut since ye fell ill.

” Melly tells me of how quickly the castle changed after I ate the poison apple.

She confirms my father’s death. I send that bit of brokenness deeper inside me.

I don’t have time to grieve, not here, not yet.

I realize somberly in that moment, a part of me already knew .

She tells me of the disappearances of the servants, and the unusual new queen.

“She’s a witch, I’m telling ye. A sorceress, mistress to the devil. ”

Defensiveness gnashes its teeth within me. Harrow is the closest thing to the devil, and he would never touch someone as foul as Catreena. My chest aches. Where is Harrow ?

“Why have you never told me of this passage?”

“Yer mother. God rest ’er soul. She made me swear I would keep it a secret. She knew ye’d use it to sneak out. She told me to only reveal it to ye in case of an emergency.” Tears well in her eyes. “I’m so sorry for yer loss. Yer mother and father. They’ve always been so good to me.”

My chest throbs where I’ve locked away all the pain from too many tragedies too close together. It’s banished now under lock and key. I’ll deal with it another day. Today, I need to be strong.

Resilience burns through my despair. “We need to get out of the castle. If the people learn what Catreena’s been up to?—”

“Wait. There’s something I ’aven’t told ye.” Melly’s face pales further.

“What is it?” I grasp her hands.

“She has a mirror.”

I stare back at her, not understanding why her voice shook when she spoke those words. “There are mirrors all throughout the castle.”

“No.” Melly grips my hands so hard my joints burn. “Ye don’t understand. It’s… There is something…” Her whole body shakes.

I wrap my arms around her, pulling her close. My voice is a frightened whisper. “What is it, Melly?”

She speaks just below my ear. “There’s something in the mirror.”

“Some thing ?” What does that mean? I draw back just enough to look her in the eyes. “What kind of thing?”

She shakes her head, shutting her eyes so tightly it pulls the scars on the burned side of her face. “A monster. It’s the reason the servants have vanished. It… it takes them.”

Last week I would have dismissed her ravings.

Monsters aren’t real , I would have told her.

After what I saw in the in-between, I’ll never doubt anyone’s ludicrous ravings again.

Memories of every dark, dangerous, hellish creature I encountered during my slumber flash behind my eyes. A tremor works its way through me.

If I told her again of the Prince of Death, would she believe me now? It doesn’t matter right now. I don’t think it would bring her any comfort to hear I told you so . We need to just figure out what to do from here.

“Oh gods, Lenny. What ’appened to ye?” Melly brings me in for another hug.

Her embrace is comforting but I can’t help but feel I’m the stronger force between us.

There are no other powerful arms, no great wings to protect me.

Melly is the last of the people I love. I must be the protector now. Be brave, Lenore .

“Where is the mirror?” I am determined to lay eyes on it for myself. The in-between showed me a great many things and in a way, helped rid me of some of my fears by forcing me to come face-to-face with them. Whatever Catreena has in that mirror can’t possibly rival the monsters I’ve encountered.

“She ’as it in yer mother’s quarters.”

Anger turns my blood to fire. That woman has the audacity to use my mother’s room for her depravity? Darkness curls through me, wrapping around my fear and burying it deep down.

“What is the best path to the hidden entrance to my mother’s quarters?”

Melly shakes her head. “Ye mustn’t. That creature. Please don’t go. Run away. Leave this castle and never look back.”

“Show me the way to my mother’s quarters. I’m sure you know a secret route.”

“I can’t go with ye. I’m too afraid. Ye mustn’t go, neither. It will be the death of ye.”

Patting her hand gently, I offer her a soft smile. “I’m harder to kill than you’d think. Now, at least tell me the way. I will go alone.”

Tears stream down Melly’s face as she nods. “Take this.” She hands me my dagger and thigh strap.

“I thought it was lost.”

“I took it, saved it for yer return. I pray ye will never ’ave to use it.”

My loyal friend. Pulling her into another fierce hug, I whisper, “Thank you. Now, tell me the way to the mirror.”

I follow her directions, slinking through the darkness of the many hidden hallways behind the walls and beneath the castle floors. There are no others hiding down here. Is Melly the last? Have all the others fled or been taken by the mirror creature she speaks of?

The energy in the castle is all wrong, slanted, draped in sadness.

My fingers glide along the unfinished walls. Such sorrow now haunts these halls. The air grows heavier the closer I get to my mother’s room. Something terrible is happening behind her door.

I press my ear against it, waiting a full five minutes before daring to open it.

There’s a soft click as I pop the panel free.

The hidden door opens in a high arching shape that I realize is one of the paintings along the far end of my mother’s room.

I’ve only pushed it a few inches when the unmistakable stench of death hits me.

Nerves awaken within me, causing my breath to quicken and palms to sweat.

I push the panel open farther, leaning my head inside, and nearly faint at the sight.

God have mercy .

My mother’s bedroom has been turned into a mass grave.

Decaying bodies litter the floor. Blood, organs, bones all piled atop one another.

Their cause of death is obvious. Torture.

Some are still nailed to boards or covered in bone-deep lashes.

My gaze continues around the horrifying scene, landing on a figure that’s been crucified on the ceiling.

An inhuman sound screeches out of my throat.

Lifeless eyes that once held such warmth stare down at the floor.

Salt-and-pepper hair hangs from emaciated cheeks.

The captain of the guard emblem has been burned into the center of his bare chest. “Gestin…” Tears flood down my cheeks.

I was only under the spell for a few days.

Gestin looks as if the life has been sucked from his body.

I’ve got to find a way to get him down. He deserves a proper resting place.