Page 13 of Echo North

For all my tangled fear and anger, I had no desire to be left with whatever lurked behind that door, so I followed him.

His nails clicked on the stone steps, my felted boots whispering behind. I focused on the white flag of his tail, trying not to feel as though I was marching to my death. “What was that back there, outside the door?”

“The gatekeeper—the North Wind, or what’s left of him.”

“The North Wind? What does thatmean?Who are you?”

He looked back briefly, but kept climbing until he passed out of sight.

I stood gaping for a moment, then yelped and leapt up the stairs after him. I caught up just as he came to another door, which swung open by itself and closed quietly behind us.

Beyond was a grand hall that might once have been a ballroom. It had high paneled ceilings, formerly elegant wainscoting, and intricately patterned wallpaper that was faded and torn.

The wolf walked faster and I matched his pace, wooden floors creaking beneath our feet. “I abandoned my father to come with you. Why won’t you answer me?”

His words were clipped and cold: “Not here.”

A yellow gown lay puddled in the corner, ribbons ragged, one worn shoe discarded beside it. I thought I heard whispers, rustling gowns, tinkling laughter.

But then we stepped into another corridor, and silence closed around us.

The wolf drew a breath and flicked his eyes up at me. “I do not like that room.”

“Why?”

“It reminds me of something I lost.”

On we went, down more halls, around corners, up stairs. We passed countless doors, some plain, some carved, some wavering impossibly, like they were made of liquid glass. Lamps flared to life just ahead of us, casting eerie shadows over the floor.

“Wolf. Please—tell me who you are. Tell me why you brought me here.”

He sighed, as though he was weighed down with an impossible burden he could no longer carry. “I am the keeper of this house—I am bound to it, and it to me. I am old, my lady. I am dying. At the end of the year I will fade, and if the house does not have a new master by then, it will fade with me.”

Whatever I expected him to say, it wasn’t that. “You brought me here to … take your place?”

“If you choose the house. And if the house chooses you.”

“But I have to get back to my father—my family!”

“And so you can at the end of the year, my lady, if you so choose.”

“Will you give me a choice?”

“There is always a choice.”

“You didn’t give me a choice tonight—I couldn’t let my father die.”

The wolf shook his white head. “Tinker would have come, whether you made your promise or not. He was never in any danger.”

And then he stopped in front of a red door, carved beautifully with lions and birds and trees. “Your room, my lady, for the duration of your stay. Dinner will be ready as soon as you are settled.”

“But—”

He was already gone, the tuft of his tail showing around the corner, leaving me to reel with the knowledge I had abandoned my father and sacrificed a year of my life for absolutely nothing.

IHAD NO INTEREST INinvestigating the room behind the red door. I paced the corridor after the wolf instead, but he was nowhere to be seen. Frustration twisted through me. The wolf had tricked me, and for what? To trap me in this strange and terrifying house? I could have been home with my father. I could have beensafe.

But I blinked and saw my university acceptance letter crumbling to ash. If it weren’t for my father, would I even want to go home?