Page 15 of Unraveled (A Kingdom of Beasts and Ruins #1)

“Never look a fae in the eyes, Mia,” my father whispered. “They will see it as a challenge and will never let you go.”

“The fae are gone,” I said with a laugh, watching him as he pulled something out of his pocket. He was acting strange that morning and waited for Irene to leave for work before he spoke with me.

A long necklace hung from his thick fingers. The red stone caught the light coming from the kitchen window.

I was told ever since I was little that the magical amulet had been in my mother’s family for centuries. To be inherited by the firstborn. Me. Father had been wearing it for as long as I could remember, always keeping it hidden under his clothes.

He didn’t need to say a word; I knew what he was trying to do. But giving me that necklace could put him in danger. He’d been working on perfecting the veil for years, and that meant going into the forest where the beasts hunted. I rarely ventured out of the library, let alone left Penumbra.

“Take it, pumpkin. I never meant to hold on to it for this long. It doesn’t belong to me.” A smile pulled on his lips, and the corners of his eyes wrinkled with age. His hair was too white for someone as young as he, stress stealing his youth far too early.

“You need it more than me,” I said, but presented my palm.

When the amulet hit my skin, a jolt of electricity surged through me.

With a hiss, I attempted to pull back, but my father held me in place with his other hand.

Something crawled across my fingertips, tickled my palm, and stretched up my arm. Magic warmed my heart.

A shot of euphoria seized my lungs as the amulet tugged at something inside me and whispered a greeting.

“Now that you’ve begun your training as a librarian, you must carry this with you at all times.” Once it was clear I wouldn’t drop the amulet or try to stand, he placed a hand over mine, encouraging me to close my fist around the stone.

“I’m not supposed to have something this powerful inside the library. It’s forbidden for humans to hide an amulet.” I parroted what the head librarian, Alana, had told us in the initiation.

“To hell with them. This is not theirs to collect. It has been in your mother’s family and, as the eldest daughter with magical affinity, it’s yours.

Protect yourself from the magic sleeping in those grimoires, Mia.

Don’t take it off or leave this house without it.

And by the gods, don’t let anyone see it. ”

Knock, knock.

“Dad, I forgot my keys!” Irene’s voice came from the street.

We turned to the door, and Dad looked panicked as he took the pendant from my hand and draped it around my neck.

“Hide it from view at all times, Mia. Don’t let anyone touch it, not even Irene.”

Knock, knock .

I struggle to open my swollen eyes against the brightness of the candles burning around me. My head pounds with the migraine I’ve been fighting for a week, ever since Ash revealed the forbidden grimoires were his.

I spent the better part of my time locked inside this room, telling myself he lied. But under the webs of my rage, I know Ash was telling the truth.

Humans didn’t write what’s inside those grimoires. They are forbidden for a reason, and I sneaked in to study them instead of asking for permission, because I knew if I asked, they would deny me.

Knock, knock, knock .

I groan, wearily lifting my head to turn toward the majestic door across the room. “Go away, Finley, I already said I’m not hungry!” I shout with a voice roughened by my crying.

How can I leave this place to warn Irene of what’s coming—of what we are doing—when I don’t know what’s right and wrong? When I can’t fully trust what I’ve been taught.

“Oh, it’s not Finley. It’s Morgana.” The voice coming from the other side of the door is feminine, marked by a light accent. “The king sent me to fit you with new clothes and help you run a bath.”

I lift a brow and eye the tight-fitting dress I’ve been wearing since yesterday.

I found it in the back of the dresser, and it’s one size too small for me.

I can’t wear my librarian dress anymore, not after Finley cut it to treat my wounds.

Plus, it’s caked with dirt and blood. And my old slip is ripped and filthy after my failed escape attempt.

“I can run the bath myself,” I say.

I hear the distinct sound of a heavy sigh and a body pressing against the door. “The king is quite upset you escaped a few days ago, and sent me to ensure your room is—safe. I can’t leave until I come in and make sure all is well.”

Does that mean Finley left for Hedrum already and won’t be coming to check on me today? I guess the blood moon has passed now...

“I don’t think I can open the door.” Not without Naheli’s help.

“Oh no, that’s not how the spell works. It will allow you to open the door and let me in. It just won’t let you out.”

I sigh and roll out of the bed, tiptoeing my way over the frigid floor and across the room. When I touch the handle, it’s warm enough to give me pause, and I pull my hand away. A warning, perhaps?

Should I not open the door?

“Miss?” The female voice comes again.

Surely, Ash wouldn’t send anyone here to hurt me, right? He might hate me, but he’s saved my life multiple times.

“How do I know you’re here to help me?”

She laughs, and it’s so melodic, almost like chimes. “Alright, what can I do to prove His Majesty sent me?”

I press my back against the door and eye the red roses by my side. Waves of magic hug the stems, brightly colored. “I don’t know...”

There’s a pause, and then I hear the distinct shifting of fabric on the other side. Perhaps the sound of her dress? “His Majesty told me beasts destroyed your white dress in the forest. He said lunargyres out there hurt you, and that your boots have holes and need repairing.”

I look to the place I left my boots, right under the dressing table, and frown.

Those are my best shoes. I open the door and find a female lunargyre standing on the other side.

A bubble pushes me back, just like she said.

She’s a lot less bald than any of the other beasts I’ve seen so far and greets me from across the threshold with a demure smile before dipping into a curtsy.

“You don’t have to do that.” I try to stop her, but she’s already straightened and is pushing into the room, holding a tray of food that smells just as delicious as Alaris’s kitchen. A black mask covers most of her face, and her wavy blond hair flows like a cascade of gold behind her back.

Morgana places the tray at the bottom of my bed. “I know the mask is strange,” she says, dragging a finger along the edge of it. “But I’m afraid my face isn’t what it used to be, and I don’t want to frighten you.”

Her eyes are brown with a trace of gold speckles. Not white or red. That settles some of my nerves.

“I really thought I was going to have to beg you to let me in.” She chuckles, then eyes me from my filthy bare feet to the top of my messy hair. Her brows dip right before she points at the dressing table. “There should be a comb in there.”

My cheeks warm as I close the door behind her and step toward the food. “There is, but I can’t find a mirror anywhere.” I can’t fully place her expression with the mask hiding most of her features.

“Ah, yes. Of course. I’ll try to bring one when I come back with your new dresses.

It must be a lot for a human girl like yourself to take all of this in.

” As she speaks, she inspects the room with increasing curiosity.

Her eyes fix on the climbing rose in the corner, now blooming bright red.

“I’ve never been to this room before.. .”

It almost feels like she isn’t talking to me, so instead of waiting in here, I go into the bathing chamber. It’s almost the same size as the bedroom, with polished tiled floors arranged in a beautiful design of black-and-white marble.

On one wall there’s the tub with aged-brass pipes jutting from the floor and ending with a curved spigot. It’s the most lavish washroom I’ve ever been in, and not even the library has this much marble everywhere. Just thinking about that place makes my migraine return.

How many of my fellow librarians know we are holding stolen books?

“We have similar bathrooms in Penumbra. I can run it myself,” I say, gesturing at the tub as I turn to face the cursed fae who just entered the room behind me. Her feet, like Ash’s, are light enough I can barely hear them.

Morgana hums but makes herself busy, laying a couple of fluffy towels on a wooden stool and turning the water on, letting it run until it’s steaming as it pours into the large pool-like tub.

“Are you here because Finley’s gone?” I ask.

Her eyes widen. “I—uh—yes. He left before sunset. It’s easier to travel the forest at twilight, in the morning or evening, since most of the mindless beasts are slumbering.”

I stop breathing, glancing at the window to my right and over the treetops where the sky is neither dark nor bright.

“I shouldn’t have said that.” Morgana’s face hardens as she dumps bathing salts and oils into the water, turning it milky with added minerals.

The wonderful scent of it fills the room, like lavender and roses.

“But please don’t think of leaving. Plenty of beasts that live in the castle aren’t affected by twilight. Myself included.”

I nod and step into the water with my slip still on. Gods, I’m so filthy, and my sore muscles relax with the scalding heat of the bath.

When I arrived here, Finley seemed eager to get me inside my room. Ash left right before twilight—perhaps he was going to slumber. Maybe his magic faded at that time of the day and it made the wards weaker—easier to escape.

Was that why Finley wanted to get me in here? So the few beasts who remained awake wouldn’t get to us?

“Is Hedrum far?” I change the subject, hoping Morgana doesn’t get suspicious and run to tell Ash she gave me a clue of when I might escape without him being the wiser.

“A couple of days if the horses are healthy and the weather cooperates, a week at most,” she says and beckons me to her. “Come, I have an affinity for making clothes, but I also love to work with hair. If you let me, I can sort out the knots.”

After some consideration, I nod, scooting over the smooth surface of the bath and settling in one corner, where Morgana kneels and works on my hair. Her fingers end in sharp tips, which she uses to massage my scalp and work through the tangles.

I have four days, minimum, before Finley returns to the castle. I trace my fingers over the healing wound on my side and along the bumps of stitches that line the bottom of my ribs.

I suck in a breath, and Morgana pauses, craning her long neck over my shoulder. “Did I hurt you?”

“No, I’m sore, that’s all.”

The plan is already weaving together in my mind. If Ash is in fact sleeping at twilight, I can try to find my amulet then. Once I have it, I’ll take some food from Alaris’s kitchen, steal a horse, and leave this place.

But in a castle this big, how will I ever track it down? Perhaps I can start in the first place I was after I arrived. The study with the statue in the corner.

Morgana hums and pours warm water over my head with a ladle, again and again until none of the suds remain.

“I’ve heard a whisper in the castle that the roses changed color when you touched them,” she says, calling my attention back to her.

Unease grows in my stomach, and she grabs the towel to hand to me. “Are you a sorceress?”

I laugh, shaking my head. “I don’t have magic on my own like a sorcerer would. Just an affinity to wield magic lent to me by other things.”

Morgana nods and turns around, giving me privacy to take off my wet slip, dry myself, and step into my new clean one. Then she spends the next ten minutes measuring every inch of my body. When she leaves, sunrise is peeking through the curtains.