Chapter 58
The shadows were wrong.
Too long.
Too loud.
Too alive.
Liana ran, bare feet scraping against the cold stone floor of a hallway that didn’t belong to any wing of the castle she recognized. The torches lining the walls flickered violently, casting distorted shapes along the cracked walls. Her breaths came out in sharp, panicked gasps, each one clouding in the air like it was winter except it wasn’t. It was suffocatingly hot.
Like something was breathing down her neck.
She didn’t dare look back.
The footsteps behind her were uneven. Wet. Like something with claws dragging across the floor. Sometimes they echoed like hooves, other times like bands. Human, then not.
J
Then too human.
She turned sharply, ducking into a corridor, heart thundering as the world behind her twisted and howled.
It was following
No–it was hunting.
A low snarl rumbled through the air, vibrating the walls around her. The sound crawled under her skin and made her bones feel wrong. Her feet stumbled, caught on loose stone, and she fell hard, scraping her knees. She tried to get back up, but her limbs were heavy. Like something unseen was weighing her down.
And then–silence.
Too quiet.
She slowly lifted her head.
A figure stood at the end of the corridor.
Massive. Misshapen.
It filled the space like smoke and shadow, the torches flickering out one by one as stepped forward. Its body was cloaked in black mist, but its eyes gods, its eyes-
Ice–blue
Familiar.
But twisted. Bloodshot Animalistic with an aim to kill.
“Alaric?” she whispered, though her voice cracked in her throat like glass.
The thing didn’t answer. It only growled, deep and guttural. The sound slithered into her spine and locked her in place.
It stepped closer, and now she could see the shape more clearly. Broad shoulders, claws dripping with something dark. Its face was not quite human, not quite beast. A nightmare stitched together with rage.
“Tin not your enemy, the tried to say “lease-
It reared
Non loud Not earth–taking.
But buregry
8:32 PM
Chapter 58
Liana screamed, crawling backward as its shadow stretched over her like a blanket of death. Her back hit a wall that hadn’t been there before.
She was trapped.
The creature reached for her, and its hand–no, its claw–gripped her arm with impossible strength. She cried out, struggling, kicking, but it was no use.
It leaned closer. Its breath was hot against her skin, smelling of ash and rot.
“I warned you,” it whispered in a voice that was almost–but not quite–Alaric’s. “You should’ve stayed away.”
Then it lunged.
And Liana screamed herself awake, drenched in sweat, hands clutching the bedsheets like they were the only thing keeping her grounded.
The room was still dark. Still.
But her heart wasn’t.
It raced like it was still in that corridor.
And outside, somewhere far off in the castle-
A petal glowed.
The dream didn’t just vanish like they usually did. It held on, clawed at me. Cold sweat clung to my skin, my nightgown sticking to my back. My chest heaved. My throat was tight.
I blinked at the ceiling, not moving. The stone above me was familiar–my room in the castle. Safe. Warm. But it didn’t feel like it.
The nightmare still whispered behind my eyes.
Running.
I’d been running through a corridor that never ended. The walls bent in ways they shouldn’t, torches flickering with green flames, shadows reaching for me like they were alive. I couldn’t scream. I couldn’t even think.
Just run.
And behind me, something chased.
Something big. Something wet and snarling. Its breath had been hot against the back of my neck, even though it was never close enough to see. Just… there.
Waiting.
Hunting,
And then–I turned. I don’t know why, but I did. And its eyes met mine.
It had Alaric’s eyes.
Only twisted. Hollow. Glowing blue, but with no humanity left in them.
It roared, and the world shook. Then I fell through the ground–straight into a pit of black water and fire, And I-
“Good morning?
15
1 flinched at the voice. My heart leapt to my throat before I realized it was just Annie, the maid. She stood at the door, tray in hand, her usual soft smile in place.
My breath left me in a shaky exhale..
I sat up slowly, brushing hair from my damp face. “Morning,” I croaked.
“You didn’t sleep well,” she said gently, placing the tray down by the small table. “You were.. mumbling in your sleep
23
8:32 PM.
Chapter 58
Of course I was.
<-15
I swung my legs off the bed, feeling the cold floor beneath my bare feet. I wrapped the blanket around my shoulders and sat there for a moment, trying to anchor myself to reality.
“It was just a dream,” I whispered under my breath.
But it didn’t feel like just a dream. Not after the petal. Not after last night.
Alaric had pulled me away from it like I was seconds away from breaking the world.
I could still hear his voice. “Do you want me to lose what’s left of my soul?”
I’d felt the weight behind it. The desperation. The fear. But also–rage.
He hadn’t even let me explain. Just told me to focus on my own duties and sent me away like a child who couldn’t be trusted.
Something was wrong. Deeply wrong.
I had felt it the moment I stepped into that hidden chamber. The air was heavier. My skin prickled. And the way the petal glowed when I got too close… it wasn’t just a cursed flower in a jar.
It was alive.
And whatever it was tied to–it was dying.
I rubbed my arms, trying to get the chill off. The sunlight outside said it was morning, but my body was still trapped in the dark. In that corridor. In the eyes of a monster who looked like Alaric.
I stood up, pulling my robe tighter around me. My reflection in the mirror looked pale. Worn. The kind of face that had seen too much and couldn’t forget.
“You need to get ready for the hall today,” Annie said softly, not pushing, just reminding.
I nodded. “Right. The harvest preparations.”
But my mind wasn’t on the harvest.
It was on the nightmare.
And the petal.
And the beast it might belong to.
Alaric.
