herself. Her vision began to fade, and darkness pressed against her mind.
Marissa jerked to a sitting position. This wasn’t the Belton Province countryside where she’d been a moment ago. Her heart pounded. She was indoors, inside a stone-hewn hallway flickering with torch light.
“You think you can defeat me?”
Marissa hissed, pressing herself against the wall as a man with a slim gold crown was dragged, struggling, between two men. Three ladies walked behind them. None seemed to notice Marissa.
“Derilla loved you. You didn’t have to kill her.”
“I didn’t mean to.”
“You play with powers beyond your control.”
He struggled harder. “I am king. Who are you to tell me no?”
Marissa followed. This was the keep but not Robert’s father. How could she be witness to something of the past?
“Renounce the black art. Free yourself of its hold.” They led the king into a room. Fire had been set in a fireplace. The women who followed walked to a shelf above a desk. They pulled the books, carried them across the room, and tossed them into the blaze. The flames hissed, burning colors not of wood. The king screeched. One of the men pulled something from a pouch and tossed it on the fire. The flames licked higher, and the books burned. The men released the king.
The woman nearest the fire faced the king, her eyes shining with tears. “My sister, Derilla, begged me to help you, and I will.” She took a step closer. “If you are willing to turn from this destructive path.”
The king looked at the empty shelf above his desk, and then faced the fire that poured heat into the room. He rubbed his eyes and then pulled his hands through his hair. “I can’t.”
The first words Marissa couldn’t hear, but then his voice shook the room.
“Curses have you, I won’t.” He turned for the door, stepped over the threshold, and froze.
It was as if something invisible caught him. Pain etched onto his face, and although she couldn’t hear him, his mouth opened to scream. His skin began to pucker. Marissa threw herself against the wall, curled up, and buried her face in her arms. Fear shook her body. How could she get out of this? Wind blew across her, whipping her hair, and then settled once more.
She heard shoes scuttle on the stone floor, and managed to lift her head enough for a peek. The doorway was empty.
Derilla’s sister knelt beside the door and took hold of the crown. She looked at the others in the room. “We must find whatever remains of Doorin. His things need be destroyed. “
One of the men nodded. “These rooms will be sealed. Camden must be fetched from the battlefront.”
“A new line of kings. They will need Guardians. If an offspring of Doorin were to be born with his talents …”
“Pray we find him, train him in the ways of the Master.”
Marissa’s head spun, her chest tightened as though something pulled her back.
“Marissa!”
Mrs. Boyde’s fist beat on her back, and Marissa coughed, splattering water from her throat. She lay on the ground, body shivering with cold. She was outside. The walls of the keep were gone, its hallways gone. Air struggled in her chest and another round of coughing hurt.
Marissa closed her eyes and gulped. Shivers continued. She needed to move, heat her body. Her muscles protested as she turned and tried to sit up. Another fit of coughing took her.
When it passed, Mrs. Boyde crouched beside her, holding her shoulders. “You’re freezing.”
Marissa pushed herself to sit up. She was cold, and the sun seemed powerless against it. “We should go to the house.” How could she explain what she’d seen?
“No.” Mrs. Boyde’s firm refusal surprised her. “The closer we are, the more fowl things become. We should never have traveled here. Her power is too strong. How could I have been so blind?”
Marissa shivered as a chill brushed across her soaked skin. She rubbed her hands on her arms. “I saw something, when I fell into the water.”
“Something? Like what?”
“A vision, I think. They were Guardians, like you.”
“Where were they?”
“In the keep. A king died horribly. He’d worked with black magic, like Cinderella.”
Mrs. Boyde looked at the manor house. “She is linked to him. Did you hear his name?”
“Doorin.” Wait, they had said something important. Something useful. Marissa grabbed Mrs. Boyde’s arm. “His things needed to be destroyed. The things in the keep that gave him power.”
Mrs. Boyde placed an arm around her shoulder and helped Marissa stand. “Say no more in