want to know everything I can about the Redcaps.”
With a nod, he strode back over to the table and dropped into the chair. His dark eyes met mine, and for a moment, my breath caught. He no longer looked as though he couldn’t stand the sight of me. He almost looked as if...as if the raw depths of his soul were yearning to make me see something no one else could. But then he blinked and sat back.
What the hell was that?
“As with everything, there’s a lot you don’t yet know about the Redcaps.” He held up a hand when I began to ask what. “Don’t worry. I’m going to fill you in, but there’s a lot to learn. We’re going to continue with the basics. How to fight them. Then, we’ll get into exactly who and what they are, and why it’s essential to prevent them from taking more lives. For the future of Otherworld.”
I furrowed my brows. “So, that’s that then.”
He glanced up from the book. “What do you mean?”
“You’re not going to apologize for leaving me to die.”
“You didn’t die, Norah. You’re sitting right in front of me.”
“But—”
“Aren’t you?”
“That doesn’t matter. I could have died.”
“But you didn’t.”
“I don’t see how that matters. Your intent was—”
“To prove to you that you aren’t helpless.”
My mouth dropped open, shock pummelling my gut. How had he known how much I worried about being helpless? He couldn’t read minds. Could he?
“I’m going to start reading now, and I expect you to take down some notes.” He pointed at the parchment before me, and then he began reading. I opened my mouth to try to turn the conversation back onto that horrible night, but he carried on as if he didn’t notice.
Grumbling, I grabbed my pen. And then I took down his every word.
I took the books and my parchment of notes back to my quarters. Sophia’s door was ajar, and her light snore drifted toward me while I tiptoed past the sofa and into my bedroom. Kael had taken me through plant after plant for the past hour, pointing out the various properties of each. I had to admit, my eyelids hadn’t been as quite as heavy as they had been before, mostly because I finally understood the importance of what he was trying to teach me.
There was a plant out there that could cure a Redcap bite. A flower that could save someone’s life.
I didn’t understand the how or why of it, but a lot of things about Otherworld didn’t make sense.
After changing into sweats and a tank top I’d borrowed from Lila, I settled into bed with the books, scanning the words until my eyelids finally drifted shut. I wasn’t sure how long I sat there like that when a long, sharp screech whispered through my open window. Immediately, I was on my feet, eyes wild and heart pounding madly in my chest.
The curtains fluttered in the soft summer breeze, bringing with it the stench of sweat and blood. And then a long, sharp claw slid onto the window-frame, hooking around the wood.
I stumbled back, wildly searching for anything I could use as a weapon. A broom handle. A kitchen knife. Anything at all.
But I only had me.
Another claw hooked around the frame, and I watched in horror as a Redcap slid through the billowing curtains, landing heavily on the hardwood floor of my room. My heart thundered in my ears as the dark creature, covered in mounds of grimy black fur, cocked its head and stared at me.
Those eyes, I thought as I stumbled back another step. They were a rich, deep blue. So different than the black eyes of the Redcap I’d fought on the cliff. For a moment, I almost forgot I was facing off against the creature of my nightmares with nothing but my fists. There was something so familiar about those eyes. And they looked so horribly, horribly sad.
The creature began to shudder, its dark mangy fur trembling in the night air. For a moment, I thought it was a strange form of pre-attack, like it was readying itself to launch my way with its claws. But then something different began to happen. The fur transformed, the thick darkness of it melting away to reveal pale skin.
The fangs began to shorten, and the claws disappeared into long and slender fingers. I stumbled back, barely believing my eyes. For the first time since I’d arrived in Otherworld, I suddenly wondered if I was going crazy again.