A Captive of Wing and Feather A Retelling of Swan Lake - Melanie Cellier Page 0,65
one side of the room. It clung to the carpet, drifting along the wall until it managed to float up and out of the large window Stormy had flown past. An ominous popping sound came from behind the door. I glanced around the cluttered study again and then back at the door. Please let the object be in here and not in there.
“Do you think he remembers where everything is?” Gabe asked, pulling my attention away from the smoke. “Because I don’t see how we can search through this without moving things. I was hoping to keep our presence here concealed.”
I bit my lip. I didn’t know enough about Leander to hazard a guess as to how well he knew his room. It didn’t look like the detritus of someone who paid attention, but people could be tricky like that.
“Maybe we should look for something that’s locked?” Gabe suggested, still sounding a little lost.
He walked toward a large, cedar chest, and I cast around for anything else with a lock. The first thing I saw was another door, almost directly opposite the one still emitting the strangely heavy smoke. This one looked more like the door to a cupboard than a room, however, so I went to investigate.
It opened easily, but I stuck my head in anyway. The small, square storage room, lined with shelves, appeared far more ordered than the main room. It had a pungent, musty smell, and I recognized various dried herbs tied into small bunches. There was nothing that looked like it could possibly be a godmother object, however, so I had just started to pull my head back out when I heard the ominous sound of the keyhole.
“Gabe!” The hiss that emerged caught his attention as easily as his name.
I gestured frantically inside the cupboard, my other hand still gripping the door. In four strides he had reached me and brushed past into the space. I threw myself after him, forcing myself to take the time to close the door silently behind us.
My heart beat rapidly as I held my breath, the darkness alleviated only by a thin line of light along the bottom of the cupboard door. Movement sounded from the room on the other side, and I stepped back without thinking, colliding with Gabe.
He steadied me, and for a moment we froze, both at awkward angles, our heads turned toward the door.
Please don’t need any herbs, I thought. Please don’t need any herbs.
Some other door opened and then closed again, but I was fairly certain it hadn’t been the door into the study. The smoke door, then.
I looked up at Gabe, but it was too dark to make out his face. He must have sensed my movement, though, because he quickly dropped his hands from my arms, stepping back as far as possible to put a little distance between us. I could still hear his whisper clearly, however.
“If he’s gone into that other room, then this might be our only chance to escape this cupboard.”
I reached out and fumbled down his arm until I found his hand, bringing it up to place it against the side of my face. I wanted him to feel that I was shaking my head. He took one tiny step closer.
“I know we haven’t found the object yet, but who knows how long we’ll be trapped in this cupboard if we stay now? Ash will leave, and then we’ll be stuck inside the Keep.” He sounded afraid, and it wasn’t like him.
“We have to get you back to the lake before dark,” he whispered, and it burst on me that his fear was for me.
I had already been determined to stay, but a new courage formed inside me at his fear—as if rising to meet the gap where his used to be. He feared for me, but I would be brave for us both.
I pulled out my paper and dropped down onto my knees, placing it on the ground in the strip of light from the bottom of the door. Gabe crouched down beside me, the two of us pressed side by side and brushing up against the herbs on the shelves.