The Rose Witch - Chandelle LaVaun Page 0,5

was ten feet away when I looked up to the door and spotted him.

WHAT? NO! HOW?

He’d just been on the other side of the stairs, and upstairs. I slid to a stop, my arms and legs pinwheeling until I caught my balance. I didn’t wait for him to speak. I spun on my toes and sprinted away from him. My mind was a blur. I saw everything and nothing at the same time. Fear had my body shaking and my breaths hitched. My pulse raced in my veins. When the other black iron spiral staircase came into view I wanted to cry, but I had to keep moving.

I gripped the rails and flew up the steps two at a time. When I got to the top, I hopped off and looked up — my heart stopped. It was HIM.

He stood right in front of me, closer than before, looking tall and terrible, like the most beautiful shadow in the world. High cheekbones and a sharp jawline shimmered in the glow of the red smoke pouring out of me. His golden eyes flashed. He arched one eyebrow and wings made of black smoke formed behind his back. He took one step toward me and I screamed.

I scurried back, then spun. I had no idea where I was headed but I just had to get away from him. Up ahead I saw the painting of the Bodleian library I’d painted on the wall, there was a narrow walkway that led to a window – if I could get to it I could climb out then scream for help. I glanced back and cried out. He was only a few feet behind me. I leapt forward, but when I landed my boots slid across the hardwood floor. My body spun around, my arms swinging to try and catch my balance. My shoulder hit the wall — but then cold air washed over me and a bright light flashed…and then I was free falling into darkness.

Chapter Two

Chloe

I screamed as my stomach shot up into my throat. I threw my hands back as I fell into nothingness…and then I crashed into solid ground. My body slid a few feet across dark hardwood floors before I rolled and landed like an upside-down starfish. Every inch of my body shouted in pain. I groaned and rolled onto my side – THE GUY! I gasped and scrambled back to my feet, but he was nowhere in sight.

I blinked and looked around, spinning to check in every direction…then frowned. I stood in the middle of a dark, empty room. Where am I? There was no one here and nothing much to look at either, just a long narrow hall with tall multi-paned windows that stretched all the way up to a sharply vaulted ceiling made of intricately carved ivory. Beneath each window was a dark wooden door.

It all looked unnervingly familiar, like the painting of the Bodleian Library in Oxford that I’d painted on the — I gasped. It was the painting I’d painted but in real life. My jaw dropped. I was standing right in the middle of the common hall at the Divinity School. It was my favorite spot of all of Oxford because it made me feel like a princess in a big castle. I glanced to my right and spotted the massive oak door that I knew held a small set of stairs just on the other side.

I shoved my trembling fingers into my hair and listened to my ragged breaths echoing down the empty hall. The bright moonlight streaming in through the windows looked like blue fog as it mixed with the golden lights of the lamps along the wall. I’d never been in here at six in the morning. I wasn’t used to seeing it like this, but now I couldn’t unsee it. I was in the Bodleian Library…in Oxford…a few miles away from the Red Rose Bookstore.

“How did I get here?” I cried out to no one, because I was alone. “I was at the bookstore and now I’m here.”

It made no sense.

I was in the Lancaster bookstore…that man and the demon-dog were chasing me — I gasped as I remembered them again. I spun in wild circles, expecting them to show up in one of the shadows clinging to the walls. But then that red river of smoke poured out of me again. It slithered across the floor in every direction, creeping over every crack and grain of wood then slowly