me, my love. I do not know what I will eventually become. In time, I may be fully evil.”
“I am with child.”
Barnum’s head jerked up, and the others copied. He bent, reaching out and barely touching her cheek with his clawed hand. The others mimicked him, touching the air.
“No harm shall come to thee. Go now.” Barnum punched the nearest windowpane. Shards of glass rained down and clinked onto the floor, leaving a jagged gap just Athela’s size in the panel.
Athela hiked up her skirts and stepped over the frame. She turned back to face him, tears drenching her cheeks. This was not her husband anymore. He was part of an evil, an evil that could end the worlds. The trap was set, and the beasts would rot for eternity in their tungsten tomb buried within a mountain known only by the high wizards. Her heart sank as she tried to imagine what hell her love faced. Not alive, and not dead. Forever frozen. She wanted him to know his memory would live on. A seed of hope until the madness took over and he was no longer Barnum.
Her sadness choked me and I wished I could hug her, console her. How horrible for all of them.
“Go with my love, Barnum,” she said. “Your child will know what a great warrior his father was.”
A loud squeal came from the ceiling and a heavy metal cage crashed over Barnum and his beasts. Dust punched Athela’s face, and she covered her nose and mouth with her hand, coughing. Seven older men with graying beards rushed the cage, brandishing rods. Blue light shot out from the tips of the rods, and electric sparks ran across the metal bars of the cage.
Athela stared at one of the men. His ink-black beard and heavy brows were at odds with his strikingly pale skin. Father. You betrayed me. Why could you not leave Barnum in his eternal rest? The others, as well? What evil consumes thee?
The thoughts of revenge playing in her mind were dark and scary. She backed up, stepping on the hem of her dress and tripping herself. She landed on muddy grass. Cold wetness soaked through her dress. Why wasn’t the door unlocked? Did Father hope the creatures would kill me? Why—?
I thought, Probably because you saw something you weren’t supposed to see. That’s what happens in all the movies. You’re minding your own business, stumble onto something you shouldn’t, and in the next scene, they kill you.
She stabbed the sword into the ground and then used it for support as she staggered to her feet. Her foot twisted on a clump of grass and we both winced.
Ouch. That hurt.
“Who is there?” Panic rattled Athela’s voice.
Whoops. She can hear my thoughts. My mind raced, wondering what I could do to help her. Why isn’t she running away? I’d have been out of there like yesterday.
She glanced around the field. “Show yourself.”
I got an idea. I’m your subconscious. This is where you RUN!
Athela yanked the sword out of the mud, hiked up her skirts, and darted across the field into the darkness.
Chapter Ten
Either I was dreaming of jackhammers or someone was rapping on the bedroom door. The room was dark under the cloak of the heavy drapes.
The idiot banged louder.
“Okay, I’m coming!” It sounded like Faith sprang up from the couch.
“Who’s bugging us?” I rolled onto my other side and slid the drapes over.
“I’m not sure,” she said.
Our intruder pounded louder. I pushed myself up from the mattress. “Someone isn’t patient,” I said.
Faith’s claws were ready as she eased the door open and peeked through the crack.
“Do you know what time it is?” asked a man.
“No.” She opened the door wider.
A man with floppy brown hair, standing extremely straight and poised, frowned down at her. He pulled a watch from the vest pocket of his gray three-piece suit and then held it up by its chain, not bothering to look at it. “It is precisely three thirty, and Gianna was to be in my chambers by three. Carrig may have delayed his training for tomorrow, but my lessons are still on schedule.” He looked past Faith and directly at me. “You have a lot to learn and little time in which to do it.”
“What—” I cleared my throat. “Um…what lessons?”
“Your magic lessons, of course. Has no one explained this to you?”
I rubbed my eyes and shook my head. There’s that word again. Magic. My stomach soured. And, no. No one tells me anything. But