Page 18 of Beyond Those Gilded Walls

I backed up, reaching behind me for the door handle, but there was nothing. Nothing but cold air. My heart raced and my vision began to blacken around the edges as my breathing came too fast. I needed towake up.

The man clapped his hands, echoing loudly off the stone and sending vibrations through my feet.

I blinked again at the sound, and I was back in the library, the man watching me carefully. My hand rested again at my throat and the other came to wrap around my body. What was happening? He’d clapped, I thought, but otherwise had not reacted in any way. Had he not seen that?

“Odyssa, is it?” His voice was exactly as it had been last night, rich and deep, sliding like velvet over my skin. It made me want to both melt into it and run away at the same time. Just like the cat, something was notrightabout this man, and until I could put my finger on what, I needed to stay away.

I reached behind me for the handle again, but before my fingers could close around it, the man was in my space, his breath fanning softly over my forehead and nose. Shivers erupted through me, tracing down my spine like tickling fingers. His power was evident even without touching me. The mere presence of him commanded attention, and while my body was happy to give it, my mind remained utterly aware of the potential dangers of being alone with someone like this.

“Don’t.” His lips curled up into a smile as he stared down at me. His pale blue eyes were swirling like clouds during a storm—clouds before the mist. The marks across my skin prickled, and I fought to keep from squirming. “Don’t leave yet, little wolf.”

“Why should I stay?” I lifted my chin defiantly, though my hands trembled. “Who are you?”

He leaned in even closer, his warm and slightly spiced smell invading my nostrils. A strand of my hair fell across my forehead and cheek, and he smiled at it, picking it up between his fingers and toying with it before letting it drop and leaning away.

“No one important.”

“I highly doubt that, given you are here.”

A smile stretched across his face, one that revealed all his teeth. “You are here as well. Are you not important?”

“I am a servant,” I pointed out, crossing my arms over my chest. “You are a guest here.”

“Am I?”

Voices outside the library echoed off the halls, growing louder as they came nearer. Still we stared at each other. I refused to be the first one to look away. Weakness was the language this man spoke—the language of Castle Auretras—and I would not make things easy on him.

He chuffed a laugh, taking a step away and extending an arm, bending at the waist slightly and crossing his other arm over his stomach. “You shouldn’t be here, regardless.” He looked down at the cat. “You can take her through the back passage. She’ll be unseen.”

The cat perked up from its spot at my feet, the words seemingly more for it than me. As we passed by the man, I caught a glimpse of black whorls at his wrist beneath his sleeve. My eyes snapped back to his face. This man was marked. He’d survived.

“Who are you?” I repeated, more urgency in my voice this time. His marks were thick and angry like mine, not delicate like Zaharya’s. I itched to find out more.

“Wouldn’t you like to know, little wolf,” he said with another smirk. He dropped his arms and inclined his head towards the door, where the handle rattled. “Best be off now, though. Don’t worry, I will find you later. I think we have much to discuss.”

The cat flicked its tail jerkily and once my attention was back on it, we were off again, weaving between the shelves of books until we reached a small single doorway. Once again, the door opened without intervention. Human intervention, at least.

I couldn’t make myself pay attention as it led me back through a narrower hallway. I noticed enough to know that it was somewhere new, but my focus was back in that library with the man. Zaharya's words echoed in my head, but I needed to know more, to know what that vision was and why it had happened in his presence. Why his intervention had pulled me out of it, and most importantly, if he had seen it too.

I barely noticed we had stopped until a doorway was right in front of my face. My doorway.

This time, I pushed my own door open. The cat apparently decided it had fulfilled its duty and turned to disappear into the stone next to my doorframe. Locking the door behind me, I leaned up against it, my hand resting at my throat once more. There was no need for it, but it felt safer, like I was holding myself together from the outside.

I still had no idea who this man was, and though Zaharya’s warning was at the forefront of my mind, I knew I would not stop until I’d found my answers. I’d always been a curious child, and despite my priority being the cure and my brothers’ survival, I wanted to know more about him.

The cat seemed to be working with him or for him; at any rate, it continued to lead me towards him. Smarter people would stop following such a creature. I didn’t know how I knew, but I felt in my bones that it was a clue, a key to figuring out what was happening in this castle.

A knock on the door moved through the wood into my chest, startling me back to standing on my own two feet. Was it the man? He’d said he would return, but it had only been moments since I’d returned to my room.

Slowly, I unlocked the door, pulling it open only a sliver. My shoulders slumped in relief at the sight of white hair.

“It is time to get ready for this evening, Odyssa.” She paused, studying me. “Are you ill? You look paler than you did last night.” Her eyes narrowed. “And are you still wearing your dress from last night?”

“I—”

She pushed the door open, taking sure strides to the wardrobe I’d not yet opened that sat along the far wall. Flinging it open, she turned to look over her shoulder and frowned. “You are allowed to wear the clothes in here. It’s here for a reason.”

“No, I know,” I said, trying desperately to keep up and wave away her concerns. “I just woke up. I fell asleep last night—I mean, this morning—and slept longer than I’d planned. I haven’t had a chance to change.”

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