Page 22 of Beyond Those Gilded Walls

Ash filled my mouth and buzzing filled my ears.

The stone that comprised the walls began to tear apart like flimsy parchment and out of the voids Soulshades appeared, two, then four, six, until at least a dozen of them were coming down the halls towards me from both sides.

My breath caught high in my chest and my knees trembled, but I could not make them move despite every fiber of my being screaming at me to get away. The Soulshades drifted closer, but my eyes refused to focus on the details of each spirit, instead just sending me blurry flashes of their general shapes, black beginning to dot the edges of my vision.

The one nearest to me reached out, inches away from touching me when my body finally sprang to life. I whirled, expecting to run down the hallway I’d come from, but I found myself face to face with another wall, one that absolutely had not been there before.

I was trapped now in a long corridor with Soulshades stretched to either side and a wall both in front of and behind me.

The first one touched me, grabbing hold of my bare wrist. Itburned, ice-cold instead of hot, but it still felt like my skin was melting.

I cried out, wrenching away from its spectral grasp. My fingers clambered against the stone at my back and I lunged as another Soulshade came up on my other side, reaching for me. I grasped a shard of the broken wine bottle, clasping it my hands and flinging it out.

Grabbing shard after shard, I threw them at the Soulshades. They did nothing except cut my palms. Still, I reached for one last shard.

Two Soulshades grabbed me, one on each side, undeterred by my manic glass throwing. Their touch seared into my skin and my muscles tensed up. My hand tightened around the glass in my hand and the sharp edge sliced deep into my palm and the heel of my hand.

Another cry wrenched from my lips, more of a sob, and louder than I intended.

Nearly all the Soulshades were on me now, and I was beginning to lose feeling in my right arm where two Soulshades had grabbed hold.

I squeezed my eyes shut. This would be how I would die, worthless and a failure, killed by ghosts on my way to a wine cellar. If I hadn’t been in so much pain, I might have found it amusing. My breath was coming in shuddering gasps, and I almost wanted to pass out before the Soulshades were able to kill me. That would be the smallest mercy.

And then, all at once, they were gone. The phantom holds had disappeared, leaving only the burning cold in their wake. The wall at my back disappeared as well, and I stumbled backwards without the support of it. Falling to the ground, I let another cry of pain slip out as I foolishly tried to catch my fall with my hands.

The pain tore through me and all I could do was clutch the wrist of my injured hand as tightly as possible, trying to will away the pain as I panted.

What in the hells had happened here? The walls looked normal now, no ripped seams in the stone. The Soulshades had vanished without a trace.

Heavy footsteps sounded behind me.

At once, the fear of the Soulshades was replaced by an uneasy apprehension that slithered over my spine. Whoever approached was why the Soulshades had disappeared.

And I knew without turning to look precisely whose footsteps echoed off the stone.

Somehow, I could feel it, the same feeling I’d gotten when I’d seen him in the library. That uneasy sensation, like someone was watching me yet trying their hardest to seem like they weren’t. Like someone was trying to peer beneath my skin and into my very soul.

The footsteps stopped right behind me.

“What have you gotten yourself into, little wolf?”

Tallon was here.

He stepped around in front of me, still wearing his attire from the ball, apart from his mask. His coat fluttered against his calves as I dropped my gaze from his face. As he stretched his hand towards mine, my eyes once again fell to the thick black marks across the back of his hand, snaking up and coiling around his wrist before disappearing into the sleeve of his jacket. Biting down hard on my tongue, I held my mouth closed.

Between the mystery of how a Death-marked man was at the side of the prince, why the Soulshades retreated from him, and whatever was happening to the castle walls, my heart was unlikely to ever slow down from its thundering pace.

ChapterTwelve

“Ilost my footing; I am fine.” The pain was pulsing from my hand and I had to grit my teeth to get the words out. The others’ words came back, reminding me of Tallon’s true purpose here. I recoiled from his reach, pulling my injured arm tightly to my chest and pointedly keeping my eyes on his feet rather than on his wrist. “I apologize for any disturbance I caused.”

He snorted, squatting down beside me and poking his index finger at the gaping wound on my palm before I could register his movements and pull away.

I cried out, biting down on my lip to cut off the sound abruptly.

“Yes, you are perfectly fine.” He stood and nudged away the larger shards of glass with his boot. “You really should work on that footing. We can’t have you tripping over everything all the time.”

My cheeks heated. Cradling my throbbing hand to my chest, I managed to stand. “Again, I apologize for any disturbance.” I hesitated a moment before bowing my head, clenching my jaw against the flood of pain. “And I apologize for my actions earlier tonight. I should not have spoken, and I thank you for not punishing me or the others for my mistake.”

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