Page 53 of Beyond Those Gilded Walls

He hesitated for a heartbeat and then surged forward to plant a quick yet scorching kiss on my lips before he pushed me into the closet before I could reply, closing the door behind me and plunging me into darkness.

ChapterTwenty-Six

The moment the closet door clicked shut behind me, my first instinct was to panic. My second instinct was to press my hand against my lips and feel the tingling that Tallon’s kiss had left. Instead, I cupped my throat and tried to breathe slowly and deeply. My heartbeat thundered against my palm, slowing only once my eyes began to adjust to the darkness in the closet.

I’d been expecting something small, cramped even, given that my own rooms did not even have a separate closet, but it certainly had benefits, being friends with the prince. Even in the darkness, I could see the quality of the numerous clothes that hung along the left wall, the shoes that lined the floor beneath, and the dresser along the right wall that held a tray of rings next to seven masks, lined up neatly.

It was the closet of a lord, of someone important and wealthy. Someone I would never be. Someone I neverwantedto be.

Seeing the masks lined up neatly in a row made them seem less menacing, less powerful than they were when they adorned Tallon’s face. For reasons I cared not to ponder further, it frustrated me. The mask Tallon wore when he was the prince’s advisor was physical, certainly, but seeing these masks here, lifeless and empty, was a reminder that the true mask he donned each night was one of Tallon’s own creation.

And one that he could don at any time.

I tore my gaze from the masks and let my hand fall slowly from my throat. I needed to get out of here, and return to my bedroom before either Prince Eadric discovered me here, or I discovered something else that I could not ignore.

Voices outside the door had me hesitating, though. Though muffled by the door, if I got close enough, I could still likely hear what they said. I took a step back towards the door, intent on pressing myself against it, but the cat moved in a blur, settling itself between the door and me.

At my feet, the cat looked up at me, a pair of blazing yellow eyes set in a void just slightly darker than the darkness around it. It inhaled, growing unnaturally as its entire body expanded and then contracted back on its exhale. A warning.

Exhaling slowly and silently, I nodded at it, acquiescing that I would not attempt to listen in on its master.

I was calm enough now to follow the cat through Tallon’s closet without shaking, though I still had no notion as to how the closet would lead us back to my bedroom.

The cat led me to the back of the closet and stopped in front of an empty space along the wall. It looked up at me expectantly and then back to the wall. The wall was just that, a wall. There was no door, no hinges, and in the low light, no seams or any other indication that I would be able to exit Tallon’s room from this spot. I looked down at the cat and it held my gaze as it stuck its paw out, disappearing through the wall. It retracted its paw and blinked at me, looking between me and the wall several times.

“You want me to…” I breathed. I shook my head. It was a Soulshade; of course it could pass through walls easily. It kept looking back and forth. I flinched when Prince Eadric’s muffled voice sounded outside the closet door. There had to be a secret passage here.

Leaning forward to inspect the wall in the low light, I pressed my hands against the stone, but instead of pushing to activate a hidden door, I fell right through the wall, stumbling out into the hall. I whirled around, looking back at the wall I’d just fallen through and pushing against it. It was solid stone now.

The cat brushed against my leg, reminding me that I needed to not be here. Shaking my head, trying to clear my thoughts, I cast one last glance at the wall before picking up the ends of my dress and hurrying after the cat.

There had to have been a door. Any other explanation petrified me.

The route the cat had us following was not one I’d taken before, and it led us past a set of glass doors that opened to a patio. Nestled between the stone walls of the castle, it was akin to a courtyard if it hadn’t been raised on the balcony.

Rushing past it, I nearly missed the person standing there, only seeing the silhouette too late to avert my path.

From behind, the little figure looked so much like Rhyon, down to the small patches along the back of the vest he wore. I gasped, whispering his name as I slowed.

The figure turned and the world began to spin. Itwas Rhyon, but he was…wrong. Like in my nightmares, this Rhyon, this Soulshade version of him, had blood dripping down his chin and staining his shirt. A choked sob erupted from my chest, knowing that if Rhyon was here, in this castle, he was truly dead. I’d been too late.

The Soulshade of my youngest brother smiled, revealing his bloody teeth. His eyes flicked to the side of me, and I turned just as more Soulshades poured from the walls as they had that first night in the cellar.

“No!” I croaked, spinning wildly as I tried to find an opening between the apparitions, but there was none. And I would not be so foolish as to put my back against a wall again either.

The cat turned from the top of the hallway, not realizing I’d stopped. Its eyes widened and it came back towards me, assessing the surrounding Soulshades warily. Could it help me, or would they kill it too?

The first Soulshade reached me before I realized, my eyes still darting between my brother on the patio and the cat in the hall. Its icy grip tightened around my marks, burning cold and turning my knees to liquid.

Another reached for my other arm, holding taut as the cold seared through my body. I squeezed my eyes shut, praying to whatever god would listen that Tallon would come again to save me from the Soulshades. Warmth tingled down my arms and a soul-shattering scream echoed along the halls.

My eyes flew open just in time to see that my savior was not in fact Tallon but myself. The marks along my own skin had peeled away again, as they had with Maricara, and the Soulshade holding onto my right arm had vanished. The others stopped their retreat, eyeing the thick undulating strands of jagged black. My marks struck out again at the one holding my left arm. I watched, wide-eyed, as the Soulshade evaporated with another horrible scream.

In the corner of my eye, the cat stalked towards the spot in the crowd of Soulshades that only had one figure between it and me. The cat shimmered, its body shaking and trembling as it grew even larger until it towered over the Soulshade in front of it in mere seconds. With a glance at me, it opened its mouth and, with a forked tongue licking across pointed teeth, swallowed the Soulshade whole.

I blinked once, twice, and the cat was normal sized and back at my feet, looking up at me while continuing to lick its lips.

Its gaze darted to the side, and I didn’t need to see past the even more wary Soulshades to know that Tallon had appeared.

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