Page 69 of A Curse of Hope and Shadows: Part I
“The babe came too early,” Mrs Minton said, still sipping her tea. “There was nothing that could be done for it. But for her… The Duke sent out riders in every direction, looking for physicians, healers… your mother came to us first. But there was nothing to be done.”
Her mother had never told her. Usually, she spoke over every birth, every detail, trying to help Adeline understand what had happened, how things could be prevented in future, or just to prepare her for the worst.
But she hadn’t told her about this.
Why, Mama? What happened?
Adeline drained her tea. “I have no stomach for food.”
Mrs Minton nodded, as if fully understanding. “I’ll have Mrs Harper leave a plate aside for you should you get hungry later.”
Adeline thanked her, and left the room. With what Dimitri must have been going through, and the news about Liana’s death, she felt cold and shivery, almost sick. She couldn’t eat, she wouldn’t sleep. Usually when she found it impossible to do either of those things, she tried to distract herself with cleaning, ensuring that her sleeplessness was at least productive, but her room was too spotless to clean.
Remembering that she left the parlour in a mess, and desperate for something—anything—to keep her occupied, she slipped into the back staircase, intent on tidying it.
She stopped the second the door closed behind her.
She had not been able to hear anything in the corridor, but here, between the bones of the house, she could hear something. A screech, a howl, like the sound of a shredding soul, far away and far, far too close.
She wanted to say it was inhuman, but the worst of it was that it wasn’t, that shards of it still connected with humanity, in a voice she knew all, all too well.
Dimitri.
Forgetting about the parlour, forgetting that she had been told to stay away, she raced towards the noise instead, through the hidden maze of narrow, winding corridors, emerging from the wall in a thick, stone hallway, dark and dripping with damp.
The dungeons.
The screaming was horribly, monstrously loud.
Dimitri, Dimitri, Dimitri—
Someone caught her roughly by the arms. “What are you doing here?” barked Hughes. “How did you—”
Thomas hurried forward, white faced, blocking her view of further down the tunnel where those awful sounds were coming from.
“I forgot to bolt the servants’ entrance,” Thomas rushed, “I’m sorry—”
“Dimitri!” Adeline screamed, with a wretchedness that almost matched his. “Let me see him! Please, please, just let me—”
“ADELINE!”
Hughes let go of her, startled, no doubt, by the horrendous sound of Adeline’s desperate, twisted name.
She bolted towards it, to the thin strip of pale flesh she could see writhing in the background.
She stopped just before the cell, stomach sliding out of her.
Dimitri lay on the cold, stone floor, his back arched, his entire body twisted like an insect encased in fire. He was naked, but fur crawled up most of his body, thickening and lengthening his tail, his spine, his entire body. As he twitched, spasming onto his front, she could see bones inching out of his skin.
And yet, despite it all, he was reaching for her.
“I’m here,” she rushed, her voice breaking. “It’s all right, Dimitri, I’m here. It’s going to be fine—”
But she stopped then, because she realised she was lying. How was this all right? How could anything ever be all right ever again?
It was like watching her mother’s blood spill onto the bed sheets, and she pressed her hand through the bars, desperate to hold onto him, not to let anyone else slip away from her—
“Idiot girl!” Hughes yanked her back. “You want to lose that hand?”
