Page 6 of Sound
“I don’t have time to sit around and wait.” Spitting the words out, he drops his gaze wisely.
“Something else is more important than staying alive, brother?” Looking down my nose at him, I wait for an explanation but only get a muscle twitching in his cheek. “I didn’t think so.”
“C'est le piège parfait." Moël’s soft murmur comes from behind my back.
Keeping my stern gaze locked on Lucien for a moment longer, I finally face my youngest brother. The comment is spot on. This is a perfect trap. His youthful face is solemn, a line bunching his forehead and making him resemble me more than ever before. The ready smile and easygoing character always makes him look younger than the two of us. Not at this moment. The gravity of that presses on my chest like a mountain. Moël is not one to worry too much. That’s my job to overthink things and ponder them to death. He removes whatever is supposed to concern him by tilting his lips up and smiling.
“Any idea on how to go through without being noticed?” I can hear Lucien grinding his teeth over the sound of my voice.
“I have an idea, but I’m not sure I like it much.” Jerking his chin up, he looks to the side of the church.
Following the direction of his gaze, I can’t stop the growl that vibrates my chest. The damn black cat sits smugly just outside the wards, tail flicking lazily behind it. With its penetrating glare, it sees us where we hide in the shadows—the ones that are part of our predatory abilities—as if there’s nothing hindering its vision. No one can penetrate the mist—not even me.
“You think it can see us?” Abandoning his shitty attitude, Lucien steps closer to us.
“It’s been following my movements without missing a beat if that answers your question.” Moël’s frown deepens.
My mouth opens, the words dying on my tongue when a haunting melody reaches my ears. Ribs tightening, the air is forced out of my lungs with a whoosh. I see both my brothers stiffen on either side of me but I don’t dare move. Frozen where I stand, I’m not sure how long I listen to it, and I realize too late that I’m rubbing at the center of my chest with a clenched fist. Focusing on the cat, I see the creature also swaying to the notes that are drifting in the air. That’s when I notice it.
The silence.
Every other sound is gone, the quiet suffocating and thundering in my ears louder than any noise could ever be. For a moment, I even think life is holding its breath so it can hear the heart-wrenching beauty of the song being played. Everything disappears, even the soft inhale and exhale of our breaths. Everything but the notes floating around us. Panic grips me when the sound slows and the melody reaches its end.
The cat locks its orange gaze on mine, flashing in defiance. Whatever has been holding me in place releases my limbs. The creature darts to the side and I bolt after it. I can hear my brothers behind me but I neither stop nor think. Rounding the building, the cat waits there for me. A moment ticks by before it lifts its tale as if daring me to follow, then it disappears inside the church.
“Étienne, wait.”
Lucien’s shout comes a second too late. I follow the creature, bracing for impact when a solid brick wall comes into view. I’m running too fast to be able to stop the impact so instead I let instinct take over, lifting my arm and crossing it in front of my face to protect my head. My skin burns where the wards touch it and I stumble, almost falling on my face when I meet no resistance.
My gaze locks on dark, sad eyes and a tear-stained face.
The girl sits slumped in a chair and is barely keeping her head up with a glaring spotlight shining over her. Her gaze locks on mine and my heart stops beating from her desperate look. Anger battles confusion until her lips part, and I lean forward as desperate as she is to hear what she says. A bony hand comes from the shadows behind her, red painted nails tearing the skin on her shoulder. Dark red blood drips over her milky skin before she whispers.
“Please …”
Launching forward with everything in me, my hand stretches out and pain tears at my shoulder as I try to grab her. The chair flips over, pulling her along with it. Shadows swallow her, the spotlight shining from above not reaching them. The violin falls on the floor with a loud thump just as I reach the spot where she used to be.
An empty chair tipped over with legs sticking accusingly at me is the only thing there. Keeping eye on everything around me, I snatch the instrument off the ground. It’s still warm where her hand was holding it, the bottom part wet from her tears. Another shiver passes over me when the wards disappear, and I find myself in the same ruins I know too well. Heck, they were why I found this church in the first plate.
My fingers tighten on the violin. “Je te trouverai.” A promise or a threat, I’m not sure, but the vow in my voice stuns me. “I will find you.”
5
Melody
With a groan, I roll on my side. The hard-as-a-rock mattress hurts my bones, the spring poking and digging into my skin. A pounding headache with its own heartbeat thumps behind my closed lids and in my temples. Breathing through my nose, I hold my breath hoping not to vomit.
“I’m never drinking again.” Panting when the bile rises in the back of my throat, I push up and swing my legs off the bed.
A wet nose bumps the back of my hand, a furry head rubbing against me soon after. Keeping my eyes closed, I trail my fingers over the purring friend that has woken me up, scratching it behind one ear.
“You are being mean for waking me up, Salmon.” I chuckle when he hisses at the name I gave him, regretting it the same second. “Karma, my friend, is a bitch. I think this is payback for naming you after a fish.”
If a cat can meow in approval, Salmon definite does this.
Cracking one eyelid open, I squint at him. He found me in this room the first night I was trapped in this place. Since then, he is the only one that keeps me company, that is unless Seraphina comes with her drugs and demands. I have no idea how the cat gets inside the room when the door is locked, but I refuse to think he’s just a figment of my imagination because I’m slowly going crazy here.
I can’t have imaginary friends, can I?
