Page 20 of The Devil In Blue
When I scanned the room I was in, I knew I wasn’t back in an asylum. Asylums had white walls, tiny mattresses indented with the memories of the many others who slept in them, stains on the floors, and no furniture, sharp edges, or unbarred windows. This place was elegant and surreal with hanging lights that looked like upside-down tulips with fireflies in the middle. There was a fireplace that looked as if it was made of crystal, which mirrored the firelight into the room in beautiful flickering rainbow patterns. But somehow, the room still appeared dark and ominous. It smelled of rain and crushed orange peel, a smell I didn’t know I liked until that moment.
To my left, across the big room, were double glass doors with silver, swirling patterns throughout, and outside that glass barrier was a cloudless, moonlit night.
I swung my legs over the edge of the mattress, realizing that I was wearing a thin silk dress with colors that seemed to change at different angles of light.
I didn’t even know fabric could be that way…
I half expected to have trouble standing. At Southminster, if I was particularly rowdy, I was forced into sleep and was moved to my “special” chamber. Every time I woke from such an instance, I was plagued with terrible headaches, dizziness, and a foggy mind. When I stood off the bed, I had none of those symptoms.
So where was I and how did I get there?
Perhaps Lucien found me in a mad stupor and escorted me somewhere.
No, nothing in Aedon Heights looked anything like the enchanting chamber I was in. Lucien’s manor was drab, dull, and smelled of soap and musty fabric.
Barefoot, I walked to the glass doors and carefully wrapped my fingers around the coiling silver handles.
Locked.
I turned around and glimpsed a tall, maroon door across the room, the wood of which was carved into the image of a lion. I strolled toward it, noticing the plush fur rug under my feet. Whatever the creature was that had provided the pelt was giant. Big enough to cover most of the floor in the room, but without a head, I couldn’t even guess what it had been before it was a fancy rug.
My black dress tied at my waist and fell comfortably loose from there with a slight train. The sleeves were fitted all the way down and flared at the wrists. Intricate little silver buttons were sewn up the forearm and a “v” plunged to the top of my breasts. Around my neck was the same necklace the count had given me at the masquerade. I fingered it with surprise when I reached the door, pausing for a moment before grabbing hold of the knob and pulling.
The door opened with a sorrowful moan and let in a light gust of fresh, flowery scents. My hair lifted off my neck at the breeze and I sucked in a breath, chilled. Peering out, I saw a wide hallway with a deep blue carpet extending in both directions. The walls were lined with more tulip-shaped lights, giving the passage a strange, ethereal glow.
I stood in the doorway for a moment, listening and soaking in my new surroundings. There were doors in both directions, all of them different and all of them equally stunning. I stepped hesitantly out of the room and chose a direction, walking so silently that I wondered if my feet were hitting the ground. When I came to a silver railing, I realized I’d found stairs.
Stairs were good.
I looked down the wide steps to see that they curved toward a vast foyer. The ground was black marble with silver inlaid into it like thin veins of ice. There were crystal columns spiraling upward all the way to a domed glass ceiling that gave me a perfect view of the moon, only it looked so much bigger and closer than I’d ever seen it before.
Before I was too distracted, I started to descend the steps. At that point, it was most likely that I was inside some crazed dream, but dreams could be interesting. So long as they didn’t take a mad turn into something sinister and horrid.
When I reached the bottom of the steps, I was in awe of the walls. They were covered in vines and on the vines were purple flowers with starbursts of white in the middle. I stopped, immediately inching toward the flowers as if they weren’t real. If I was in a dream, then they weren’t.
I needed to touch one.
I reached out, my finger brushing over the velvety petals of the biggest one. I snapped back when I realized I could feel it. It was cool to the touch and soft.
“This is real,” I whispered to myself.
Turning, I saw an archway leading into another section of what I was beginning to think was a palace. The light from that passage danced across the glossy marble in orange and golden hues, a stark contrast from the black and silver of the foyer I was in. I ventured toward it, enthralled.
From that golden room came the scent of sunlight and warm grass. I crossed the threshold into a massive chamber with a ceiling three stories high and blazing with moving light as if a fire had been captured behind glass and was raging silently above. I expected I’d feel hot, but the room was cool and dry, strings of lights weaving up the walls like climbing vines. It was so bizarre and magnificent.
At the other side of the long, golden room was a massive globe. I walked toward it across a floor so shiny that the ceiling seemed to dance on its surface. When I came to the globe, it was twice as tall as I was on a swirling copper stand, and inside, light and designs were moving as if alive. The strange, fiery glimmer was singing. It was faint, but there was a slight hum coming from the glowing orb and I couldn’t help reaching out to touch it like I had the flower.
My fingers were mere inches from it when a voice cut through the silence.
“I wouldn’t,” it said.
I spun around to see the count.
Only he wasn’t the count. Under the amber light of the strange ceiling, he was more menacing. Taller, perhaps. Or maybe it was because I wasn’t wearing my heels. His skin reflected whatever light he stood under and accentuated the shadows of his chiseled face. He had on a blue robe and beneath his robe was nothing but his bare chest, tattooed with glowing, iridescent designs in thin, swirling lines. They crept down his chest and plunged into his low-hanging leather pants, drawing my eyes downward.
I was far too used to being unimportant in the presence of people more powerful than me, so when his form strode my way, I stood my ground, locking my fingers loosely in front of me like I would if I were greeting Lucien’s important guests.
But even with my experience bottling up my emotions and reactions, the count made it difficult to remain composed.
