Page 84 of Cruelest Kiss and Fairest Blood
The sheer number of guards surrounding the building is unusual. At least thirty guardsmen stand watch. My pulse quickens as I follow the woman up the steps and into the doorway. What will I find inside? If Lenore were already dead, I would surely have felt it. She must be deathly ill. That’s the only logical explanation for her to be missing like this.
The inside of the chapel is dark, with only a few sparsely laid candles to light the space. Lying in the middle of the room, surrounded by dried flowers, is Lenore. I move so quickly that I reach Lenore before the girl in the memory, temporarily blurring my surroundings. After an infuriating few seconds, my view of Lenore sharpens. My gaze pins to her chest. The deep red fabric rises and falls. Relief courses through me as powerfully as the river in my kingdom below. She’s alive. What illness has she contracted? Why is she here and not being tended to by healers?
A clumsy guard knocks over an extravagant vase of flowers near the floor. The sound rattles through the chapel, echoing off the walls and making my head ache. Lenore doesn’t move. Not a single muscle responds. She must be in a deep sleep. Perhaps they’ve drugged her?
The back of my hand brushes across her cheek. A thousand dark and damned images burst through my vision in a kaleidoscope of horror and death. No, it can’t be. It isn’t possible.
My hand hovers an inch above her skin and I feel it. The spell. Dark blood magic clings to Lenore’s skin like soot. This slumber is not the result of an illness. Someone has cast a spell on my little raven.
As gently as I’m able, I enter Lenore’s mind. My skills are pushed to their limit. Entering the memories of someonewithin a memory is altogether foolhardy. If I’m not careful, I’ll reemerge into the memories of the young maid whose mind I’ve invaded instead of rising fully to my current state of consciousness. That would be a pity for her as well. She would be stuck with me inside her mind forever. Madness until death.
Lenore’s pulse flutters beneath my fingertips. I’m pulled halfway under. Her memories come to me in quick flashes. Darkness fills my field of vision. Ash burns in my lungs. Sinister magic twists ’round my spine. An all-too-familiar laugh pricks my ear. “Have you come to make a trade?”
I’m thrown from the vision. Landing back in the servant’s mind, I stare down at Lenore. The hairs on my neck stand alert. My skin crawls when my own memories come flooding back. I know that laugh.
Lenore is in the in-between.
The last time I set foot in that wretched place… The scars on my back burn. I’ll never forget the pain. She who rules the in-between makes the Ruler of the Underworld look like a gentle and benevolent fairy in comparison. Her lands are filled with things so terrible they surpass mortals’ worst nightmares.
My little raven is trapped there. Two days. That’s what the servant said. Lenore has been on her own in the in-between for two days.
Urgently, I fling myself from the young girl’s memories. My cape flies out behind me, disturbing the hair of all three women as I turn on my heel. I need to get to Lenore.
The chapel looks just as it did in the memory. Lenore rests on the stone pedestal, hands folded over her stomach, surrounded by flowers. In person, the spell is much more easily detected. I’ll find whoever cast it and ensure their suffering never ends.
First, I must rescue Lenore. Who knows what hell she’s been living in. The in-between feeds off of fear.
Brushing my fingers through her hair, I whisper, “I’m coming for you.”
It goes against my instincts to leave her again, but I don’t dare to conjure a portal here. The risk of dragging others in with me is too high.
The meadow clearing is my best bet. I shadow forward, landing near the tree stump I’ve so often watched Lenore sit on as she speaks to her animal friends.
Movement to my right catches my attention. A small herd of resurrected animals is emerging from the tree line. They move toward me, chirping and huffing. I don’t know how to speak to animals, but I can sense the plea in their innocent eyes.
“I’ll get her back,” I assure them. “Stay away from the castle and out of sight until I return.” Something dark is afoot. Lenore would be heartbroken to return to the world of the living only to find her closest companions slaughtered and eaten or turned into rugs. The animals flee, scurrying and flying away.
Placing my palms flat on the ground, I summon a portal to the in-between. Lightning sears through my bones as my magic is funneled into the earth. My wings flap, the lower scars flaring with pain. A plume of smoke rises from the grass, swirling into the shape of a large oval.
I slide my hand into the smoke until it’s wrist deep. The sensation of thousands of tiny teeth tearing at my flesh threatens to overwhelm me. A large portion of my magic is being siphoned. It’s the price for entering the in-between uninvited.
The agony ceases. My payment has been accepted. It takes several deep breaths to quell my growing nerves. I never wanted to set foot in that place again. I’ll do it, though. I’ll enter the in-between and save Lenore. Without me, she’ll fall deeper and deeper asleep. I have to rescue her while there’s still time. I will find my sweet, sweet raven and help her. Without me, she’ll be lost forevermore.
Chapter 27
Lenore
The stench of rotting meat pulls me from my slumber. A quick rattling of chains sounds as I move.
There’s a high-pitched ringing in my ears. Pain radiates from a sore, open wound beneath my left ear. It must be where the creatures hit me with something.
Their tiny voices lurch me from the darkness. The cheeriness has vanished. Any doubts I had about their nature disappears when I set eyes on them. They’re as hideous as they were in those brief moments I saw them before. Shriveled, green, and covered in lumps, bumps, and sores. Sharp nails grow from gnarled fingers. Their eyes are sickly yellow.
“Goblins, goblins, gobbling you up.” One spins in circles, repeating the chant.
“Goblins?” I gasp. They look even more terrifying than when I first saw them.
“Goblins, we are. We were gnomes. Spent too much time in the dark forest, didn’t we? Turned us into something nasty.”
