Page 73 of The Shadow of Breninsol
She’d been made vacuous by this man. She wanted to leave and never again see him.
“How long have you been there, Your Lordship?” she demanded, with the small amount of bite she could muster in his presence.
“Longer than you think,” he replied, standing in front of her and tilting his head. “You don’t like me, do you?”
A muscle in her jaw tightened as she clenched it, her eyes narrowing. His drawl annoyed her, conveying his boredom in one breath. “I’m not here to like people. I’m here to fuck them if you haven’t forgotten.”
“I’ve not forgotten.”
Eleanor didn’t know if she was imagining it, but it felt like his voice had taken a hard edge to it, but that didn’t matter. She was a bet. He’d lied to her, tricked her, and for all she knew, he could still deceive her. Especially with him in possession of the necklace. What made it worse was that she’d naively fallen for what he’d told her, all because he’d shown her some attention.
She took a breath and hardened herself. She didn’t needhisattention. She’d been alone this long; she could stay alone. It was easier that way. Better for everyone. Safer.
She lifted her chin, concealing his effect on her, and mustered a hard voice that would tell him sheknew. “I hope I’ve done enough for you to win your bet.”
Before he could respond, someone called to him from the path, and Eleanor used the disturbance as an opportunity to leave him alone in the gardens under the moonlight.
Eleanor stalked through the residence; she’d stayed long enough to not feel the back hand of Madam Grace. Eleanor was done with this place, and these people. She’d known to trust no one, but she’d become lax in guarding herself against him. She’d let him get under her skin, and why? Because he looked pretty?
She’d be happy to never see him again.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Alabaster
She stood before a long lost massive window, that’d be a swirling mix of colours, if there was sunlight. Instead, the grey sky beyond had muted the effect of the panes.
A clicking echoed rhythmically in the vast chamber, matching an even pace of footsteps against the stone floor. The sound tugged at something familiar. She whirled in anticipation, but she was alone. She squinted, trying to locate the sound’s source across the ever-reaching chamber, but it was too dark.
She noticed the edges of the hall were creeping towards her. Panic flared in her. She knew she wanted no part of it. Whateverwas within that darkness, whatever was coming, she wanted it gone.
A low cackle drowned out the clicking footsteps that made tormented shivers run along her spine. It was a cackle that she knew intimately, and she felt nothing but horror as the sound rung throughout the chamber.
She frantically whipped her head from side to side, watching the ever-darkening hall’s sides creep ever closer, but nothing was there except an absolute darkness.
A familiar fear caught in her throat. The kind of fear that made her feel small and young once more. It was the type of naïve fear that she’d once thought if she pulled her bedcovers over her head, it would keep her safe.
How wrong she’d been.
There was no protection from this, fromher.
The cackling turned to a cumulative cacophony. In a sad attempt to quieten the high-pitched screeching, she covered her ears.
She instinctively knew that the darkness leeching from both sides was not something she wanted to touch her. She wanted nothing to do with it.
She stood in horrified fixation as the dark edges rushed at her. She would have screamed, but the sound caught in her throat.
As the dark edges closed in, it transformed into shapes. Shapes that became clearer the closer they got to her.
The darkness transformed into creatures.
The creatures that were…there were no words.
The creatures were unlike any she’d seen before. They were flying, crawling, and rushing at her from both sides. They were pitch black. A type of black that the moment it touched anything, it was swallowed whole by the creature’s endless darkness. They were featureless, grotesque, with elongated limbs.
She ran.
She ran as fast as she could towards whoever had been walking with a steady, sure gait. She didn’t know why, but she knew if she could just get there, then she’d be safe.
