Page 8 of The Curse of Penryth Hall
When I succumbed to sleep at long last, it wasn’t of specters that I dreamed, but ofher. Drawn and broken as she’d been at supper, standing there in her nightclothes. A great snake curled around her body, slithering up, round and round her until it reached her throat. Winding tighter and tighter. Noose-like, choking the life from her. My own chest constricted in response. I couldn’t breathe as I watched the color slowly drain from Tamsyn’s face.
I moved closer, but my steps were weighted. I couldn’t reach her. Struggling against the darkness. Heart racing. I reached her at last. But just as I laid a hand on the serpent at her throat, she melted away to someone else entirely.
Edward.
His smile curled up into a sinister sneer as he stumbled toward me in the darkness.
One step. Then another, reaching for me. A great blade in his hand.
He caught me by the collar of my gown. Tugging me closer.
Closer.
I fought him. Struggled. Heart now slamming into my ribs, fit to burst from the bone cage that housed it.
Damp.
Sweat.
Heat.
I couldn’t get away.
He was too strong. His hands around my throat squeezing harder and harder.
I opened my mouth to scream but silence followed.
My fingers grew numb as I clawed at him, reaching for something. Anything.
Then my hand found it. The handle of the blade. Fingers curled around the warmth, I drove it deep into flesh. A loud howling sound reverberated in my ears and I dragged it upward. In and up.
He still wouldn’t let me go.
I bucked against his weight. Fingers still gripped around the knife in his belly.
My pulse grew slow.
Thud.
Thud.
The hands at my throat grew tighter as the last of my strength began to fade. Fingers numb, slowly slipping from the knife. Then suddenly my captor slackened his grip. Another scream came. Feral and sharp, cutting through my dreams and the distance. In an instant the bonds were gone.
I jerked upright, gasping for the thick night air. Body drenched in sweat. My nightdress stuck to me. My hands went to my own sore throat. I’d had my share of night terrors but never before had theyhurt.
Fiachna sat at the foot of the bed, hissing at the tall bureau, a shadow cast against the wall. His back arched, tail fluffed out three times the size of normal. My throat dry and tight, unwilling to let the air come.
Only I would have a cat who shared my nightmares. He must have been smothering me in my sleep. I ran a hand over my face, trying to shed the last remnants of the dream. My limbs still clumsy. Numb and weak like those of a newborn kitten. I flexed my fingers, pushing the eerie sensation away.
It was just a dream, Ruby. Just a dream.
Slowly my breath returned to normal, and Fiachna, havinggiven up tilting at windmills, settled himself against my thigh. His wide yellow eyes flashed a spectral green from the moonlight coming in through the open window.
I hadn’t recalled leaving it open. In fact, I was most certain it had not been open at all when I went to sleep. The curtains billowed inward as the sky outside lit with heat lightning. One. Two. Three. I counted on, waiting for the rumble that never came.
The moon was low and full overhead, with a strange ghostly halo around it. Pinprick stars flanking it in the pitch of night. Odd for lightning on such a clear evening. A hint of movement caught my attention and I turned toward the wood. A figure dressed all in white disappeared into the copse, robes trailing behind as it hurried into the dark. I blinked sleepily, rubbing my face as I stared after the spot where the specter disappeared, but it never returned. Perhaps I should rethink my opinion of ghosts after all. But whatever it was or was not, the creature was in the orchard and I was here, safe and sound within the drearily thick walls of Penryth. I pulled the window firmly shut, fastening the old metal latch hard for good measure, and went back to sleep—that is, until I heard the bells.
CHAPTERSIXThe Bells of Penryth Hall
