Page 24 of Royally Hacked Belle & Flame
Jett walks around the cellar, peering at every nook and cranny. “There’s a window here near the ceiling,” he says after a long moment.
I spin around. “Where? I didn’t see…”
My gaze lands on where he’s pointing. There is in fact a small row of windows along the top of the cellar wall. They look as if they’re close to ground level near the base of the foundation. At the moment, they’re completely covered from the outside with snow, and from the inside they’re so grimy I assumed it was just part of the stone.
“Good eyes,” I admit. “Can we use magic to widen it?”
Kastian walks over, inspects the window, and gives a low whistle. “I can try, but the frame is iron.”
My stomach sinks again. Iron is resistant to magic—come to think of it, maybe that’s all that’s going on with the door. If it’s lined with iron, any magic would just bounce right off. Fucking hell.
“Excuse me,” Gwen says, louder than expected. She’s standing now, her chin raised, shoulders squared, eyes determined. “I can fit through it.”
“No,” I say, before I can stop myself.
“I can! I’m small enough.”
“That’s not what I meant. I meant, you can’t go. It’s too dangerous.”
There’s a ringing silence, and finally Jett breaks it. “I hate to say it, Ashwater, but it’s probably our best option. Send her to the manor to get some of the soldiers. I don’t doubt we can handle the baker, even if she is a witch, but unless we can get out of here…”
I wave him off, unwilling to listen to logic. “No! We can just wait for her to open the door again. I doubt she’s planning to leave us down here indefinitely.”
“Why not?” Kastian asks.
I run a hand through my hair. I feel fucking stupid even this bringing it up—The Yule witch is children’s story and no one truly believes in it—but I am standing in a goddamn dungeon a wall away from a room full of bones. “I think she’ll have to comeback down here at some point because that’s how the legend goes. The Yule witch hibernates all year, and then she wakes up and she’s starving, and no amount of food will satisfy her, so she steals children and eats them.”
Kastian looks skeptical, but doesn’t point out how absurd that sounds. “Fine, so maybe she’ll come back for the kids.”
“Or for all of us,” Jett points out. “We’d make a better meal than a couple of kids.”
“What if she doesn’t come back for a few days, though.” Kastian asks. “You’ll miss your wedding. Everyone will think we’re dead.”
Fuck.
That’s true. I can’t miss the wedding or put Alix through thinking I disappeared. We can’t just wait, we can’t break through the door, but I also can’t send a kid out into a storm. I want to fucking punch something, but I’m afraid of scaring the children.
“I’d be worried about what happens the next time that door opens.” Fox says, distracting me.
I raise my eyebrows at him. “Why?”
He grinds his teeth, looking pained, but answers without much preamble. “I don’t think she’s just a witch. She’s not even fae.”
My mind is already rolling through every flavor of monster that might want to eat children for Yule, and none of them are good. “Then what is she?”
He shakes his head hard. “I don’t know. But I know how things are supposed to smell, and this house is wrong. I caught it when we first came in, but it’s stronger here. It’s unnatural.”
Archer walks over to the window. “I might be able to squeeze through there.”
I feel a hell of a lot less terrible about sending him out into the storm than the crying little girl, so I don’t stop him fromtrying. Unfortunately, he’s just slightly too big, and Fox has to yank him back out of the window so he doesn’t get stuck.
“I can do it,” Gwen insists. “I want to go. I’d rather be out there than in here with…her.” Her eyes dart up to the ceiling and widen meaningfully.
I run a hand over the back of my head, squeezing my eyes shut. I can’t believe I’m even considering this. “What if you get lost again?” I offer one more half-hearted protest.
“I won’t,” Gwen insists. “I’ll follow my own footsteps back or mark the trees.”
“Or leave yourself a trail,” Jett suggests, picking up more brightly colored candies and handing them to her. “Just drop those behind you so you can find your way back.”
She smiles widely with candy-stained teeth and nods in agreement.
