Ch. 45

“Monster”

I move my way through the crowd that is flooding from the grand hall into the hallways. Weaving in out and making sure not to touch anyone. The poppy is finally wearing off and I can feel the coldness crawling up inside me. I can’t, no. Shit. A single claw drags down my mental door. I need to move quickly. I need to get out of here.

As I move, I notice the crowd start to part down the middle. They are avoiding something and something big. It sucks being so short in comparison, except from dwarfs or gnomes I discovered today. But can’t see anything over anyone else.

I hear a loud gasp from a woman. She moves quickly against the wall of the hallway. I follow her eyes and a smile spreads across my face.

It is not nice to scare our guests.

Halfy’s golden eyes flash to me and I could of swore he was also smiling with that fang filled mouth of his.

Walk me back to my wing? It has been a long day, and I’ve missed you.

I reach and pat his sleek porpoise shoulder. A rumble leaves Halfy’s throat and the crowd moves again, crowding the edge of either wall on the sides of us. Large widen eyes and gaping mouths fill the space as we walk. I forget how rare Akhluts truly are. They aren’t used to a large formable fanged beast to be roaming the castle walls going wherever he pleases.

You are such a good guard dog.

Halfy howls and it echoes down the hall, parting the sea of people, creatures, and everything in between once more. We move effortlessly now past everyone.

Most people, or creatures don’t venture past the servants quarters, maybe because that is where the guest spaces are or is it because they can feel the wards that lay dormant as you reach my side of the castle. Do they feel the burning of hands pounding against the wooden door? Do they smell the fear of being trapped? Do they hear the ghost child crying into the night?

I shake my head as we reach the wooden door. Again I’m stopped before entering. Frozen. Halfy looks down at me and nudges my shoulder with his long snout. My chest rises and falls. I interlace my fingers and pop the knuckles, pop, pop, then nothing. I look down at my hands. The rune inked on that middle finger refusing to pop. Hmm. I take a deep breath and push open the wooden door that inflicted more damage than any Baldur or Samca could. Let’s hope Mother is in a giving mood and hopefully doesn’t hear about my Rolf encounter until morning or never. Or we will see how good Zanir’s word truly is.

As I walk through the door, I am hit with a wave of coldness that causes goose bumps to fill my arms. The locked metal door halfway down the hall almost glows in the faint torch light at the end of my wing. I pull the wooden door close but stop before the door clicks into place. Something telling me to wait. I huff out a breath and something catches my attention, an area of the hallway that seems darker than normal…but something else snaps me away.

Lady Mihaela… Kiza purrs and I feel my name echoing through my skull. The locked door, as if it can also hear my name, starts buzzing like static trying to draw me closer. Fuck.

Halfy stops parallel with the metal door and glances back to me. As if this creature could convey a sense of pity that would be the look I am getting from him right now. He knows. He knows what happens in that room. He knows what I do in that room. He knows how it eats me alive inside, even if I am cleansing a soul to be returned pure. It is the only way we have found that keeps everything, Kiza at bay, more so than a buck can. The only thing that can keep my brain quite for a little awhile. The only thing that helps me sleep in this closed off nightmare wing. Even if Mother has again somehow twisted it to benefit her as well. But, honestly, as much as I despise this, how long I fought it, the alternatives is either destruction or death. One would kill me either way and I’m too stubborn to leave a world I have even got to experience yet.

Halfy holds his stare for another moment before walking down the hall and turning right in my bedroom, probably going to take up the whole bed with his massive body.

I turn to the beckoning metal door. The buzzing grows the closer I get. I feel my hands start to shake. Not because of nervousness or anxiety, no, from the purple that is climbing up my fingers. I try to steady my uneasy breathes. My heart races as I rest my left palm on the stone wall next to the door. I feel a burning sensation as the magic within the room recognizes me, the blood in my veins. The lock on the door click and falls slack along the door handle. Shit.

In one swift movement I push through the door, move into the padded, hard room, and turn to closed the door as fast as I can.

“It is about time someone showed up.” A rough course voice reiterated off the padded walls behind me.