Chapter 20
LIZ
It was the loud boom of the thunder that woke me up, and the empty space beside me that kept me from sleeping again.
Still tired, I took a few seconds to blink my eyes and adjust my bleary eyesight, looking around and taking the place in. The stable was quiet, and the horses were asleep, but I couldn’t spot Lucas anywhere.
Memories of our lovemaking rushed in me, reminding me that I was sore. I sat up as slowly as I could, then stilled when I saw that the stable entrance door was open, letting in some of the wind and rain. Maybe that was part of what woke me up, too.
I looked around again, wondering what on earth would make Lucas leave and—
The thought froze in mind as I took in the dark stain on the ground.
Blood.
In an instant, I was standing up and trying to find my clothes, hurrying as I watched the trail lead from the hay to the door.
Then, bringing a piece of wood with me, I was running out as fast I could.
* * *
I still couldn’t find Lucas, and the trail of blood stopped near the gardens, wiped out by the ongoing rain. Panic hit me until I spotted the trail of blood resume on the steps towards the palace, where one of the many secret doors was partially open. I almost pushed it in fully, then decided that panic was going to lead me nowhere and would just end up risking my own safety.
There were no guards in this area, and I had no one to ask for help.
So I took a deep breath. Then I slid in as quietly as I could.
The blood was hard to spot at first in the dim lighting, and I knew this area was dim because it was rarely used and was against one of the high walls, where no one could get in. It also led to the west wing, which my half-functioning mind was aware was still restricted. But I ignored all of that and kept following the trail, which grew thinner as I kept walking.
I stopped on the second floor—the west wing itself—where even more darkness surrounded me. I gripped my piece of wood tight, suddenly feeling defenseless against the eerie silence. I stood against a wall and cocked my ears, waiting for any sound to come—footsteps, maybe, or something more alarming.
There was nothing. Only the rain could be heard.
I counted in my head, waiting for a bit more but not too long because I didn’t want to delay this any longer. Then I took a deep breath and kept moving, following whatever drop I could find until it disappeared inside one of the wing’s many doors. This certain door was closed, but I squinted and studied the knob, which was made of brass gold and glinting slightly.
It was also streaked with blood.
My body shook. I opened it, anyway, turning the knob and slipping inside, where I found…an empty room.
Only it wasn’t really an empty room, because the marble tiles didn’t lead to a wall on all corners.
They led to a garden.
There were no windows that would have made this a conservatory, and no proper ventilation at all. There was even no bright light, but the garden entrance was filled with greenery—shrubs, bushes of flowers I didn’t recognize. I could still see pretty well, but now the panic was back, and all I wanted to do was turn back.
But I couldn’t, not when my gut instinct was telling me something was wrong, and Lucas was connected.
I stood still for a few seconds, gathering my courage. Then I walked over to the garden entrance and stepped in, wanting to just get this over with. Almost immediately, a cold sensation hit me, and electricity traveled through my body and had me closing my eyes in defense. When I opened them, my senses warred with my brain, and what I saw had me gaping and wondering if this was all just a dream.
The garden was gone, and in its place was a forest.
The dream thought came again. I pinched my arms just to be sure, felt the pinpricks of pain. Then I remembered my panic earlier, and I knew it hadn’t been a dream when I left the stable and came here. I knew that rusty smell of blood was real.
But nothing made sense here because the sky was a clear black with no moon and no stars—and no, not even rain. There was no ceiling, and there were no walls, and all I could see were green fields and trees that were bigger than any palace could hold.
The blood…I spotted a couple of drops to the right. Like someone in a trance, I followed it, wondering if I was stupid and if I also left common sense behind. A quick look back showed me the same entrance I came from, but this time, I could only see darkness on the other end. I should go back and alert the authorities. I should go back and get out of here, take Kyle with me.
Lucas.
But the instinct inside me warned me to keep moving, and so I did.
It would have been beautiful if it wasn’t so eerie in its lushness, and I tried to be careful. I didn’t make any sound, but my body felt cold and stiff. I could feel something in the air—something sinister and not right—and soon I was sweating like a pig on a cold night.
Footsteps sounded, and I raised the piece of wood. I half-expected Lucas to appear, unharmed, maybe with a little wound on him. The urge to call his name came, so I followed it.
“Lucas?”
The footsteps came faster, and something rustled in the bushes. A figure stepped out.
My blood ran cold.
It wasn’t Lucas. It was a monster—a monster that looked like a lion, except it wasn’t a lion because it was so much more grotesque. It looked like some kind of beast covered in mud, with rough slabs for skin and claws like black talons. It growled in my direction.
Then it started running.
My heart in my throat, I turned around and ran, forgetting all about taking a stand. My eyes zoned in on the darkened entrance, and I willed my feet to carry me faster. Behind me, I could hear it—the sound of the beast’s footsteps following, one pounding step over another as it picked up speed. An inhuman growl split the air, and for a moment I thought I was done for.
A hand shot out of the entrance and grabbed on to my arm. Then I screamed as I was pulled back out, getting a glimpse of the beast behind me leaping through the air.
The crash on the tiled floor was painful, but it almost didn’t register as I found myself back in the room, inches away from the garden entrance. It shook with a powerful force, and I scrambled away, my heart in my throat. But nothing came out, not even a sound. All I could hear was a voice calling out my name—a familiar, concerned voice, and I turned my head and found myself looking straight into Benjamin’s gray eyes.
“Are you okay?” he asked.
“You’re seriously asking me that?” I could hear my own voice shaking, and it took me a while to realize my whole body was, too. I pointed towards the garden. “You need to start explaining.”
A grave look entered his expression, and his next words were spoken soberly. “It’s a long story.”
“I have all the time,” I said.
“What are you doing here? This is a restricted area, Liz.”
“I know it is. I followed your brother.”
His face changed, and now he looked more…careful. “My brother?”
“We were…” I swallowed, then looked down. “We were together in the stables. But he was gone when I woke up, and there was some blood. I followed the trail, and it led me here.” I grabbed his hand, kneeling up. “Ben, we have to find him. He’s not safe here. You can explain later, but you can’t deny that monster tried to attack me. If this is some kind of pet you have or if I’m dreaming…”
“You’re not dreaming.”
I nodded firmly. “Then we need to do something.”
I let go of his hand and made a move to stand up. But Benjamin’s hand clamped around my arm, and the force of the grip had me staring at him in surprise. It propelled me back down, and I watched a pleading look enter his gaze.
“Liz…”
“Ben, what are…?” My words died in my throat as I felt pain on my arm. At first, I thought he was squeezing tight—but another look had my blood running cold again as I realized that it was no longer a hand squeezing my arm.
It was a claw.
I removed my arm from his hold, then stared at him. He was changing—changing right in front of my eyes, his skin turning darker and building in on itself until it became the same protruding slabs that were in the beast earlier. He growled at me to stay, even while his human voice told me to run. But there was no running away from this because he was blocking the door out of this room and was advancing on me rapidly. I scrambled away and crawled on my knees, but I felt those claws sinking on my ankles, felt the pain so excruciating as the smell of blood permeated the air.
Benjamin was a monster.
The crown prince was a monster.
He dragged me back by my ankles, and the pain almost had me going dizzy. But my hands clutched on to whatever they could find, and finally latched on to something hard—the wood that I’d brought with me.
With one last burst of energy, I turned my body and hit him with all my might. The force of it had him howling, then growling, before he finally let me go. This time, I managed to scramble from the floor and get to my feet, but every step felt like pinpricks of needles were being pushed into my skin. I gritted through it, looking at his slumping form on the floor.
He wasn’t slumping for long. Benjamin—no, the beast—stood up on its two hind legs. Its gray eyes stared at me hungrily, and I knew what that look meant: he was going to kill me no matter what.
I knew there was no choice in the matter.
He launched an attack. I hit him with the wood again, which cracked under the force.
Then I ran into the garden.