Page 17 of Castle of the Cursed
I keep my gaze low as I take my first step across the glittering minefield. I stand on tiptoes as much as possible as I weave around sharp shards, but I have to slow down when I get to the middle of the room, where the debris is denser.
The moon’s silver light dims, and I wait for the clouds to clear. Yet the air keeps darkening, as if someone is putting out the stars.
I look up as a shadow stretches across the wall of windows.
Blackness spreads through the room like smoke, and air whispers past my ear, heavy with more than just oxygen. It’s a voice.
“No hay luz en Oscuro.”
I’m not sure I actually heard it. I spin around to go back the way I came, but I’m clumsier now, and I feel tiny stabs through my socks every time I step on something sharp.
My dusty reflection chases me in the mirror—as does a second, taller and broader silhouette.
I look behind me, but no one’s there.
Yet in the mirror, the large, person-shaped shadow is closing the distance between us.
BOOM.
My pulse swings its hammer, shaking my whole frame. I’m not sure which is more shocking—its presence or the shadow’s.
I haven’t felt my heart in months, and I was worried it’d stopped beating. Only now it’s hammering at its cage, proving me wrong.
BOOM. BOOM. BOOM.
I move faster, and my foot stumbles on the jagged edge of a broken crystal. “Ah!” I cry out in pain, the first sound I’ve heard myself make in months. It sounds more beastly than human.
I stand in flamingo pose to make sure nothing’s stuck on the sole of my foot. The cut is shallow, so I can still move.
In the mirror, the shadow is gone. Moonlight breaks through the darkness again, and I study the floor as I weave through the glass rubble toward the exit. I don’t dare look back until I’m past the chandelier, and then my jaw drops—
BOOM.
A man of flesh and bone stands in the middle of the room, looking down at something in his hand: the bloodied shard of crystal I stumbled over.
When he lifts his face to meet my stare, the room is blasted with silver starlight.
BOOM.
The face from my dreams.
BOOM.
It’s my shadow beast.
CHAPTER 6
I SIT UP IN BED after running harder than I ever thought I could.
I hug my knees to my chest, trying to catch my breath and hold on to it. But with every blink, I see those moonlit eyes.
Watching me.
My gaze snaps to the door. Whatever that was, he didn’t look human. But is he just in my head?
He will find me again.
The thought comes with the certainty of death. Real or imaginary, that shadow beast didn’t look like something I could outrun.
