Page 57 of Nightshade

“You did! I watched you!” All her squirming was futile, as his arm banded around her like iron.

“She was not of this world. You have seen how flames consume a body. Hers did not burn as most do.”

Out of breath and exhausted with her fight, Lustina stilled, considering his argument, what she already knew to be true. After all, she had watched her own mother burn. At the time, it had seemed as if her screams would never end. And in spite of the charred state, she had not turned entirely to ash. Certainly not so swiftly as the old woman.

The apple still sat on the ground, and on releasing Lustina, the baron strode up to it and cleaved it in half. Where there should have been pale flesh, inside was black and oozing a strange substance that turned her stomach. Movement within caught her eye, and Lustina stepped closer to see a small, worm-like creature with black scales emerging from the apple’s rotted core. On seeing her, it hissed, just as the woman had, bearing fangs and a serpent tongue. As it slid from the apple and scuttled toward her, she jumped back.

The blade came down over top of it, and once again, flames burst forth, turning the small creature to ash.

Shock left her momentarily speechless. The thought that she might’ve bitten into that apple, unknowingly consuming whatever that was, sent a shiver down her spine.

“How did you know?” she asked on a shuddered breath.

“There are many things I wish to tell you, Lustina, but such confessions would terrify you. Know that I will. In time.” He reached out a hand to her, and Lustina hesitated, unsure whether, or not, to trust him. “I will not hurt you.”

Swallowing a gulp, she reached back, and the two kept on their trek through the woods.

They breached the forest on a gust of wind that swept up the loose strands of her braided hair, and Lustina stared out over the edge of the cliff that stood just a short distance away. The black sea stirred below them, as the baron led her to the steep edge. A cold sensation stirred inside her chest, her hands clammy and trembling.

The reaction seemed to catch the baron’s attention, and he came to a stop before they arrived at the edge of the cliff. “You’re afraid.”

“I … I cannot …. I am afraid of heights.”

“I beg to differ.”

“P-p-p-pardon, My Lord?” Teeth chattering with the fear that wracked her body, she could scarcely push the words past her lips.

“It’s not the height that you fear. It is falling. Slipping from the edge, with the wind at your face. Nothing to catch you. Only pain awaiting you on the merciless rocks below.”

“If your words are meant to offer comfort, I can assure you they do not.”

“What if I were to catch you--would you leap?”

“Forgive my saying so, but there is little your lordship could do once I’ve already fallen.”

Brow quirked, he tugged at her to follow. “Then, we will be careful not to let you slip.”

She wrenched her arm back, desperately avoiding the edge of that cliff. “What is so important that I cannot see from here?”

“It cannot be explained in words. Come. I want to show you.”

Heart hammering inside her chest, Lustina forced her mind to relent the images of him pushing her over the edge. As cruel as he could be, he surely wasn’t a murderer of the innocent. Of course, who would think him the culprit of such a crime, seeing as she’d foolishly ventured into the woods without escort.

“You can trust me,” he said, as if reading her thoughts.

With hesitation, she reached for his outstretched hand, and he took hers much gentler that time. Acids rose to her throat as she stepped, cautious and slow, toward him, daring not to lift her foot from the rock below her shoes as she dragged her feet along. With her toes at the edge of the cliff, and her eyes forward, Lustina breathed hard through her nose. A strong hand wrapped around her waist, lips at her ear, as the baron whispered, “Look down.”

Squeezing her eyes shut, Lustina held her breath and shook her head. “I cannot.”

“You fear this more than anything?”

“Perhaps. It comes a very close second to one other fear.”

“Which is?”

“I am not certain I wish to tell you, given your inclination to entertain one of them already.”

“I want to know what else you fear, Lustina. I want to know your vulnerabilities. The things that make you clutch to what you perceive as safe.” Only then did she realize her fingers had dug into the baron’s arm, her whole body pressed against his, quaking like a fragile leaf on a thin branch.