Page 63 of Nightshade

“Oh, yes. Stygian Falls is the strangest place I’ve ever been. Of course, that’s coming from someone who’s lived in a convent.” With a dubious stare, she eyed me up and down. “Why are you here?”

“I was lost in the woods. Anya found me.”

“Did you run from your abductor?”

Abductor? “No. I came looking for someone. Someone I thought might be here.”

“Who?”

“My father.” I tugged the locket from inside my collar and opened it, noticing her eyes widen with intrigue. “Have you seen him?”

“I have not. Your father is here? Then, he can help us! He can get us back home!”

Only then did it occur to me that she didn’t even know she’d slipped into a completely different world. “How did you arrive? In Stygian Falls?”

“I do not know, exactly. I was putting up laundry in the courtyard with Maria. A friend of mine.” The smile that flickered on her face quickly faded. “Someone took hold of me from behind. I felt an awful ache at the back of my head.” She raised her hand to the back of her skull as if the pain were still there. “When I awoke, I was here.” A sadness swirled in her eyes. “I thought I was dreaming. An endless dream. But I never woke up. Never went home.”

“And the baby?”

“The man who abducted me … well, I am certain it is his.”

I’d never personally been kidnapped before, but something wasn’t right about her conversation. Perhaps it was Stockholm talking, but it seemed she should’ve been more mentally unstable. Shaken.

“Van Croix’s?”

“No. Master Van Croix is not particularly fond of me. I’ve never actually talked to him, at all, really.”

“How did you escape this man? The one who kidnapped you?”

“I must be honest, I do not know. I awoke wandering the woods, until I reached the gate of the Van Croix estate. I have been here ever since. I do not think Master Van Croix appreciates my presence here very much.”

“He sounds dashing.”

“The other girls, they seem to like him a lot. He is handsome, for an older man. Speaking of which, do you know where your father is? Is there a way to communicate? Master Van Croix has certainly been gracious enough to let me stay and work. Girls of my station do not seem to fare well here. But I need to get home to my mother. I suspect she is probably worried sick about me.”

“You said you passed out and woke up here? Did you fall?” Off a building, perhaps?

“Fall?” she asked, her expression thick with confusion. “I felt really ill. Truly. Certain I was going to die, the pain in my stomach hurt so much. And I could not breathe. The air …” Staring off, she frowned, touching a hand to her throat. “I could not seem to get enough breath.”

For someone who’d supposedly forgotten the details of her life, as Xhiphias had warned, she seemed to have remarkable recall of what had happened to her. Which made me wonder how she’d arrived there. “You … you don’t know what this place is?”

Her brows winged up to an arc of confusion. “A cathedral?”

She definitely didn’t know, and I didn’t have the heart to tell her the truth. After all, what happened to babies born here? Did they die? Were they given the chance to return?

“Has anyone hurt you here?”

“Oh, no. Not at all.” Smiling, she touched her throat again. “This place is all right, I suppose, but I want to go home. I have not slept well in so long. And I feel like I’m hearing things all the time. You will hear them, too, eventually. Unless your father can get us out of here.”

“I don’t know where my father is. I hope to find him.”

“You cannot leave. They will not let you.” Nodding toward the window, she crossed the room, and I followed after her. “Those dogs guard the yard. There are only certain places we’re allowed to venture outside, and if we go beyond those places, the dogs will find us.”

“You’re trapped here?”

“Well, they don’t actually say we’re trapped. They say we can leave any time. But they also say there is something dangerous beyond those gates. Dangerous things waiting for us.” With a hopeful smile, she touched her belly again. “Me, you, and little Miriam will find a way out, though. We just have to be patient. We will get out. We will go back home. Just be patient.”

Across the lawn, a field of flowers glowed so brightly against the night sky, they somehow dimmed the moon. “What are they?” I asked, intrigued by their luminescence.