The world reeled.
The walls of the tavern folded in on themselves. My breath caught in my throat. The floor gave in to endless black and I fell...
Not through space, but through minds.
A thousand thoughts rushed through me. Screams. Whispers. A girl begging for her mother. Another humming a lullaby through cracked lips.
And then... Clarity.
I stood in a room lit with blue lanterns. The air smelled of iron and rot.
A circle of robed figures changed, their voices braided like threads of smoke. Their masks were white and smeared with something red. One of them was wearing antlers.
He was pouring something into a basin. Blood. Hair.
"How long will we keep trying?" One of the masked figures hissed.
"Until the Lord awakens," the one with the antlers said.
My stomach turned.
He then held up a mirror, " She'll be of pure blood, born under the solstice, a miracle."
Then the vision shifted.
I was dragged, not physically but mentally over jagged peaks, misty woods and black coastlines until I slammed into a hollowed out temple deep in the marshlands.
The walls were painted in blood. Dozens of cots lined the floor. Some occupied, some cold and empty. Girls. Some breathing, others not.
A sigil burned the stone, a flower with a bleeding eye at the centre.
My heart pounded.
Ofcourse he went there. Even though the plot was early, they went to the same place the last ritual occurred in the book.
Someone patted my back. I turned my head.
I knew him. He was the physician that made the vials back at the count's estate.
"I had a feeling I took the wrong twin," he said grinning.
I screamed _
.... I woke up gasping, choking, with Rosa shaking me.
My skin was cold. My fingers numb.
"I found her....." I croaked, my voice was gone.
Merrin handed me a cup filled with a strange blue liquid. "Drink it. It'll anchor your soul."
I drank the bitter liquid, face contorted.
I turned to the knights who had rushed in after the scream.
"Tell William," I said, voice raw. "There's a temple, hidden in the marshlands near the Eastern harbour. That's where they're keeping the girls."
They look stunned.
"Go now or more of them will die," I yelled.
The knights exchanged glances, then one of them nodded sharply and bolted from the room.
"You need to rest," Merrin said firmly. Setting the cup aside, " atleast for a day or two. A storm is brewing and is going to drop down tomorrow."
Rosa's hands were clutching mine. Her voice steady and soft, she said, "Thank you, for everything."
I tried to smile but it came broken. My thoughts were lost in the vision I had. The screaming and the familiar face.
The knight who remained glanced our way, eyes lingering on Rosa a beat too long. He shifted awkwardly when he realized I noticed.
"Come find me when you need help," Merrin said walking out as the knight followed behind.
I leaned my head back on the pillow , the bitter taste of Merrin's tonic still clinging on my tongue. My fingers curled around the blanket Rosa had pulled over me.
My mind drifted back to the vision.
Everything was happening just as I had written it. But it was happening earlier. Did Elena change the plot's pace? The temple, the abductions. Everything was exactly the same. But the time it was happening.
All of this happened after Iris attempted to murder the new crown princess. Jealous of her beauty, she joined a cult that promised to make her the fairest. But they were caught after girls began missing.
I squeezed my eyes shut, but the images only grew vivid.
And how did I forget the mastermind of all of this? Bramma Timon, the physician who made Iris' vials. And could he have seen me in the vision?
What did he mean by he picked the wrong twin?
I wrapped my arms around myself.
"Are you cold?" Rosa asked.
I nodded.
She pulled out her shawl and came to wrap it round my shoulders.
"I sent a letter to my family," she announced. "Am hoping they receive it soon enough. Mama must have been sick with worry when I disappeared like that."
I sat up.
"My father left us when I was just a young girl. So it was just Mama and my Sister," she said. "I was going to get married in a week's time before I was kidnapped."
"You were are engaged?" I asked.
"All the ladies Were," she answered. "I remember many of them mentioning that."
Why did they abduct ladies that were engaged?
"Anything else you remember?"
She shook her head.
A chill danced up my spine, colder than the night air. The storm Merrin predicted it wasn't just weather.