“Oh! New sheets. Perfect timing. Hey there, Allisandra. I thought you were off the night staff?”

  To be honest, I wasn’t too surprised that my sister was familiar with the maid. Mickey was always spookily good at remembering people’s names and small details about them. But still, it was mildly surprising.

  “I… I filled in for Saesha. She’s been a bit under the weather.”

  “Yeah, that’s going around,” I said quickly. I didn’t want to be rude, but it felt like there was an hourglass in my chest and it was quickly counting down every lost second. “Anyways, I think we should go to the gym next. There are a whole lot of mirrors down there.”

  “Then I will help,” the woman said with resolution, tightening her grip on the laundry basket.

  “Well…as long as you can keep quiet.”

  She nodded, pressing her lips into a thin line, and then we were heading down the stairs. It was strange, the pull between acting like everything was alright in case the elder managed to catch a peek of us, but also trying to go as quickly as possible.

  It was harder to stretch out my mind while we were walking quickly, hitting the landing and then the main hallway. But as far as I could tell, she wasn’t anywhere we were headed. It almost felt like she was…occupied with something. But I couldn’t quite grab onto the feeling or impression, it was slippery and wound around the fingers of my mind like a greased snake.

  We entered the gym and although it had looked small while I was in the mirror, it was much bigger when I was actually standing in the room. Oh…and the entire wall was floor to ceiling mirrors.

  Yikes.

  “Oh, um…I’ll go get a ladder and some tacks,” Allisandra said, setting down the laundry basket. Before any of us could say anything, she whirled and headed out.

  “Wow, these folks are really trusting, aren’t they?” Mal remarked, taking a sheet and unfolding it.

  “It helps that we’ve saved their lives several times.”

  “Yeah, I suppose that makes sense.” Mal paused, her brow wrinkling. “Maybe you should go with her while we take care of things in here. You know, in case she runs into some mirror magic.”

  “Ah, right. That’s a good idea. You lot will be safe?”

  “You don’t feel her in here, right?”

  “Yeah, right.”

  “Then let’s hope it stays that way until you get back. You should hurry.”

  I nodded then headed out, going where I had seen her bustle. It took a moment of standing in the foyer, not knowing which way I should go, until I felt a sort of tug in the center of my chest.

  My feet hurried after her, into a small side door and then the servant halls. I blanched for a moment, thinking back to that time when I had been dragged through there, kicking and fighting. Even though I had known it was coming, it had been absolutely terrifying, and suddenly, I was right back in there.

  I breathed deeply for a moment, anchoring myself in reality. I wasn’t in the past. I wasn’t in the future. I was in the present and needed to get to the maid.

  I hurried along, heart pounding in my chest. Fears started to bark at the back of my head, but I pushed them down and followed the tug in my chest.

  And somehow, I found her. She was in a small side room full of shelves and clear boxes. I was almost expecting some terrible monster, or surprise jump scare, so I was still startled by the simplicity of it all.

  “Oh, Miss Masters,” she said, jerking upwards and dropping a container of thumbtacks that scattered across the floor. “Did you need something?”

  “No, just thought it was safer if I came along with you.”

  “Ah, I understand. I’m still looking for the ladder. If you wish, there’s a box by the door with old sheets that are meant to be turned to rags, and right across the hall is one of our uniform and dressing rooms. Lots of mirrors there, and it’s far away enough from shift change that it’s liable to be empty.”

  “Oh! Smart. Thanks, Alissandra.”

  “Of course, Miss Masters.”

  I grabbed the box she was talking about and headed across the hall. Sure enough, there were several wardrobes filled with different kinds of uniforms as well as four different upright mirrors. They were the fancy kind, one that I would have normally seen in stores that I could never afford, but at least it would be easy enough to throw a sheet right over the top of it.

  So I went about doing that. But as I did, I couldn’t help but wonder what was going on.

  The elder had the ability to spy at us behind the scenes, but it seemed pretty weak if she only knew a part of our plan.

  What if the whole scrying thing was a side effect of something else? It was clear that Baelfyre had some sort of connection to her if she was able to channel through his amulet, but… I didn’t know. I just felt like I was missing something.

  Something really important.

  Maybe I would ask Mickey or Krisjian once I got back to them. With a little good-natured handholding, there was a chance we could see farther into my vision than I had been able to on my own.

  …but what if that somehow notified the elder woman? We wanted to lay low, right?

  I was busy chewing on my lip, debating as I stared into the covered mirror, when a sharp cry cut through the quiet. I nearly jumped out of my skin and whipped around to see I was still alone.

  Maybe Allisandra had stepped on one of the tacks she had dropped because of me. Or maybe something much worse was happening. Rushing out of the room and bursting back into the storage one, I flipped on the light switch in my haste.

  The maid was there, almost right where I left her, but crumpled on the floor. I lurched toward her, hands outstretched to see if she was alright, but before I made it a full step, something hard and strong wrapped around my throat and jerked me back.

  My back collided with something very solid, and I gasped. Remembering my training, I stomped on the foot of the person holding me. When there was no reaction but a grunt, it didn’t take a whole lot of brain power to figure out it was a dragon.

  I had no time to think, I just reacted. I swung my hips to the side as far as I could and then slammed my fist downward, hoping I hit somewhere sensitive.

  And I did.

  I heard a sharp gasp behind me then a loud curse as the hands let go. Mal and Mallory’s training rushing through me. I whirled instantly and aimed my knee right into the doubled over gut of my attacker.

  He stumbled back, breathless, and it was then I realized exactly who had cornered me.

  Baelfyre.

  I opened my mouth then closed it, about a million questions dying on my tongue. But then my brain kicked right back in and I realized that I needed to be running.

  I practically vaulted over his head and rushed out into the hall. If I made it to my friends, or at least made it out of the servants’ halls, it was unlikely he would try to fight me in front of everyone. No, his best bet was to keep me separated and terrified. Not thinking, panicking, scared and alone.

  And then he would kill me.

  I raced down the hall, nearly making it to the end where the stairs were leading up, when an arm wrapped around my middle and threw me backward.

  I wasn’t exactly a light person, and yet I still went sailing, flying until I hit the floor hard. It drove my breath from me and made my head spin, the entire world warping around me for a moment.

  Somehow, I had the wherewithal to try to scream, my mouth dropping open to force a shout from my chest. I didn’t get much out before Baelfyre was diving toward me, his hand clapping right over my lips.

  “Now, now, none of that,” he hissed, his eyes a bit wild as he looked me over. He looked a little worse for wear, his dark hair dirty and schmutz smeared across one of his cheeks. It was the most un-put-together I had ever seen him. “You wouldn’t want to bring the whole house down on us, now would you?”

  He pressed harder into my jaw, and I felt the entire lower part of my face beginning to ache, like if he kept going then the whole thing would pop off. My blood and heart were racing, but I remembered what Mal had told me. I remembered what I’d learned from years of getting into fights about my hand, about my sister, about being fat.

  Calling up the magic within me, I summoned a shield out from my core as rapidly as I could, forcing it out in a blast. Just like I hoped, it hit the dragon and sent him flying back.

  Unfortunately, he’d been sent in the direction of the stairs that I needed to get to, which meant I needed to either try to barrel by him with my shield or I could run.

  …maybe a little bit of caution wasn’t amiss.

  I turned on my heel and ran, knowing that Alissandra was safer the farther that I got from her. And who knew, if I got far enough and managed to survive for more than a couple minutes, maybe she would be able to run for help.

  Okay, that was going to be my goal. Keep going long enough for her to get help. I had to have at least some hope that I would get out of the mess I was in.

  How did he escape? It had to be something about the amulet. Too bad it didn’t really matter at the moment, considering that finding out why wouldn’t help me run away from him any better.

  I raced down the hall, hoping that I would run into somebody, anybody, who could help me find the exit, but like Alissandra had said, we were far away from any sort of shift change so the night workers were scattered thinly across the manor. If I recalled, there were only about ten of them and most were scheduled to work around the kitchen.

  So, I just ran as far as I could. I could hear him getting up, could hear him rushing toward me. I wasn’t going to outrun him. For one, he was in much better shape. Secondly, he was a dragon, and while I was an oracle, that didn’t come with any particularly valuable physical perks.

  I waited for the last possible moment before lurching to the side, throwing open a door and diving in. I heard the crash as Baelfyre barreled into the door behind me, and the sheer volume of the sound gave me the impression that he was not entirely in his human form.

  The details to the room came secondary to me as I rushed through it. It was only when I was practically to the other door that I realized it was full of hanging clothing, all meticulously organized on things hung up from the ceiling. I hadn’t even realized that there was a dry-cleaning sort of setup in the manor. Was there one in the palace too?

  Not the thing to worry about.

  Right.

  I slammed the door behind me, and I saw three other exits. I ran toward the farthest one, figuring it was the least likely for me to pick if I was panicked and in a chase, and I just managed to get through it and shut it as the first entrance I had come through exploded in a hail of wood.

  Crap. Crap, crap, crap.

  I locked the door as quietly as I could—not that it would do any good—then looked at where I had ended up.

  I couldn’t believe it. A laundry room. Even as late at night as it was, there were still a couple of dryers going and the smell of detergent and heated machinery filled the air. I was reminded of what Bronn had said about my scent. If there was any place that I could lose him, I was here.

  I had seconds, maybe a little longer if he chose the wrong ways first. Looking around, I saw several big ol’ laundry carts, the kind made of fabric and used in really official places. I headed toward them, diving into one and covering myself with the dirty sheets. I waited there, heart pounding in my chest, and sure enough, the door burst open a few moments later.

  He must have either scented the way I had gone, or he had really great luck. I listened carefully, my lips pressed so hard together that I was sure they were numb, as he stood there a moment, breathing deeply.

  The room was so full of sound. There was the tumble of the dryers, the hissing of heat through old pipes. More importantly, there was a deep, predatory rumble that I could practically feel up my spine. It might have made my teeth chatter if I wasn’t clenching so tightly, prepared to spring up and run at a moment’s notice.

  He definitely wasn’t all human as he moved through the room. I could hear the sheer size of him, as well as his claws as they dragged across the floor. I thought back to the prison, to how I’d entered his cell and he’d tried to shift into a dragon several times and snap at me. Was that what he looked like? I certainly wasn’t going to take the risk.

  I waited, holding my breath, willing my heart to slow down. The sounds around me seemed overwhelming, throwing off my perception of where he was and what he was doing. It built up a crescendo inside of me, loud and tumultuous, being amplified by my own doubt and fear.

  When was the last time I had been reduced to just hiding? I had my shields and my friends and, of course, Bronn always by my side. I hadn’t had to face such a human experience in so long, and of course it was during a situation where it was so easy to be killed.

  Because I was sure that he was going to kill me. There wasn’t a single doubt in my mind. I had helped kill his prince, and I’d taunted him in his prison. I could almost see it, him flying over and dropping my corpse right in front of Bronn.

  That would kill Bronn. I just knew it.

  We’d been so arrogant. I just… I couldn’t believe I had let myself think that the end was almost in sight. Of course it was never going to finish. The anti-humanists were always one step ahead of us. They’d been using and abusing an oracle for so long before I ever even had my abilities and had clearly set things up for decades to come.

  I was going to—

  The maelstrom inside me was cut off as another door burst open and he left the room.

  That… That hadn’t worked, had it?

  I waited a while, or at least it felt like a while, to make sure he wasn’t just going to immediately double back. I couldn’t be sure, but I figured I couldn’t just keep sitting there. He would find me eventually when the dryers stopped, or he got used to the scent of detergent and heated machinery.

  Carefully, oh-so-carefully, I crept out of the cart. I kept a sheet with me, wrapping it around myself in the effort to dampen my scent. I wish that I had asked Bronn more about it. How easily could he scent me? Did it carry? Was every dragon’s ability to smell the same?

  Too late to find out any of that. Instead, I crept back the way I had come, stepping over bits of wood and metal.

  I almost couldn’t believe it when I made it back to the hallway. I didn’t hear him anywhere around me, so I picked up the pace a little, half-running, half-crouched as I hurried forward.

  I could see them, the stairs were almost in my sight. I picked up into a full sprint, heart in my chest, as I thundered down the hall.

  But before I could reach the foot of them, the entire wall beside them exploded, showering me with splinters as Baelfyre erupted from it.

  Except it was barely Baelfyre and almost entirely black dragon. His eyes were red, practically glowing at me with his furor. His snout was long with a row of sharp teeth. Horns were sprouting out of his head and down his spine, which I could see because he was on all fours. But his legs and arms were obscenely long, leaving him looking very much like an abomination of nature.

  Maybe a curse word escaped from me, maybe it didn’t. I couldn’t quite tell. But I did turn on my heel and race back.

  I could feel rather than hear him launch himself off the stairs toward me. I reached inside of me with all I had and called up a shield.

  Somehow it worked, but it didn’t get much past me when he made contact. Once more, I found myself flung forward, picked right up off my feet and sent toward the wall at the opposite end of the corridor.

  But as a positive, the hallway was too small for Baelfyre’s current form to get through, and that gave me an extra moment to recover.

  I fought to my feet and dashed down the hall, ducking into the first room I came across. I knew that the manor only had a couple of servant quarters and that no one actually stayed there, that they had rooms on the first floor, but there had to be something useful to me. Could I loop back to the laundry room? Or would he know that I had been hiding in the hamper?

  I didn’t know. And when I closed my eyes to try to sense something out, all I saw was flashes of claws and gnashing fangs.

  The room I was in was just full of cleaning supplies. But I could work with that.

  I groped blindly for what I was pretty sure was bleach, judging the shape of the bottle. Everything was so dark that there wasn’t much I could make out.

  Hastily, I unscrewed the top, crouching as far as I could get in the corner.

  I didn’t have to wait long. Large claws bit right into the wood on either side of the door and yanked it right off its hinges, revealing the snarling mess of a face of my hunter.

  I didn’t waste a second. I threw the entire bottle of open bleach right at his gnashing teeth. And, better than I had even expected, it burst like an overripe grape.

  Baelfyre let out a sound that would have been hilarious in any other context and hastily scrambled back, his mouth making all sorts of weird shapes. I dove forward, scrambling over his flailing limbs and taking off again.

  I turned one corner, then another. I knew I had to be there soon. There was only so much space in the manor. I wished that I had checked back to see if the maid was up or still unconscious, but I had been so concerned with reaching the steps that I hadn’t thought twice about it.

  “Hello! Who’s down there!?”

  My stomach jolted as I heard a voice from not far away. Of course someone had to have heard us. Baelfyre was making so much noise, crashing in and out of entire walls. Surely the whole place had to be waking up.

  That was good. The less alone I was, the more likely I was to survive.

  “I’m calling the guard!”

  Yes! Bless them! Bless them!

  I switched directions and bolted right for them, putting my everything into a mad dash. I almost expected a trap, but sure enough, I saw one of the kitchen hands standing in a little t-junction in the hall, a knife in his hand and his jaw stretched out slightly.

  “Lady Masters!” he said, eyes widening in surprise. “What are you—”

  “Being chased!” I gasped, rushing to him. “Baelfyre has—”

  Once more, before I could get a full sentence out, the dark dragon’s large arm burst through the wall, nearly slashing open my leg.

 

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