Demon Daughter (Book I)

6.1 | The Boy from the Palace

The next day it rained and Ravenna couldn’t go to the Crystal Palace. She begged her mother to let her outside for a while, but she was concerned that the girl might get sick. That’s why she could only look out the window and wait for the sun to peek through the clouds. Since the girl did all her homework, even spending time with Agnese didn’t quench her boredom. She couldn’t concentrate and was constantly thinking about her secret place. Now there was nothing more interesting than exploring the palace.

However, in the afternoon, Ravenna’s eyes fixed on the door in the corridor, behind which hid the tunnel that connected her home to the Crystal Palace. It seems so close, yet so far...

The girl’s heart raced with excitement. She gently lowered the handle, but to her surprise, the door didn’t open. Ravenna thought it might be jammed with something and tried to pry it open, but it was possibly locked. But who and why did this?

There was no other option, so Ravenna couldn’t go outside until the next day, when the grass had dried. Unable to find an answer as to who could have locked the door, she crossed the meadow and soon found herself at her favourite spot. As far as she remembered, there was a door on the third floor that she hadn’t checked last time. The thought of going there today excited her. The girl’s heart felt like it was going to jump out of her chest.

And finally, Ravenna stood in front of the door, lowering the handle. A cosy library opened up before her eyes. It was quite small, with a red patterned carpet covering the wooden floor. Baroque-style shelves rose to the top of the ceiling, filled not only with thick books but also with old yellow scrolls. In one corner stood an armchair and a table laden with books. Ravenna started flipping through pages, but couldn’t make out what was written there. They looked like ancient, almost faded writings, but she felt they were important, telling some story, perhaps even the story of the origin of this palace. She checked the other books as well, but different languages made it difficult to understand what was written in them.

Ravenna wanted to leave them, but some paper fell out of one of the books. The girl bent down to look and her eyes widened in horror when she saw the picture. The picture of her. There was no doubt about it, she was the one with the strange red mark on her forehead that didn’t even look like a scar or birthmark. She had never seen anyone else besides herself with such a mark. But what does that mean? Why didn’t her parents tell her anything? And where did this picture come from?

The girl unconsciously touched the mark, but then footsteps distracted her and the book fell out of her hands. Not knowing what to do, she hid behind the shelf furthest from the door and listened. She was so frightened that she forgot how to breathe, it seemed that the slightest sound would reveal her hiding place. Even her heart was beating too loud at this point.

But trying to get a grip on herself, the girl waited tensely. At that moment, the door creaked open and someone walked in, but she was too far away to see. Footsteps echoed cautiously and suspiciously, as if the person in the room was carefully inspecting every corner, searching for something. What if he saw Ravenna entering?

For a minute, silence filled the room. Then the sound of scattering papers and turning pages reached the girl’s ears. But now the movements seemed so fast that Ravenna couldn’t imagine how that person was doing that. It was as if a hurricane had crashed through the window and somehow miraculously failed to affect anything else in the library.

The odd experience made her stomach churn and the girl leaned against the shelf, reeling. Her hand accidentally brushed the ancient bronze sculpture and it fell on the floor.