The air tasted sweet, like freshly cut grass on a calm summer night. Despite the throbbing, uncontrollable pain beneath my skin, I could sense in the air that tomorrow was full of promises. Even if those promises involved some act of revenge.
Gemma walked silently behind me, occasionally glancing over my shoulder, trying to find any small sign that would prove I hadn't gone mad in the last few minutes. Something had happened in my room the moment my skin touched her cheek. Her now dry eyes watched me fearfully.
"Lloyd, why are you taking this path?" I asked. "The Lyrial Hall is the other way."
He shook his head without even making a sound. Sometimes, I forgot that they were forbidden to speak to us. It irritated me to know that it was an order from my grandfather. However, I had to learn to pick my battles, so I would keep up the good-girl act until the time came to confront him.
"The King and the Queen are waiting for us today in the garden of the east wing. I think you'll like it."
Gemma smiled at me, but her eyes remained expressionless. A chill ran down my spine.
The hallways widened as we walked through the castle. The pristine white murals gradually began to be tinted with color, thanks to the vines entering through the windows. Nature made its way with its leaves of hopeful green, with no intentions of asking for permission. In this wing of the castle, the walls were bare, without portraits of ancestors or white roses. Just a few lavender armchairs with feather cushions.
The ceiling was so high that it was barely visibly tangent to my eyes; I knew it was there thanks to small, thin chains from which crystal chandeliers hung, illuminating our path.
I would never understand the magic that surrounded us, as I could swear that this hallway was getting longer each time I stepped on the tiles.
"Is the garden inside the castle grounds?" I bit one of my nails. "We've been walking down this hallway for 15 minutes."
"Time flows differently here."
"Are you kidding? Right?"
Lloyd sharpened his eyes and looked at me bewildered.
"The castle has its own..." Gemma rolled her eyes. "Soul."
"What do you mean?"
"Albus can be a maze if you wish it to be, or the most magical place you could ever have imagined."
"Don't test me," I warned him. "I have a high threshold for imagination."
Gemma quickly moved her heels to my side. Lloyd looked at her suspiciously, as servants were not allowed to walk beside me. It was completely degrading, as if my blood were worth much more than theirs.
"Albus was Madelaine's project for many years; she decided the names of each room in this place. She was a mere human, but with Gael's help, they created this magical place."
Gemma extended her arms, invisibly touching the walls.
"Every corner of the castle is designed for its visitors. It can lengthen the hallways by meters, or even shorten the secret passages depending on the emotions of the person traversing them. It has helped us in some attacks against the castle."
I remembered the previous night, and how the air had escaped from my lungs when the walls compressed around me, when Eamon and I had taken that passageway to enter Albus. I was being suffocated by the castle itself and my emotions.
Great, my new home was an empathetic piece of stone.
"We've arrived," Gemma said, clapping her hands excitedly.
YOU ARE READING
THE UNBREAKABLE PIECE (FIRST BOOK OF THE HIDDEN WORLD) English version
FantasyAmity's life is approaching the tenth anniversary of her brother's death and her mother's disappearance. However, her pain intensifies when she begins to experience strange losses of reality and time that drive her crazy. Just when she thinks she ca...
