I blinked, not believing my eyes for a moment. My brows furrowed in confusion. It couldn't be that simple. It couldn't...
Yet... as I clenched my eyes shut tightly and opened them again, the same sight greeted me. The portal key I was looking at wasn't a figment of my imagination, it was... my fingers twitched to feel that it was as real as it seemed.
Not wanting to drag out the moment of suspense and waste precious time, I reach for it. My hand trembled as it neared the stone that had me forgetting all my other problems in the face of the answer it provided for the one that mattered the most, Ash. Shaking fingers pushed aside a ring to better reveal the familiar markings carved into the milky white crystal that had been haunting my dreams. Energy buzzed under the tips of my fingers as they grazed the cold surface that I was afraid my touch would reveal to be a desperate illusion just waiting to shatter.
Disbelief refused to release me as I picked up the key that rested on a heavy chain that I had been hoping to find but didn't expect to come across so easily. So easily, that it felt like a trap. It might very well be one with how it was sitting out in the open for my eyes to find. It was the first thing aside from the wall of weaponry that I saw when I walked into the closet. After finding me mid-search the other day, maybe he had put it there knowing I would eventually look there.
But why would he want me to find it after already telling me I couldn't use it?
Did it matter as long as I managed to make it to Ash before Rowan realized I had it?
Disbelief turned into determination as the sharp edges of the crystal key dug into my palm as I clutched it in my hand and drew it towards my chest. The spot of warmth that was now a constant that I barely noticed grew alarmingly warmer as the key and the power it held neared.
With my heart pounding loudly and blood rushing through my ears and drowning out any telling noises, I snapped my head towards the open French doors, watching them closely for any signs of another as I rushed out of the closet like I had just set a fire in there. The wooden doors that were visible through them were firmly shut with no one in sight. My ears strained to confirm that I was alone. After several beats of unmoving silence, my feet moved for the bathroom door while Hilda's voice sounded in my head alongside the thundering of my blood.
'Hold it above water, picture your destination, and activate it. Oscailt.'
The instructions she had drilled into my head played on repeat, only stopping when I shoved the door to the bathroom open so hard in my haste that it slammed against the wall to bounce back. The noise interrupted my racing thoughts and had me cringing as my eyes darted back toward the door Rowan had left through.
This castle was huge, I reassured myself. That noise would have barely registered, especially if he was at the other end in the Queen's wing.
Ignoring the faint mark that remained on the wall, I shut the door behind me and slid the lock home. Turning, I beelined for the bathtub. I dropped to my knees, holding back a hiss as the impact vibrated up my legs. I needed to calm down before I messed up beyond repair. It took a few minutes of frantic fiddling to find the rubber stopper for the tub and release the water from the spout rather than the overhead shower. The struggle left me with an arm and half a head of hair soaked in water. Once the water began to flow and fill the tub, the restless impatience I was experiencing grew as I watched the water slowly fill, needing to stick with cooler temperatures when the warmth had me seeing red.
Hold it above water, picture your destination, and activate it. Oscailt. Hold it above water, picture your destination, and activate it. Oscailt. Hold it above water, picture your destination-
