Instantly I picked up my dagger and pointed it at him expressionless to not betray my excitement mixed with slight fear. “Get out of our way.” Mr. Duke, ignoring my statement, mentioned back to the palace that was good few miles away from where we stood. “Go back, Violet.” My name escaped from his lips as if he was saying a spell to cast me over to his side. “Forget this ever happened. I’ll let you go. Eventually.”
Fear ran quickly through every part of my mind, telling me in whisper to do anything that was possible to get the heck out of here and indeed how much I desired to do that, if only my legs moved. Drake protectively stepped around me shielding me with his lean but some what muscular body. “Let us go.” Mr. Duke scoffed and shook his head as I watched him around Drake’s towering height. “I cannot do that. Not until—“
Whatever he wanted to say was cut off by abnormal howl that came from him, his hands flying to cover his face as he stumbled back gasping short for breath. When he looked up again, his face was twisted into inhumane snarl along with big cut that ran down from his hair line to his nose diagonally over his eyes. In few seconds I noticed that Drake held a bloody knife his own face remaining calm and cold as ice. How could he do that without me actually seeing that he did it?
With a decision that I will find out later, I took out my knife that I had snatched from the table and took a deep breath before meeting Mr. Duke and his companions head on.
* * * * *
Yet again, I was in the hallway of paintings, each one of them telling their own story. I didn’t dare to look in any of those as my legs were pulling me somewhere. Dreams had been put beautifully on the canvas although if you look closer you could see that they moved and displayed the scene. Most of them were my distant memories and dreams that I’ve wanted to see but I guessed it wasn’t the time to see them while I walked past them looking straight forward.
Finally my legs stopped and turned me around making me face a dark painting almost without anything on it. Frown creased on my forehead along with worry of this place becoming too dangerous for me to be here but something pushed me inside the painting. It felt like I fell down into pile of mud and couldn’t claw or climb my way out struggling to see through the dark corners. At last light flashed and just as quick, disappeared from the sight.
It flashed a bit closer this time, disappearing again. It continued its sequence getting closer to me moreover while it did, it looked more like same brown hair that… Thought crashed over me as I stood up shakily and started walking backwards away from the light no matter how seductive it looked, drawing in my heart to it. He couldn’t be here. Not this time. Not at this time. Then my fears indeed proved themselves to be right.
Cold hands gripped me from behind the nails digging into my shoulders as I opened to scream but nothing came out increasing the fear that almost made me lose my balance. Swiftly they let go of me leaving me falling on the floor. But I never hit it.
Instead I woke up with someone shaking me hard, the previous pain returning to my head. Vision came clear in next few minutes when person noticed that I was awake stopping shaking me. Drake’s face blurred right in front of mine scaring my already beating fast heart so much that I opened my open to scream. His hand came up closing it over my mouth with stern look. “If you scream, they will know you’re awake.”
The pain hit me back just as I pushed it away, my vision blurred again and I rested my head back breathing hard. Why didn’t it ever stop? Drake cradled me closer into his firm embrace whispering soft words in some sweet language that was either French or Latin. Either way it calmed me down enough to let my heart beat a normal pace. At last he spoke softly into my ear so close so that I could feel his hot breath. “Duke said someone will visit us this noon. Be prepared for anything.”
