Heart [ON HOLD]

Chapter 18: Red Dawn (Part 2)

If I can't have love, if I can't find peace,

Give me a bitter glory.

-Anna Akhmatova

Cora pulled her cloak over her head and peered out from between the trees. The castle wall loomed up ahead in the dark. Guards paced the battlements atop it, moving in and out of circles of torchlight, and just beyond them were the jagged turrets of the castle, nearly invisible in the dark.

"I don't see anything."

"You're not supposed to," Alastor said. "I used to use this all the time when I didn't want to be seen coming and going. There's a hole in the wall with an illusion covering it. On the outside, it looks perfectly solid, but you can pass through it like it doesn't exist. Just beyond it and across the courtyard are the roses. Once the guards move away from this part of the battlements, we go in. The guards aren't trusted with the information about the hole, so they won't be watching for our entrance. Once we're in, there will be some protection in the gardens. You need to find a spot to hide. Can you do that?"

Cora nodded.

"Good. I'll go ahead and draw the guards watching the bloodroses away from you, then you get in there, get your flower, then get out. You'll need to make sure you can hide from the guards on the wall if you need to before you can get back out."

Cora nodded, heart thumping quicker.

"This doesn't seem too easy to you?"

"It'll only go wrong if you overthink it."

Cora looked him over for a moment. His jaw was set, he was ready to spring, but he was also relaxed.

"You've done things like this before, haven't you?"

The Wolf glared at the courtyard wall ahead of them.

"Too many times. Most of them ended bloody."

Cora nodded. He knew how to do this. It would be fine. She turned her eyes back to the wall and watched the guards begin to walk away. Alastor grabbed her wrist. She stiffened for a moment, then relaxed. His eyes were still on the guards.

He tapped a finger against her wrist once.

The guards were almost gone.

Twice.

Almost...

Three times.

Gone.

"Go."

They sprinted in unison from the trees on light feet. Just before they got the wall, Cora skidded to a halt, but Alastor kept running. He vanished a second later, and Cora gasped. Then with a deep breath she plunged into the wall.

She stumbled out the other side and nearly fell, but the Wolf caught her arm.

"You need to stop falling over all the time," he muttered, then dashed off ahead of her.

Cora bolted for the trees. The grounds were dotted with them and wreathed with poisonous flowers and thorn bushes. There weren't many trees between the wall and the bloodroses, and even when she ducked between two bushes and a tree, she still feel exposed. From here she knew the guards on the wall would be able to see her when they came back, but Alastor had vanished and the soldiers in front of the bloodroses were still there. Cora clenched her fist, nails digging into her skin. They needed to do this quickly. Already she could picture the guards coming back. There was no time for a delay like this. She waited, hunched down in her hiding place for what seemed like too long. Her muscles were quivering with tension and the adrenaline pumping through her was searching for an outlet in vain. Her leg began to twitch and her nails bit deeper into her palms. Minutes passed. Still, the guards hadn't moved. Where was Alastor?