Vermillion & Silver

Chapter Twenty-Six || Recovery

The corridor was bathed in sunlight. It made the white marble floors shine with a force that was almost blinding. The light came through the arches on her right side, the ones that opened into a courtyard covered in flowers. The branches of a large cherry blossom peaked into the hallway, leaving pink petals scattered on the floor. It was a beautiful sight but not nearly as wonderful as the sounds of laughter that pierced the air.

Selene was drawn to the echos of footsteps and the childlike giggles that resonated around her. She looked down into courtyard hoping to find the source but it was empty. She couldn't tell where the sounds were coming from but she knew, instinctively, that she had to get to them, she had to find them.

She walked down the hallway but the laughter was neither closer nor farther away. She turned back but nothing changed. It was so strange. She closed her eyes and channeled the beast. The lycan knew where to go. She kept her eyes shut but her feet followed the path her instincts chose. She walked and walked with the warm cast of the sun against her skin and smell of cherry blossoms in her nose.

She was getting closer and the sounds became clearer, it was the giggles of a child at play, she was sure. A part of her wanted to open her eyes and find the cub but the lycan side stopped her. All she had to do was keep walking, keep following and the answers would come.

A strong gush of cold wind made her stop. It chilled her bones and made her teeth chatter. The sudden change shocked her enough to forget about the laughter and she opened her eyes. She was no longer in the white castle among the blossoms.

She was surrounded by snowy pines. The sun was no longer on the horizon, in its place a big and bright blue moon reigned over the sky. It covered everything with an azure tint that made Selene think of being underwater.

The ground underneath her moved. When she looked down she realized she was not standing on the forest floor, her feet were planted on a layer of ice. Once again, she stood on the frail surface of a frozen lake.

The laughter filtered back into her consciousness, stronger than before. She turned, frantically examining the landscape around her. He had to be there, the child had to be there, the sound was so close that there couldn't be any other explanation. But he was nowhere to be found.

A thunder flashed in the sky and its roar reverberated all around her. The laughter vanished and in its place came the muffled words of an argument. She couldn't make out what the voices were saying but she could detect the anger in them, it was in the way they talked over each other and the spikes in volume.

Snow began to fall and Selene woke up.

She was not in a forest. She was back in the castle but not in her room. She'd never been here before but she could tell she was in Vargstad by the style of the room and the shape of the windows and door. The room looked a lot like Kaspian's study. It had a similarly large window and tall ceiling.

The argument from her dream had not stayed there, it was raging outside the door. One of the voices was Kaspian's but she could not recognize the other one, it belonged to a female, but she was unsure if it was Anja, Freya or Viktoria.

Selene tried to move closer to the door but her body instantly protested. It wasn't until she felt the pain emanating from her left shoulder that the reality of what had happened came back to her. Her shoulder hurt because Anja had bitten her there in an attempt to defend herself from Selene's brutal attack. It was the physical proof that the hunt had not been a nightmare.

Something inside her broke as she remembered the chaos she'd created. The will to move or speak left her. All she wanted was to go back to that dreamland where children laughed and the trees were in bloom. She closed her eyes but she knew she could not go back. She was undeserving of peace.