Chapter 114
Chapter 114: The East Wing
Rhea
The celebration carries on without me because I’m gone. After Aron introduces me to Lady Victoria, a Luna of a neighbouring pack, I tell him I’m not feeling well and need to get some air for a moment.
He doesn’t really question it and lets me go.
I head outside and straight upstairs, where I’m supposed to go.
To that room.
I know Kovas told me to go after the party was over, but I can’t wait. There are questions now clawing at my head and tak over my thoughts. I can’t seem to forget Aron’s reaction when I went into that room that night, the way he was so angry t it seemed like it was something personal I had done wrong. But there was nothing wrong there. It was just a room.
And I didn’t know better then.
The further I get from the ballroom, the quieter the manor becomes. The music fades along with all the chatter. And with each step, something tightens in my chest.
I try to shake the feeling, but my mind won’t stop whispering-
Why would Kovas tell me to go there?
Why now?
My fingers trail over the wooden railing as I move up the stairs near the east wing. There’s no one really here, no servants o people. I doubt Marcella even comes here. In all my time staying in this manor, I don’t think I’ve seen her here or even mention this part of the house.
My curiosity only grows.
I know the room that’s spoken about. It’s at the end of a hallway and the last time I came here, I wasn’t really in my consciousness.
It was something else that pulled me here then.
But today, I’m not in any sort of trance. I’m very much awake. And aware.
The door is the same as it was, wooden and heavy, but there’s something different about it. I inhale sharply before wrapping my hand around the handle.
It’s cold.
And when I turn it and push, it opens, and I’m inside.
I step into the room and close the door behind me.
It’s the same room. It has to be.
The moment I’m inside, there’s a strong feeling. The very air in this room is wrong. The room is dark, there’s no light but what little is coming from the window behind another wall.
It isn’t as big as the other rooms in the house. It’s probably the smallest one, and it’s filled –
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Chapter 114
books, and furniture.
I look around, my eyes adjusting to the darkness, and the hair on the back of my neck rises.
There’s a scent in the air, a scent that I can’t pinpoint, a scent that is strong and heavy. It’s not something pleasant.
I move around the room, looking at things. It seems like a normal storage room until I move further behind the secon that’s there.
And it’s that wall that hides it.
I freeze. My stomach drops at the sight of it, and my mouth goes dry. There’s something in front of me, lying on a woo table, half–covered in a thin sheet. A body.
Of me.
Wide, unblinking eyes. Pale skin, too pale. Lips slightly parted, like she had just spoken, just taken a breath, but no breath comes. She doesn’t move. Because she’s not alive, she’s dead. She’s me.
I stumble back, my back hitting the wall, and I gasp.
That’s not me. That’s not me. I’m me, I’m alive. I’m breathing.
The world tilts, the floor shifts under my feet, and I can’t breathe, I can’t think. This isn’t real. This can’t be real because I’r here, and I’m alive and that body on the table–it’s not me.
But it looks exactly like me.
No.
No.
I’m going crazy, I must be.
I squeeze my eyes shut and count to ten. I’m going insane. I’ve gone completely mad. I’m not seeing this right. This isn’t. right, it’s not.
It’s not.
When I open my eyes, I’m still there. I’m still on that table, lying dead like I had never been alive before.
My stomach twists violently, and a scream claws up my throat, but I choke it down. I take a shaking step forward, then another before I reach toward my own self.
My fingers tremble as I brush against the sheet covering my body. It’s cold, too cold. The scent in the air–it’s not decay, not exactly. The body in front of me isn’t rotting.
It’s preserved.
Like it was never meant to be buried.
Like it was never meant to be found.
I’m trying to understand, but there’s no possible explanation for this. How is it possible? How are there two of me?
It can’t be.
Kovas knew. Kovas knew.
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Chapter 114
Aron.
My head throbs, and I feel sick, like I’m going to vomit at any second. I press my palm on my forehead, trying to calm my nerves, but I’m failing miserably. I’m panicking, my mind is all over the place, and I can’t keep my thoughts straight.
How is this possible?
I stumble back, my body moving before my mind catches up. I can’t do this, I can’t comprehend this.
I reach for the door and start making my way out of this room, away from it all. The hallway in front of me is dark and quiet, and it stretches as I start rushing down the stairs.
I’m not sure what I’m doing. I’m not sure what I’m running from or to whom.
My feet lead me down the stairs, through the hallways, and right to the front door that’s wide open. I pass by people, by the guards, by the servants, by everyone.
I just need to find Kovas.
Yes. I need to find Kovas. I need to ask him, I need to know.
He’s outside, somewhere. He told me that he’d take Aron for a run, but that was after the celebration was over. It hasn’t inished.
he guests are still here, all inside the ballroom. Aron is still there. They are all still there. Maybe Kovas is inside, with him, r somewhere else.
ly chest constricts. I want to breathe, but it’s becoming a struggle.
rush toward the entrance of the ballroom and pause there for a moment. My hand presses against the wall as I hold myself >, and I look inside the crowd. I don’t see him or Aron. Neither of them.
it I do see someone else.
telyn.
hen I do see her, alive and there, mingling around with the crowd, I know that I’m losing my mind because there’s no ssible way that she is alive and here. She’s dead.
on told me that she died.
I she’s here.
hallucinating. I’m seeing things.
ink back the tears that are forming in my eyes and I push myself off the wall. I’m going to go insane. I’m going mad. at’s it. That’s what is happening. I’m imagining things.
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AD
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