FOREVER KNIGHTS: #2 Rise of the King of Assassins

Suddenly she lifted her head, face concentrated, but impassive. She blurred again and this time her silhouette became only a mass of shining silver flakes. Filling the room with the smell of damp grass and earth. A smell that sent his heart racing.

She’s leaving again. Just when he thought he’d lost her, she appeared again. With outstretched arms and... wings. Watery translucent things soundlessly spanning the room. Blurring what lay beyond them. Her head threw back and the wings beat furiously as she tried to get to him. Sending sparkling droplets of water across the room. They dissipated before reaching him.

Red rose petals fell, one-by-one from the ceiling. The whole room was in motion.

But her corner was different. Like she’s somewhere else.

The only sound in the room was the beating of his heart and his rapid breaths. He was frozen.

Her feet lifted off the floor. Wings beating furiously against an invisible wall. He tried to touch a passing wing but found it was two-dimensional. His hands passing through it. Never feeling it. Only the sensation of movement touched him. Her violet eyes burned like blue firelight.

She wants to tell me something. An unspoken message he couldn’t comprehend.

The air in his chamber became liquid, rippling around her hand as she reached through it. A pool of glowing green formed in her palm rising into an orb. Which she offered him.

She wants me to take it? He moved across his bed to get closer to her, studying the shimmery silver hand holding it out. She seeped thick droplets of water which clanged like glass on the floor.

Is it even possible to touch a creature like her?

He read the desperation in her eyes and snatched it from her.

The shadow of her wings still pounded around him, but the air was as motionless as a calm pool.

Raese’s eyes moved from the orb to the woman. Her words floated from far away, musical and beautiful. “Bring me back”

It was an echoing plea.

“Who-”

“Calisto...” She interjected. Her voice cut off and her image flickered then snapped out like a blown flame.

Calisto. It fit her. Like the strange exotic creature, she was.

His eyes fell to his palms where he’d cradled the green orb but there was nothing there. It had gone with her.

But the message she’d worked so hard to convey lingered.

Bring me back.

How?

Even as he stared at it the orb disintegrated. An illusion. Something she was trying to show me…

“The library.” It was another hollow plea. Waking him to thoughts of the Farthington family library.

For what, damn it!

There was a cold in the chamber, freezing him to the bone.

Her presence is still here.

Pulling on his breeches, his feet met cold stone. Making him hiss an indrawn breath.

He was driven to go downstairs. As if she was in his ear. Urging him to hurry.

Getting past the servants was easier than he expected since the sun had not yet fully risen. They were busy going about their early morning duties.

The library was ominous. Like the great mouth of a dark cavern swallowing him. No light to be had this early. The candles had long since gone out.

But I never have a problem seeing in the dark.

He pulled the door closed quietly behind him. Making his way to the window to draw open the drapes. That meager light helped him feel like he wasn’t so much intruding. Dust flakes danced in the light, stirred by the curtains. He coughed against the dust before heading down the first aisle.

Raese peered at the bindings. After a long hour, he was certain.

It’s not here. Sighing heavily, he rounded the shelf to enter the next section. Feeling like he would recognize the book he sought when he saw it.

A thread of movement caught his eye. For a moment it appeared someone rounded the end of the aisle into the next.

Striding after the figure he went to pass the third aisle which appeared empty but save for the slightest movement there. Drawing him to a stop. As he took a step back to get full view of the opposite end he gasped.

His wraith stood motionless there. The glow of her white form illuminated the darkness. Her skirts swirling in an unseen breeze.

Where’s her feet?

Ebony curls poured down her back, the only color aside from those penetrating eyes.

Her stillness is from another realm…Or Dread magic. His eyes narrowed on her.