Chapter 236

Grace

I found myself in a place I had never been before. A vast, empty plain stretched before me, the ground was a dusty brown under the sun that at once felt cool and burning. The air was thick with something and still. It was absolutely silent. Dead.

In the distance, I swore I could hear the occasional sound of a bird.

But what was this place? Trees all looked scorched like a forest fire had burned through the area. In the distance, I could just make out the imposing silhouette of Blackwoods Castle. Its red stone walls seemed to pierce the sky. It looked so much more majestic than I had ever seen it in pictures, yet it was impossibly far away, and I knew I would never reach it on foot.

The pathway between where I was and the castle vanished into the dark, scorched woods around me. I bent down and frowned. The dirt wasn't ashy the way I expected it to be, but dry and barren.

As I scanned the horizon, searching for any sign of life, I spotted a lone wolf in the distance. It stood for a moment, its dark form silhouetted against the endless sky. Our eyes met for a fleeting instant. That wolf was... is... should be me, yet something in me knew that wasn't exactly true.

Then, with a flick of its tail, the wolf turned and began to walk away, disappearing into the dark shadows of the forest that bordered the plain. A strange sense of longing washed over me, an urge to follow the creature into the unknown. But before I could take a step, the ground began to tremble beneath my feet. The sky darkened, the once vibrant blue replaced by an ominous swirl of grey and purple clouds. A cold wind howled across the plain, whipping at my clothes and sending shivers down my spine. I watched the world start to crumble.

Panic surged through me as I looked around, desperately searching for stable ground. But there was nowhere to hide, and all I could do was try and brace myself. I lunged at a nearby tree, but it broke apart at my touch.

Suddenly, a deafening crack of thunder split the sky, and a bolt of lightning illuminated the barren landscape for a brief moment. In that flash of light, I saw a figure emerge from the darkness of the forest.

It was tall and cloaked in shadows, its features hidden from view. But there was an undeniable power emanating from it, a sense of ancient magic that sent shivers down my spine. The figure felt familiar.

The figure began to walk towards me, its movements deliberate and purposeful. With each step, the ground trembled more violently, and the wind howled with an unearthly ferocity.

I tried to run, but my legs felt like lead. Fear choked me, stealing the breath from my lungs. I knew this person somehow.

As the figure loomed closer, I could make out the faint glow of moonlight eyes peering out from the darkness of its hood. I screamed, pleading, begging.

Just as the figure reached out to me with a skeletal hand, a wave of searing pain erupted in my head. Then, it wrapped its hands around my shoulders gently. The world stopped shaking as it pulled me forward.

A surprisingly warm kiss landed on my forehead before it let me go, and I was falling through darkness. I landed hard in a bed that felt similar to mine but wasn't. Instead of the walls of my room, I was surrounded by mirrors. My body ached. My heart pounded in my chest.

I sat up in bed, disoriented and shaken. The dream felt so real, so vivid, that it sent a tremor of fear through me. Taking a deep breath, I tried to wake up, realizing I was in a dream, but I couldn't. A sense of unease remained, gnawing at my gut. Who, or what, was that figure?

I got out of bed, and all but one mirror was filled with an image of myself. It was like I was back in the hall of mirrors again, yet they all felt different for some reason.

Something was different, but not wrong per se.

No. Different. Wrong. But not terribly wrong. Maybe not so bad, but why did I feel that way? I looked into each mirror, matching them with the images I had seen before. My children were still gone. Charles was still gone, but as I approached the empty mirror, a jolt of something akin to terror shot through me.

I realized which reflection was missing. It was the one who had looked at me and told me mine. Noticing that, I shuddered. What did that mean?

Panic clawed at my throat. I stumbled back, looking around. Taking a shaky breath, I blinked, hoping it was just a trick of the light, that she would appear, but she didn't. The mirror remained empty.

Suddenly, the mirror shattered, exploding outwards in a shower of glass shards. I flinched, instinctively raising my arms to shield myself from the flying debris. My vision blurred as a wave of dizziness washed over me.

When I recovered my bearings, a gasp escaped my lips. Each of the mirrors started to explode into a shower of glass around me. My bed vanished, and I was left in an endless darkness again.

A rising sense of unease gnawed at me. I needed to get out of this place. I needed to wake up. I started to run, but the darkness didn't part. It didn't move. My panic turned to terror. Was I trapped? Where was I? I couldn't even see where the mirrors had been anymore. I spun around, searching for an escape, but everywhere I looked was just more darkness. What was I supposed to do? How did I get out of here?

Silence surrounded me. I opened my mouth to scream, but the sound was swallowed by the endless darkness. Then, a cold chill started to filter through, like winter had come. Then, just as abruptly as it began, the world dissolved into darkness. I felt myself falling, tumbling through a bottomless abyss again. The scream ripped from my throat again.

I gasped awake, my body drenched in sweat, my heart hammering. The familiar surroundings of my room greeted me, the pale morning light filtering through the window. Was this real? I clenched my hands in the blankets and hoped. I looked down at the familiar decorations in my room. I was in the same outfit I had been in when I had gotten ready to go that morning.

Before I'd run into Ethan...

Relief washed over me, momentarily pushing the terror of the dream aside. But as my heart started to calm down, a new wave of unease settled in my stomach.

Charles sat beside my bed, his face etched with worry, a glass of amber liquid clutched tightly in his hand. He didn't look at me. Didn't speak for a few moments. He drank some more before turning to look at me. His eyes were filled with a complex mix of emotions I couldn't decipher.

"Grace," he said, his voice low and raspy. "You're awake. How do you feel?"

I tried to speak, but my throat felt dry. I managed a weak nod, my voice still trapped somewhere between the waking world and the terrifying dreamscape.

Had something happened? I opened my voice, but somehow, I knew that I couldn't speak. Charles placed the half-empty glass on the nightstand and reached out to take my hand. His touch, usually warm and comforting, felt distant and cold.

I felt my throat tingling.

"What happened?" I croaked.

"That's not important right now." He searched my face, a glass of water floated into his hand and he handed it to me. I drank slowly, grateful that the dryness was gone.

"I saw my mate while I was gone," he said, his voice barely a whisper.

My stomach lurched. I should have felt anger, a surge of possessiveness. But instead, a strange sense of detachment washed over me, an emptiness that echoed the hollowness in my dreams. He was staring at me. Something relieved and resigned settled in his eyes.

What the hell was wrong with me? I should have questions. I should be concerned, yet I wasn't.

He clenched his jaw. He looked away for a brief moment. When he looked back, his eyes were filled with something else.

"I put her in jail," he said, his voice heavy with regret. "For treason. She'll be sentenced alongside Devin... Soon."

He leaned closer, his voice dropping to a barely audible murmur against my lips.

"I love you," he said softly. Then, he kissed me as gently as ever. His mouth tasted like whiskey.

He pulled back slowly and went back to swirling his whiskey.

"Go back to sleep," he said gently, his touch lingering on my hand for a moment longer before he pulled away. "We'll talk more in the morning."

I bit my lip. I didn't want to go back to sleep. His words, his actions, and his expression were unsettling, but the exhaustion made my body too heavy to keep up.

I laid down and tried to get rest. While I did sleep, it was anything but restful. Something had shifted, something fundamental had changed, and I was no longer sure who I was or what I felt.