Chapter Forty-Four

"What do you mean?" Lucianne asked the boy.

"The Hex Beast is before you," he said. "That's why he's after you."

"What?"

"He's after you, and you need to go before yourself."

She blinked, her head suddenly hurting. "What the hell are you talking about?"

"Nothing makes sense, do you make sense of that?"

"Whatever," she said, turning around.

"Beware! You're next!"

She ignored him.

Returning to her tower, disappointment settled onto her emotions when she discovered that Gabriel was nowhere to be found. For some reason, she felt uneasy over what the boy had said to her earlier.

What was happening?


His back was turned on her the entire time, and she swore that he did not move one inch. He was frozen in the spot like a statue made of stone, like a human who had dared to look into the eyes of Medusa. But he definitely spoke.

She was starting to realise that everyone in Ravenspire was abnormal in some way. Nobody acted like humans normally did, at least not like the humans in other towns. Her hometown was filled with normal people, and somehow she was beginning to miss the normalcy.

She laid on her bed, her eyes fixed to the velvet that hung over her canopy bed. It was dark and beautiful. She loved the way it looked. Just like the night sky. She pictured specks of white all over it, like stars in the sky. A smile formed on her lips.

Sleep overtook her, but it was filled with distress. Images of blood flashed through her dreams, and scores of limbs that belonged to infants reached up to drag her down into the abyss of the ocean. She was forced awake, but as her eyes stared at the velvet, she realised she couldn't move.

She tried to open her mouth to scream but no sound came out. She forced her hand to move, but it stayed at her side on the bed. Her eyes were wide open in fear when slowly, she felt her mind being overtaken by sleep again.

The nightmare came back in full force, and now she was in a basket coffin, drowning in the ocean. The water sloshed into the coffin, water flooding her nostrils and entering her lungs. Her mouth opened in a scream, but only a bubble of air came out.

Her mind surfaced from the nightmare, but her body was still frozen. Tears slid down the sides of her eyes and she tried to scream, but no sound came out. She slipped back into the nightmare, and drowned again.

Then her body shot forth in a deafening scream.

She panted, moved her body, which was still like dead weight, but it was able to move slightly. She grabbed onto her heavy arm as her chest heaved, tears leaving her eyes. It took her about ten minutes before she regained full use of her body again.

She turned to the side of her bed, her breath still short and put her feet on the ground. Standing up, she decided to open the windows to get some fresh air. She walked to it and pried the lock free, then pushed the window out. But she wasn't prepared for what she saw next.

In the tower opposite hers, the window was also open.

And standing in the window was a girl with black sockets for eyes, soot for tears and ashy white bony fingers scratching dark lines down her cheeks as her mouth gaped open in a silent scream. Blood poured from her eyes, dripping down the side of the tower.

Drip, drip, drip.

Lucianne backed away from the tower, screaming in fear. She fell to the ground, images of that woman running through her mind.

Gabriel's sister?

She stood back up, running to the window to see her again. But when she was there, there was no such woman at that window anymore. She squinted hard, trying to see into the darkness, but the window was bolted shut.

She panicked, and ran from her room. She had to go there again, and see for herself. Find out for herself what was happening. She flew down the stairs of her tower and threw the door open. She ran, ran, ran to the other tower.

And tripped over something.

She went sprawling on the ground, the skin on her hands and knees burnt from friction. She collected herself to a sitting position and checked her body for more injuries. Finding nothing other than some abrasions, she began to look about to see what she had tripped over.

Right before her on the ground was the corpse of that boy, his lips sewn shut.