Page 62 of Lies Within the Darkest Tower
But now I’d experienced real compelling magic and that hadn’t been what I’d experienced with Lord Quill. It had been softer, warmer, a call to something deep within me that made my pulse flutter.
As it was, I could only hope Lord Quill accepted my explanation and wouldn’t want proof that I was safe. That, and while it hadn’t been the whole truth, it made for a good excuse as to why I’d been stupid enough to use the ring after dark. Maybe word would get out that I’d done it in defense of family and the men would go back to thinking I was an insignificant runt not worth their notice.
I could only hope.
I finished getting undressed, put the plug in the basin and filled it halfway. Using just the basin wasn’t going to be the easiest or fastest way to clean myself, but it beat using the baths in the middle of the night and hoping no one stumbled across me. I worked the sweet-smelling soap I’d taken from the towel room into a lather and scrubbed at the grime on my hands,making sure the scrapes I’d gotten from my fall on the running trail were thoroughly cleaned.
Exhaustion pulled at me, the world turning soft and dim, and my thoughts stuttered. I’d been turning the soap around and around in my hands and not moving into the next step of washing the rest of myself.
Jeez. I had no idea how I was going to manage more mornings in the stables or afternoons of running and sparring. One day and I was ready to collapse. How was I going to manage a whole rotation of it or more?
Darkness fluttered across my vision.
If I didn’t hurry up, I was going to pass out half washed. Good thing the room was so small it’d be easy to make it to my bed before I collapsed.
I dunked one of my small towels into the water, worked the lather into it, and ran it up my arm, trying to pick up my pace, but the darkness swelled, suddenly overwhelming me and a sense of fear and urgency surged inside me.
My pulse tripped. Another premonition? But I’d had two yesterday. I’d had as many premonitions in the last two days as I’d had all last year.
A thick, cold mist rushed around my legs and swept over the basin, and my muscles started to tremble. I tried to reach for the basin to catch my balance but missed and fell to my knees. Then a frozen gust of wind tore the mist away, revealing the Gray’s ragged barren landscape and the towering Shadow Gate off in the distance.
The basin was gone and so too was the wall to my room. In front of me lay a body with a shock of red hair dressed in the black uniform of a Guardsman. He lay facing away from me, but I knew the body could only be Sawyer’s. While there could be someone else in the Tower with the same red hair, I doubted my premonition— no myvisionwould show me a stranger. Not withthe same soul-crushing fear that had overwhelmed me the first time I’d been shown Sawyer’s lifeless body in the Gray.
But seeing it now meant I hadn’t changed the future, that I was going to be discovered and they were going to find Sawyer and drag him to the Black Tower, something I couldn’t let happen.
Except I didn’t know how to stop it. I’d been thinking about how to deal with Talon and the others a moment ago. Did that mean I was making a mistake by not forcing them away? Or would forcing them away make this vision happen faster.
A pair of brown boots stepped into sight and the mist parted, revealing just enough of a man so I could tell he wasn’t a Guardsman but not actually see who it was. He chuckled, the sound dark, twisting my fear tighter, and he kicked Sawyer’s body, rolling him over and making the mist billow around him like a thick blanket, obscuring him completely.
“Leave him for the shadows,” someone in the mist behind the man said.
“Yeah,” he replied, his voice a harsh whisper, and he marched away, making the mist whirl with the movement and slide away from Sawyer’s body.
Except it wasn’t Sawyer’s body.
It was mine.
My fear snapped into a desperate panic that crushed around my heart and stole my breath. My face was a ruin mess, swelling from what had to have been multiple blows, my nose was broken and bleeding, and I’d left a large puddle of blood on the ground, while another was forming around my head as I watched. I’d been stabbed at least once, but with my black clothing and the swirling mist, I couldn’t see where.
I tried to look around to see if there was anyone who’d help me, but the mist surged then bled into darkness, and my premonition spat me back into my room in the Black Tower.
Shadows! Ihadchanged the future. NowIwas the one who was going to die in front of the Shadow Gate.
To be continued…
