Chapter 6: Glimpse

 

Instantly I picked up my dagger and pointed it at him expressionless to not betray my excitement mixed with slight fear. “Get out of our way.” Mr. Duke, ignoring my statement, mentioned back to the palace that was good few miles away from where we stood. “Go back, Violet.” My name escaped from his lips as if he was saying a spell to cast me over to his side. “Forget this ever happened. I’ll let you go. Eventually.”

Fear ran quickly through every part of my mind, telling me in whisper to do anything that was possible to get the heck out of here and indeed how much I desired to do that, if only my legs moved. Drake protectively stepped around me shielding me with his lean but some what muscular body. “Let us go.” Mr. Duke scoffed and shook his head as I watched him around Drake’s towering height.  “I cannot do that. Not until�"“

Whatever he wanted to say was cut off by abnormal howl that came from him, his hands flying to cover his face as he stumbled back gasping short for breath. When he looked up again, his face was twisted into inhumane snarl along with big cut that ran down from his hair line to his nose diagonally over his eyes. In few seconds I noticed that Drake held a bloody knife his own face remaining calm and cold as ice. How could he do that without me actually seeing that he did it?

With a decision that I will find out later, I took out my knife that I had snatched from the table and took a deep breath before meeting Mr. Duke and his companions head on.

*  *  *  *  *

Yet again, I was in the hallway of paintings, each one of them telling their own story. I didn’t dare to look in any of those as my legs were pulling me somewhere. Dreams had been put beautifully on the canvas although if you look closer you could see that they moved and displayed the scene. Most of them were my distant memories and dreams that I’ve wanted to see but I guessed it wasn’t the time to see them while I walked past them looking straight forward.

Finally my legs stopped and turned me around making me face a dark painting almost without anything on it. Frown creased on my forehead along with worry of this place becoming too dangerous for me to be here but something pushed me inside the painting. It felt like I fell down into pile of mud and couldn’t claw or climb my way out struggling to see through the dark corners. At last light flashed and just as quick, disappeared from the sight.

It flashed a bit closer this time, disappearing again. It continued its sequence getting closer to me moreover while it did, it looked more like same brown hair that… Thought crashed over me as I stood up shakily and started walking backwards away from the light no matter how seductive it looked, drawing in my heart to it. He couldn’t be here. Not this time. Not at this time. Then my fears indeed proved themselves to be right.

Cold hands gripped me from behind the nails digging into my shoulders as I opened to scream but nothing came out increasing the fear that almost made me lose my balance. Swiftly they let go of me leaving me falling on the floor. But I never hit it.

Instead I woke up with someone shaking me hard, the previous pain returning to my head. Vision came clear in next few minutes when person noticed that I was awake stopping shaking me. Drake’s face blurred right in front of mine scaring my already beating fast heart so much that I opened my open to scream. His hand came up closing it over my mouth with stern look. “If you scream, they will know you’re awake.”

The pain hit me back just as I pushed it away, my vision blurred again and I rested my head back breathing hard. Why didn’t it ever stop? Drake cradled me closer into his firm embrace whispering soft words in some sweet language that was either French or Latin. Either way it calmed me down enough to let my heart beat a normal pace. At last he spoke softly into my ear so close so that I could feel his hot breath. “Duke said someone will visit us this noon. Be prepared for anything.”

To tell him that I understood, I gave him a small nod, pain again hitting at the back of my head, my shoulders and legs. When I tried to speak, my voice came out as if something was crawling up and down my throat, pinching it. “What…” I cleared my throat uncomfortably then continued. “What happened?”

He smiled softly answering softly to me. “Nothing much. Just a battle. And we lost after more of servants or those hideous creatures came.” Drake paused and after I gave him a glare, he heaved a sigh adding on. “Actually I lied.  After you faced everyone head on, it was truly an amazing sight. You pierced one’s chest turning the knife and as it dropped, another came from behind and put you into back hold but indeed you have a true fight spirit as I’ve heard. You ducked and slashed at the back of his legs making him fall down face first. Then other came on holding a sword and swished it as if it was his first time yielding it. You picked up a big stick and slammed it into his head then into someone else’s head with what was left of stick. Five those creatures already lay on the ground either dead or battling with pain.

“More came but you still had strength to fight them all to death or pain and soon enough only Duke was stood alive and without any wounds. You marched over to him as a warrior goddess raising the sword to hit him but next second you fainted right into his hands. Even though you turned against him, he treated you nicely but threw us both into this bloody cell. Why I didn’t fight? Before anyone could get to me, you already took care of them leaving me standing without anything to do. Indeed it was a mesmerizing sight to see you fight. Maybe that’s why everyone from what I heard goes to every one of your fights.” He grinned cheekily at me while I just laid there heavy blush stained both my cheeks.

No one ever spoke like that of me but damn, it felt good. Relaxing in his gentle hold, I thought over what he said trying to remember what truly happened. All I could remember was just marching over to the creatures and raising the knife and then memory stopped, leaving me confused. What the heck had happened while I had my black out?

Sudden noise from the bars indicated that someone already opened the cell door and stepped inside, heels dulled by the wet floor which stopped when the person faced us. Drake looked up with a scowl but made no move to attack the person or creature, leaving  me wonder who it was until I turned my head meeting Mr. Duke’s flaming gaze. The anger blazed off him adding more scary feature with color of his red eyes. I shrank back seeking safety in hold but Drake didn’t wrap his arms around me or just pulled me closer to him like he did before. Sudden change in his personality made me wonder if what he did several minutes ago was true or just a hallucination.

Mr. Duke bent down getting his face near mine expecting me to flinch or shrink away although I did none of those things staring him down. After few seconds, he pulled away and raked his hair with his fingers with an exhausted sigh. “God, if you could have just stayed with me, none of this would have happened.” I scoffed rotating my head towards the cell’s door carefully weighting my options about running towards it or flashing from here to there and lock the door. However without Drake, I will not get far, only few miles before they catch me again, so now I had no choice to just lie there.

He followed my gaze towards the door then back to me with a smirk. “Oh, come on. You think that you’ll be able to run there and out in few seconds? You are not that stupid.” That single word rose a feeling inside of me to stand up and choke him although my muscles weren’t cooperating as much as I thought they would. Instead of standing up, I struggled to sit up and ended up rolling down on the floor hitting it hard. Apparently I was on the bed even though it felt as hard as the floor.

 With soft groan escaping my exhausted body, I propped myself up breathing hard as I was trying to get up at least few inches. Sudden yelp came from me when cold, hard arms pulled me up against the same cold body and held me there while dizziness was taking over my vision once again. Mr. Duke whispered close to my ear careful to choose his words. “Be more careful about who your trust, dearie. They are not what they seem.” With that, he laid me back down on the bed as Drake rose, fumed with anger but he remained with calm expression and gestured to have a private talk with Mr. Duke.

Mr. Duke accepted his invitation stepping aside to begin to talk with him in hushed voices that rose every second until they were practically whispering �" yelling at each other. In my current state, I managed to figure out few words like “she will only be a burden”, “nothing is enough”, and “where is...”. Practically those few phrases made me wonder about those intentions but I decided to relax against the bed no matter how hard it seemed and fall back asleep. However, even that couldn’t be done once the loud clang echoed in the cell coming from the bars.

Everyone’s heads turned that way as I just opened my eyes slightly looking at the shadowy person. Mr. Duke cleared his throat stepping forward with his out stretched hand. “Good morning, Professor. We caught both of the, luckily before the servants could take a chunk out of them.” Professor, or whoever that guy was, nodded and turned to face Drake and me. The torches lit in the hallway outside cast a shadow upon the man’s face, his features hidden underneath it.

That was until the man stepped forward letting the light come on his face in its full glory. Cold smile was the face along with icy green eyes that were looking straight at me. Not strong enough to react, I kept staring at him with slight curiosity and he spoke. “My, my. What do we have here? Famous Demon Princess right in the dungeon of Duke. How could that ever be? And Drake! The newest student got himself in trouble right after few days in school? Amazing!” Raspy laugh escaped from well dressed Professor while he stepped back allowing the Guards to enter the cell and carry me along with Drake out.

To be more exact, they pushed and dragged us out of the mansion and straight into the carriage slamming the doors right behind us. Drake leaned back against the cushiony wall sighing heavily as I straightened up pushing away strands on my blond hair from my face with annoyance. How could they just pick us up and throw us into this humble carriage? I have seen much better carriages, at least not the ones that reeked with some sort of perfume that Drake seemed to enjoy. I grimaced flinging my shoe at him in the shortest distance, however he caught it looking questioningly in my direction.

Before I could fling anything else at his head or yell at him without any reason, Professor stepped inside inhaling deeply the horrible smell and sat down beside me. I shrank away from the person to the window that was open as far as it could go, but still enough. The carriage slowly begun to move down the road leading us to somewhere that made fear rise again inside of me. What if this Professor or whoever it was, was leading us elsewhere to kill us or even worse to feed us to some creatures? Professor turned to face me and when he captured my attention, his lips spread again into the creepy smile as he spoke loud and clear. “There’s nothing to fear, Violet. I’m Headmaster of the Academy and we are heading back right now.”

Author's Note

Weeeeell... What do you think?