Elara's POV
The morning came too quietly, the kind of silence that sits heavy in your chest, I couldn't stop thinking about last night. The way she cried about finishing what she started and everything I couldn't stop thinking of it all.
When Liora walked in she looked terrible, dark circles under her eyes, hair falling loose around her face, she set the breakfast tray down but her hands were shaking,
"You need to eat something," she said,
"I'm not hungry,"
She bit her lip, glancing toward the door like she was checking if anyone could hear us, "My lady, please, you are going to need your strength,"
I turned to face her, "Liora, do you believe ghost can cry ?"
Her face went pale, "I don't know what you mean,"
"Yes you do," I said, stepping closer, "you've been here longer than I have, you know things, I see it in the way you look at me, like you're waiting for something terrible to happen,"
She looked away, tears welling in her eyes, "I shouldn't say anything, if the king knew I was talking to you about"
"About what?" I grabbed her hand, "Liora please, I'm scared and no one will tell me the truth,"
She pulled her hand back, wrapping her arms around herself, "The other brides," she whispered, "there were others before you,"
My stomach dropped, "What happened to them?"
"They disappeared," she said, voice trembling, "every single one, gone before the second full moon,"
"Gone where?"
"No one knows," she looked at me with tears streaming down her face now, "some say the castle took them, some say she did,"
"She?" but I already knew, "the first queen, Seraphina,"
Liora nodded, "She's still here, my lady, not alive but not gone either, when the moon turns red she walks these halls and she calls to him, and then the bride vanishes,"
I laughed out loud, "You think that's going to happen to me,"
"I think she already knows you are here," Liora said, "I think she's been watching you since you arrived,"
The room suddenly felt colder, the fire in the heart flashes like something had walked past it,
"Why are you telling me this now?" I asked,
"Because you deserve to know," she said, "and because I saw her, three nights before the last queen disappeared, I saw her standing in the west wing by her portrait, she was smiling,"
"The west wing," I repeated, remembering Kael's warning, "he told me never to go there,"
Then don't," Liora begged, grabbing my arms, "promise me you won't, my lady please, promise me,"
But the more she begged the more I felt something pulling at me, like a voice in my blood saying go, saying come home.
That night I couldn't sleep, every shadow looked like it was moving, every sound made my heart race, I got up and wrapped my cloak around my shoulders, the hallways glowed with those strange blue flames that never seemed to burn anything,
I don't know what made me walk toward the west wing, maybe curiosity, maybe stupidity, maybe something darker that I didn't want to name,
The door was already open,
Cold air spilled out carrying the smell of roses and something burnt, I stepped inside and the hallway stretched impossibly long, lined with portraits of women in wedding dresses, all of them beautiful and sad, their painted eyes seemed to follow me as I walked.
At the end of the hall hung the largest portrait.
Her…
Queen Seraphina,
She was stunning, silver gown flowing like water, dark hair cascading over her shoulders, and her eyes, those silver eyes that looked exactly like Kael's when the wolf took over,
I stepped closer and my breath caught in my throat.
It was my face,
Not similar, not close, it was me the same eyes, the same mouth, the same face." like someone had painted me hundreds of years before I was born.
"You shouldn't be here," a voice came in
I turned around,while my heart was hammering,
Kael stood in the doorway half hidden in shadow his eyes glowing faintly in the dark,
"You told me not to come here," I said, "but you never said why,"
He walked toward me slowly, "Because she listens," he said quietly, "and you don't want her attention,"
A cold wind swept through the corridor making the torches flicker wildly,
"Why does she look like me?" I asked,
He didn't answer, he just grabbed my hand and tried to pull me away from the portrait.
"Kael, why does she have my face?"
"Because the moon is cruel" he said, voice rough, "it repeats what it can't replace."
The floor trembled beneath us and from somewhere behind the portrait came a whisper, soft and mournful,
"Don't leave me again, Kael,"
I froze, every hair on my body was standing up.
The voice was beautiful and terrible and it sounded like it was coming from everywhere at once.
Kael's eyes flashed silver, "Go," he said sharply, "Elara, go now,"
But I couldn't move, I watched as the painted eyes of Seraphina seemed to blink and see me.
"I don't understand," I whispered
"what does she want?"
He looked at me and for the first time I saw real fear in his eyes.
"She wants what was hers," he said, "and she thinks that is you,"
The whisper came again, louder now, wrapping around my name like a caress,
"Elara,"
The mark on my wrist burned glowing silver through my sleeve.
Kael pulled me to his side and said "Don't listen to her,"
The torches went out all at once plunging us into darkness,
And in that darkness came a voice that felt like ice sliding down my face.
"You can't keep her from me, Kael, not this time"