15
Carrow
The room within was simple and quite sad. A narrow bed against one small window, a desk, and a crib. Drab brown walls and bedding.
“Oh, this is terrible.” My gaze went to the window, where I spotted iron bars in front of the mullioned glass. “Oh, hell. Rasla is a bastard.”
“What happened to her, though?” Grey walked slowly into the room. “This room has been empty for a while.”
I followed him in, my skin going cold.
Please be alive.
A noise sounded from down below. A shout from the street, like a greeting. I strode to the window and looked down through the bars. We were at the front of the house, and I could see right into the street. Rasla stood beneath us, talking to a man on the other side of the road.
The sun was setting and casting shadows on the street, so it was impossible to see who he was talking to, but it didn't matter. We had only minutes left.
“He’s here,” I said. “He’ll be coming in soon.”
“He may sense something is wrong when he sees the maid sitting.” Grey turned and went to the bed, beginning to search under the mattress.
My heart raced as I hurried to the desk. There was a small stack of parchment and a pen. I touched each, letting my magic flow through me. The parchment gave me no clues, but the pen lit something up inside me.
“She used this to write the book that brought us here,” I said.
“Then we’re definitely on the right track.” Grey ducked to look under the bed, pressing on the floorboards. “There’s nothing around the bed that tells where she went.”
I hurried to the small cradle, searching under the little mattress. I found nothing, and sadness blasted through me as I searched. There was something so tragic and forlorn about this crib.
What had happened to them?
We could demand answers from Rasla, but he was already suspicious. Grey could use his powers to wipe his mind, but that wasn’t always foolproof. It’d be better if we could find answers without running into him.
Below, I heard the door slam.
“He’s inside.” I rifled quickly through the blanket on the crib, my heart racing. “Hurry.”
Grey paced the room, testing the floorboards with his feet. I rose to join him, then stopped.
The cradle drew my attention back to it. There were answers there. I just needed to try harder with my magic.
I knelt by the crib and gripped the wooden edge, calling upon my power.
Where are you?
Magic flared to life inside my chest, bright and strong, yet still weaker than it could be. Come on. I needed to try harder.
I envisioned the woman I’d seen when I’d touched the book. Imagined her now, running with her baby. Or dead.
The thought made a shudder run through me. I was afraid of what I might find, but still, I needed to find it.
Where are you?
Shouts sounded from down below.
“He’s yelling at the maid,” Grey said. “He’ll grow suspicious soon. Hurry.”
I squeezed my eyes shut and kept trying. Come on, come on, come on.
I could find her. I had to find her.
Finally, an image flared to life. I’d recognize the place anywhere.
I surged upright. “I’ve got it. The Haunted Hound. Let’s get out of here.”
Footsteps sounded on the stairs below, and my skin chilled. “He’s coming.”
“Best if we don’t meet him.” Grey moved swiftly and silently to the exit and took a left into the room next door. “There’s a larger window here. No bars.”
I followed him in, the sound of Rasla’s footsteps making my breath grow short in my lungs. Grey stood near a mullioned glass window in a room filled with old furniture. It was storage space, obviously. The window wasn’t the sort that opened, so Grey picked up an old chair and smashed it through the glass.
He tossed the chair aside and threw an old blanket over the jagged glass, then turned to me, holding out his hands. “Come on.”
“I know it’s you, Devil!” Rasla’s voice sounded from below.
“Do we stay and erase his memory now, or go get our answers from Evangeline?” I asked.
“We go. There’s no time to waste trying to learn how he resisted my power before. And if she’s running, we can’t let her get farther. We’ll deal with him later.”
I nodded and raced to Grey, then scrambled out the window and onto the steep roof. Grey slipped out behind me and darted gracefully to the side, moving quickly on the tiles. I followed, moving as quickly as I dared in my long dress and unfamiliar shoes, and we raced across the slanted rooftop.
“I’ll find you!” Rasla’s voice echoed after us.
I looked back and spotted him hanging out the broken window. It was growing dark, but there was still enough light to see the rage in his eyes.
He was totally onto us, though he probably still had no idea who I was. It would prove problematic for Grey, however. We’d need to sort this out before we returned to our time.
I followed Grey along the rooftops, climbing from building to building, and nearly losing my footing several times. We were three stories up, and a fall would be catastrophic.
“Come, we can get down right here.” Grey stopped at the edge of the row of buildings where it terminated against a side street.
I stopped next to him, looking down. A sturdy vine had grown along the side of the wall, so old and tough that we could use it like a ladder.
I dropped low and scrambled over the edge. Shouts sounded from down the road to my right.
It had to be Rasla, coming our way down the street. Grey climbed alongside me, just as fast, and we reached the bottom seconds later.
“This way.” Grey sprinted away from the noise, and I followed. We hurried into the dark, losing ourselves amongst the winding streets of Guild City, until the shouts of Rasla and whoever he’d gathered on his side disappeared.
Finally safe, I leaned against a wall in an old, smelly alley. Panting, I turned to Grey. “That was too close.”
He nodded. “I’m going to have to find him and erase his memory, or he’ll cause problems for me in this timeline.”
“We’ll make it a priority.” I looked down the street, trying to get my bearings. “We need to go to the Haunted Hound. I think we’re close.’
“We are. This way.” He started down the alley, and I followed.
The streets were quiet, probably because people were home for dinner. It only took us a few minutes to reach the gate that would lead to the pub.
As we approached the gate, we kept our heads down. My shoulders relaxed when we disappeared into the darkness of the tunnel that would lead us to the Haunted Hound. We reached the portal, and the ether sucked us in, spinning us around and spitting us out in the back hallway at the pub.
I got my bearings and said, “Well, that was the most familiar thing we’ve done in a while.”
Grey cracked a slight smile. “You’ll like the Hound, then.”
We walked out of the dark hallway and into the main part of the pub. Happiness filled me at the sight. It was exactly the same as it was in the modern day. Same dark walls, low ceiling, small wooden tables, and fireplace.
“You’re right,” I said. “I’m still a fan.”