Ravenswood (Ravenswood Series Book 1)

by Christine Zolendz

  I watched the specters lighten. Their willowing outlines crept across the walls, a slow crawling of time.

  The apparitions came to be, all staring at me wide-eyed. Is she the one the King is looking for? They whispered, Is she the one?

  I pressed against the wall, vulnerable and scared. I didn’t like feeling fragile and confused. I didn’t like any of this. I didn’t want them looking at me like that—unless—unless one of them knew how to get me out of there.

  I stepped forward, ready to ask someone, when a strong hand clapped down hard over my mouth. Leather-clad fingers squeezed my lips and yanked me back. I wheeled around, striking out, and found Mathias ducking quickly and wrenching me through a small door behind us.

  I broke free and tried to shove off him, but he was immovable and solid. “Get your hands off me.”

  His hand pressed against my mouth instantly, and the weight of his body pushed me into the wall. “Stay silent,” he hissed, watching the door. I stiffened, stunned. “They’re coming this way.”

  Out in the hallway, the king’s deep voice grunted out orders while Liam mumbled an answer in a long string of inaudible words. They sounded so close, on the other side of the door, only inches apart from us. Sweat broke out across my forehead.

  Mathias’s gaze flitted down, meeting mine, and widened. I was paralyzed, heart pounding. I braced myself for his anger, his hatred, but he did nothing but stare, with his chest rising and falling quickly.

  The men outside continued to talk. Flares of fury and displeasure, outrage and impatience hung heavy in their tones.

  Inside, Mathias’s hand still covered my lips, a little gentler than before, his cool light eyes still locked on mine.

  I ripped his hand off me and shoved him as hard as I could, knocking him back. “Keep you hands off me, or else,” I warned through gritted teeth.

  “Or else what?” he whispered, cocking his head toward me, one corner of his mouth lifting up.

  The idiot totally called my bluff. I couldn’t think of anything that came after or else. And that infuriated me. I bit the inside of my cheek to stop from screaming. There was nothing I could do in the or else department, not yet anyway.

  “What was in those jars?”

  For a moment, he said nothing. He just stared at me, his smile mocking. “Nothing of importance,” his voice whispered.

  “Liar.”

  He raised his brow.

  “What were in the jars?” I screamed, making him flinch back in surprise.

  His startled eyes darted between mine, and he grabbed my wrist. I caught a glimpse of fear in his eyes, for the briefest of moments, and I wondered what sort of horror someone like him would have. What would someone already dead be afraid of?

  “What. Is. In. Those. JARS?!” I screeched, trying to project my voice, hoping to discover what scared a dead prince.

  “Souls,” he answered me, stepping closer as if leaning in to tell me a secret. His cool breath fanned out across my neck. It felt like the static charge of electric before a thunderstorm; right there, building and building along the skin of my neck.

  “Liar.” My voice cracked, choking over the word. But something in me knew he wasn’t trying to deceive me. No. Something in his eyes told me he was being honest and real.

  I stumbled back, out of his grasp, and shoved my hands out to keep space between us. “They sung to me—pulled at me.”

  His mouth began to move as he stammered over his words, “Girl, go back to where you came from. You don’t belong here.”

  “How am I supposed to do that when none of you fuckers could tell me how?”

  His brows furrowed. “Addy didn’t… she didn’t tell you?

  Oh, I was really pissed now. “She didn’t even tell me this place existed. Or that she was ever here.”

  The creases in his brow deepened, his shoulders stiffened. “You don’t know…you don’t know who we are, at all?”

  “No,” I whispered, shaking my head. And somehow that small no had him reacting like I physically punched him. His hands wrapped around his middle, and his jaw slackened with disbelief.

  “Then you must leave,” he whispered, closing the space between us.

  Slowly, he lifted his hand and softly cupped the side of my throat. I gasped out loud, flattening myself as close to the wall as I could get, waiting for his fingers to tighten and rob me of my breath. I clamped my hands onto his arm, preparing myself for whatever defense I could come up with. I didn’t want to die.

  “Leave here. Find a way,” he warned.

  Then he released his hold on me.

  “Every upsider who has ever come here dies.”

  Chapter 16

  I wandered aimlessly through a veil of mist and nightmares, searching for warmth, searching for my return to life. Around the city glowed a halo of faint light, tormenting me, always too far out of reach. Somewhere outside was the world of the living, where color and warmth and light lived.

  In Ravenswood, dead people walked everywhere, shuffling around in heavy white make-up, raccoon-eyed skeletal costumes that spilled into the dark streets in droves. I walked on the outskirts of the crowds, hiding in the corners where the shadows hissed my whereabouts to anyone who would listen.

  But I kept searching for a way out, just like Mathias had demanded of me. I searched for hours without reward.

  “I knew I still felt you here,” Liam said, stepping out in front of me on the small walkway where I hid. He slithered out of nowhere, separating from the shadows I'd been seeking cover in. “Everyone can feel your warmth still. It’s all anyone’s spoken about.” He smirked, crowding me back against the wall, back into a dark corner.

  I glanced past his shoulders. Everyone was watching. And long black patches of darkness stretched toward us from all sides as if leaning in, listening. The fine hair along my arms shivered with coldness and stood on end.

  I looked back up at Liam. He stood motionless in front of me, a smug look across his face. His eyes dropped down to my lips, and I was suddenly aware, without any doubt in my mind, how much he wanted to kiss me.

  Maybe I could use that.

  I batted my eyelashes and offered him up an innocent smile. I was never good at flirting. I was never good with anyone of the opposite sex, I always felt awkward and insecure. I would spend most of my time thinking my skin was too oily, my hair too greasy, or if I spoke, I’d say silly things and look foolish. I would break out in a cold sweat, and everything I was afraid of happening really would happen. But still, I looked up at Liam from underneath my lashes and pouted my lips a bit.

  “I was looking for you,” I lied, biting down on my bottom lip. “Would you like to show me around the castle? I keep getting lost.”

  He stepped closer, leaning over me, and pushed open a door I didn’t know was behind us, walking me in backwards. He was too close, looming too near. My personal space was devoured by him. Once we were inside, he shoved the door closed with a quick wave of his hand and slid a large metal bar across it, locking us in.

  He moved me deeper into the room, away from the door, sauntering into me. “Hmmm,” he hummed with pleasure. “What should I show you first?”

  “How about the jars of lights?” I asked innocently. I fluttered my eyelashes again for good measure.

  “Oh, but you already know they hold souls, don’t you?” His tone was devious, taunting. “I believe you were already there with my brother, were you not?”

  Shit. Shit. Shit.

  “Well, your brother hates me. I didn’t know if he would tell me the truth.” I pretended to look around, letting the stretched out neckline of my shirt fall slowly off my shoulder. I pretended not to notice.

  Liam’s eyes roamed longingly over my skin. It made me immediately itchy. I wasn’t used to being looked at like that, and a swell of nervous waves rolled through my stomach.

  I might just vomit on him.

  “Mathias wants you gone. I want you to stay. Your flesh radiates such warmth. All I can
think of is touching you.”

  Of course only dead guys were ever attracted to me. I bit down on my lip again and giggled sweetly.

  I can’t believe I’m doing this and it’s working.

  “Is there a way to leave? Not that I would leave or anything.” I slid my index finger up the middle of his chest teasingly. “How did…how did Addy leave?”

  His leather fingers grabbed my hand in a tight fist, and he leaned his face in closer to mine and inhaled deeply as if he was trying to breathe me in. I tried pulling my hand away, but he squeezed it tighter and yanked it against his chest.

  “I might be years dead, but I’m far from stupid.” For a moment, his usually pale face reddened and his eyes flamed a deep blue.

  I stepped away, still trying to break free from his hold. “Please, Liam. Tell me something. Tell me how to leave.”

  “But it would be more fun if you stayed,” he whispered, licking his lips.

  I swallowed hard, hating myself for getting into yet another situation I shouldn’t be in. “Then just…just tell me something…something about my grandmother.” I was panicking—my emotions spiraling—scared, angry, anxious, guilty. I wanted, no, I needed him to help me. I needed someone on my side to get me home. I squeezed my eyes closed, about to scream.

  “Addy was the keeper of history. “

  His words stopped me cold. She was the keeper of history? “Say what now?”

  “She kept our history. Wrote it all down and kept the library.”

  “Wait, you have a library here?”

  I was like Belle in the Beast’s castle. But it wasn’t the same. Growing up with my grandmother, whenever I needed advice or to learn how to do something, she’d give me a book. I learned about sex through books. I learned about my period through a book. I learned everything I ever needed to learn between the covers of a book.

  Maybe that’s how Addy found out how to leave Ravenswood.

  Maybe that’s what I had to do. My eyes dropped down to the floor as a thought slammed into my chest. Maybe this Addy person, maybe she raised me the way she did to teach me how navigate this place.

  But that couldn’t be right, could it? She would have told me about this place if that were her plan.

  “Take me!” The words frantically burst from my lips. “Please,” I begged. “Take me to the library. I…I love books.”

  A smile hovered around the edge of his lips. “What will you do for me?”

  And I was back in high school.

  I shoved my bared shoulder between us; it was a strange, awkward move. I was twisted around pathetically. Although, by the lustful look on his face, I could tell it worked.

  “I guess you’ll have to wait and see.”

  He jerked me forward and pulled me by the hand across the room, through a door, and out into a hallway. He said nothing as he sped through the castle, me following behind, tripping over myself trying to keep up the pace.

  Up and over a staircase, through an outside walkway masked in thick mist, past cathedral-length doors was the library.

  Shelves of books towered four stories high curved around the room in an enormous oval shape. Each floor had a shiny, freshly polished wooden railing with small tables and seats built into it. Torches were lit on each reading space, giving just enough light to illuminate how spectacularly it was designed.

  The room was mostly empty, a few souls dressed in their preposterous outfits sat scattered around the room at the reading stations, staring silently at the pages before them. I spun around, taking everything in.

  “I don’t care much for reading, but Mathias needs to be near books, so our rooms are below. Would you like to see my room now?”

  I barely heard his words though; I was frozen, mid-spin, staring at a lone figure on the balcony across from us. It was Mathias, head bent over a book, a feathered pen in his hand, scribbling fiercely next to it.

  His head jerked up as if he heard someone call his name, and his eyes instantly locked on mine. At first his expression held no emotion, not until the quill he was holding dropped from his hand and lips pressed together in sharp irritation.

  Liam groaned loudly next to me and leaned his head close to my ear. “Looks like my fun is over before it could even begin. Another time, then,” he complained sharply.

  Mathias bolted up from his chair and lunged in our direction, baring his teeth.

  I turned to answer Liam, but he was gone.

  Damn it. Another scolding from the mean dead brother was not something I wanted to waste more time on. I scanned the room for an easy exit, but he was in front of before I could run for one. My palms instantly started sweating.

  “What were you doing with Liam?” he asked. His voice was unnervingly calm, contradicting the angry lines bunching up around his eyes or the frown that dipped his lips down in each corner.

  “Trying to find a way out of here.”

  It couldn’t have been more than a few hours ago he found me in the sparkly jar room, yelling at me. When he went all asshole-ghost on me, then touched my face like I was some porcelain doll that could easily break. I opened my mouth to say more, but I couldn’t find the right words. I forced myself to stay focused on his eyes, forcing my face to look blank and fearless.

  Mathias’s eyes narrowed. “Did he touch you?”

  “Possessive much? Why would that matter?”

  He seemed to consider me for a moment, probably weighing whether to let me in on the little secrets of his stupid dead city. “You’ve never heard stories about this place?”

  Slowly, I shook my head and folded my arms across my chest. I felt exposed, vulnerable. He knew things about this place, and I was just some ignorant child to him.

  “Will you tell me next you have no memory of being here either?” His voice was low and deep and full of malice.

  “I…I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I stuttered.

  But I did, didn’t I? There had been images, soft and translucent, touching the edges of my memories. Should I let him know? Could I tell this creature something honestly and hope for the truth back?

  “You’re a liar. Just like Addy was.” He laughed, and the sound was harsh and sharp.

  “Just tell me how to get out of here.”

  “I should just let the hollows have at you, just like everyone here wants. It would take no time at all to ruin someone like you.” His threat felt like a throat punch, making me dizzy.

  “Go fuck off,” I growled. I wasn’t a liar.

  I just wanted to get out of here. Why couldn’t he just tell me how if he wanted me to leave so badly?

  His gloved hand shot up like a whip, thrusting me against the dusty bookshelves, and held me there, a hand around my throat. His gaze, dark and angry, shifted slowly over my face like he was studying every inch of it.

  “Let go of me.”

  “If I let you go, will you leave?” His fingers tightened.

  I smacked at his hands until he released me and I tumbled sideways, away from him. “If you want me gone so badly, why can’t you just tell me how to leave?” I gritted, rubbing my throat. “And for your information, I’m not lying. I’m not a liar.”

  “Spare me the falsities. There’s no way you’ve lived this long without knowing anything about who you are. You couldn’t have survived this long, being so ignorant.”

  “Sure. Whatever you say. Now just tell me how to get out of here.”

  He glared at me; his eyes giving away all inner thoughts.

  “Wait. You can’t, can you? You have no idea how she left, do you? That’s why you can’t tell me,” I said darkly.

  “Do you think any of us would remain here if we could get a chance at another life?” His voice was a growl; deep and hoarse.

  I let my gaze wander around the library behind him. There were people watching, waiting to see what was happening. I blinked back tears. I was confused and frustrated. This was going on far too long. Why did he want me gone but everyone else here looked like they wanted
to devour me?

  “Why did you say the hollows should have me? How would they ruin me?”

  His lips tightened into a thin white line.

  “If you don’t tell me, how am I supposed to know?” I snapped, jamming my fists on my hips. “Give me something to work with here!”

  “They crave the souls of living. It makes them feel for a minute, it fills them with pleasure and peace. It’s like getting high. Some people only last a few minutes here; hollows use them quickly.

  “So you’re a bunch of murderers.”

  He looked away. “It wasn’t always like this.”

  “Mathias. Why does Liam want me here but you want me gone?”

  Around us, the clocks' bells gonged, loud and echoing. Mathias stepped back quickly, his pallor blanched, his skin fading to a soft gray, and his eyes became colorless orbs. His hair turned duller, and his broad strong physique withered away. Mathias was dying, and I felt his energy fighting and crackling in the air between us as his entire body disintegrated into nothing but a small pile of gray dust at my feet.

  The books housed in the shelves around me rustled and decayed before my eyes, turning to fat gray flakes of ash.

  I lunged forward, toward the table where Mathias had sat with a book open, reading. I wanted to see what he had been looking at when I walked in with Liam. A shadowy hand reached out after me but melted through me, with the lightest of feathery touches. I shook it off and rummaged my hands over the desk and debris.

  I slid my hand over the dust-covered book, blowing a sharp breath to help clean it off. It was the same book Addy had in her arms when she was killed. Lifting it up, I squeezed the book so hard, I half-expected it to crumble between my fingers.

  I opened it carefully, the cover puffing up into a small cloud of fine soot and instantly deteriorating into sheer gray grime. I cursed under my breath and blinked out the grit that mushroomed up into my eyes.

  The book was slowly disintegrating on the table.