One girl had lustrous black hair that hung down to her waist. Her red silk dress featured long sleeves and a low-cut neckline. The second girl was wearing a strapless red organza dress. Her chocolate brown hair was twisted up in a taut updo that showed off her high cheekbones.
I noticed that each of the girls wore an impressive choker made from rubies. Their necklaces were so tightly wrapped around their necks that it looked like the accessories were strangling them. I instinctively put my hand to my neck and realized I was also wearing a choker. I tried to pull it off, but it wouldn’t budge. I couldn’t find a cord to untie it either. The thing was inexplicably attached to me like a second skin.
“Where are we?” I asked. “Who are you people?”
The chocolate-haired girl looked nervous. “I’m Shiondre and this is Darcy,” she said. “And please, you have to listen to us. I can see that you’re new, and this might be overwhelming, but you have to behave yourself or else—”
A hypnotic, musical chime echoed through the corridor. It was so loud it caused the blue, shimmering tapestries that lined the hallway to shiver. At the same time, the blue panels of light that were spaced along the ceiling started to flash. They did so in a pattern that matched the chime’s tune.
The girls in the vicinity seemed to tremble at the call of the ominous chime. As it continued, they began to walk down the hall, falling into single file. Shiondre grabbed me by the wrist and pulled me along as she and Darcy joined the line of girls.
I shook off Shiondre’s grip and repeated my question with more urgency. “Where are we?”
“We are in Bluebeard Tower,” she whispered. “And for your sake, I hope you’re good at keeping a low profile.”
I wanted to ask more questions—and mention that keeping a low profile was the opposite of what I was good at—but Shiondre and Darcy refused to look at me.
I walked behind them as other girls poured in from connecting corridors and merged with our procession. Each girl wore a unique red dress and the same ruby choker. The girls’ eyes were filled with fear. It quivered where the light of life should’ve been. I had a very bad feeling about what was coming.
I ran through the synopsis of Bluebeard’s story in my head.
After taking a wife, a monstrous, demonic man named Bluebeard went on a business trip. Before he left, he gave his wife keys to every room in his castle with only one instruction: don’t open the chamber on the bottom floor. She could go anywhere and everywhere else, just not there. Of course, girl had to go and open that chamber. And when she did, she discovered the bloodied bodies of all the dude’s previous wives. Bluebeard found out and was going to kill her like he had all the other girls, but in the end she was rescued and he was killed. End of story.
Or maybe not.
The line of girls entered a grand ballroom as the chiming continued. The room’s floor was checkered tile. The walls were almost too tall to see the ceiling, but something up there made it worth a tilt back of the head to look. Sprouting from the ceiling was an enormous electric chandelier in the shape of an upside-down daffodil. The thing was easily three times the size of a carriage. A myriad of metal chains intertwined with clear-colored crystals draped from the fixture, glistening in the blue light that it emanated and connecting with the ceiling in big whooshes.
It was not the only impressive thing in the ballroom. While three of the walls were made of stone, the wall on the left was comprised entirely of giant windows in different shapes and sizes. A school of orange fish swam past one and I finally understood why I hadn’t seen any other windows in the compound until now. We were underwater. At least I hoped that was water. The liquid beyond the windows was blood red. The color cast a menacing red shadow over us. It made the whole place feel like some kind of underworld where demons dwelt and the wicked spent eternity.
In front of the wall of windows was a regal cobalt throne positioned on top of a twelve-step, wraparound staircase. A dais stood on ground level next to the stairs. Sitting atop the dais was an open leather-bound book and a jar of ink with an aged quill sticking out of it.
The chiming stopped as the last of the girls hurried into the ballroom. We were lined up in single file across the floor, facing the iron doors that we’d come through.
I was about to say something to Shiondre when the sound of heavy footsteps diverted my attention. Two men marched into the ballroom. One was near thirty years old with a thin blond mustache and pointy chin. A mustard yellow cape hung from his shoulder pads, matching his puffy, pleated shirt. He seemed relatively normal, apart from his fancy outfit—especially compared with the other man.
This guy was over eight feet tall. He was burly in a strong-like-a-bear kind of way and had hands so big they looked like they could crush your skull like a walnut. He wore a glistening red ring on one hand while the other hand was gloved. The monster man’s outfit was different shades of blue—from the tip of his shoes to his collar and cape—with plenty of platinum and gold trimmings that shined in the chandelier’s electric light.
The most striking part of the creature was his face. It was half man, half wrinkled beast. His eyes were small, but they twinkled. And attached to his hard, intimidating jawline was a thick beard that was bushy and dark blue like the deepest waters of the ocean.
“Quite a collection, Daverose,” said the man in the yellow cape as they approached.
“We’ve expanded our selection a bit since your last purchase, Lord Cramer,” the blue-bearded man said. “We have fully restocked our redheads, and now offer thirteen ethnicities.”
“Very good,” Lord Cramer replied. “I’m thinking of a brunette this time, maybe something more exotic.”
“May I recommend one of our younger models?” Daverose replied. “Perhaps this one.”
Daverose walked up to Shiondre. I could see the bloodlust in his piercing blue irises. Shiondre gulped as he studied her. She looked down at the floor.
Daverose snapped his fingers and three creatures with bodies of men and faces of white tigers hurried into the room. I’d only just dreamed about such creatures. Their eyes were black and big as teacup saucers. They wore silver suits over black collared shirts and ties. Matching silk pocket squares sat in their jacket pockets. Each creature had one gloved hand and one hand that wore a ring made of the same red gemstone as Daverose’s.
“Report,” Daverose said to the tigermen.
“Yes, Master,” one of them replied. He looked at Shiondre, opened a scroll, and cleared his throat. “Shiondre Louise Cunningham—age twenty-three, princess of Maramour, one hundred and nineteen pounds, five-foot-eight, no genetic defects, allergies, or unfixable quirks.”
Lord Cramer moved closer to Shiondre and she stiffened in discomfort. My eyebrows narrowed and my protective instincts kicked in. However, before I could step between her and Lord Cramer, the man’s eyes darted to me.
“Hello, who’s this?” Lord Cramer pointed at me. He also had a ring on one hand and a glove on the other. He looked me up and down and smiled. It was all I could do not to punch him in the nose.
“Daverose, old boy, you’ve been holding out on me. Who is this lovely creature?”
“Alavaster,” Daverose said to the scroll-wielding tigerman.
The tigerman took a step in my direction and glanced at his parchment nervously. “Um, sir, she is new. We still need to gather information on her. If Lord Cramer would like to select a different bride in the meantime …”
“No,” Lord Cramer said. He continued to study me with a sick grin. “I understand if she needs time to be prepared. Put her on my backorder tab and message me when she’s ready.” He winked at me. “Yes. She’ll do just fine.”
He reached out his fingers as if to stroke my cheek, but I seized his hand and twisted it sideways.
“Try that again, and you’ll lose that hand,” I said, glaring at him.
Half the girls in the room gasped. All of them turned in my direction. Daverose pushed Cramer out of the way and towered over me.
&
nbsp; “You have no idea where you are, do you?” he asked. “Or who I am?”
I didn’t have time to respond. Daverose grabbed me by the neck with one of his massive mitts and tossed me clear across the ballroom. I slid over the smooth tile until I collided against the staircase leading up to the throne with a rough thud.
Ow.
“This is Bluebeard Tower,” Daverose said as he marched toward me, his shadow elongating behind him thanks to the glow of the chandelier. “I am Lord Daverose Bluebeard. And you are my property.”
I clamored to my feet and backed up against the dais next to the throne staircase. Glancing over my shoulder, I saw that the book was a kind of registry. On the left side of the pages were the names of men. Many of these names had a fancy title in front of them like Lord or Monsieur, but all had the last name “Bluebeard.” On the right side of the pages, meanwhile, were the names of girls: Alladine, Ygraine, Bellangere, Ariane, and so on.
I snapped my attention back to the threat. Lord Cramer’s ordinary human body suddenly contorted. His limbs stretched and he grew to the same massive height as Daverose. His hands and head bulged as his eyes turned blue and menacing. His jaw and brow line stretched and warped. He looked like a lion, bear, and troll had donated their genetics to create a monster. For a finishing touch, his blond whiskers transformed into a ragged blue beard.
I swallowed the impulse to cower and stood up straight to address Daverose. “You’re right,” I said. “I don’t know where I am, or who you are. But since I’m apparently not on your little scroll there, let me tell you who I am. I’m Crisanta Katherine Knight—Princess of Midveil, five-foot-six, a hundred and twenty-five pounds, no allergies, and most definitely not your property.”
Daverose raised his eyebrows at me before glancing at Lord Cramer. “I’m afraid your backorder won’t be ready for at least a month, Cramer. Even with regular disciplining, she’ll probably take a while to rein in.”
“Understandable,” Cramer said. “We wouldn’t want one of your brides leaving here with free will. People might start to talk.”
Daverose snapped his fingers and the tigermen surrounded me. All three drew batons from within their jackets. The batons elongated to a foot in length and began to crackle with electricity.
“Tell me, Crisanta Katherine Knight,” Daverose said. “Does obedience come easily to you?”
“Order me not to hurt you and find out,” I countered.
Daverose grinned wickedly before turning to the line-up of ladies. “Get her settled, will you, girls? You know the drill. Fill her in on the rules, teach her the ropes, and show her around the castle. Anywhere and everywhere but my Little Cabinet. You all know what happens if you set foot in there. For now though, a small reminder of what happens if you disobey your master.”
Daverose nodded to the tigermen. They lunged at me—their electric batons sizzling with the threat of shock. I side-stepped the first tigerman and ducked the strike of the second. I spun around, but the third creature hit me in the sternum with his baton. Electricity passed through my system with a curt, violent jerk.
It felt like part of my heart had gotten deep-fried. I staggered but managed to elbow the tigerman who’d shocked me. He fell back and I jumped out of the way to avoid the second tigerman as he swung at my chest. Alas, I backed up into the baton of the first creature. This time the electricity surged up the base of my spine. My knees buckled and I winced in pain. Before I could recover, the second and third tigermen were on either side of me. They jabbed their batons into my ribcage simultaneously, sending electricity through my body.
“Aaargh!”
One of the tigermen slammed his foot between my shoulder blades, flattening me to the ground. For a moment before I passed out, I thought I saw something. It was like a ripple over the environment. Everything in my vision—the walls, the chandelier, the floor—turned red and warbled, but no one else in the room seemed to notice …
hance Darling was looking out the window of a tower. An elevated bed was in the middle of the room. Mauvrey lay upon it, sound asleep. Her hands were folded over her chest, which barely moved with breath. Her expression was soft and her skin was pale.
The prince walked over to the princess and studied her. The door across the room opened. A tall girl in her late twenties entered. She had wavy auburn hair that cascaded down her shoulders and framed her face. She wore a shimmery, long-sleeved olive dress, which was short in the front—showing off her pants and boots—but spilled out regally with a full bustle behind her. I didn’t know who this girl was, but she had Chance’s eyes and a similar bone structure, so I wondered if they were related.
“Should you really be spending your free time with an unconscious girl when you have a live one downstairs?” the girl asked.
“It’s my turn to keep watch,” Chance replied. “Blue will be up here in a few minutes to relieve me.”
The auburn-haired girl moved over to stand beside Mauvrey and huffed. “I cannot believe this is the girl you were into for so many years.”
“Mauvrey was an easy choice,” Chance replied. “She was shallow and beautiful and didn’t require me to be anything greater. When I was younger, I thought that was a good thing. Now I know better. The person you love should not make you want to settle for the easiest version of yourself. They should make you want to be the best you can be.”
“I could not agree more,” the girl said. “But be careful, little brother. My job as one of the heirs to our throne may be to protect this kingdom, but my job as your sister is to protect you. We are already making ourselves vulnerable by keeping Mauvrey here and hosting Crisanta Knight. I would hate to think you are also making yourself vulnerable for someone who might not feel the same way.”
“Crisa has feelings for me, Daphne,” Chance responded confidently. “I can see it. And I’m not giving up on her.”
Again, I awoke in a rose petal covered bedroom. I took a moment to process. The dream of Chance and his sister disturbed me. The whole Mauvrey thing was weird, but I wasn’t complaining; seeing my archenemy look like she was half-dead was actually rather satisfying. But the things that Chance had said made me feel uncomfortable in an unfamiliar way.
I shook it off and shoved the dream to the deep recesses of my brain. My most pressing objective was finding a way out of Bluebeard Tower. I got up and began my search of the mysterious compound, talking to different girls and exploring all the nooks and crannies like a hound on the hunt.
Unfortunately, I couldn’t find a single way out. The only windows were the enormous ones in the ballroom, which would’ve led to a red, watery death if I so much as cracked one. I didn’t know how deep we were underwater, and even if I could break those thick panels of glass, the water would probably rush in and drown me before I got out.
Oh, and aside from not having my wand, my magic wasn’t working.
I’d expected my powers to be drained after that miraculous resurrection stunt in the Shifting Forest. But even when I was tapped out, I could still feel the presence of magic inside me. Now I felt nothing. It was like my powers were completely gone.
“There has to be a way out of this castle,” I huffed as I entered the ballroom for the fourth time.
Shiondre and Darcy had been following me. They’d wanted to make sure I was all right and had also been answering my many questions.
They told me about the water outside the Tower, which they were pretty sure was a lake. They explained that the massive chandelier in the ballroom was the only source of electricity for the entire compound—it single-handedly powered all of Bluebeard Tower’s blue light panels. But most importantly, I learned that the chokers around our necks were designed to inhibit magic. Over the years Daverose’s minions had abducted several enchantresses, so every girl kidnapped was fitted with a choker as a precautionary measure. The necklaces would stop girls from magically fighting back against Daverose, the tigermen, and their future husbands.
That’s what we were doing here, you s
ee. We were the matrimonial inventory for a malevolent race of monsters.
It turns out that Bluebeard was not just one man, one monster. Bluebeard was a species. To the outer world, his kind looked like regular men—often wealthy, handsome, high-society types. But Bluebeards were like wolves in sheep’s clothing. They had a powerful bloodlust and a hobby of collecting new wives. In the olden days, this habit was much harder to maintain without drawing attention from the community. After all, a local lord who married every six months without giving an explanation for what happened to his previous wives was bound to raise a few suspicions.
As a result, the industrious Bluebeard known as Daverose had established a business that would remedy the situation. Setting up shop deep in the Passage Perelous where the Knights of the Round Table and other heroes couldn’t find him, Daverose had made the buying and selling of wives a lucrative business for his kind to enjoy.
With the help of the demonic tigermen, Daverose abducted young women from the Shifting Forest and imprisoned them in Bluebeard Tower. Bluebeards from different realms made regular pilgrimages to this Tower. When they arrived, they looked over the selection of girls and paid Daverose a hefty sum for the ones they wanted. Soon after, the selected girls would vanish from the Tower.
My anxiety about the whole thing increased with each passing minute, especially knowing what was in store for me personally. Darcy and Shiondre explained that the tigermen conducted “disciplining” sessions every day. These were spontaneous torturing and brainwashing sessions administered to girls who fought back or got feisty. They were not scheduled for any specific time, so the girls were always on their toes. Daverose had specifically mentioned my “disciplining” when we’d faced off, so I knew I was on the tigermen’s list and they could come for me at any moment.
“How often does Daverose bring a buyer here?” I asked as I glared into the depths of the red lake.
“There is no real consistency,” Darcy responded. “There is a large crank on the third floor landing. One of the tigermen winds it and that sets off the chiming throughout the Tower, letting us know to report to the ballroom for assembly.”
Crisanta Knight: To Death & Back Page 24