Savage Wings: Book Three of The Whitechapel Chronicles

Chapter 10

I awoke from a troubled sleep plagued by monsters all bearing my face.

I'd fled the scene of my crime, haunted by the sound of Caelan's sobs and feeling the heavy weight of shame pressing down upon me and dogging my every step. I couldn't erase my words and I couldn't run from what I had done. There was no escaping my cruelty and I was horrified at my actions, horrified that I was capable of being so heartless and so brutal. What the Hell had happened to me? Was I so desperate to escape this place that I was willing to sacrifice Caelan's life in order to be free? She was crazy and dangerous, of that I was certain, but that didn't mean she deserved what I'd done.

When I reached the bedroom, I had been relieved that Lucius wasn't there. I couldn't have faced those blue eyes that saw too much. Instead, I had crawled onto the bed and lay there alone, with ravens beating their wings against my body until finally, exhausted, I had succumbed to a torturous slumber.

I wasn't sure how long I had been asleep but I did know I was just as alone on awakening as I had been before I had passed out, only now I didn't want to be alone. I wanted Harper. I wanted Lucius. And yet all I had was the sound of soulful music drifting along the corridor, muffled as if it was being played behind a closed door. My muscles protested as I struggled to sit up, feeling the burn of tense limbs and aching bones. I felt disorientated and nauseous, desperate to shake off those stubborn remnants of my dreams and yet unwilling to wake up and face reality once again.

Frowning, I swung my legs over the edge of the bed and tried to gather my senses. Everything felt dream-like and hazy and yet something was incessantly tap-tapping on the inside of my skull, urging me to wake up, to be alert. But alert for what?

A scream in the darkness beyond the Gates pulled me to my feet, the voices of the dead crying out to me in warning and I knew I had to listen. I had grown accustomed to their lament, easily differentiating between shrieks of agony and cries of alarm –as if they were calling out to me and saying watch out, beware! Something was wrong. An unease crept across my skin, raising goose bumps on the surface and sending an involuntary shiver down my spine.

Following the trail of music out into the candle-lit corridor, I stopped and cocked my head to one side, straining to seek out the source of the music. It wasn't coming from Josiah's room. The door there stood wide open. It was coming from the chapel itself. I headed towards the double doors but found myself stopping just short of the chapel when I heard the sound of laughter coming from within. A woman's laughter.

With a shudder of dread and foreboding, I pushed open the doors and almost buckled at the sight in front of me.

She was free. Caelan was free and she was here, laughing as she danced with Lucius, whirling him around and around the chapel in time to the music playing from an old stereo in the corner. The boy wasn't laughing. His eyes were full of fear and yet he didn't resist the mad seer or try to break free from her grasp as she swung him around as if he were a doll.

The world seemed to fall away beneath my feet and I was flailing, frantically trying to grab hold of the edge before I tumbled into the abyss. She looked up and our eyes met. I felt her triumph rolling across the room in great waves that almost knocked me to the floor. Making a big show of it, she spun Lucius by the hand and pulled him close, his back against her chest so he was staring right at me. Crouching down slightly so she could wrap both her arms around him, she rested her cheek against his white-blonde hair and swayed back and forth.

"C-Caelan...." The words lodged in my throat. She had Lucius. She had Lucius. "What are you doing down here? Where's Josiah?"

She laughed and planted a kiss on top of Lucius' head. "Oh, I'm afraid Josiah is unavailable right now. Would you like me to give him a message?"