I darted out of the closet at the same time that the shorter boy, the one who had burned the mushrooms, glanced up. He spotted me and his mouth dropped open. I gave him a quick, savage grin and sped away down the hall, hearing him sputtering behind me, and the cook bellowing at him to keep up and hand him the bucket.
Then I was around the corner, racing into the kitchen.
It wasn’t surprising to find the guard still there, but my stomach still plummeted. He had abandoned his post by the door and was using the opportunity to steal a piece of cake off of a silver platter that sat on the far counter. I caught him mid-bite, and his expression of surprise was comical as he turned toward me.
I snatched up the first weapon I could find, a heavy wooden rolling pin, and swung it at the guard’s head with all my might. He moved fast, dodging backwards so that it missed his head and clipped him on the shoulder instead. His arm came down in a blur of movement, chopping the edge of his hand into my forearm. The rolling pin clattered onto the floor as hot white pain shot up my arm.
I lashed out with my bare feet, kicking him in the knee, and the guard stumbled back with a sharp cry of pain. We both lunged for the rolling pin at the same time, and I was quicker, fingers wrapping around the handle and snatching it up a second before his hand smacked the tiles where it had been.
I lunged, swinging wildly and this time there was a sharp crack as the heavy rolling pin came down on the top of his head, and I felt the impact vibrate both my arms, shocking my nerves all the way up to the palms of my hands. The guard slumped sideways and hit the floor with a crash, and I dropped the rolling pin, shaking my hands out with a hiss of pain and irritation.
I darted for the freezer door, my hand closed around the door handle… and intense, burning pain shot up my arm. I felt my knees turn to water, and I hit the floor on my hands and knees, gasping. The room was rotating in dizzy circles above me.
Iron. The freezer door was made of iron.
“No! NO!” I searched wildly for something I could cover my hand with. There was a grease covered clothe on the table beside me, and I wrapped it around the palm of my hand, reaching up for the handle of the door in front of me.
The burning sensation was less this time, but every muscle in my body still went weak and useless as soon as I made contact with the door, and I sagged forward, head suddenly heavy, unable to move.
I let my hand drop, moaning in pain and helpless anger. Kiran was right there, right behind the door. He might be lying there half dead and frozen and I couldn’t get to him.
I snatched up the rolling pin and beat it on the surface of the door, screaming, voice scratchy and ragged with emotion. “Kiran! Can you hear me? Kiran? Say something, please!”
There was faint moan from behind the door, and I sat up, blinking back tears. He was still alive. But he also couldn’t talk, or he was half unconscious. It wasn’t good.
“Damn it!” I was half growling, half sobbing now. There had to be a way to get him out of there. Maybe I could bribe someone else to open the door, threaten to stab them if they didn’t. There was a slight scuffling noise, which I thought was one of the servants coming back, or maybe the guard waking up, and I sprung to my feet, legs wobbly.
But it wasn’t the guard, or any of the servants. It was Rook.
I wanted to get up, to throw myself at him and ring his neck for what he was doing to Kiran, but as he moved toward me I felt the hairs on the back of my neck rise. I might as well try to fight a lion or a cheetah. There was no question that he was a deadly predator. I was way out of my league here.
“Cassie,” his voice was a lazy drawl, and his dark eyes sparkled. He was enjoying this, like a cat tormenting a mouse. “I’m so disappointed in you. I thought you’d decided to stay with me. To learn about your heritage. The thief can’t do anything for you.” He chuckled. “Especially not now, I think he’s likely brain damaged.”
A guttural snarl tore from my throat, and I launched myself forward, wanting to land a single blow on him. Just one.
Rook’s hand came up, a blur of movement, and he smacked me full across the face, sending me reeling backwards before I’d even got close to him. It was uncanny how fast he was, how he was standing there one second and gone the next. When I looked up, blinking dazedly, tasting copper on my tongue, he was leaning against the counter, arms crossed over his chest. That smirk was still teasing at the corner of his lips.
“Cassie, Cassie. I know you know better. You can tell you’re not my match. You know deep down, that I could dispatch you with a flick of a finger. In fact, I wouldn't even have to touch you.”
I knew he was right, but the way he was looking at me was making my skin prickle with heat, and not the kind that Kiran inspired in me, the kind that left me burning with anger. The kind that drove me to do incredibly stupid things.
This time I tried to fake him out, half turning towards the freezer door, then darting back, lashing out with a kick, my boot heel to his knee cap.
Something wrapped around my throat mid-kick, and I felt myself hoisted up into the air. Lights burst in front of my eyes, coloring my vision brilliantly white, with shades of darkness just beginning to creep around the edges.
Rook slammed me backwards, pressing me into the wall so hard I felt what little oxygen I had left in my lungs rush out, leaving me wheezing and gasping, desperate for air. His hands were crushing my throat, and the dark mist around the edges of my vision was creeping in further.
It slammed home like a bolt of lightening then, that he wasn’t toying with me anymore. The game was over. He was really going to kill me now.
I let my body go limp, letting my hands fall into the folds of my dress. Still choking, I slipped one hand into the secret pocket, fingers closing around the cool glass surface of the jar. The jar with Kiran’s soul in it.
I had no idea what I was doing, but anything was better than dying.
I brought the jar out of my pocket and let it slip out of my fingers.
There was the sharp crash of glass breaking, and suddenly the grip around my neck was gone, and I slumped down onto the tiles. Something sharp dug past my dress, cutting in my thigh, and I pushed myself backwards, coughing and gagging, desperately sucking in air.
When I opened my eyes, Rook was in mid-lunge, throwing himself at the milky white form that was floating just above the floor.
Rook hit the ground, fingers grasping, but the soul slipped out of his reach, darting for the freezer door and sliding under it, winking out like a candle flame.
I almost laughed in relief. That had been a stab in the dark. I’d had no idea that the soul would go back to Kiran. It could have floated around the kitchen aimlessly for all I knew, like a tiny little ghost.
My relief shriveled the second I looked up and saw Rook staring down at me. His face was turning red and his mouth was curled downwards in an ugly snarl, something I never thought I’d see on his smooth features.
It made ice drop down my spine to see him looking at me like that. There was no way he was going to let me go now. Now that I’d freed the master thief.
There was a thud on the other side of the freezer door, making us both jump. A low, angry sounding voice came from the inside. It was too muffled to make out words, but my heart jumped at the sound of it. Kiran was awake.
Rook strode forward and seized my arms, yanking me roughly to my feet, dark eyes boring into mine.
His voice was flat, which was somehow more terrifying than if he’d been screaming at me. “I can think of a better punishment for you than death.”
“I have no wish to know what that is.” I tried to pry my arm out of his grip, but his fingers only tightened on my arms, biting into my skin and making my eyes fill with tears.
There was another thump from the freezer, louder this time, and it distracted Rook enough that he turned away from me. I managed to rip one arm free, tucking my right hand into my sleeve, fingers curling around the little dagger I’d stashed up there.
Rook jerked me to his chest, tucking me tight against his side as he began to make his way to the door. “Perhaps the thief was right to bind you in iron. It would certainly teach you to behave yourself and not run rampant all over your host’s house, won’t it? That’s just plain rude.”
“You’re a hypocrite then,” I panted, trying to get my other arm up to unsheathe the dagger. Rook didn’t answer, nor did he seem to notice my struggles.
There was another almighty blow to the freezer door, this time it shook the kitchen slightly, and the pots and pans hanging from the rack over the stove rattled noisily. Rook paused, glancing up, and in that second I felt the dagger pull free of the glass sheath