The hallways seemed longer than usual as I left Kull behind. With my energy almost completely gone, I had an urge to go back to my room and get a few hours of sleep, but the drive to set Kull free was unrelenting.
As I made my way up the staircase and onto the castle’s main level, I was surprised to see the sky lightening as sunrise approached. I had until sunset tomorrow evening to open the box, and time was already passing too quickly. But I wouldn’t stop until I solved the mystery.
A feeling nagged at me—the feeling I’d gotten since I’d come here—that the witch was tricking me and that I would never be able to open the box.
I pushed the thought aside. Silvestra had opened it, so it could be done. I just had to learn how. The hallways were empty as I made my way toward the gardens, making me wonder where all the wraiths went at night. Were they like vampires and slept in coffins somewhere? It wouldn’t surprise me.
As I navigated through the hallways, I didn’t feel quite as lost as I had yesterday. Remembering landmarks helped—the foyer with the ocean mosaic, the hallway with the floor-to-ceiling windows, the broad-stepped marble staircase—until I finally found the set of double doors leading to the witch’s garden.
I pushed the doors open and stepped into the crisp morning air. Sunrays spread across the sky as I walked down the gravel path and into the garden. A gentle breeze tugged at the tree branches, making the flower blossoms flutter. My sandals crunched underfoot, and somewhere in the distance came the sounds of running water.
Up ahead, I found one of the oddly shaped paths and stepped onto it. As I walked, the path curved slightly to the left, and at the end, it branched into three lines. I hiked each path, but stopped at the end of the third path and removed the box from my pocket.
The sunlight made the glowing symbols almost impossible to see, and I had to step off the path and into the trees’ shadows just to get a glimpse of the swirling symbols.
“There,” I said to myself as I found the Y-shaped symbol.
It wasn’t an exact match to the path, but was it close enough? If so, what next? My magic had recovered somewhat after using it against the witch, so I let my powers flow into the cube. Nothing. The mixture of Faythander and Earth magics surrounded the cube and dissipated, just as it had when I’d attacked the witch. It was as if I hadn’t used any magic at all.
I could solve this, I really could—I just had to use some imagination.
What if I were supposed to use a certain spell? Could the symbol represent the word for a certain spell? But most spell words were never written down, as each practitioner used unique spells and no two spells were exactly alike.
I paced down the path. If I wanted to know more, I’d need something else to compare it to. When I found the next oddly shaped pathway, I stepped onto it and followed it around a large loop, with smaller, half-circle-shaped symbols inside it. I also recognized this symbol on the box, and I held the cube as I paced the trail, tracing the matching symbol on its side, willing it to give up its secrets.
I attempted a few more spells but got the same results as last time. After exploring the rest of the garden, I found four more oddly shaped paths, and each corresponded in most part with the shapes on the box. But whatever I tried, I couldn’t activate the box’s magic.
Drat.
I found a bench and sat on it, watching as the sun rose higher in the sky. I was hungry, tired, I had a headache, and it was morning. Not a good combination. Seriously. It seemed Heidel and I had something in common. My magic felt my irritability, too, and my ability to think was also suffering.
Stuffing the box in my pocket, I took the path back to the castle. Tall parapets rose into the sky, reflecting sunlight in some places, and covered in moss and vines in other spots. By the time I made it inside and back to my chamber, it was near noon.
A wraith waited outside my door, and I stopped short.
His emotionless gaze took me in.
“She waits for you,” he said.
“The witch?”
He nodded. “I will take you to her.”
Staring at my door only a few feet away, so close to the bed where I’d hoped to get a few minutes of sleep, I wasn’t sure if I should follow him. But disobeying the witch would only make my situation worse. Been there. Done that. Wouldn’t happen again.
“Fine,” I grumbled and followed the wraith down the hallway.
This had better be life-or-death important.
When we approached her chamber, the heavenly scent of cooked food came from inside. As we entered, I found the round table filled with bowls of steaming soup, plates of fruit and cheese, loaves of freshly baked bread, pastries covered in chocolate, and golden goblets filled with frothy white liquid.
The witch waited beside one of the tall windows overlooking her garden. She turned around as I approached, and the murder I’d seen in her eyes when we’d been in the dungeons had disappeared.
She gave me a warm smile, one that almost made me think she was normal—if normal meant a power-wielding, half-dragon, half-witch who changed people into mindless subservient slaves. Or not.
“Sit,” she said, “and eat.”
I took the chair across from her, and we both sat. Maybe if I hadn’t been starving and ready to collapse from exhaustion, I would’ve given some flippant remark on how I refused to eat with the likes of her, but I was neither full nor well rested, so I grabbed a handful of cheese and stuffed it in my
