The Castle: Prequel to the Guardian Angel Series Read online

  Chapter 6

  He swept inside the Lab and advanced toward her. “Is this secret room you speak of where you’ve been disappearing?”

  “No!” She stood up from her chair and stood behind it, keeping it between them. There was wildness about his eyes.

  “I know you’ve been lying to me. I’ve thought for days you must have found a way to hide your presence from me. Where is it? Where is this room?”

  “I have no idea!” Her heart pounded. “If you had waited a moment in your eavesdropping you would have heard me tell Marigold that.”

  His eyes narrowed, but he turned instead to Marigold. “Tell me where it is.”

  Marigold darted a look between them. “I don’t know. I searched with the children to amuse them but we didn’t find it. Honestly, I’m sure it doesn’t even exist!”

  But she did know. Heather sensed it.

  “I don’t think I believe either one of you,” Thaddeus said slowly. “Now why would you lie to me?”

  Marigold must not tell, but every moment they refused heightened Thaddeus’ suspicions. The speed with which she found their plans disintegrating made her dizzy.

  “It is in the west wing,” she said impulsively, trying to buy time. “There. I’ve told you. Are you satisfied?”

  Every instinct Heather had in her screamed she needed to leave, as she’d promised Eric she would if she felt threatened. She edged toward Marigold. If she could physically touch her she could take her away with her to Dragon’s Keep.

  Thaddeus shifted, keeping himself between them.

  “Am I satisfied? No, I don’t believe I am. I think Marigold is a bad influence on you, Heather.”

  He wagged a finger at Marigold. “I am very, very tired of your interference. I thought you’d learned your lesson. Do we need another demonstration?”

  Marigold paled. “She told you the truth! It is in the west wing!”

  “I will see if you are right…after you’re gone. Only I think this time you should stay gone for good.”

  Thaddeus lifted his hands and began to cast the banishment spell.

  “Stop! Please, I beg you!” Heather grabbed his arm, but he knocked her away. She fell hard to the floor.

  “Heather!” Marigold cried out, but she looked to be paralyzed where she stood. Her eyes locked with hers. “Leave!”

  Heather understood Marigold was telling her to go to Dragon’s Keep. But how could she leave her? How could she believe Thaddeus would ever bring her back? There was not time! She did the only thing she could think of. She blocked his spell with one of her own. It was the most powerful one she knew and the one she had so recently learned. She prayed Henry was right and that she knew it as well as he did.

  Power surged through her body as she spoke the words of the spell. Thaddeus jerked and doubled over, releasing Marigold from his banishment spell. Heather barely registered that she fell to the floor, her concentration solely on Thaddeus. The Barrier flickered and dimmed outside the windows. The spell was working!

  “How?” Thaddeus gasped the word and staggered toward her.

  She scrambled to her feet and backed away, still reciting the words. The Barrier sputtered like the flame of a candle being snuffed out. It crackled, shooting off sparks. Soon it would be over. Any second now the Barrier would fall. Soon Eric and everyone else at Dragon’s Keep would be released from their exile.

  Thaddeus moaned. He collapsed, writhing in agony. At first she didn’t care. Let him suffer. He deserved to suffer.

  His hair turned white before her eyes. He was visibly aging. And she knew. Horrified, she knew the same was happening to Eric. The link had not been broken.

  “Don’t kill me, Heather. Show mercy!”

  He was dying. And that meant Eric was dying. Her voice broke.

  “You must not stop, Heather!” She heard Marigold’s shout.

  But she couldn’t continue. She stopped the spell and the Barrier immediately flared in a surge of renewed energy. Drained, she slumped against a work station. Her legs gave out and she grabbed blindly for a chair, knocking it over as she slid to the floor.

  Marigold looked up from her crouched position. “You have to go! Go, now!”

  “I can’t.” She couldn’t access a teleportation spell.

  Thaddeus recovered faster than she did. He weaved his way toward her, knocking aside furniture in his path until he towered over her. His voice raspy, he demanded, “How did you learn the spell?”

  Heather said nothing.

  He pulled her to her feet and shook her like a rag doll. “Answer me! You must have had help.”

  “No one helped me.”

  “You think I’m a fool? Whoever you are protecting will pay.”

  “I helped her.” Marigold got to her feet and faced him defiantly. “Only me.”

  “You! What could you do?”

  “I - I smuggled copies of your scrolls into the secret room.”

  “I will deal with you later.” Thaddeus slid his gaze back to Heather. “But you. What am I to do with you, my beautiful Heather?”

  She licked her dry lips. “I showed you mercy, I ask the same.”

  “Mercy? You expect mercy? Look at me! Look what you’ve done to me!” He shook her again. His voice rose and exploded in thunderous rage. “You will have no mercy from me!”

  Heather shrank away from him. “If not for me, show mercy for my child!”

  Thaddeus jerked as if she’d struck him. “Your child? Eric’s child grows within you?”

  “Yes.” Had she sealed her fate?

  He released her and turned away to walk slowly to the windows, leaning on the sill as he gazed out at the Barrier.

  “Why, Heather? Why? We could have had everything, you and I.” He sounded bewildered. “It hurts to look at you. I do not want to look at you anymore.”

  But he did. He turned around and she had no doubt of his intent. He wanted her dead.

  She swayed on her feet. Her mind desperately sought for a way to save her baby and landed on one thing, grasping for a life line. “Banish me, Thaddeus! Banish me instead.”

  “No!” Marigold rushed toward her.

  Thaddeus cocked his head to the side. “You want me to banish you?”

  “You won’t ever have to see me again.”

  His black eyes glittered in his newly weathered face. “The idea has a certain appeal. Your child will have powers, I imagine. I will enjoy thinking of you coping with a Guardian child’s abilities when you have none.”

  He raised his hands. “So be it.”

  “Let her choose where to go!” Marigold interceded, her voice urgent. “Please. I will do anything you ask.”

  Thaddeus shot her a scornful, impatient glance. “What can you offer me I could possibly want?”

  “I can help you with the others. Show them I support you.”

  Thaddeus gave a short bark of a laugh. “Support from you. My most vocal opponent.”

  “But only if you let her choose.”

  “Mari, no.” Heather meant her words to be a shout of denial, but they came out a whisper.

  “It will be all right.” Marigold smoothed back her hair. “Tell him, Heather.”

  She could barely think. Would the locket overcome the banishment spell? Knowing this was her only chance, she looked at Marigold when she said out loud the first place and time to come to her.

  “As you wish.” Thaddeus granted Marigold’s request and Heather felt herself being pulled away.