Freda Pov
I left the library feeling a little better after talking to Kyran. It had helped to tell someone how I was feeling. It had helped to cry in front of someone who did not judge me for being weak.
But as I walked back to my room, something about the conversation bothered me. Kyran had left so suddenly. One minute, we were talking about Urdon and the mate bond, and the next, he was rushing out the door like something was chasing him.
"Maybe he thinks I am weak too," I said quietly to myself. "Maybe he got tired of listening to me cry and complain."
I wouldn't blame him if that was true. I was tired of crying, too. Tired of feeling sorry for myself. Tired of being scared all the time. But I could not seem to stop any of it.
Every time I thought about Urdon, the tears started flowing. Every time I remembered how he used to look at me with love in his eyes, compared to how he looked at me now with coldness and anger, I wanted to curl up and disappear.
When I got to my room, I opened the door and stepped inside. Then I froze completely.
Something was wrong. Very wrong.
The air in the room smelled different, not like the normal smell of my soap and the clean sheets. It smelled like smoke. Old smoke from a fire that had burned out long ago. And underneath that was another smell. Something metallic and rotten.
Old blood.
"What is that smell?" I whispered and looked around carefully.
Everything looked normal at first. My bed was made. My desk was clean. My clothes were hung up in the closet. Nothing seemed out of place.
Then my eyes landed on my bed, and my heart stopped.
There was something on my pillow. Something dark and small is sitting right in the center of the white fabric.
I walked closer slowly. Each step felt heavy, like my feet did not want to take me there. My hands were shaking, and my breath was coming too fast.
When I got close enough to see clearly, I realized what it was. A single black feather. Long and glossy and perfectly straight. It was placed with care right in the middle of my pillow, like someone had taken time to position it exactly right.
"No," I whispered. "No no no."
I reached out with a trembling hand and picked it up. The second my fingers touched it, I felt a shock of cold run through my entire body. The feather was freezing. Colder than anything natural should be.
And the smell got stronger. Smoke and old blood filled my nose so thick I could almost taste it. I wanted to gag, but I forced myself to hold the feather and look at it closely.
This was not a normal feather from a normal bird. This was something else. Something wrong. Something that should not exist in the natural world.
"Yolande," I said out loud.
She had been in my room. That vengeful spirit had walked through my space and touched my things, and left me this message. This warning. This threat.
I screamed. The sound came out loud and sharp and filled with all the fear I had been holding inside. I threw the feather as hard as I could toward the open window.
It flew through the air in a perfect arc and went outside. I watched it go, and for a second, I felt relief. It was gone. It was out of my room.
But then something strange happened.
The wind caught the feather the second it cleared the window. But the wind did not blow it randomly around as wind should have. Instead, the feather moved in a perfectly straight line toward the forest.
I ran to the window and watched. The feather flew through the air like it was being pulled by an invisible string. It moved faster than the wind could have carried it. It moved with purpose and direction.
It was going home. Back to wherever Yolande was waiting. Back to the forest where she had died all those years ago.
"Oh god," I said and slammed the window shut.
My hands fumbled with the lock. It took three tries before I got it closed properly. Then I yanked the curtains closed so I could not see outside anymore.
I ran to the door and locked that too. Then I pushed a chair under the handle for extra security, even though I knew locks would not stop a spirit.
I dropped to my knees and looked under the bed. Nothing there except dust. I ran to the closet and threw open the doors. Nothing there except my clothes.
I checked every corner of the room. Every shadow. Every space where something could hide. But everything was empty. Everything looked normal.
Except for the smell. The smoke and blood smell was still there. Still filling the room and making my stomach turn.
I curled up on my bed and pulled my knees tight to my chest. My whole body was shaking so hard my teeth were chattering. I wrapped my arms around myself and tried to stop the shaking, but it would not stop.
Yolande had been in my room. She had touched my pillow. She had left me that feather to let me know she could get to me whenever she wanted. Locks did not matter. Doors did not matter. I was not safe anywhere.
"She is getting closer," I whispered to the empty room.
The walls felt like they were moving. Getting closer and closer until the room felt too small. I could not breathe properly. The air felt thick and heavy in my lungs.
I wanted to run, but where would I go? Back to the library, where anyone could see me falling apart. To Urdon, who did not want to talk to me. To Kyran, who had already heard enough of my problems today.
No. I had nowhere to go. Nowhere that would be safe from a spirit who had been waiting decades for revenge.
All I could do was wait. Wait and hope that someone figured out how to break this curse before it destroys all of us.