I hated myself for feeling weak. I wanted to be sturdy. We had one other day’s stroll to the Darkish Woods, after which we have been going into Deidamia’s fortress.

Ernest began towards the Darkish Woods with out me. I swallowed my satisfaction and adopted him towards the darkness … once more.

***

I had one other sleepless evening. Josephine ran in my goals like a scared youngster. Who was she afraid of? What had occurred? I’d by no means needed to be taught darkish magic in my life, however throughout that second, I needed to achieve out to her one way or the other.

Ernest kicked my foot. “I’m awake,” I stated with my eyes closed.

“Stand up. It’s time,” he stated.

Daybreak lingered close by. The darkness of the evening was subsiding because the solar broke free from its slumber.

I stood to my toes, feeling dizzy from the evening, and rubbed my eyes with the heels of my palms. I felt nasty from the ash the day earlier than and my lack of ability to take a shower. What I might do for a pleasant scorching bathe.

Ernest cleaned up camp faster than he’d moved the whole journey. Deidamia roared, and it despatched shivers down my backbone. I swung my canteen over my again, together with my backpack, and watched because the darkness started to shadow over the forest. It crawled like a creature despatched to suffocate you.

Ernest walked towards the sting of the bayou that separated us from her fortress and commenced to wade by means of it. “There are gators in there,” I referred to as out.

Ernest and I waded by means of the bayou. He appeared comfy sufficient to do it, although it took him some time to get throughout it.

I stepped onto the bottom and hauled Ernest out of the muggy water and to his toes. He was out of breath. Breaking into this fortress didn’t appear to be a good suggestion.

“You may hardly transfer,” I stated.

He huffed and began towards the doorways. Cussed previous man. The doorways whined as I pushed them open and stepped inside.

It seemed the identical because the day I saved Josephine. Murky and chilly. A real dragon girl’s fortress.

The crow landed on the stair railing and cawed at us. For the primary time, I didn’t wish to strangle him. “Let’s observe him,” I stated.

Ernest adopted behind me because the fowl led us towards two double doorways on the other finish of Deidamia’s den.

I shoved open the massive handles and stepped into what I assumed to be her bed room. It was filled with witchy stuff that I didn’t like. There was a floor-to-ceiling bookshelf in a single nook and a four-post mattress in the course of the ground.

A pitch-black chandelier hung over her mattress, and two stained-glass home windows introduced within the morning mild.

The crow landed on her nightstand. Her pink eyes have been curious. I wasn’t certain the fowl’s angle simply but, however I pulled the ebook from beneath her and opened it.

It smelled previous, and the writing was small cursive.

“A diary?” Ernest requested from the opposite aspect of the room.

“Appears prefer it,” I stated, flipping by means of the pages. “It dates again to the 1800s. May she be that rattling previous?”

Ernest grumbled whereas opening the drawers of her dresser.

“You searching for her underwear, Pops?”

He tossed me a glance.

An image fell from the depths of the diary. I bent down and picked it up, holding it between my fingers. The little lady staring again at me was smiling. A lady stood subsequent to her with an analogous face form and hair shade. On the opposite aspect was one other little lady that seemed very comparable. Did she have a sister? Fern hadn’t talked about one in her tales, however that did not imply something. Her previous appeared to be misplaced within the years.

The life in her eyes seemed full. This was at the beginning was ripped from her. One of many final moments she’d felt love.

The doorways slammed downstairs, and I shoved the image into my pocket and positioned the diary again down.

Ernest checked out me and motioned for me to observe him to the closet’s door. There was a small door within the again, hiding behind garments and junk. He opened it, and a staircase led downward.

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