She didn’t. She was absolutely terrified.
“Don’t even breat—”
Her companion stopped, mid-sentence. His eyes dropped downward, somewhere around her breasts. “Look! Your pendant!”
The jewel around her neck was glowing. It gave off a deep blue light, and with it, a distinct warmth.
Melody took a step forward, away from the mist. As she did, Eric took a step nearer to her.
“W—What’s it doing?” she asked fearfully. The pendant was even warmer now. Almost uncomfortably hot. “Why is doing that?”
“Let me see it,” said Eric.
He held out his hand.
Mechanically Melody reached behind her head and began unslinging the gold chain from around her neck. Halfway through she stopped.
“Here,” Eric shook his hand impatiently. “Give it to me. Let me see.”
Remembering Xiomara, she dropped her arms back at her sides.
“No.”
His expression changed instantly. It went from wide-eyed fascination to something more sinister, even venomous.
“Melody let me see it. I want to—”
“NO,” she said again. “I’m not taking it off.”
He took another two steps, very quickly, one after the other. She gasped as she realized she was trapped between him and the mist.
“Listen to me,” he said evenly. “You’re handing me that pendant.”
His jaw was clenched and he was talking through his teeth. The look in his eye was almost murderous.
“You don’t even know what—”
Eric stopped abruptly and whirled as a something else stepped into view. Melody looked up and saw a figure — tall and broad. A figure who moved incredibly fast.
“Get back to the house,” Lucus told her, stepping between them. Though he was talking to Melody, he never took his eyes off of Eric.
“Now!”
28
She wanted to say something. To stand beside Lucus, and help him fight if need be. But there was something in the smith’s expression that told her she shouldn’t. A little voice inside her head, screaming for her to listen.
Slowly she backed away.
The house was barely visible now. The mist seemed to be closing in on all sides. Squinting hard Melody could just make it out, looming from a great blanket of swirling grey. She ran hard again across the soft wet earth, clutching the pendant that dangled from her neck. Resisting the urge to look back at the men squared off behind her.
She reached the Veranda, then circled around the front of the manor. The double doors were closed, but not locked. Melody swung them open and burst inside, somehow still conscious she’d be tracking dirt and mud all over the beautiful oaken floors.
One look around told her she didn’t have to worry.
The house was an absolute wreck.
Everything inside the manor was either broken or blackened. Shattered into pieces, or left in a complete state of disrepair.