Lock and Key (Nocturne Academy 1)

Because there was no place for them to go.

The castle was surrounded on three sides by a narrow wedge of land, mostly taken up by hedges, and then by the lake, which might as well have been a moat since it cut the castle off so completely. On the fourth side—the back of the castle—the land extended further but it was completely taken up by the track and the broad green field where PE classes were held.

Of course, I remembered that I had caught Griffin sneaking out of a side hallway which led off one of the main corridors that first night when he had warned me to stay away from him. But that had been a short one—barely more than an alcove.

This new hallway which had suddenly opened up where none had been before was long—almost as long as the bridge that led from the land to the castle’s front door, I estimated, looking down it. It was also narrow and gloomy, lit only by a few flickering candles in holders that looked disturbingly like golden hands, cut off at the wrist and jutting into the corridor at irregular intervals.

As I looked, I realized the gerrund who had come to get me was rapidly disappearing into the gloom of the strange narrow hallway. His pointy blue cap was nearly lost in the shadows when I finally got hold of myself and stepped into this new, mysterious area of the Academy.

I walked as quickly as I could, trying not to notice the way the golden hand candleholders would occasionally flex their fingers, as though trying to get a better grip on the silver candelabras they held. Despite my speed, I never quite caught up to the gerrund, who was scurrying along at a tremendous pace, his short little legs a blur and his pointy blue hat bobbing as he ran.

I didn’t pass any doorways or windows at all—there was nothing but blank gray stone and the creepy hand candleholders. Also, no matter how far I went, I never seemed to get any closer to the end of the corridor—or should I call it a tunnel? Because that was what it felt like—like it was somehow underground. Maybe the walkway was tilted ever so slightly downward and the farther I went, the deeper it got? I didn’t know if that was accurate but it felt true.

It seemed I had been walking forever and several times I turned my head to look back. But every time I did, it appeared that the entrance where I had come in was exactly as far away as the faint light at the very end of the tunnel. Was it an optical illusion? Or something more sinister?

I began to get really nervous. Was I walking into a trap? What was going on?

“Hey,” I called to the gerrund and cringed when my voice echoed back at me hollowly down the long stone corridor. Hey…hey…ey…

Still, I couldn’t go on like this forever! I had been walking for what felt like half an hour already. I needed to get some answers.

I steeled myself against the echoes and tried again.

“Hey,” I yelled at the scurrying little gnome-man. “How much farther are we going? Are we almost there yet?”

He didn’t answer but as though my question had called it into existence, a large black door suddenly appeared in front of me, not three feet from my face. I was so surprised I nearly ran into it face-first and barely stopped myself in time. On the door in golden script were the words,

Headmistress Nightworthy

I suppose I should have opened the door and gone in at once, but I wanted to know what the hell was going on. I looked around, wondering how the seemingly endless hallway had come so abruptly to an end. I wanted to ask the gerrund but he was gone—vanished into thin air, apparently, since there was no place for him to go but back and I didn’t see him anywhere along the long, long…

Wait a minute!

I had turned my head to look for my guide, expecting to see the long, unbroken stretch of stone hallway I had been traveling through for the past thirty minutes to get to my destination. Instead, I saw that the main corridor the tunnel-hallway had branched off from was only three feet behind me.

Literally one large step would have taken me back to my starting point.

I was about to take that step, just to test and see if I could really get back the way I had come so quickly, when the black door opened behind me and a voice said,

“I think you’d better not do that, Miss Latimer. It will take you too long to get back to my office again and my time is limited.”

Turning, I saw the ageless face of the Headmistress, her sleek, silver cap of hair feathered around the temples and her piercing blue eyes which seemed to be able to look right through me. She was dressed as she had been the first time I met her, in a fashionable black dress and sky-high heels.