Stone Solitude (2 page)

Strength
,
little
flower
, her wolf whispered in encouragement.
Be brave
.

Swallowing, she stood up on trembling legs and forced her feet to walk away from the car. There were none of the normal sounds of civilization that always hummed in the background, even in the middle of nowhere. Closing her eyes, she pushed her wolf to her limits in order to listen further. After a moment of complete silence, she heard a cacophony of noise. Sirens wailed from far, far away as men and women, old and young, cried in wretched misery. Immediately, Daisy closed her ears to the sound, unable to deal with such sorrow, not when her own heart was breaking.

Was her family okay? Her beautiful momma and her strong, handsome daddy? Her irksome brothers and her baby sister? The baby in momma’s tummy?

We’ll try calling again once we’re safe
.

Nodding her head at her wolf’s words, she started back the way they had come, hoping the dirt road to the castle wasn’t too far, hoping that the gnome still stood there. Tears slid unnoticed down her cheeks as she tried not to think about Mandy, about the Rothmans, about her family.

Was she all alone in the world?

Don’t worry, little flower, I’ll take care of you.

She knew her wolf only meant to offer comfort but the words still hurt. She didn’t want the wolf to take care of her; she wanted her momma. Slowly, she made her way back towards the hidden road, feeling the encroaching night. Usually, she loved being out at night but usually she was surrounded by her pack when the sun went down. She had been looking forward to the day when she was of an age and able to transform into a wolf, knowing that her momma and her dad were going to be there to help her with the transition. But now the thought of shifting frightened her. What if she had to make the change on her own? What if she got lost in her wolf form and was unable to become a girl once again?

Don’t shut me out, little flower
.

The frantically spoken words barely registered as she thought about her cousin who had made the transition and had gotten stuck. His parents had spent three days and nights whispering to the wolf, coaxing her cousin back from the abyss. Afterwards, he had told her how scared he had been. The wolf had been so strong and he hadn’t been able to wrestle back control until he heard his parents’ voices. For nearly six months, his mother and father had worked with him, trained him, until he was able to control the wolf.

What if there was no one there to help her?

She didn’t know why her thoughts were dwelling on what was going to happen when her time to change came, especially since her best friend had simply vanished. Probably because it was easier to deal with a distant unknown than acknowledge the fact that her friend was gone. Where did everyone go?

Did their disappearance have anything to do with the smell that had been slowly building within them? The smell of death, of decay? She hadn’t realized how cloying the sickly sweet scent had been until she couldn’t smell it anymore, until the light had washed it away. Humans always gave off the strongest scents so she hadn’t really thought about it before. Now her mind whirled with the possibilities of what that might mean for her and her kind.

Would the light think lycanthropy was a disease?

She shook her head of the idea almost as soon as she had it. If lycanthropy was a disease, she would have been burned up by the light. Unless it was making a second pass, burning up different diseases as it went. Was it coming back? Was there anywhere she could hide if it did? If her family was gone, did she really want to avoid it?

“Hello!” a deep voice boomed from knee level. Snapping out of her misery, Daisy looked down and found that she had almost tripped over the gnome. His belly chuckle eased some of the pain but only some of it because there was too much. Reaching up, he took her much bigger hand in his and led her down the dirt road. “I’ve been expecting you, little wolf child.”

Daisy whimpered at the reminder of her nature, the fears roiling in her gut with unrelenting force. Unable to think clearly, she said the only thing that came to mind, “Our tour is scheduled for tomorrow.”

His cheeks curved over his bushy beard as he smiled even wider, “Perhaps, but you are supposed to be here now and you are right on time.”

His words made no sense to her addled brain and she couldn’t think of anything to say because they were supposed to be there tomorrow. “Is the castle far?”

“Not too far,” the little gnome said in his deep baritone. Looking up at her, he winked, “Of course, we both have tiny legs so it might seem further than it is.”

A reluctant smile curved Daisy’s lips at the display of humor. But then she remembered Mandy and the Rothmans and her family and her heart slammed against her ribs. Her eyes stung as she asked, “What happened?”

“Hmm.” The little gnome’s face twisted up in contemplation as he considered her words. Scratching his beard, he pursed his lips and said, “I believe the veil was ripped away.”

She understood what his words meant, having grown up straddling the human world and the supernatural world, but she still didn’t understand. Scrubbing the tears from her cheeks, she asked, “B…but what happened to my friend?”

He shook his head in commiseration as he answered, “I don’t know, little wolf child.”

“My name is Daisy,” she said, not wanting him to call her wolf-child anymore.

He cocked his head to the side as he looked up at her, “You’re not a flower.”

“No, I am not,” she agreed softly even though she felt very much like a flower at the moment, liable to break beneath the weight of loss. If the light was the veil being lifted away, why did it take her friend? Maybe Mandy’s disappearance was unrelated to the light….

No, it would be an impossible coincidence if that were true, especially since humans didn’t just disappear. Likewise, wolves and Sirens couldn’t vanish on a whim either. Daisy only knew of a few creatures with that ability and most of them were not creatures you wanted to meet on a dark, deserted dirt road. Or anywhere else, really.

The overhanging trees were starting to thin out and Daisy could just make out a large, wrought iron gate up ahead. With a start, she realized the little gnome had kept up a running stream of commentary and she hadn’t heard a word of anything he had said. Her fingers twitched and he came to a halt, looking up at her with a curious expression. “Is anything wrong, little wolf-child?”

A slightly hysterical laugh slipped past her lips as she stared down at the little creature. Is anything wrong? Wiping a tear from her eye, she asked, “Am I all alone?”

His fuzzy eyebrows drew together as he slowly shook his head no, “Of course you’re not all alone. I’m here.”

Another burble of hysterical laughter burst past her lips as she shook her head. The gnome couldn’t possibly understand what was wrong. He was a gnome. “Will I be safe here?”

Once again he paused before answering, stroking his beard with his free hand. “Most likely.”

“And if the light comes back?”

“It won’t be back,” he said with absolute conviction. “As I said, it was the ripping off of the veil. There’s no need to rip it off twice since it’s already gone.”

Dropping her hand, he waddled up to the gate as he dug in his pockets. After a moment, he turned around and gave her a triumphant grin as he held up a large ring of keys that could not possibly have fit into his little pockets. Before she could think too much on it, he turned back to the gate and pushed a key into a small key hole that was at his arm level. Blinking, Daisy realized that it was the only keyhole on the entire gate.

Blinking again, she looked at the little gnome and realized he could slide through the openings. She wondered why he used the key at all, except he was taking her to the castle because she had been expected. Did he plan on handing her over to a witch that lived there, a witch who enjoyed eating little children? Or maybe it was a dwarf who would put her to work digging for treasure. At ten, she was still small enough to fit into tiny crevices and reach the really hard to get gemstones.

Hadn’t her mother and father always told her to be careful of strangers, especially supernatural creatures? It hardly mattered because she was alone in the middle of nowhere and she figured she was safer with the gnome than on her own. Even if he meant to give her to a dwarf.

His deep, belly laugh startled her again but when she looked at him, he was shaking his head with a broad smile on his face. Holding out his hand, he simply said, “Come.”

Automatically, she took his hand once again, surprised to see that the gate was open. While she had been daydreaming, the little man had unlocked it and it had opened up on silent hinges. A knot of fear or uncertainty coiled in her belly as the two of them walked through the gate. There was a subtle shimmer and she was certain they had just stepped past a magical barrier, something that would have kept humans away.

Would the Rothmans have even been able to visit had the light not burned them up?

Pressing a hand against her upset tummy, she strained to get a glimpse of the castle but there were still too many trees in the way. Now, however, the road was made of pretty, pale pink stones instead of the ugly brown dirt. Mandy would love to run down the lane…. Her breath caught in her throat as she remembered Mandy wasn’t there with her anymore. It had only been a little while, so how had she forgotten?

“It’s the magic,” the gnome said. She snapped her eyes to him and found that he was looking up at her with sympathy. Patting her hand with his free hand, he continued, “The magic helps hide the pain until it is easier to deal with.”

“Then I don’t think I will ever want to leave,” she said softly, squeezing his hand in a silent thanks. Swallowing thickly, she wondered if she could live at the castle forever if there was nowhere else for her to go, if…. She couldn’t even think it because if she did, she was certain she would die.

Finally, after what seemed an eternity, the castle came into view and she had to stop and catch her breath. It looked like a castle from out of a fairy tale but not a happy fairy tale. The stone was dark, gleaming ominously in the last rays of the sun and Daisy was fairly certain there should be a dragon guarding the massive structure. The castle was monstrously huge, with at least three stone towers that she could see and perhaps a dozen more that were beyond her immediate vision. She counted six rows of windows from the ground to the roof and far more than six from side-to-side.

Broad, stone stairs led to the enormous front doors and Daisy had to swallow back the urge to vomit. The gnome was taking her to the home of a giant and she was going to be eaten as an appetizer. A very small appetizer. Swallowing, she managed to rasp, “I don’t think I want to go in there.”

“You’ve come so far, little wolf-child,” the gnome said, tugging at her hand and pulling her up the steps, making her stumble over her feet. For such a little creature, he was surprisingly strong and Daisy found herself being dragged closer to the doors that grew larger and larger the closer she got. A huge lion’s head was in the middle of each door, a large metal ring hanging from each of their mouths. The metal creatures seemed to follow her movement with their eyes and she wasn’t sure whether they wanted to eat her or welcome them to their home. “Just a little further.”

Her eyes grew wider and wider with each step she took until the doors yawned open and she stepped into another world.

The inside of the castle was unlike anything Daisy had ever seen before. The ceiling soared high overhead, almost all the way to heaven. The painted clouds looked so real that if she touched them, they would turn to mist and disappear. The walls themselves were painted a pale blue and sparkled in the low light. She was fairly certain that they would be blinding in the harsh light of day. The floor itself was white marble and the entire place simply glowed. While the outside of the castle looked foreboding, the inside was positively beautiful, which was all the more reason to be cautious.

Curving staircases flanked either side of the entry with gilded double doors straight ahead. Mandy and she would have an amazing time exploring this place, getting lost in the secret passageways that were certain to exist, locking themselves in the library that must take up an entire floor, running through the ballroom as music played from a hidden alcove. She could imagine her brothers playing here as well, chasing one another around while shrieks of laughter filled the corridors. As a slight smile curved her lips at the image, tears filled her eyes and she wasn’t sure why she was so sad.