Blood & Cinders- Choose your Own Adventure Story

Chapter 18

Her mind spun back to her conversation with Anna.

The curse.

Her plan.

Perhaps it wouldn't hurt to see if he was in. He should have been in a reasonable mood after feeding, right? And if he wasn't there, she would simply wait till tomorrow, Isabelle convinced herself.

Cautiously, she made her way to the opened door. The flickering of a waning fire surrounded by a large ornate golden mantle cast dancing shadows across the room and onto the walls.

The room was grand. She stepped into what looked like a sitting room with doors on either end that lead to more rooms. Though she had already poked her head in, Isabelle rapped on the door, not without manners.

"Hello? Your Majesty?...Rosie?" her voice came out in a strangled squeak. Less sure of her plan now that she stared at the spacious dark chamber.

"Your Highness, it is blood maid Isabelle. I- I have something I wish to discuss with you," she said a little louder into the room. Only the crackle of the fire echoed a reply.

Curiosity won over caution, and she slipped fully into the room.

This was where Anna had said the curse was written. Her eyes roamed over the dark walls. One side was covered in a floor to ceiling mural of men on horses hunting foxes and deer against a deep forest of green. The side walls displayed paintings of women round and supple, lounging naked on couches, their limbs intertwined with one another.

Curiously, she stepped in further. She'd thought Adams' room was the definition of opulence with its rich reds and dark woods. She was wrong. The wainscoting curled around the border of the ceiling in a shimmering gold. There was a table to the left that held bottles of amber liquid and golden chalices enough for a proper party in a glass cabinet.

Each chesterfield, chair or table was skillfully decorated in swirls of gold filigree that matched the ceiling. Isabelle peered to the left, noticing a large library of cherry wood, books running from wall to wall with deep leather seats by a large arched window framed by purple velvet drapes with a gold lining.

Though she was tempted to peruse the awe inspiring collection she was here on a different mission and so with sticky feet she peeled herself from the library turning her attention to the door on the far right. This one was closed but the intricate carved wood, like that of Adams door told her it would be just as lush.

Isabelle knocked once again to be polite. When silence greeted her once more, she turned the gold encased knob peaking in.

Specks of gold seemed to sparkle off the wall like far away stars and she could make out the sputtering of a few warm coals left in a hearth to her left. This fire was barely breathing and the faint glow it cast was far too dim to truly see much. Her hip bumped into a table on her right where she found a candle in its brass holder.

Moving to the fireplace, she dipped the candle, lighting it in the heat of the coals. Reaching for a few logs, she stocked the fire before turning to survey the space in the increasing light.

A massive four-poster bed took up most of the space on the far left wall of the room. Its intricate wooden carvings winding up to look like a crown itself hanging over the bed; painted in an ostentatious gold with deep purple drapes framing either side. And to the right of the bed, like Adams, was another door leading to what looked like a private privy. Golden wallpaper with a fleur pattern lined the walls, encasing her in a glittering jewelry box.

The large window on the left, framed in the same deep plum as the bed, looked out over a dark garden that cast cold shadows in the sliver of the moon's glow.