The Devil Doesn't Bargain (MatD part 2)

Chapter FORTY SIX - Death Whispered Windows

(To Ashes and Blood - Woodkid)

A spark ignited.

My heart blazed to life, thundering and pounding in my chest followed closely by a nipping heat at my fingers, lapping at something warm that pooled at their tips. A creeping tingle crawled up my spine, itching over each bone, scratching deep against each unpleasantly until my eyes slammed open with the pain.

Nothing.

The ache vanished but so had the Keepers' room.

So had Sebastian.

I blinked

again

and again

and yet the darkness remained, threaded to the very air that brushed my cheek. It nuzzled there expectantly, pressing against my neck and down to my collarbone. Its presence lurked but never pushed - a calm sort of company in the eerie abyss. A familiar smell from my childhood tickling at my nose.

I knew in the way one knows they are dreaming that I was somewhere deep within my mind. A soul trapped within itself.

Deep and drumming, something pounded from beyond the darkness. Its beat reverberated off my ribs and shook my lungs.

It pounded once

my bones rattled

it pounded again, 

twice, 

faster,

closer now.

My fingertips reached of their own accord, searching frantically for my wand but finding instead empty pockets and unfamiliar clothes. The darkness laughed against my knees.

Another pound of intangible drums, syncopated and louder still

my heartbeat followed suit

Again and again the drums called

again and again my heart pounded

an anticipation latched to each one

over

and closer

and faster

until the sound was so close that my hair shook, each thrum rippling beneath my toes. 

A familiar tingling pinched my palm, and clawed at my veins.

My magic.

It called

it pleaded

and as if I was at senseless mercy to its begging, I dove inward, tossing open the locks and freeing the chaos inside.

Within a breath's gasp, the space around me flooded with piercing light and energy. A warmth singed my skin and I covered my eyes with my arm, willing the brightness away. The sudden heat pressed at my cheeks where the darkness had been, pulsing there a few moments more before relaxing obediently.

I felt an instant relief.

An ache that had rooted itself in my blood let free.

A power.

I pried my arm away cautiously, allowing my eyes the shelter of my lashes.

Arched brick ceilings, pooled from a floor of smooth stone and dipped around a rather impressive room. Where windows might have been were instead deep inlaid bookshelves, each adorned with intricate foiled texts. Their spines, pristine and thick, stacked tightly against each other, the shelves beneath them bowing with their weight. The nearly endless collection dripped down the walls to the floor where even more stone bricks curled against themselves in a spiral. I spun on my heel, following the delicately chiseled blocks beneath my boots and further into the room where they disappeared beneath deep onyx sand.