Tales of Darkness and Light (Book 1 Complete)

Chapter 14: Of Lost Amulets and Dear Friends

Chapter 14: Lost Amulets and Dear Friends 

Flashback Part 2

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The bodies started to come in. At first, it was small creatures, mice and toads and the like, found dead in the palace dungeons. The palace physician theorized about a plague affecting only animals, and deemed it nothing to worry about. Less than a hundred were dead.

Abigail tried to ignore the disgust swirling in her stomach, the fear as she heard the whispers around the castle. Surely Luna wouldn't... But then she risked a glance at her sister on the way up to their respective chambers after dinner.

Luna winked at her. "It's such a lovely day, don't you think?" Then she caught sight of her sister's expression, and her lips twitched upwards. "Oh, don't be so sad about those poor animals. They were easy to catch, anyway." Luna beamed, then strode away.

Holy gods.

Luna- she-

Abigail swore under her breath, and ran up the marble steps of the staircase towards father's office. He raised an eyebrow at the sight of her, panting and panicked, but laughed when she told him she thought someone in the palace had been poisoning the animals. She wouldn't dare mention Luna, not without hard proof, but she could hardly do nothing.

But father had only smiled and chalked it up to an over worried imagination, telling her that there was nothing to worry about. She had gone to the physician with similar concerns, and he had said the same thing. Then Eliza's father, General Barclay. None had believed her.

After a few weeks passed, the animals found dead grew larger, hounds and even horses. It wasn't enough to arouse anyone's serious suspicions, for only a few dozen had died over a quarter year. Instead, it was just chalked up to a series of unrelated incidents.

But Abigail knew better. The night after her favourite riding horse had passed, she found a horseshoe under her pillow. She cried herself to sleep that night.

She couldn't help but act cruelly to Luna from that point forward, and couldn't bear to pretend that everything was fine when Luna was a murderer. Too often now, Abigail would find the disapproving stare of her brother on her when she lost her patience towards the youngest Valadon sibling, and would hear her mother speak to her friends about how Abigail was such a poor role model for Luna.

She didn't risk telling Jay what was truly going on. Though a skilled swordsman, he hated confrontation. He always preferred to keep the peace and mediate between the two sisters during their fights then pick a side and decide who was right or wrong. He just wanted everyone to be happy.

Abigail loved him for it. But what was happening was not for his ears. Not yet.

And she couldn't help but despair when the incidents piled up, when her brother looked at her with no less love, but less respect each and every time.

But those bad days were few and far between, a couple days a month at most. For the most part, she loved her family, and they loved her. And then Aunt Mara's visit to Moonlight City came - and with her baby Jessica and Hayden Lochan.

The boy her age was a welcome distraction from the darkness that seemed to surround the castle of late. She just didn't expect to confess what was going on to him. And she didn't expect him to believe her.

~~

"So, I've heard something of an illness affecting Alurian animals?" Hayden was leaning back against a bookshelf in the ancient palace library, his eyes still red-rimmed.