Desperate to stop the events of a recurring nightmare, Leora is forced into a world that wants nothing more than to see her dead.
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After being plagued with nightmares of the murders taking place in t...
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AETOS MANOR
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EVER WOKE UP lost and violently confused with your mouth dry and lines on the side of your face?
That's how I woke up in the backseat handcuffed with the door opened and strangers standing outside.
When I tried to sit up I felt something cold around my wrists, I looked down and I was in handcuffs again. Panicked, I checked the front seat where I'd last seen Althea and Maeve and they were nowhere to be found.
There was woman outside the open car door, a woman I recognised. I frowned, Officer West? It was the police officer who'd snuck the vile and hairpin into my food.
She brought her finger up to her lips before she grabbed my wrist and helping me out of the car.
I squinted my eyes when the sun's rays burnt them. I didn't remember the last time I'd been in direct sunlight.
The car was parked in front of what looked like to be the beginning of a garden, there were tall hedges and trees along the edges of the stone path and driveway we stood on. There was a large black metal gate behind us with three flags waving above the black gate that stretched so far I could not see where it ended, buried into the large trees that surrounded the area.
Are we still in the city?
The flags caught my eye. From the left, a royal blue flag. Stitched in silver was a horse facing left, its lower half a fish tail and a bow and arrow facing the opposite direction, in a feint ocean blue colour waves could be seen behind the seahorse. I could see the word 'Caldwell' stitched into the bottom of the flag.
Maeve's family have their own flag?
In the middle was a silver grey flag. Stitched in crimson red, almost maroon was an eagle about to take flight to the right, its talons were gripping a sword by its hilt, a sword in the earth of the same colour. Behind it, in feint red was a helmet. There was 'Aetos' stitched in crimson red.
The last was a royal green flag. Stitched in gold was a deer, a stag to be precise, its large horns on display. Behind the stag was a tree with lustrous brunches stitched in feint chartreuse, no weapon in sight. There was 'Beaumont' stitched in gold.
"To disobey a direct order?"I followed the direction of the loud voice.
It was an Indian woman dressed in black clothes with light skin and long dark hair. "I expected this from her, "she pointed at Maeve aggressively, "But from you?"Althea struggled to shrink herself. "What will your father say, Miss Beaumont?"
"I'm sorry, Dame Anika. "If Althea bowed her head any further it would in the ground like an ostrich.
Dame? Such an old title, I remembered reading an old book full of titles as per my aunt's request, a dame was the wife or widow of a knight or a female knight who'd owned the title in her own right? Were we back to the middle ages?
