Within These Wicked Walls(23)

The blood retreated from us like a panicked mob as I drew close to finishing, taking its wetness and stains with it, leaving us whole as if we’d never been touched by the Manifestation.

I opened the bedroom door, holding the blanket on my shoulders like a cape, feeling no strong presence except for Magnus standing behind me. The room was spotless. I found a place where the amulet wouldn’t easily get damaged and nailed it to the wall.

“It should be safe to sleep in here now,” I said, gripping the blanket close to swallow me in warmth.

His tired eyes shifted above mine. “You still have blood on you.” His eyes widened slightly as he was speaking. “You’re bleeding.”

I stepped back faster than he stepped toward me, touching my forehead. There was a bite of pain as I touched it, and a little throbbing after, but not much else. The cold of this place numbed everything.

I snatched his hand away from my face and gave it a small push back in his direction. “I’m fine.”

“You’re bleeding,” he repeated, as if justifying his reasoning for invading my space. “Saba can take a look at it.”

“I’ve had worse,” I said, and turned away before I could see the pity that graced most people’s faces when I said that. “Good night, Magnus.”

“How did you know I was in trouble?”

I paused at the door, drumming my fingers on it before turning around again. “My amulet pulses.” I felt something warm beginning to run down my forehead and stopped it up with the heel of my hand. Maybe the wound was worse than I thought. “When it encounters the Evil Eye.”

“Like a heartbeat?”

“I suppose.”

“You saved me, Andromeda.” Magnus sat on his bed. He looked a little dazed, still. Disoriented. “I owe you. I’ve been drowned alive once before already, and it was unpleasant enough that I never wish to repeat the experience.”

“Drowned alive?”

“This isn’t the first time the house has done this. I stayed in a different room, then … I think that room is still stained red.” He looked up at me, almost in earnest, as if the room he stayed in was the most important detail of the story. “The Manifestation paralyzed me, like it did tonight. I couldn’t leave, couldn’t scream for help. And if … if you know how it feels when you’re drowning, your lungs feel tight from lack of air, and you think your head might explode. Well I felt that way, all night. My lungs burning, longing for air. Until the morning when the blood receded…”

My throat burned with a sob stuck inside. It was far too easy to sympathize. I’d grown up with that drowning sensation. A few times, when Jember had been preparing me for “the real world,” he would choke me and make me figure out how to make him let go. More often than not, it ended with me blacking out. And then he’d lecture on using my body weight to my advantage and not being afraid to force my thumbs into an attacker’s eye sockets.

Of course, Real World Prep days normally ended in us stealing baklava from the corner bakery. I doubt the Evil Eye gave Magnus sweets whenever it finished drowning him.

Magnus had been tugging absently on his sweater, poking his fingers in the weaving and stretching holes in it. “It didn’t even have the decency to kill me,” he muttered.

I went to the bed, hesitating before resting my hand on Magnus’s shoulder.

The castle was worse off than I thought. I should’ve figured, seeing as ten licensed professionals had come and left before me. It was clear I was in over my head. I needed advice. Help.

For once, Jember, please be cooperative.

Magnus looked up at me and then opened the drawer beside his bed and took out a handkerchief, holding it up to me. “Are you sure you don’t want Saba to take a look?”

“I’m fine,” I murmured, wiping my forehead clean before pressing the now-damp cloth to my wound.

“What can I do to even the score?”

“It’s my job, sir.”

“Saving my life isn’t your job. You could’ve left me to suffer. Or constructed the amulet from outside the door, out of harm’s way. I am in your debt now.”

He stood up, slow enough that I could’ve backed away … close enough, that I should’ve.

“Name your price, Andromeda,” he said.

I looked up into his face, which looked down at me. Challenging me. He wanted to see if I’d give in and ask for something in return for saving him, and as petty as it felt, I wouldn’t do it. I was used to being challenged and used to intimidating in return.

But for some reason, all I wanted to do was comfort him.

“There is no debt,” I said.

“You want nothing from me?”

I couldn’t answer that. Not with a general yes or no. Money, but he was already paying me. Food and shelter, mine. I could ask for more chocolates, but those didn’t mean anything. Just a response for the sake of responding.

He was asking something deeper. Something he could personally give, that would equal the life I’d given him. In that way, it was a far scarier question than what it seemed. A question I could never answer, even if I knew what to say.

“Well, if you have no requests…” Magnus stepped back and opened his drawer, taking out a small wooden box. He took out a wad of bills, not even bothering to count it before holding it out to me.