Free The Lebrus Stone by Miriam Khan

day.

Chapter Six
     
    Standing at the edge of a cliff, I peered down at the crashing waves. The wind blew fiercely. I almost lost my balance. But I didn't care.
    "Don't," yelled a voice I instantly recognized, a voice I needed to hear. "Don't do this!"
    "I have no choice!"
    "I need you to stay with me!"
    "I have to end this!"
    "I can't let you!"
    "Why, Cray? Should I be afraid of you?"
    I turned to face him. He cautiously held out his hand. "No. You have to trust me."
    It didn't take much convincing. I would have followed him anywhere. I knew that, I knew I was just testing his feelings for me. I reached out to take his hand, but he began to erode. He yelled something, but I couldn't hear it; not a single sound escaped his lips.
    The ground separated between my feet and I screamed and fell through a crack. Grabbing hold of the edge, I struggled to keep myself in place. Cray soon appeared and took my hand to lift me up. I smiled, relieved, but he let go and watched me descend into a bubbling black river.
    I woke with a gasp and ran to the bathroom to vomit in the sink, collapsed onto the cold tiles, yearning to be held and rocked back to sleep. I thought about my dream and how Cray had watched me plunge to what seemed like my death. He looked so happy and sad in the same instance. I found it hard to believe he could so heartless and potentially harmful in real life. Somewhere behind his hardened exterior, I sensed there was a heart as lonely and broken as mine.
    Somehow I'd managed to get to sleep after what I'd seen and learned today. But ever since I got back from the cemetery, I felt watched. I even wondered if the cold draft was a sign the manor really was haunted .
    Could Arrious be roaming the halls at night in search of Vander?
    I'd read cold drafts were a sign of wandering spirits. I'd read some of them lingered on the Earth plane if they had something unfinished.
    What could Arrious want? Why couldn't she just be with Vander and rest in peace?
    I shook my head. I was getting carried away again. The manor wasn't haunted. It was most likely Zella in the attic today, wearing a blonde wig she'd found among the Locke's belongings.
    I wasn't going to ask and risk them finding out I had issues long before I arrived. And maybe my anxiety at being in a new place was making me imagine what I wanted. Maybe I was searching for an excuse to leave. Yet it still didn't explain why only I felt the draft.
    It wasn't that cold in the bathroom right now, but the same clinging presence from last night began to crowd me, making my skin feel stretched.
    I had to get away. I couldn't face seeing who might be Arrious up close.
    Staggering to my feet, I ran for the door to my bedroom.
    I couldn't go back to bed yet, so I tiptoed down the creaky stairs and slipped into the kitchen to open the refrigerator and pull out a jug of Syd's homemade lemonade. I was pouring myself a glass when I noticed smoke billowing outside the window. It was three in the morning. I hadn't expected anyone else to be awake.
    On closer inspection, I could see someone stood in the middle of the garden, throwing scraps of paper from a book into a metal cylinder that was alive with flames. It was difficult to make out who it was. I also failed to see how it was a bad idea to pay the fire starter a visit. I was already in the garden and a few inches away when I realized it was the last person I needed to see right now.
    Cray.
    Now that I was behind him, and he could perhaps sense me, I stepped closer to see what he was burning. There were words jumbled and scarcely readable as letters, more like shapes and twisted numbers.
    On one page, I thought I caught a glimpse of a face similar to mine, elaborately drawn with a dark mass of waves. There was also a crown of symbols with silver vines and golden swirls. A single tear had been drawn on the girl's cheek.
    I stepped closer and watched her hair crumple and disappear into a wrinkle of ash. It floated into my eyes; a tear