Gilded Ashes

Начало книги

My mother loved me more than life itself. That’s how everything went wrong.

I wake with fear prickling at my skin.

I sit up, knuckling the sleep out of my eyes. The kitchen looks the same as usual: garlic and rosemary hang in neat bunches from the ceiling. The pots I scoured last night sit gleaming on the stove. From over the doorway, the little miniature portrait of Mother smiles down at me. Everything is peaceful and safe. I begin to stretch.

And then.

From the corner of my eye, I see them: shadows clustered around the coal scuttle. Too many shadows.

And one thought burns through my body: there is a demon in the kitchen.

Even before my heart slams against my rib cage, my hands fly to cover my eyes. To see a demon is to go mad. Every child knows that. Every child knows the prayer. Apollo all-healer, Apollo light-bringer, Apollo Invictus: deliver us from the eyes of demons. I remember Mother whispering it to me when I was little and she was still alive; I remember how she stroked the hair back from my face and explained why I must never look too long at the shadows.

Читать дальше →