I must have drifted off to sleep, as a small sharp knocking on the door of my room roused me from a slumber that felt as if it had only lasted for a few minutes. I released my eyes and swung the door open with my mind without looking up. I sat up and looked at the guard that entered the room; it was the one that I had first met.

“Morning Miss, I heard you had quite an eventful night,”

“Pardon?” I asked him sharply

“Well, not many prisoners get lost to their captures by climbing onto the roof and then coming back again a few hours later.” He laughed at me smiling “Well at least I know for certain that you will not break you word so easily.”

I smiled at him and said nothing, I could see from his thoughts that he thought of me as a child under his care and I thought it sweet of him as he tried to cheer me up without prying into why I was upset in the first place.

“I’ve fetched you something to eat” he lay a plate of food down onto the table near my bed. It was mainly fruit and bread but there was also a little scrap of meat and a cup of water. It looked quite fresh but not exactly what I fancied, I ate it anyway so not to appear rude. In addition to that I did not know when my next meal would be.

I lay down on the bed again once I had eaten and closed my eyes, trying to block out the thoughts of every man in the castle except for the one that I really wanted to know. I eventually managed to hear Rowan go about his normal day, acting like he usually would but unable to ignore the feelings of those around him. They aggravated him, he had his own problems to think about without knowing that at least three of the kitchen girls felt like they wanted to throw their arms around his neck and kiss him passionately. I cursed myself hearing how, although he was thinking about the tasks he had to perform, thoughts of me kept slipping into my mind, he was trying to work out whether he should come and see me and what I would do if he showed up. In a perfect world I would have thrown my arms around his neck and kissed him, much like the way of the kitchen girls, and he knew it, but he also knew that I was more likely to send him away.

I lay there, just listening to his thoughts rage around in his head, knowing that I could do nothing to help him, I could not go to see him, for fear that my self control would not hold up and that I would kiss him anyway, even though I knew that I shouldn’t. It was safer if I stayed away. I kept my mind linked with his and fell into a type of sleep.

I woke up and the first thing that I thought was, ‘I wish that I had something nicer to eat than this.’ I lay there confused for a minute and then understood that my mind was still linked to Rowan’s. I looked outside at the sun and realised that it would soon be time to go to meet Orion. I got up and ruffled my hair with one hand, trying to tease out the tangles that had formed at the back of it, knowing that I would have bed hair.

I walked to the door and knocked on it firmly, “It is time to go.” I told the guard, noticing that it had changed again. He was unsure what to do, he didn’t know whether to unlock and open the door for me, or whether to keep it closed and locked. He stood there for a moment trying to decide, I heard as his thoughts slowly turned towards trying to keep me locked up and spoke to him again.

“I am asking to be polite, it would be easy for me to walk out of this room, whether you wanted me to or not, so keeping the door locked would not really deter me much.” He stayed still wondering how I knew, thinking that I had just made some sort of lucky guess.

I was growing impatient and did not want to be late, if I had to walk with a guard then we must go at once, if I was to go on my own then I still had a while to spare. I stood listening to his thoughts and realising that he would not be coming to a conclusion about what to do very easily; he was the type who was a good soldier due to the fact that he followed orders well, he didn’t like to have to make difficult decisions for himself, and I was presenting him with a difficult decision that he hadn’t been given orders for.

I stood still a moment and then unlocked the door with my mind and made it swing open, “I have tried to be patient but if I to have to walk with a guard then we need to go now, or do you want to make me late to meet with Orion?” I asked him in a plain and simple voice. He thought about it and couldn’t make up his mind. “Oh, very well.” I said exasperated, “But I’m a going now anyway.” I looked at him again and then sped off down the corridor. I knew I had time to spare so went exploring for a bit.

I was still linked to Rowan’s mind and was determined not to bump into him. I slowed down slightly and walked out into an outside courtyard where there was grass and flowers. It was beautiful. I let go of the connection with Rowan and closed my eye, feeling my thoughts slip into the ones of the birds on the grass and even the tiny insects in the earth. That was how I did not hear him walk up behind me. I was so lost in the thoughts of creatures I had never even thought about before that when I noticed another being in my mind I thought that it was just another creature, not recognising it as human. “Excuse me miss.” I jumped and turned around so fast that I could feel my body blurring, it was Isaac’s turn to jump.

“Yes Isaac?” I said, containing my surprise.

“The last guard you had mentioned that you’d, well, run off, and I thought that this was the most likely place that you’d be, so I came here to find you.”

I smiled at him “Yes, I’m sorry Isaac, he was wasting my time and I could see that he would not have let me go.”

“Its okay miss, I know he’s not very good at making decisions.” He said showing his intellect without meaning to, just stating the facts how he saw them.

“You are very intelligent Isaac.”

He blushed a little “Thank you miss.” There was a moment of awkward silence, “Your last guard said that you mentioned something about meeting Orion?”

“Yes, I have a meeting with him at noon.”

“But miss, it is already quarter too, it will take you twenty minutes to get there if you were running!” he exclaimed, worried that I would be late.

“No, it would take you twenty minutes to get there if you were running; it would take me two at most.” He stood there for a minute and said to me, “So would you like company for part of the way?”

I laughed and told him that it would be very welcome.

We started to walk in the right direction at a leisurely pace. Just talking about where I had grown up. I told him about the house and the mothers and about Jacob and Johanna. He asked quite a lot of questions about it all. At about five to twelve I subconsciously linked to Rowan’s mind again, just to hear his thoughts one last time and found out that someone was about to attack him and Rowan could sense that his attacker’s intentions were deadly.

It was all in slow motion as I saw a fist holding a knife rise above his head as I ran like lightning through the castle. I saw the feather man and Rowan at the end of the corridor. I sped towards them as them knife plunged slowly down on Rowan. I made the knife shoot out of the feather man’s hand and fall onto the floor with a loud clatter as I sped towards him. I could tell from their minds that the fight was about the feather man wanting to attack Rowan because he knew that he was my favourite guard and therefore saw him as his enemy, because, in his eyes, I had become his enemy.

I sped towards him, keeping my eyes locked onto his, I held out my hand in front of me and slammed him into thebrick wall. I could feel my eyes burning underneath my lids and knew that they were crimson red. I was trying desperately to control myself, but the anger kept building and building, taking over my body. I felt my hand start to warm up and heard his whimpers of pain, I couldn’t regain control over my body, I felt like I was two different people, my mind and my body were not one. Rowan came up behind me and put his hand onto my shoulder, “Please don’t do this.”

“I can’t stop!” I said in alarm.

“Just let go.

“I can’t, I won’t let myself let go.” I said panicked.

“What do you mean?” he asked sensing my distress.

“I can’t let go of him, I’m trying but my body won’t respond. I can’t control it.” I explained it as simply and quickly as I could, hearing the hysteria in my own voice. He understood what I meant, “How can I help?” he asked me.

“You can’t!” I said.

“What if I…” he asked

“No! Don’t touch me! I don’t know what I would do to you!” I shouted, reading his mind and trying to keep him away. I could see the fear in the feather man’s eyes as he heard our conversation, “Please let me live.” He begged. The begging just made me angrier.

“Shut up, at this very moment in time, I a fighting to try to keep you alive and your pathetic whining is just make me angrier. Say nothing and it might save your life.”

“What can I do?” Rowan asked me again.

“Tell me something, a memory, a happy story, describe a calm place to me, anything that will make me relax.” I said desperate, I knew that I could not hold back for much longer.

“Do you remember last night,” he said “Remember the way you felt when I held you in my arms, remember the way that you looked into my eyes and felt like nothing could hurt you in the world, remember the way you put your head on my chest and listened to the slow beat of my heart, think of that rhythm.” I felt the anger drain out of me slowly and the heat fade away from my hand slightly.

“You were with him last night, alone in your room.” The feather man said, I could hear his thoughts again as he planned to tell the entire guard. My eyes blazed again and my hand went scorching hot, he screamed and then it went into a silent scream where only his breath escaped him. Rowan came closer behind me and kissed me gently on the neck, I felt all the anger flow out of me and I let go of the feather man, collapsing as the floor rushed up towards me. I felt Rowan’s strong arms catch me and then went into a black hole of unconsciousness.