FOREVER KNIGHTS: #7 King of Assassins
RAESE - Panther on the Lawn

WhiteHall, Harridan Hamlet, Paladines

RAESE

Perhaps I’m losing my mind. Raese started to move from the window but was stopped by motion far in the distance. The shine of something black beyond the gardens, weaving through trees in the snow. White flakes poured dense and thick now.

What is that? He squinted to see it. But whatever it was vanished in the thicker part of the grove.

Shaking his head at himself, Raese left the window to return to his lonely bed.

Energy filled the room. Shivering through the walls and making the room colder than it’d been moments before.

“Calisto?” He whispered, breath crystallizing before his face. Green eyes scanning the room. Searching every shadowed corner but unable to replace her.

He called to her again. “Calisto. Come to me.”

No answer.

I’m losing my mind. For the first time he saw himself through the eyes of his servants.

Endless hours doing the strange dance as he attempted to make a staff materialize in his hand. Glugging tea to make him sleep through much of the day. Refusing most social calls except the rare few from Rodger Barnes and Leslie.

They must think I’m crazed. Sighing he added logs to a nearly dead fire. Nurturing it into a hot flare. Returning to bed he straightened the coverlet over him and settled in.

Promising himself he’d at least consider the possibility of letting all this insanity go, he closed his eyes. Regardless that every instinct in him screamed to keep trying.

“Don’t give up on me.”

He heard the fast whisper in his ear. Inhuman in its speed.

He sat bolt upright. Body quaking.