The scream echoed through the halls once more as Petra and Marius ran through the halls. Neither looked back. It wasn’t a fearful scream or even a scream of pain. It was more like a roar, but the only way that she could accurately describe it was as a scream. It was long and drawn out. It was so high-pitched she couldn’t ignore it. As the scream was heard a third time the lights began to flicker. Her eyes widened.

  “Is that supposed to happen?”

  “It knows where we are. Whatever you do, Isaac, don’t stop running.”

  She was starting to feel the strain from the running. She was not proud to say that while she could sprint for the length of a couple of blocks, beyond that she would have no stamina. She had never been big on training herself as a competitive runner so the most she did was a jog in the evening and that was limited ever since she had found trouble with the case which was threatening to end everything good for her.

  “How fast is it?” she dreaded his answer.

  “It’s slightly faster than us, however it should leave us alone if we reach the treasure. We really are quite close. Hold on until we get there.”

  They sped around the corner. “I’ll try.”

  They sped around a couple more corners. The lights continued to flicker. Now they stayed off more than they were lit. She couldn’t see. Marius grabbed her hand and began to guide her. She didn’t know how long they had been running for. It had felt like an hour, but it was probably closer to ten minutes. She was terrified that she wouldn’t make it. She didn’t know what the wraith was, but she didn’t want to find out.

  “We are a minute away. Come on.” Marius urged.

  But as he tried to urge her on, her foot landed on the ground wrong. She stumbled and fell hard on her left wrist. She cried out in pain as her skin scraped against the stone.

  With her right hand she grabbed the hilt of her spare dagger and spun around, hoping to fight the wraith.

  Marius watched behind her. She didn’t look back as he began to step away from her. “You can still make it.” He said.

  But Petra knew that even if she got up then, the wraith had come too close. The darkness was surrounding her. She couldn’t banish it without taking her crystal from her bag.

  She hadn’t expected that she would need it. She hadn’t studied any of the good spells for combat. If she had gotten up then and continued running, the wraith would only catch her.

  No, the only way was to stand and fight. She climbed to her feet just as the lights went out for good. “I can’t.”

  “You can.”

  “No.”

  And that was when the wraith screamed right in front of her. She could feel it’s breath on her face. She shivered. It was freezing cold, not warm like she had been expecting.

  She swiped with her dagger. She felt the blade hit the wraith and it felt like she was slicing through melting butter. That was about the amount of resistance she had been expecting. This was some form of ghost.

  Her dagger came away covered in a glowing blue liquid. In the soft light it gave off she could see the wraith even in the darkness, only it wasn’t the wraith she was seeing. It couldn’t be. She felt dread as she saw the face smiling at her.

  It was a young woman with long straight blond hair. She was dressed in a fashionable pink dress and on her head she wore a silver tiara. Her skin was flawless. In one hand she held a long rapier to the side. It had an intricate gold design on the hilt and hand guard. The woman smiled as Petra recognized who this was.

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  It was Princess Alice, the very same princess who had made her life a living hell.

  “Well, well, well. If it isn’t Ms. Isaac. I figured that you would be here going after the treasure. From what I have heard you don’t have what it takes to get what you want on your own. That’s to be expected from someone of such common birth. If you run off now I may allow you to take a job at the palace as a maid. How does that sound? You can switch all the bedding and clean in the laundry everyday. At least then you wouldn’t have to worry about failing on your own.”

  She took a deep breath. “I’m not common. I’m an Isaac.” Her family while not ranked very highly in terms of nobles was at least considered a noble family.

  Alice laughed. It was a quiet laugh from someone who had been taught to be graceful with everything. “Does it really count if you weren’t born an Isaac? Whoever could your real parents have been? Certainly not nobles, that’s for sure.”

  “But how…?” her eyes widened. No one outside of the family was supposed to know that she had been adopted.

  “Please, you didn’t really think I would never find out. There are records for all of these things and well, I’m the princess. I can get what I want. Turn and flee to work for me or stay and die. Those are your choices. I’m sure I know what you will choose though. You can say all you want about me, spread those lies about something I didn’t do, and destroy your own reputation. The thing is that I doubt you can do much more than that, you can’t do what you think needs to get done. You know there is really only one way that this can end with you safe and free.” She sneered. “You have that little knife. I am alone here. All you have to do is shove it into my chest and everything will be fine for you.”

  This was the wraith, but it was exactly what she had imagined the princess to be from the few times she had seen her and the way she behaved when accused of murder.

  Petra raised her dagger. She wasn’t intending to use it, but she needed it ready just in case the princess lunged at her with her rapier. What use was a mere knife against a wraith. She was scared, but she also had no intention running. “You need to be caught and tried by the law.”

  The princess grinned so widely that Petra was reminded that this wasn’t really the princess. “Please, you know that no law will ever best me. You know who runs this place. My dear brother the king would never lift a finger to stop me unless I decided to burn this whole city to the ground. I won’t do that of course. That means that nothing will ever stop me.” She lifted the thin rapier and lunged towards Petra, aiming for her heart. “You have shown me that you won’t stop looking for the treasure, so now you must die. Don’t make this hard.”

  Petra dodged, using her dagger to push the rapier away from her side. Then she used her other hand to punch the princess in the face. “I’ve been wanting to do that for such a long time.”

  The wraith stumbled back a few steps. She almost thought she had stunned the monster, but she was wrong. She took a preemptive step back as the grin on the princess’s face somehow grew even wider. Before she knew it long sharp claws were flying at her. She blocked them with her arm and cried out as they sliced though the flesh almost to the bone.

  “You are not a fighter.” The voice of the princess hissed. “You will go down easily.”

  Suddenly Petra was tossed aside, but not by the wraith. Instead she was tossed aside by Marius who took her place in front of the wraith. She landed on the ground nearby where she clutched her wounded arm, hoping that the creature would not come after her again. He tilted his head. “Why hello there Inspector Aelius.”

  As it grinned at Marius, Petra found that she could almost see it’s true form from the glow of ectoplasm that was dripping down its front. It was inky, dark, but there was something else. As she looked at it she could only think one word and that wasn’t wraith.

  It was protector. The wraith was protecting the treasure. It would only let the worthy through.

  She only saw that for a moment though as the wraith quickly took another shape. Now it was a man she didn’t recognize who was about in his thirties. He was short, yet seemed bigger than he was with only the look on his face. He was wearing an old fashioned police uniform, a dark blue tunic with pants, a light belt with a gold buckle and a line of golden buttons that went all the way up his front. On his heat sat a bowler cap.

  She stared at him. This was Inspector Aelius, the detective who was hunting the Violet Shadow during his spree of crimes. There had been some sketches done of him and even a couple of photographs, but none of those images were quite like how he really looked. Of course the wraith was different also with that massive grin on his face.

  “Violet Shadow, I have caught you at last. Ready to rot for all the people you have murdered in cold blood?”

  Without looking back at her, he whispered. “Isaac, don’t look at it. If you do it will come after you. It’s too late to keep me from the treasure.”

  Petra looked away quickly. She shut her eyes and for the rest she could only hear.