Auburn's head still throbbed where it had struck the wall.
Her maids fluttered around her like startled hens, fussing over her hair, her dress, her wound.
"Princess, are you hurt?" The first asked.
"Do you need water?" Another asked in a pleading voice.
"Should we call for a healer?" A third questioned sympathetically.
"LEAVE ME!" Auburn shrieked, slapping their hands away. "All of you, OUT!"
They scattered instantly.
Auburn clutched the side of her head, breathing hard.
She didn't understand what happened.
One moment she was walking through the hallway proudly with her girls, the next she was on the ground, her skull ringing, blood in her hair, and a gust of force pushing her forward like a ghost had shoved her.
But it wasn't the fall that unsettled her.
It was the feeling.
Something cold had passed through her.
Something familiar.
Something she hated more than anything.
She looked back at the empty space and felt the cool breeze against her.
