Chapter Three

I didn’t know how long I had been in that room for. I had stopped counting and I had grown numb to everything that was happening. The room was immersed in less darkness because the broken window had gotten even broken and more cracks had appeared in it, letting in more streaks of light.

I stared at the untouched plate of food a few meters away from me and hugged my legs tighter. Tears streamed down my cheeks at my situation once more. My father had died and I had killed him.

I had killed him by being a useless daughter. I was so useless that I couldn’t even get him a marriage scroll that would solidify his position in the Council of Kings. I spent over one month trying to convince a bastard to marry me. I had long known that there was nothing like marrying for love as a princess, so I was barely bothered about the fact that there was no love between me and Karl. I just wanted to marry him for the benefits that it would serve my kingdom.

It was the least I could have done for him but yet I failed at it and that wasn’t all. I had somehow gotten caught by the Berg Kingdom, my father’s core and deep enemies.

No matter how powerful the Berg Kingdom’s army was, the Dadwe Kingdom would still put up a strong front if we went to war; both sides would lose but I was sure that my father would not lose his life.

The only reason why Jonathan had gotten free entry and free passage to the Dadwe Kingdom was because he had me as his hostage. I wasn’t as impeccable as my sister or as stellar and excellent as she was but my father loved us both and he never failed to show it. 

And I loved my father, that was why I desperately thrived and tried my best to prove my worth to him. He was the reason why I had stubbornly chosen to go to the Elewan Kingdom in the first place. Because I saw the way his eyes looked at me each time someone had something to say about the disparity between the abilities of I and my younger sister.

Since I was useless, he could have told Jonathan to kill me and not open the gates, but in the hopes of protecting me and getting me back, he had listened to him, and what he got was his demise. I could still smell the stench of his blood on me as I continued sobbing.

I wasn’t even allowed to grieve properly when I was shoved back to Berg Kingdom and I was told that I would be a slave till the day I die. The thought made me laugh.

I couldn’t accept the fact that I had gone from being a princess to a slave and a slave of the Berg Kingdom at that. A slave of the man who had killed my father and had the mercy of my family at his disposal. There was no way I would be his slave. I would rather die than be a slave of the Berg Kingdom.

I raised my head with anger and resolve as soon as I heard the door open. One of the guards walked in and immediately scrunched up his nose in disgust.

“She stinks,” he exclaimed and I chuckled, turning away from him as another guard entered the room.

“She didn’t eat her food today as well?” He asked, “She hasn’t eaten for more than three days.” The other one replied and I raised my eyebrow.

“She’s going to starve to death at this rate,” the second one replied.

“Go and tell His Highness about this issue; we can’t have her dying in our hands,” the first guard said and the second guard nodded.

“And get some of those women to clean her up. She’s stinking!” He added and the second guard burst into laughter before walking out of the room.

I turned to the first guard, accessing him with my eyes quietly. “Gosh, she smells,” he commented again and turned to walk but in a second, I leapt to my feet and jumped on his hand, moving the rope and tying my hands together to his neck, choking him.

“This bastard!’ he choked out pushing him backwards and we both fell, but my grip on his neck didn’t waver in the slightest. I was not as stellar or excellent like my sister but I wasn’t a pushover either. I waited till he wasn’t breathing and grabbed the knife in his pockets, cutting the rope tying my hands together. I quickly searched his pockets and easily found the keys to the shackles on my feet and unlocked them. I didn’t wait or think before I burst into a race.

I heard a loud yell behind me but I didn’t stop running as hard as I could, even though I had no idea where I was headed. I had not eaten for days but I summed up all the strength in my body and willed my legs to move whether they liked it or not. I needed to escape from that hellhole.

But the voices that seemed to have faded behind him started getting closer. I cursed myself as soon as I heard horses. There was no way I could outrun them with my legs when they had horses. Tears ran down my cheeks as I ran. I couldn’t believe what my life has become.

I didn’t realize that I was slowly approaching a rocky slope; I could barely feel my legs. How would I have noticed? But the next moment, I could see a large clearing in front of me that I was cut off and the other end was a waterfall. I froze and started sobbing at my terrible fortune.

Numerous horses surrounded me in seconds and I turned to face them, anger filling my chest and Jonathan rode his horse towards me while I took slow and short steps backwards. He got off his horse and chuckled while walking towards me.

“If you come any closer, I’ll jump off,” I threatened him and he laughed. “I told you that you would die. If you jump off now, well, you would still die. Why would I be bothered about that?” he asked, turning to his pack members, “Or does anyone care?” he asked.

“Noooooooo” someone replied and they all burst into laughter and more tears ran down my cheeks. I took a glance at my back and realized that I had gotten closer to the cliff than I thought; all I needed was one more step and I would fall and definitely die.

“Are you going to jump or not?” Jonathan asked and I turned to face him, chuckling. “You bastard,” I replied.

“You are a cruel bastard and I’ll tell you what; I'd rather die than be your slave and I hope that you die in the worst way possible,” I replied as I turned and jumped. It didn’t matter that I was going to die. If the other option was being the Berg’s Kingdom slave, I would rather die.

Instead of breaking my head against the rocks like I thought would happen, what I felt was a pair of strong arms that wrapped against my waist and held me towards a solid chest. I came face to face with Jonathan as blood streaked down his arm. I raised my head and realized that his arm had torn open and he was grabbing a tree trunk; part of the branches had pierced his arm and embedded themselves into his arm but he didn’t seem to notice as he held me tighter to himself. 

The moment I jumped, he jumped after me. His eyes were fierce and hard as he spoke, “Even if you want to die that badly, you cannot die without my permission.”