Steeling my breath, I brace myself for who’s about to enter. Everything seems to be slowing into a stop, even time itself. From the length of the staircase, I can hear footsteps and scuffles, low muffled groans and hissed commands. My skin drumming with pain, my eyes watering as I keep my gaze fixed on the bottom of the stairs, but I still feel a clear
Two figures come in, shadows at first, elongating with the flickering light of the gas lamps.
The room seems to draw breath when I see that it’s Alistair.
And dragging him into the dungeon is no other than Briar.
“Ah, there you are,” Governor Celso calls out to him gaily. “Bring him here. Right in front of the lady.”
The sheer shock from what I’m witnessing is enough to paralyze me. For a second I’m not entirely sure of what I’m seeing. It’s Briar. Our supposed ally. The one who helped Alistair many times. Yeah, he’s not a good person,
“No, that’s not true!” I scream at Governor Celso. In a spur of rage, I jump to my feet and aim for a slap, but he grabs my arm just in time and pulls me so that we’re face to face. He sneers, so I grit my teeth, take a deep breath, and spit on his face. “Scum.”His sneer doesn’t vanish, but I can see the fiery anger in his eyes. “Call me whatever you want. That doesn’t change the fact that you brought them here to me.” He wipes his face and grabs my neck, spinning me around to make me face Alistair and the others. “Now I can take them to the king, like you intended. You can thank me later, once we’re married.”He holds me in place, his breath at the back of my neck. Alistair is staring at me with his eyes shining with tears. Jossie is glaring at me. Gyntih and Kalem are not moving anymore, slumped on the ground and bleeding.“Please believe me,” I say, but my voice is bare
The first thing I register is the sensation of long sharp points lodging themselves in my right shoulder, seemingly slow in finding the depths of my flesh. Something warm is rushing into me, and it’s not just the breath of Alistair’s wolf form on my numb skin. It’s rushing into my veins, latching itself onto the very fiber of my being as my muscles freeze. I try to inhale, to at least gasp at the excruciating sensation, but my chest is hard. It’s not giving way to my breaths. Heat is spreading in my bones as though I’m being set on fire from the inside. I open my mouth and I immediately feel my voice rising up, building up my throat— Then I let out a blood-curdling scream that shakes up the entire dungeon as he pulls away. I fall on my knees. My hand instantly flies to the bitten spot, the area where my neck meets my shoulder. The blood on it is thick and sticky now, continuously flowing from the numerous holes that I can feel under my fingers. My sig
This has to be a dream.I force myself to get over my frozen state and give my arm a good pinch. I feel the sting of my fingernails digging into my skin. I count mentally from one to three, expecting everything and everyone to vanish, but after I blink rapidly, the scene is still in place. The flowers, the velvet bed, the chapel. Madame Mara, Simeon, and of course, Uncle Osman.And he’s walking towards me, his arms open for a hug. His face is slack with surprise and warm with affection. “Elora! I can’t believe this—”“How are you alive?” I blurt out, and immediately, hysteria starts to climb up my throat. “How are you alive? What’s happening? Why am I here?”Fake. This has to be all fake. I refuse to believe that this is not a hallucination that my brain is coming up with to maybe give me a good feeling before I truly pass away. This is too surreal.In a panicked daze, I start to touch the
I don’t hesitate for one second. With shaking hands I fumble for the lock of the window and push the panes open, letting in the cold wind and the promise of being close to Alistair.A part of me expected his image to vanish, but as I poke my head through the window frame, I still see him below, standing by the gardens, wearing his usual black linen clothes and a smile on his face.That smile . . . oh, how I love it. Especially the way it’s not only a movement of the lips. You can see the joy in his eyes, in the slight scrunch of his nose, in the dimples on his cheeks. My heart immediately gets flooded with longing, so extreme that I can almost feel it physically. My eyes begin to water, and I find myself opening my mouth to shout his name.But thankfully, I remember where I am at the last minute. I stop myself, pursing my lips and finding myself cracking the biggest smile I ever had in a while. My cheeks are stinging, but I don’t mind. I start
I stumble up the stairs to my bedroom, making a beeline towards my closet to pull out the first dress I see. It just so happens that the one I get is one of my old red ones, and I wriggle into it, my wet hair sticking to my face and the satin bodice.What do they want to do with me? I wonder as I exit my room and run back down the stairs. They’ve been avoiding me for days and now this? This is insane.A guard meets me at the bottom of the stairs, avoiding my eyes as I arrive in front of him. “Please, Miss, follow me,” he says in a clipped tone, gesturing to me to go with him. His arm is wobbling as he points me the way. “Are you ready?”“Yeah,” I mumble, and together we walk.Like everyone else, he’s keeping a distance from me. I guess it’s natural since I am supposed to be dead, but this just makes me want to act like a zombie to scare them all off. It doesn’t really seem to matter now, though,
“Hey!” I try to push Hendrik off of me. My skin is tingling with his touch, and not in a good way. “Let me go!”Hendrik doesn’t let go. If anything, his grip on my upper arm gets tighter. It’s pretty dark in the shack and I can’t see his face, but I’m pretty sure I’m getting a smug look from him now.“I swear, I will scream,” I threaten. “I will scream and people will hear me and they will know how much of an assaulter you are!”He sighs. “If you stop wriggling, I will let you go. I just want to talk in private and this is the only place I know where no one will listen. Now please, just stand there and listen. This will be over in a couple of minutes.”The exasperation in his voice tells me that he’s not here for the purpose that I thought. No one can possibly sound so done and want to assault someone at the same time. And he does seem to be honest, because whe
Queen Zuri gasps, her body growing rigid as more blood flows from between her legs. The cream colored gown she wore under her rich robes is now getting soaked with crimson, spreading around the area like a blooming flower.Her other hand snakes down to her crotch, her fingers getting smeared with blood. She lifts her stained fingers to her line of sight, then I watch as her expression transitions from pain to absolute terror.“No,” she mumbles. “My baby. . . .”A small whimper of pain escapes her lips, then she falls back against one of the mannequins. She tries to avoid the fall by flailing her bloody hand, but she only manages to get blood all over the dresses. Her face is scrunched up, with tears on her cheeks shining under the lights. I rush towards her and try to help her, but her scream stops me in my tracks.“Don’t you dare come near me and my child!” she yells ferociously. “Don’t you dare!&rdqu
“Are you alright?” Hendrik asks as soon as we exit the throne room, closing the door behind him as he holds the small of my back. “Elora, talk to me.”I can’t. I don’t want to open my mouth. I’m not even sure I heard him properly, what he’s been saying and what he just said right now. It seems like there are cotton balls stuffed inside my ringing ears, allowing me to block everything. My heart is beating too fast, and I have to gasp for breath as we start to walk along the hallway. My cheek is still stinging, but I’m already numb inside.Tomorrow will be my last day here in the palace. I will be out of this place forever. It’s what I wanted since I came back, right?Then why am I still hurt?Did I kill the baby? Was that the reason for my subtle exile? Is this why I’m getting banished? Did I—?“No,” Alistai suddenly says. “You didn’t.”&ldqu