“Alistair!”
His name escapes my lips as I rush to catch him, but gravity gets there ahead of me. He’s splayed on the ground, his eyes shut but his mouth slightly agape, the red gash on his chest still soaking his shirt with blood. The sight of it makes my stomach turn, not out of disgust but of pure, cold fear that engulfs my body in one go.
I get to him a millisecond too late, and when I’m finally kneeling by his body, my brain freezes up. What am I supposed to do now? Will I worsen his bleeding if I move him even a little?
“Please help him.” I turn to Briar, but he’s already on his way.
On the other side of Alistair, Briar kneels, quickly taking Alistair’s arm and draping it around his shoulders. Then, in one go, Briar lifts him up. “Take his other side, Lora. We’re close to the camp anyway.”
He’s right. We are close, but every step carrying Alistair’s limp body is complete and utter mental torture. It feels like the camp is still a long way
I look at the other side of the grand ballroom and catch Jossie’s eye. We’re both dressed in the white uniforms of servers, both holding flutes of liquor on gold platters, going around the place to offer drinks for the hundreds of guests. Tonight is the night. Everyone is in position, and tension is high. But I would say luck seems to be on our side. Getting inside the Governor’s mansion was surprisingly easy. We just had to wear the uniforms and go our separate ways, then we instantly got picked up by the ones in charge of the logistics aspect of the party. In no time, after lingering at the back door of the kitchen, Jossie, Gynith, and I were steered inside and instructed to hold drinks for the guests. Meanwhile, Alistair and Briar are just patrolling around the mansion. Kalem and Scion are waiting outside, hiding inside the carriage that we’ll use to get away. Everything is set, right from the beginning. We had a good start and now it’s up to us to keep it
For a second my whole world turns black. The man lifts me up in the air and tries to press me against the cold marble walls, but I kick and thrash as hard as I can. He almost loses grip, but he quickly recovers and holds onto me even tighter.“Shh,” he croons by my ear, and instantly I feel bile rising up my throat. “Come peacefully now.”Being peaceful is never an option. Not when my life is in such terrible danger. I think of Alistair and the others, about what is possibly happening to them right now.I hope it’s just me. If they’re safe, I really have no complaints. I will take this situation with no problem. But the thing is, I have no idea if they’re safe, so I continue to struggle.Balling my hands into fists, I try to elbow the man’s ribs. I come into contact, feeling his bones collide against my joint, but he doesn’t seem fazed. In fact, the harder I struggle, the better he gets at holding me d
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 clearTwo 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,