Chapter Twenty-One

Celine

“You,” I seethed, my hands shaking. “You set me up.”

Anya tilted her head, feigning innocence. “Now, why would I do that? Unless, of course, you have something to be guilty about?”

I clenched my fists, barely containing the rage and fear surging through me. “Liam could have…he was going to…” My voice broke, but I forced myself to hold her gaze. “You wanted this to happen to me.”

Anya sighed, shaking her head. “Oh, don’t be so dramatic, Celine. I simply provided an opportunity. What Liam did with it was entirely up to him.”

Hatred burned through my veins. “You’re a monster.”

Anya smirked. “And you, dear Celine, are a nuisance who needed to be put in her place. I am so sick of seeing you in these hallways, parading like you own the place. And uncle doesn't know it but he is better off without you. He just needed my push.”

Tears fell from my eyes. “What do you stand to gain from this? Is it so hard to let me love him? Do you hate me that much? We used to be friends.”

Her face twisted with cruelty and I could barely recognize the monster in front of me. “I despise you Celine, and in five minutes Kaiden will too. Because Liam would run out of there, and tell him all about your letter and the panties you gave him.”

Anya’s cruel smirk deepened as she took slow steps toward me, her gown flowing like liquid gold under the dim light. “Kaiden will never look at you the same again,” she whispered, her tone venomous. “He’ll see you for what you really are, a pathetic little slut. A whore who throws herself at men and then cries wolf when things don’t go her way.”

She eyed me from head to toe, smirking. “That's why mummy and daddy left you the minute they found their real daughter. No one wants a slut for one. And I surely don't want a slut for my uncle and surely not as my queen.”

Rage flooded in my chest, hot and suffocating. My hands trembled as I curled them into fists. I wanted to hurt her. I wanted to rip that smug expression off her face, to make her feel the fear and helplessness I had just endured all because of her. All because of this monster.

But before I could move, the shadows behind me stirred.

A figure emerged, silent as death. My breath caught as I saw it, a dark silhouette stepping out of my own shadow, its form shifting like ink in water. Its eyes burned like embers, hollow and soulless.

Anya's expression faltered. Her brow furrowed in confusion before her body tensed in fear. “W-What is—?”

She never finished.

The shadow soldier lounged at her and the glint of his sword flashed.

A sickening sound echoed as he stabbed her.

Anya’s body jolted, a scream escaping her lips. The blade had pierced through her chest, sinking deep between her ribs. Blood stained around her coating her dress fabric.

Her eyes widened in shock as she turned to me, her mouth opening and closing as if to speak, but no words came. Only a wet gurgle as blood spilled from her lips.

The black soldier withdrew the blade, letting her body crumple to the floor in a heap of silk and blood.

I could only stare, frozen, my heart thumping  against my ribs as i struggled to form thoughts. My breath came in ragged bits as the shadowy figure slowly turned to me. And then, to my horror, it knelt.

A deep, eerie voice, one that echoed inside my mind rather than in the air, spoke two chilling words:

"For you."

And just as suddenly as it had appeared, the soldier returned into the darkness, vanishing into the shadows where it came from. My shadow.

My stomach twisted. I staggered back, my knees giving up beneath me. My mind screamed at me to run, to move, to do anything, but all I could do was stare at Anya’s lifeless body, at the blood pooling around her.

I had wanted her to suffer. I had wanted to hurt her.

Had I done this?

Had something deep, something dark within me… willed this to happen?

A shudder ran through me as the weight of what had just occurred settled into my bones.

Kaiden would be here soon. And when he found his niece, dead by my feet, he would never forgive me.

 “What have i done?”