Page 114 of A Monarch's Fall

“This is my kingdom. I will not allow some half-witch blood of my enemy to tear it apart. That body was just the first. I will drag everyone you know before you to watch as they die,” he promised so calmly and assuredly, like it was inevitable.

Suddenly, a painful and ragged breath dragged through my throat at the unconscious demand of my lungs, and I was crying, and wheezing, and Edward was dead, and everyone would be dead.

He clicked his fingers in front of my face, and I looked away from Edward and to him.

“This doesn’t have to happen,” he reassured, “No one else has to die because of you. All you must do to stop it is convince my daughter that you no longer wish to be part of the soul match,” he said.

I looked back at Edward, and suddenly the faces of everyone else I loved replaced his. I retched and threw up. The King stepped back.

“Disgusting thing,” he insulted as I wiped my mouth. “Do you understand what is required of you and the consequences should you fail or refuse?” he asked.

“Yes,” I managed to speak, the word leaving my constricted throat as a crying rasp.

“You will now be escorted to get cleaned up. It’s a very good thing that you arrived the way you did: quietly and unseen. When you leave this room, you will not make a sound. You will follow the guards silently and do as instructed. If you alert anyone to your presence, the consequences are, as you have learned, unpleasant,” he said, and left me alone with Edward’s body and the guard who had killed him.

“Get up,” the guard said, and when I didn’t move, he gripped me under my left arm and dragged me to my feet and towards the door.

I couldn’t feel my body. I was aware that I was being dragged, that my legs moved, but I couldn’t feel the ground beneath my feet. Without my noticing the journey, I was suddenly in a bright, white-tiled bathroom, being shoved forward.

“Get clean, you have ten minutes,” he instructed, and a door closed behind me.

I stood there shivering in the centre of the small space and flinched when I heard movement behind the door.

“You'd better get moving in there, or I’ll come in, and you won’t like that,” he said with a snicker. The casual way he threatened me, seeming to take joy from it, triggered me into action. I looked around me and saw a small shower. Mechanically, I removed my clothes — Edward’s clothes — and stepped into the shower. The water ran cold for a whole minute, but it helped clear the numbness that had enveloped me. In itsplace was nothing but pain. I cried so hard my chest hurt as I used soap from the dispenser and washed myself.

When I turned off the shower, I heard the bathroom door open. I froze, convinced the guard would pull the flimsy shower curtain back.

“Towel and clothes,” he said, and I heard the door shut as he left.

I peeked out behind the curtain to see that the clothes I had been wearing when I first entered the castle had been washed and returned to me, and my boots, which The New Foundation had given me, were sitting beside the toilet. I got dressed as quickly as I could and, for the first time, allowed myself to look in the mirror.

I was a mess. My eyes were bloodshot from crying, my skin was pale, and I hadn’t stopped shaking. Maybe I was in a state of shock, but I wasn’t injured. I felt clinical, like I was viewing a stranger disconnected from the image in front of me.

The door to the bathroom opened, and I followed the guard wordlessly out of the bathroom, unaware of my surroundings. I only became aware of where I was, or rather who I was with, when the King was grabbing at my face, inspecting me.

“Selene is about to be informed that during a recent military operation, you were recovered. She will undoubtedly be here any moment. Remember what you must do,” he instructed.

Chapter twenty-eight

The Pet Returns.

Percy Flores

Panic filled me. I wasn’t ready. I had spent so long thinking of only how to return to her. And now I prayed to be able to escape that moment, that I had lied, betrayed, and watched too many die to achieve.

The King released my jaw and turned me sharply to face the door.

It opened seemingly by itself, and suddenly she was there.

Long, cool fingers brushed feather-soft across my cheeks and under my eyes.

Full lips moved in the shape of my name.

A hand ran across the top of my head.

I turned and looked up at the King. He smiled pleasantly.

My face was turned away from him, and bright liquid silver captivated me like a star-filled night sky. Like I could be lost adrift forever in them, and it would be okay.