Page 16 of Immortal Origins (Chronicles of the Immortal Trials #1)

“ You’re the one who keeps your garden like that?” The last thing she took the king’s brother for was a gardener. A vase of roses the colors of sunset rested on a table between the seating arrangements. Deep, brilliantly colored roses: purple, red, orange, and yellow melting all together.

“What’s that tone, servant?” he hissed from his chair, lifting his head to meet her gaze.

“Ambrose,” she threw back defiantly.

“Little Rose,” he smirked as he rose from his seat and swept to the door on the left of the room.

“This will be your room.” Inside the room was a bed bigger than even the grand dining table.

Satin and sheer waves of magenta poured over the top as the comforter spread across the surface, stacked with pillows that could’ve made a mattress of their own.

The bed easily could’ve held eight—nine—maybe more beings on it.

Curtains closed over the only window in the room, which was too high to reach and was more of a cross between a skylight and a window.

The walls a rich purple so dark it was almost black with a rug at the base of the bed made of a snow panther’s pelt.

A light peach marble covered every inch of the bathing room, the large bathtub and washing basin a brilliantly polished copper that glinted under the firelights.

The bathing chamber itself was almost the size of the bed chamber with large mirrors along the walls.

Ambrose had always been forced to share the servants’ bathing chamber with the rest of them.

It was the time they all got together and chatted freely and away from the nobles.

The girls would discuss the most interesting parts of what they’d seen that day, gossiping and sharing about the nobility, what was going on among the servants, that bathing alone seemed almost a sad thought. A luxury she never thought she’d have.

“You’ll sleep and bathe here,” Akadian told her from the doorway where he’d been watching her every move as she took it all in.

“Your group training will continue with Magnus as usual however you’ll now be doing private lessons as well.

The Grand Mage will do his best to get you ready for the arena.

You’ll also be starting fighting lessons.

” He cocked his head as he studied her. “Although, seeing the body of that guard, something tells me you won’t be needing them. ”

Pulse racing, she admitted, “I didn’t mean to kill him.”

“You could’ve fooled me.” He shrugged from the doorway, lips parting into a smile. “You did an expert job.”

“Is that supposed to be a compliment? Am I supposed to say ‘thank you’?” she sneered. He said it like she should be proud.

“Yes. And I don’t give them out lightly.”

“I’ll let you know when I care about your compliments.” She threw all the hate she could into the look she gave him.

“Then you won’t get another one.” His face went cold and whatever twisted fun he seemed to be having evaporated with his smile. With that, he turned on his heel and slammed the door shut behind him, locking it firmly on his way out.

“No!” she cried, lunging for the door as the lock clicked in place.

She pushed and shoved with everything she had but the door wouldn’t budge.

Trapped, Ambrose desperately searched the room for any means of escape.

The window was too high, she could never reach it, and there were no passageways to be found, the only exit being the one that had just turned the room into a vault.

Too exhausted to move to the bed, she slumped to the ground and brought her knees into her chest. She wondered what Ernaline was doing and if she’d heard the news yet.

If so, she was probably terrified for her.

The two of them always joked about how one would have to be insane to pledge their name.

How absurdly impossible the trials were.

All these years and not once had anyone become a Champion.

No one even knew what the trials consisted of after the Champion’s Tournament since no one had ever made it that far.

Even if she did manage to win the tournament, there was no telling what horrors awaited her in the trials afterwards. To even try was certain death.

Adym would’ve heard by now, being part of the guard.

No doubt informed that his sister was a criminal twice over—once for being born, and now for murder—and that she’d be entering the trials.

She wished she could talk to them. Explain to her brother what happened.

Ernaline would forgive her, but Adym… he’d taught her to fight.

How could he know those skills would end up taking someone’s life by her hand?

Would he forgive her? Where were they now?

The tears she’d been holding back all day came spilling forward as the day played over and over in her mind.

Each moment repeating itself until burned into her memory forever.

She let herself grieve for everything she’d been feeling for her entire life.

For all the pain and resentment she held growing up under the thumb of a kingdom given power by absent gods.

For every moment she had to live in fear, never knowing what could happen the next day.

For a brother that wanted deeply to help her, but could only ever do it in his own way.

She cried for every servant in Almuria. Trapped with no way out.

She cried for every child forced to grow in a world that was dangerous to exist in for so many.

Where a choice as simple as a stolen loaf of bread could condemn them and their entire line of descendants to servitude to a harsh and terrorizing empire.

She cried for Almuria and the world they lived in.

She cried all afternoon and into the night where no one disturbed her.

For the first time in her entire life, Ambrose was completely alone.

That night she dreamed of a glowing forest centered around a tree. She dreamed of an Almuria where everyone was free and she could explore the kingdoms to her heart’s desire. She dreamed of beings who were equal, and a just world for them to live in.

She dreamed of another life.