Page 38 of Princess Redeemed

I take a closer look at Richard’s iron throne.Since it’s empty, I can see all the detail, the angular and menacing design, the sharp edges that could rip flesh open…and probably have.The throne overlooks a… I’m not sure what it is.A hole in the uneven ground, perhaps a bottomless abyss of lost souls.

“I’ll sit on that throne again.”Again his voice.

“I don’t give a damn who sits on that metal chair of evil,” I grit out.“I want Rogan, and then you can have your reign of terror.Just leave us out of it!”

“I’m afraid that’s impossible.You’re in it already, Hannah, simply by virtue of who you are.You are bound to your father but also to me.”

“I have no relation to you whatsoever.”

“Ah, but you are.Through your love for your mother, and her love for me.”

“That’s a crock.”

But as I look around the lair more carefully, chills skitter over me.

Whispers of evil flow over me—whispers I feel more than hear.This is a place where darkness thrives, and every shadow seems to conceal something twisted.

I close my eyes, summon my unborn child.Perhaps he can lead me to his father.

But then my eyes shoot open.

Evil surrounds me, and?—

“Oh, shit.”

Something foreign pulses through me, something I hate, despise, abhor.

Yet…

Yet…

I feel…almost…home.

“No!”I shout out.

“You can’t fight it, Hannah,” Richard’s disembodied voice says.“This is who you are.”

“I.Will.Not!”I punch my fist through the air, feeling resistance.This air isn’t normal, it’s thick.

Thick and malevolent.

“You’ll never take another thing from me!”I shout.“You took my mother.Isn’t that enough for you?I won’t let you take Rogan too!”

“As you know, Rogan was never yours.”

He’s right.I know that, but my anger overpowers me.

“He may not be mine,” I yell, pushing my fist through the thickness once more, “but he does belong to something of mine.And with every ounce of strength I have, Richard, I will fight you.And I will win!”

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“Impossible,”Richard says, closing his eyes and inhaling.

“What’s impossible?”I demand.“That I’ll fight you and win?I assure you it’s more than possible.Evil never wins, Richard.Good will always triumph.”

I wish I believed those words as emphatically as I say them.Because in truth, gooddoesn’talways win.Evil triumphed over my mother, and she was as good a soul as was ever born.But she was weak.Weak from what my father did to her.Weak and ripe for Richard’s evil charm.

“No.It can’t be.”Richard inhales sharply again.“You said Rogan belongs to something of yours…” He inhales again.“You… You’re pregnant, you fucking slut.”