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Chapter forty-two

T he guards locked me in my room, using magic so the door locked from the outside.

I spent far too long banging at the door, hard enough that it bruised the outer part of my hand.

Once I gave up on that, I got to work on formulating a plan to get myself out.

I may no longer be human, or eleven, but this was not Wrodgow.

This was a castle with many trained guards, not just half-trained rebels.

I searched the room, my weapons were nowhere in sight, yet again, so I looked for anything that may be useful, only finding a picture with a glass frame on the wall. Shoving it under the blankets on the bed, I broke it, and wrapped the end of the largest shard to protect my hand.

And then I waited.

Hours passed, and I wondered if Nickolai had known better than to check up on me right away—anticipating a response. My hand twisted the wrapped glass around absentmindedly, and I continued to try and call on Khalia, but there was nothing, not even a vestige.

My heart felt heavy as Nickolai’s words replayed in my mind.

He never denied it. He only explained why he did it.

As if any piece of the truth would actually make my life better after the fact.

It just showed that everything I’d thought about myself was a lie—everything I’d grown to know was fake.

How was someone supposed to handle that?

Laugh? Cry? Scream?

I wanted to do them all at once. He played me, and it worked.

I’d been so naive, enthralled with his looks and ‘personality’, and look at where it's gotten me.

Locked away in a castle bedroom. Like a gods-damned princess or something.

I felt the laughter bubble out of my throat before I could even think about what I was doing.

Once I realized, it only made me laugh harder.

Safe to say, I was officially losing my mind.

A sudden grip on my shoulder had my laugh cutting out quickly to find Ysabel’s hazel ones staring down at me, full of worry.

"How—" I started to ask, but she lifted a finger to her mouth, signaling for me to be quiet.

We listened for the guards outside my room, but seemed not to be paying attention or surprised at the sounds coming from within.

Helping me off the floor, she guided me to stepping toward the corner of the room where a portion of the wall was separated from the rest of it.

A hidden passage. Perfectly disguised by the cut lines in the stone.

Ysabel grabbed the torch on the wall within—extending it out before her and lighting our way down a set of stairs that seemed to be hidden by a false wall on the inside of the castle.

Our steps echoed throughout the space along with some sort of liquid dripping onto the floor as we made our way down—further into the tunnel.

After a few minutes, Ysabel stopped to face me. “Mira, are you okay?”

I snickered, “My son is dead, I’m a prisoner again, and apparently the prophecy is about me!” My words got too loud, the sound echoing along the grooves of each stone.

“Shh!” she scolded, “I’m sorry this happened to you—” A loud thud interrupted her sentence and I found myself looking at the stone above us, imagining what or who could be there. “We have to go.”

The seriousness of her words had me sobering up from whatever delusional mental state I was starting to slip into. We started to move once more, but I stopped her, asking, “Why are you doing this?”

Ysabel hesitated before finally dropping her head and announcing, “Because the king is the reason my husband and your son are dead.”

My breath caught in my throat. “What?”

“Nickolai is the reason for the monsters, or at least someone he is working with. . . Haven’t you wondered why there hasn’t really been any news?”

Just when I thought it couldn’t get any worse.

I clenched my jaw, “I’m going to kill him.” I moved to turn around, ready to burst through my bedroom door and annihilate anyone that got in my way.

Ysabel grabbed my arm. “You can’t, not now. We need to get out of here first.”

“He killed my son,” I ground out the words, feeling the tears wanting to form in my eyes.

“And he killed my husband,” she countered, “but we will not be able to kill him on our own. I realized that a long time ago. We need to go now. . . Please!” she begged.

I searched through the different colors of her eyes in the firelight for a few moments before I finally nodded and we continued, moving to what had to be below the castle.

This all felt like a bad dream, like I never woke up this morning.

Just yesterday I was in love and starting to move on from all the horrible cards I have been dealt, and now.

. . now I was trying to escape again. My brain couldn't fully wrap around it all, it just knew I needed to move.

Ysabel led us through so many twists and turns that I soon lost track of where we were.

The tunnel seemed never ending, especially when the stench of the sewers filled the air.

After another ten minutes we finally turned down one last hallway that led to an old door with a rust-covered handle—Airmathair and my dagger leaning against it.

I gasped, moving past her. “How did you get these?”

“As soon as I saw what was happening in the throne room, I ran up and grabbed them.”

“But—”

“We don’t have much time,” she reminded me.

“Right. . . Thank you,” I said, trying to convey my immense gratitude with those two words that never felt like enough when it came to her.

Securing my weapons on me, I listened on the other side of the door, finding nothing but the sound of running water.

We must be near a stream. The knob on the door turned with a loud squeak and I pushed, but it didn’t move. “Are you sure this is the way out?”

“Yes, push harder!” she exclaimed.

Throwing my whole body into the door, it finally shifted.

I continued pushing again and again until it finally gave way, and the vines that had been sealing the door ripped apart.

We practically tumbled out of the darkness into the bright expanse of the afternoon sun, squinting against the change of light to take in the side of a large hill, hidden by the overgrowing brush.

Not too far in the distance was the tree line to the forest, concealing the next issue with our escape.

“How are we supposed to get past the wall?”

“You have been training for months! Certainly a few guards should be no problem.” She wasn’t wrong, but my recent training has been without real weapons. Something this upcoming altercation surely wouldn’t be lacking.

“Is that your only plan? To just take the guards out?” I asked skeptically.

Her eyes bulged. “Do you have a better idea?”

I hesitated, trying to think of something.

The surface of the wall was smooth and went up nearly fifteen feet in the air, making it impossible to climb.

And if we were to wait for the guards to change shifts, we risked the possibility of us being found.

Taking out the guards now gives us a chance of getting far away before it is noticed that we are gone. . . She was right.

Dipping my head in agreement, we didn’t waste time—immediately breaking out into a sprint for the tree line.Ysabel was considerably slower, but I matched her speed.

I’d only gone through the wall a few times at the southern exit, but by the way the sun was setting to the left of us, I could tell we were going north.

The change in scenery and lack of knowledge of the land created a situation that left a lot of things still to be determined.

Like the distance between the castle and the wall.

Which begged the question of how long we would have to run for and whether or not we would get caught beforehand.

Soon, the earthy smell of trees surrounded us, now tainted with the person they remind me of.

We wove through the forest, and Ysabel remained quiet while keeping her head on a swivel to scan the area around us.

But I couldn’t stop the questions continuously running through my mind.

“Did you know? This entire time, did you know he was manipulating me with his powers?” Her face remained stoic, but her eyes gave way to the regret eating at her from within.

“Why didn’t you tell me? Why did you let him do it? ”

She shook her head, “I didn’t know. I only suspected it recently—”

I cut her off, “You could have stopped him.”

Ysabel took in a deep breath, “I tried! I am trying to stop him. But this runs deeper than just you. And I wanted to tell you, more than you know, but if I did, you would have only been captured sooner.” I didn’t say anything anymore—I couldn’t.

Because while she believed she was acting in the best interests of everyone, including myself, I was still the one who was played for the fool.

When I could finally see the gray stone of the wall through the trees, we slowed to a stop.

By my ears, I found two heartbeats not far off to our right and five heartbeats even further to our left.

I pointed Ysabel in the direction of the two guards, holding up the number with my fingers.

Our feet slowly moved us forward, finding the best spots on the ground to minimize the noise.

With fall in full swing and signs of an early winter, the trees were dying.

Leaving crunchy leaves and twigs coating the forest floor.

We snuck closer to the heartbeats, coming up on a small arched door guarded by a fae man on each side. Ysabel picked up a large rock from the ground, testing the weight of it in her hands, while I retrieved my dagger. I really didn’t want to kill a man today, but if I had to, I would.

Using my fingers, I showed Ysabel that I would knock out the first guard, giving her the chance to go through the gate and get the other one from behind.

We couldn’t voice the plans without being heard, so I just hoped by her nodding that it meant she understood.

With little time to think it through, I moved along the wall so I was coming at the man from the side.

He seemed half-awake, staring down a small trail that led back to the castle.

I watched as the man's eyes drooped before his body jolted and he shook his head in an effort to wake himself up.

But not even thirty seconds later, they were closing again and I took my chance.

Sneaking up quietly and quickly until I was beside him, I slid my dagger across his throat, deep enough to sever his vocal cords.

He will heal , I reassured myself. The man collapsed, clutching at his throat and making gurgling sounds, which had the other guard calling his name.

Shit.

“Ralph, is that you?” the other guard asked, his voice drawing closer.

I threw my body against the wall. The lock on the door clicked before opening and the other guard cursed, running to kneel beside Ralph, who laid on the ground.

He lifted his head, scanning the area, and I readied my body to leap off of the wall onto him, but movement in the direction I’d come from pulled my attention, and his.

He shouted as Ysabel came as if from nowhere, launching her body onto the brute of a man. Despite their difference in size, he collapsed to the ground where she used her rock to bash his head in.

She stood, dusting off the skirt of her dress with a smile on her face, and I shouted quietly, “What the hell was that?”

“You’re welcome.”

“Welcome? He just drew the attention of anyone within two miles of here!” Right as I finished explaining, I heard it. The unmistakable sound of armor clattering together.