AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Solise hasnothingto do with this, and you know it, Castemont!” I screamed, bucking against him.
“She didn’t...until I arrived in Taitha and called a healer for one of my men. What a reunion that was, right Solise?” Still, she kept her face calm. “Unfortunately, it wasn’t the happiest of reunions. It didn’t take long for my men to break her just now — only took a few minutes before she admitted she was going to help you escape.”
He walked to stand before Solise, the woman a picture of silent strength. “To the dungeon,” Castemont commanded.
“No!” I screamed, my voice breaking. I thrashed against Castemont, kicking and punching and scratching, but it was no use. He was far stronger than I was, even as my insides boiled, even as steam rose in my throat. “No, no, no! You can’t! She has nothing to do with this! Let her go!”
She lifted her head, meeting my eyes. “Petra,” she said calmly. I could barely hear her over my sobs. “Petra! Look at me, Petra.” Her voice was even, the feeling at war with the firestorm that was raging inside me. “Find King Belin,” she whispered.
“Enough!” Kauvras shouted and nodded.
The soldiers that held her began dragging her out of the room, pulling on the small woman with unnecessary force. “Find King Belin!” she yelled again before one of the soldiers took the hilt of his sword and pounded it into her skull. Her head lolled to the side as she lost consciousness.
“No!” I screamed, but the doors had already closed.
Silence descended upon the room before Kauvras let out a dramatic sigh. “You should recognize that anyone working against the will of the Benevolent Saints is working againstyou,” Kauvras tutted. He stepped toward me, the eyes I almost knew searching my face. “You should be happy that the wretch will rot in the dungeon. Don’t you know who you are?” he whispered. “Don’t you know the power of your birth?” His breath was hot against my ear. “She told you she’d help you escape, no?” He clicked his tongue. “Don’t you see what we’ve done for you? Don’t you see the strings we’ve pulled to get you here? Why would you want to escape your betrothed? Yourdestiny?” The world slithered over my skin.
I inhaled. “I don’t know if I have a destiny,” I snarled through gritted teeth, channeling the vitriol I had learned from Larka, “but if I do, it sure as hell isn’tyou.”
“But destiny is inescapable, is it not?” Kauvras asked, his words thick with sarcasm. “And your last chance of escape will now be locked away.” I let the fire continue to scorch my insides, to grow hotter and hotter. “Darling Petra, you are exactly where you’re supposed to be.”
I took another deep breath and turned my head to Castemont. “And what is in this for you?”
“When Kauvras ascends to Sainthood, I will become the King of both Cabillia and Widoras.”
“All this for a fuckingcrown?”
“You’d be amazed at what people will do for a crown,” he whispered, then nodded to the guards at the door again. “Speaking of a crown, I have a surprise for the two of you.” He looked to me, then to Kauvras, who raised one brow. “Consider it a wedding gift. Bring in King Belin!” he bellowed.
Find King Belin.I didn’t have to look far as the man was shoved in by two guards.
And all at once, my boiling blood turned to ice in my veins. My heart stopped, then began to beat so hard I thought it would explode. But my ribs could have cracked and I wouldn’t have felt it. The entire castle could have crumbled to dust and I wouldn’t have noticed.
Because the man being dragged toward me was Calomyr.
