Sybil
Once we entered the hall, Ambrose swung me around, forcing me to face him. His hand covered my mouth to stop my screams. I watched him carefully with fearful eyes, my body shaking against his touch. He really had lost his mind. There was a crazed glint in his gaze, an unsettled look filled with disorder and delirium.
I strained to find the dungeon’s entrance and the guards stationed there, pretending we didn’t exist. My chest ached, my eyes burned from the pressure building behind them. Queen Cassia had looked so surprised when Ambrose attacked her. She stared at the ice as though it weren’t real—like it was nothing more than an illusion.
Ambrose’s hand tightened around my mouth, forcing my attention to snap back to him.
“Not another fucking word,” he hissed mercilessly. “Keep quiet, and no one else will die, understood?”
I forced myself to take a shuddering breath and nodded, swallowing down the cry that was lodged in my throat. My gaze slid past him, back to the entrance of the dungeons, to the queen, who was bleeding out as we spoke. My heart pounded in my chest, and the world around me seemed to be in slow motion.Ambrose was supposed to keep her alive, wasn’t he? I tried to think back to what Samian had told me, but I couldn’t recall what he said, only that, for some reason, Ambrose needed her alive.
“I assume Ivara is still in your room?” Ambrose narrowed his eyes at me, watching me silently nod, his lips thinning when I didn’t meet that terrible gaze. “Let’s visit the feline, then.”
Pushing me toward the hall, I swallowed down my horror and started walking toward my room.
“Ambrose caught me and is heading to my room now,” I spoke to Samian through the bond, panic making the words spill out. “He wants to confirm with Ivara that she was with me all night, and that I wasn’t the one who killed Bramwell.”
“Fuck,” Samian rasped, his voice full of agitation. “Are you okay? Did he hurt you?”
“I’m fine, but Queen Cassia is hurt. There was so much blood. I-I don’t think she foresaw it. There is something wrong with him, something that is making him lose control. Queen Cassia said that he has been hearing voices, and I heard it too before he attacked us. Samian, I?—”
“Breathe,” Samian murmured. “You’re going too fast. Breathe and calm down. How do you know he has been hearing a voice?”
“The queen told me, and I heard it too.”
“Shit,” Samian whispered. “Listen to me very carefully, okay, my love? I need you to stay calm. Don’t provoke him, even if he tries to provoke you. Just get here as safely as you can, and we can figure this out with Kieran and the others, okay? Can you do that for me?”
I let out a tight breath, my hands curling into fists by my side. Samian was right. If I acted out, if I did anything against Ambrose right now, there would be no telling what he would do to me. With him not in his right state of mind, I doubted he couldcontrol himself enough to hold back. I’m not even sure he would wait for Arianna to do his dirty work for him.
“Sybil, my light, can you do that for me?”
My brows furrowed. He had never called me by anything other than my name since the first day I met him. “My light?”
“If Kieran gets to call you Princess, I thought it would be fitting to find something for myself to call you.” Amusement colored his words, and I could feel my panic dwindle at his ease.
“I don’t even like it when he does that. And ‘my light’? Out of all the names to call me, you decided on ‘my light’?”
“Don’t make fun,” Samian pouted. “It took me a good long while to pick out that name.”
“Why that name?” I asked softly. I knew he was trying to keep my mind off the monster that walked beside me, to keep my mind off the ache I felt for the queen.
“Before you, I was lost. With my long lifespan, the world felt empty and mundane. Yes, I had Kieran and Aster, and the others, but there was nothing that made this life truly worth living. I had…I lost my family as a child. They were taken from me in the cruelest of ways because of me—because of what I could do. Cassia saved me. She nurtured me and helped me grow into the male I am today, but you…you were the one who brought light back into my life. Your warmth and love, your smile, your hope—you reminded me of what it was like to wake up and feel okay. Even with the shit happening around us, you make me feel hopeful about tomorrow.Youare the light that brought me out of the darkness of this world.”
The pressure behind my eyes grew, but I blinked away the tears before they could fall. I couldn’t let Ambrose see what Samian’s words were doing to me.
“I didn’t know you lost your family,” I whispered back.
“That is a story for another time. One I’ll tell you once you are back in my arms unharmed.”
Ambrose shoved me around a corner to the hallway of my room. Despite Samian’s attempt to calm my apprehension, a cold sweat dripped down my back.
“We’re almost there,” I muttered, hoping that he was somewhere safe. “If you are in the room, you need to hide.”
Silence was my only reply as Ambrose forced his way into my room. The door slammed into the wall, reverberating through the room. Ivara jumped to her feet, her teacup rattling against the small plate in her hand. Her eyes widened as they landed on Ambrose, shock flickering as she took in every change in his appearance.
“Is everything alright?” Ivara said slowly, keeping her voice calm, her gaze bouncing between Ambrose and me.
“Did Sybil leave this room at any time through the night?” Ambrose asked, his voice tight.
