Linnea was like a beacon in my heart, calling me ever forward.
I grabbed the idiot sobbing on his knees. I did promise her she’d get her vengeance, after all. And what kind of king would I be if I didn’t keep my word to my queen?
Chapter fifty-one
Linnea
Being shackled to a chair was boring beyond measure.
I couldn’t relax, or the chair would tip over when my weight went too far to one side. The guards surrounding me were twitchy enough already, and the bang as the chair fell was likely to make them accidentally attack me in their fear.
They were right to be afraid.
The noises started a while ago, and as the roar of battle got closer, a smile began to tilt my lips. Carnelian had no idea who he was dealing with. Azurill played his truth close to the vest, letting Carnelian assume whatever he wanted, and filling in the gaps with wrong ideas that led him to this incredibly foolish scheme.
He’d been planning this for so long, seeding dissent among the lords and taking out my family to make way for the bootlickers who’d trot along faithfully in his wake.
And I was determined to show him what a mistake that truly was.
They’d left me much as I was, not realizing the gems on my dress were sharp enough to cut onyx. I began slowly running the chain along the sharp diamond encrusted around my wrist the moment Carnelian left the room. The guards were too concerned about who was coming to worry about who was in the room with them.
Another mistake.
The sound of a man flying into the wall made my head whip up from my task. The scream that followed made my smile broaden.
Azurill.
He was in the room next to me now, and I could practically feel his presence pulsing from it. The magic was rabid, thrashing at the walls and tearing apart any in its way.
The guards seemed to sense this too, however, and they immediately panicked. One of them looked back at me, considering, before looking to the back wall. He nodded to himself before stalking over to me, and I began to struggle in my chains as he dragged the chair backward.
“What are you doing?” Another guard asked him, confused.
The sound of a door opening filled my ears, as if the air had been sucked out of the room, and the guard picked up the chair with me in it, shoving me into what I knew right away was a closet. I stopped struggling immediately, my breath caught in my throat as panic overtook me.
“What does it look like?” The guard snapped, sweat beading at his temples, betraying his nerves. “I’m making sure she’s out of sight.”
With that, he shut the door, leaving me in pitch-black darkness. I closed my eyes against the tears filling them, memories assaulting me that were fresh once more since the magic trial. My heart was beating faster than I knew was possible, my limbs all shaking under the onyx chains. Panic was all I knew for a moment. Except…I also knew I wouldn’t get anywhere like this. I slowly opened my eyes, spotting a small crack in the doorframe that let me see out to the room beyond.
So much like another closet, another fight.
But this time would be different. I wasn’t a child anymore, and the enemy wasn’t coming for me, I’d already been taken by that very same enemy. This time, it was my savior breaking into the house, coming tofreeme.
I wasn’t a damsel in distress any longer, not like I was then. I was a grown woman who had spent her life learning how to survive. I wasn’t going to let his small, dark space entrap me forever. In my youth. In my dreams. In these chains.
I wasdonehiding and running.
As I spied the guards preparing to attack through the small peephole, I began working again on the chain holding me. I was going to get out of this, and meet Azurill on equal footing. I refused to be trapped in the past anymore. I had a future waiting for me just beyond this door.
I bit my lip in excitement as the chain finally began to give way. I ran my wrist back and forth more quickly over it, and as a body crashed through thewall, flying back and hitting the opposite one, leaving an Elven-sized hole in it, the onyx chain finally gave, slinking to the floor with a loud clink.
The guards stood ready, but they were basically trembling like children at this point. The sound of loud, slow footsteps made one of them actually drop his sword before he skittered quickly to pick it up. When silver eyes appeared through the brand-new, giant hole in the wall, my smile broadened into a full grin.
“Azurill!” I called, throwing open the closet door fully, and those silver orbs found me immediately. The rage in them made me shiver in delight, and I let the remaining chains fall to the rocky floor as I stood and kicked the chair back, making it hit the closet wall. It made some of the guards turn back to look, and the split focus enabled us to work in tandem.
Azurill attacked the guards looking at me, and I threw myself at the guards watching him. The surprise was likely the only reason I was able to wrestle the guard’s sword away, weakened as I still was by the onyx. My strength was coming back, but I definitely wasn’t at my best quite yet.
I ran my new sword through the guard who chose the wrong lord to serve, catching sight in my peripheral of the massacre Azurill was making of the others. While I’d barely made it two steps from the closet I’d been trapped in, Azurill had already taken out half the room. Blood and limbs were splattered all over the once pristine space.
