One
The Broken Princess
My heels clicked against the polished marble like a countdown I couldn’t escape. Each step echoed like a cry for help that no one would answer. After all, broken things were not worth saving. The guards tracked my every movement, following each restless pace of the corridor. The sound of my dress hissing against the ground behind me only made my blood rush faster through my veins. Everything would change tonight, and I knew they were waiting for me to run.Again.
I spun on my heel, circling away from the staircase that yawned like a mouth, waiting to swallow me into the ball below.
Tonight, the court would raise their glasses in celebration. Their princess was finally serving a purpose. My hand in marriage would strengthen my father’s alliance with the south, but I did not share the Kingdom’s excitement. Nor did I care for political gain. Honestly, I’d be thrilled if Father’s Kingdom crumbled, burying him and his precious priest along with it. But a princess does as she is told. Being the pliable, delicate thing they wanted me to be was theonly way to escape. So, I took deep breaths. But it was cut short by the corset I had been shoved into against my will. I tugged at the blue silk cinched too tightly around my ribs, as if loosening it might free me from my birthright. If only it were that easy.
Run. Run. Run.
I stilled. The whispers bled from the empty corridor, clawing through my mind with a chill that tore gooseflesh from my skin.
“I will when the time is right,” I muttered, turning to grip the cold iron bars of the window separating me from freedom.
“What was that, Princess?”
I peered over my shoulder at the burly guard wearing my father’s armour. He crossed his arms over Stonebriar’s emblem: two swords clashing over a crown. Funny how every man longed for a crown, yet most seemed too weak to wield it. My father was far from weak, which was why he had held the crown for thirty years, a record in the history of our Kingdom.
“You were speaking to thin air again,” the guard said, glaring at me as if my madness was contagious.
“Perhaps it isyouwho is hearing things,” I replied sweetly, turning back towards the window.
“Crazy bitch,” he said in a hushed tone to the other guard, who stifled a laugh.
I bit my tongue, fighting the urge to scream at them. No, I needed to bide my time. To smile politely and be a good little puppet.
Once, I had read that love makes a person whole, and in its absence, evil grows. Perhaps that was why darkness churned beneath my skin like the tides battering the cliffsbelow.
The Dead Sea thrashed against the snowcapped cliffs in the dying light, pulling a longing ache from my chest. It was like the sea had hooked its claws beneath my skin and squeezed.
In mere hours, that cliff would hold the sacred rite of Ascension. Not that I was allowed to attend. I’d been kept inside my gilded cage since I was twelve, after I had run away from my guards, pulled by the waters’ allure, and touched the Dead Sea.
To touch the Dead Sea outside Ascension was to die. It was the god’s curse. For a thousand years our Kingdom had carried that curse. But I didn’t die. Father had the guard who witnessed it hung. I was to never talk of it again.
“You look perfect, Lyra.” Aldric appeared in the reflection of the frost-kissed windowpane.
I startled, dropping my hands from the bars of my prison to greet my brother.
His dark blond hair was neatly combed back, and his brown eyes held mine with quiet concern before flicking away. He adjusted one of his cufflinks, shifting uncomfortably. Aldric was the perfect prince, not one thing out of place. His suit was a flawless cage of starched fabric that he enjoyed wearing.
I forced the delicate, hollow curve of my lips that never reached my eyes. The soft smile seemed to make me more palatable, hiding the monster they tried to bleed from me.
“It is time for you to join us, dear sister. Your betrothed has arrived.”
Reluctantly, I dragged my eyes from the sea to take my brother’s outstretched arm.
Aldric’s grip tightened as we walked towards the staircase, a gesture I assumed was meant to ease my nerves. It didn’t.
“Please behave, Lyra. Just for one night,” he murmured, his voice barely audible above the music and chatter that grew louder with each step. “We need this alliance.”
I wanted to scoff.
But no, a princessbehaves.Or more scars would blemish my skin.
“No, Aldric. It’s every night for the rest of my life,” I said, my voice laced with venom.
He sighed, leading me down the wide marble steps.
