The woman shrugged. “Well, where you are going no one will help you this time.”
Her heart stuttered. “What do you mean?”
“We will be heading straight to your wedding.”
The words struck like a blow, knocking the breath from her lungs.Her wedding.The very sound of it made bile rise at the back of her throat. She had fled that fate once, sworn she would never again be shackled for another’s gain, yet here it loomed once more—closer, more suffocating than before.
Her pulse battered in her ears. Images flitted through her mind: a stranger’s ring upon her finger, vows forced upon her, her cage snapping shut. No shop in Brighton. No Prince. No Beast. Only Duvessa’s cold hand steering her life as though she were a puppet dangling from rotten strings.
“No,” she whispered, though the word tasted brittle. “You cannot force me.”
Duvessa’s smile only deepened, as though Calliope’s rebellion amused her. “Child, you mistake me. Iwill.”
Terror knotted inside her, but with it came a spark—small, defiant, furious. She pressed her nails into her palms until she felt the sting.I won’t let her win. Somehow, I will break free.
Her gaze flicked to the carriage door, to those outside, to the blur of the country beyond. Panic threatened, but she seized the spark instead.There must be a way.
She could jump. Again.
But it would prove as futile as the first time. No, she’d need to bide her time.
Perhaps where they stopped for the night.
As if reading her thoughts, Duvessa said. “Oh, and do not get any ideas. We shall not be stopping.”
Calliope kept her features schooled. She refused to show her nervousness. “You think you know every thought in my head.” She forced the words past the lump in her throat. “But you don’t know me at all.”
Duvessa’s eyes glittered. “I know you precisely. You are still that foolish little girl who believes she can outrun her fate. You mistake this stubbornness of yours for strength.”
“I call it endurance.”
“That is what all cornered creatures call it, I imagine.” Her stepmother’s smile curved upward. “But order is kinder than the wild, child.”
“I will never agree.” Not even in death. Not even in the next life!
“One day, you will thank me for saving you from your own silliness.”
Hah! Who was being silly now? “You will wait forever.”
“Forever?” Duvessa sneered. “Child, eternity bends more easily than you think.”
“Well, I’m honored you came all the way here to collect me yourself.”
A scoff. “You are quite slippery.”
Calliope drew a slow breath, forcing her shoulders back. It would be easier facing Maxen’s enemies than holding a conversation with this woman! She had been kidnapped before, so she’d learned not to make a hasty decision. She’d strike when the time was right. All she had to do was to appear small and unthreatening as much as she could.
Which was extremely hard. She worried about Prince. Was he hurt? Had someone gone back and shot him? Her heart gave a painful twist. And Maxen? By now he would have found her gone. Was he angry? Would he try to find her? Would he even know where to start?
“You will learn your place,” Duvessa said softly, mistaking her silence for surrender. “It is the only way your life will show you any kindness.”
Wrong.
Her stepmother was so wrong. Life will show you precisely what you allow it to show you. Her nails dug crescents into her palms, but she refused to respond any longer.
I shall show you exactly my place, stepmother.
*
