Ivy is standing at the altar, collapsed in Emmett’s arms. I crane my head, searching for my parents, but turn to find Bram’s face inches from mine. He smiles, and it stretches across his face lazily until that single dimple pops out. “Hi, darling. I’ve missed you.”
I try to run, but my heels sink into the grass, and as I stumble, Bram’s hand encircles my wrist in his and he yanks me back. “I’m not losing you again.”
“Please—” My voice shakes. “I won’t tell her.”
He drags me behind the row of hedges that circle the sunken garden and wraps his hands around my waist, so tight I can’t move. “No, don’t say that.” He sighs against my hair. “Say you missed me too.”
And I hate him for it, but I hate me more. I remember the dreams I’ve had for the last five months, the ones where I’d wake up, my cheeks wet with tears, feeling as if I was forgetting somethingdesperately important. I missed him even when I didn’t know he was the one I was missing.
He kisses me hard enough to knock me back to my senses. I shove him by the shoulders, but he’s so much bigger than I am. It only makes him angrier. He grabs me by the hair to kiss me harder, so I kick him in the groin. He stumbles back a few feet, his beautiful face screwed up in fury. “I didn’t want it to be like this, Lydia.”
“You just married my sister.”Ivy.Oh no.
For my whole life, before I left the house, my mother would kiss my head and say the same thing:Look out for your sister.
I can’t fail at the only real job I’ve ever had.
There’s a flash of Ivy’s white wedding gown somewhere in the chaos. Emmett is beside her, scanning the crowd, a head above everyone else. I wave my arms above my head to get his attention, but Bram wraps me in a bear hug from behind and pins them to my side.
“We have to go now, my love,” he whispers.
“No,” I growl, and dig my heels into the soft earth.
“But everyone is so excited to see you.”
I struggle against him, cursing the small part of me that’s grateful to be in his arms again. “Just let me speak with her first.”
His beautiful face crumples. “I thought you loved me.”
“I do.” That’s the worst part.
He looks so sad, the golden circlet on his hair reflecting the final rays of sunshine. “I thought if you loved me, you would obey me.”
There’s nothing I can say, just pure animal struggle as I elbow him in the ribs.
“You never make things easy.” He pulls a sword from the scabbardat his side and brings the bejeweled hilt down hard on my temple.
There’s a ringing in my ears and the taste of metal in my mouth.Ivy.My arms reach for her, but I’m too far away.
And then I’m gone.
I don’t need to open my eyes to know where I am when I awake. It always smelled like crushed rose petals here. It was one of my favorite things about the palace when I first arrived, but now the scent hits the back of my throat, sticky-sweet, and I vomit all over the floor.
My bedroom is covered with a thick layer of dust, like he hasn’t let anyone enter since the night I left. I swipe my finger along the bedside table, through the grime that covers all my things, exactly as I left them. The silver comb, a blue hair ribbon, the vase of flowers he enchanted so they would never wilt. Even my painting supplies are still here; my easel sits by the diamond-pane window, a landscape half finished.
There’s a bracelet of finger-shaped bruises around my wrist where Bram gripped me at the wedding.
I’m woozy with pain, but force myself up and off the four-poster bed. I’ve got to get back, to warn her.
The door to the bedroom is locked, so Bram’s learned at least one lesson. I pull the handle so hard the door shakes, and from the outside, a lock snicks, then another, then the whole doorframe glows as an enchantment is undone.
Eloree steps inside. My former lady’s maid looks the same as she did the day I left, with slightly pink skin, golden hair that reaches to the floor, and a dress crafted from fabric that shimmers like the sunset on a pond.
She bursts into tears at the sight of me. “My lady, I feared I’d never see you again.” I calculate quickly in my head. The first time,I was gone for two weeks in the human world, but it felt like four months here.
“How long have I been gone?”
She pulls me into her arms. “Not long.” She counts on her eerily long fingers, a puzzled look on her face. “Two years perhaps?”
