The sounds of shouting and glass breaking comes from behind me. I look back and stumble on my dress. Marik catches my elbow and pushes me forward.
The front doors come into view. Four guards stand in front. The only barrier between me and the outside world is four guards. That’s it.
There are more footsteps behind us now. I don’t turn to see if it’s Cora, her witches, or Asmo’s friends. I don’t care. All I care about is getting past those guards, getting through those doors, and leaving this fucking castle behind.
Marik fires black flames at the guards. Two go down. They scream, but only for a moment. The remaining two watch Marik with wild panic and confusion. I take advantage, hurling the dagger toward them. It finds its mark in the guard’s neck. Marik reaches the final guard, who stands like an idiot caught in between fight or flight.
He flees.
And just like that, the doors are free. My pace slows as I remember the steep set of limestone stairs on the other side that will lead me to certain death should I tumble down them. I slam my shoulder through the doors and inhale the sweet, frigid air of freedom.
“Elle!” someone cries from inside the castle, but Marik grabs my arm and pulls me down the path and away from the castle, away from the voice screaming my name, not Mae’s.
Mine.
Someone who knows that I’m trapped in here.
“Marik, wait—I think—” I stutter as I almost trip over this fucking dress again, but his arms are around me and hauling me back to my feet.
“Elle!” the voice calls again as Eliza busts through the castle doors.
Asmo.
“Marik—” I gasp, but his arms are still around me and then wind starts to circle around us.No, no, no.I shove against him, desperate to get away and run to his brother, to safety, but he holds me too tightly and the dagger is gone and I’m too weak to fight his grip.
The funnel fades away, revealing a broken home in the middle of a forest. I collapse. My kneeshit the ground, colliding with pine straw and dirt and pebbles that bite into my knees like teeth.
The first sob is one of relief—I’m so fucking relieved to be out of the castle that I once loved, that morphed into a source of pain and memories of death and blood and loss. I bury my head into the ground and scream into the dirt.
The second sob is one of anger—no, wrath—toward Marik, Cora, and everyone who helped them steal the throne. Anger toward myself for giving up, for letting them control me, for letting them win.
The third sob—more a scream than anything—is full of misery for what I’ve let myself become. My tears cut tracks through dirt-covered cheeks. I fist the ground as it all waxes and wanes, rolling through me in waves that come from an ocean that has no end.
I drown in it.
Marik
Elle’s breathing is a steady rhythm that grounds me as my thoughts threaten to spiral. She lies on the floor on a makeshift bed of curtains and dusty blankets, the only soft things I could find that weren’t moldy. Her head rests on my jacket, her hair a bed of flames against my black blazer. It was the only thing I knew for certain wasn’t covered in filth.
After Elle screamed and cried herself to sleep on the forest floor, I carried her inside. Once I knew she was sound asleep, I spent hours shaking out dust-filled curtains, chasing squirrels from dilapidated cabinets, and getting rid of the hundreds of dead—and alive—bugs that once sought shelter in this home. I spent the next hour tackling the mold that I could, burning each spore to oblivion. There was nothing I could do about the moldy furniture, other than throw stained blankets over them. No matter what I do, the musty smell won’t dissipate.
Light enters through the cracked window, sun shining on Elle as it dips below the tree line. Tonight will be the test. To see if I was able to gether out safely.
I have no earthly idea where we are, but I’m assuming we’re still in the Deer Court, which sets my nerves racing whenever I think about it for too long.
When I funneled us away, I panicked and couldn’t think of an actual place to take us. All I could think about was that damned female sprinting toward us, reaching for my mate. And so, we somehow ended up here, in this random abandoned house with a porch that’s nearly falling off and ivy that appears to be taking over every exterior surface.
I almost grabbed Elle again and funneled her back out of here, but I didn’t dare touch her, not with the way she screamed with her entire body, every single muscle tensing, every vein popping at the strength of her howls.
It was physically painful not to hold her. To see her agony personified. I wanted to eviscerate myself, knowing I was the cause of it.
Her hand twitches in her sleep. I wonder if she’s thinking about reaching for me, clawing my skin off. I wish she would.
The sky darkens and the moon begins to rise. I walk through the house, checking every entry point. I drag furniture in front of doors and windows. They won’t keep Cora out, but the sound is all I’ll need to grab Elle and go.
The house creaks and my pulse skyrockets, but it’s just a gust of wind. A wind chime floats in the breeze, sending chills down my spine. This house has clearly been unoccupied for years, maybe even a decade. The wooden boards beneath my feet are warped and rotted in several spots. My foot fell through a rotten board earlier.
The night passes by uneventfully. I don’t sleep; I’m too terrified to close my eyes or shut off my senses for even a second. Fear keeps me alert and wide awake, every inch of me taut as I listen for anything out of the ordinary.
