“Tell me, Narcissa. Why do you come unless some part of you wishes to free me?”
I wanted badly to take calming breaths. The rancid air did little to settle my nerves.
“I hear the Winter Solstice Ball is around the corner,” she said.
I should have walked away. But I never left as long as Mother had something to say. If I closed my eyes I could imagine us in her suite again, days before an event, her mahogany comb running through my hair as she drilled me on etiquette and noble lineage.
I could defy her with no consequence now, but old habits held me back. She knew that.
I looked over my shoulder. “Where did you hear that?”
Mother tipped her head back and gave an airy laugh. “I’m not so foolish as to tell you,” she said. “Well? Are you going?”
I stiffened. “That is no longer your concern.”
“You must go,” she said gleefully. “When you were my daughter you were admired by all. Did you think betraying me would grant you their good graces? They will not accept you, Narcissa. You are nothing without me, only the bastard daughter of Greenwood. And awitchat that.”
She was playing one of her mind games again. To confuse me in the midst of my own confusion. Did she loathe my existence and want nothing to do with me? Or was she trying to draw me back under her influence? Or perhaps she had lost her sanity completely. The last, I knew, was wishful thinking.
Whatever it was, I couldn’t stand another minute of it.
“Goodbye, Mother.”
I exited the cell. The prison guard slammed the door, the sound of chains being fastened reverberating through the corridor.
My guard showed no sign of having heard anything as I brushed past him, but I knew he was going to recount the conversation to every other staff member in Greenwood Abbey. Roaches scurried across the floor, a cacophony of little voices echoing in my head.
Food, food, food, food, food...
They were hungry, off to find a crust of bread a prisoner had hidden for himself. I shook their thoughts away, too overwhelmed with my own. I pressed my fingers to my eyes, but they came back dry.
What a fool I was. Was I not satisfied with the knowledge that she was locked away in the most secure corner of the palace dungeons?
No.
I would not rest until I saw her broken.
***
“ENJOY PLOTTING WITHyour mother?” Maddox said when I returned to the abbey. He was in the stables, his horse beside him.
“Enjoy behaving like a brat?” I retorted, eying his muddied trousers. He had taken another one of his rides, evidently.
I had been around long enough to know he only rode when he was upset and took great pleasure in tearing up the fields. When the groundskeepers weren’t whispering about me, they were muttering about Maddox.
He scoffed and turned his attention back to his horse, a steed with a glossy black coat, and attempted to lead it into his stall. The horse did not budge.
“Come, Midnight,” Maddox said, tugging on the reins.
Leave it up to him to give his horse the most unoriginal name. Midnight whinnied in protest, his thoughts floating over to me.There’s a rock lodged in my hoof!
“There’s a rock lodged in his hoof,” I said as Maddox continued to struggle.
He stopped. “What?”
“Your horse,” I said, jutting my chin at Midnight. “Check his hooves.”
He glared. “This is some sort of joke, isn’t it?” He tugged on the reins again but Midnight held his ground. “What are you doing to my horse?”
