I wish I knew whatheld me.
“Time does not reach the bottom of my pit,” the voice replied. “Although enough of it has passed above me that the name I had was lost tothe wind.”
Helpful.
The thin arms, untouched by age or rot, gripped me in something between a clutch and a cradle. “But here is a hint: I cry into the loops of infinity; I mourn for millenia; I give gifts to the worthy; Ifight Death.”
If my heart were beating, it would have stopped. The Man of the Mountain held me. He captured me as a replacement for hislost bride.
“No one can replace her,” the voice hissed. “Though many have tried—thrown their daughters bound and gagged into my waters as sacrifices, run to me and begged for my gifts, stolen my tears or fell into my chasm andwere lost.”
Iwas lost.
“No, Serafina, you are not lost. You are found.Seen. Wanted.”
And yet, the Man of the Mountain called mea monster.
“Because you are one. And you need to seethe truth.”
Light exploded around me. Golds, whites, and pinks swirled until I floated above the dressing room at Hyton Palace. A snarling beast in a green dress attacked Annalisa. A wide-eyed maid helped Annalisa off the ground and led her to a far corner of the room. While everyone else busied with Brietta’s dress, the maid dabbed black-stained tears from under Annalisa’s eyes with awhite handkerchief.
The Man of the Mountain pulled me into the corner with them and Annalisa opened up like a rose under sunlight. Her weeping heart poured tears in my mind and her shattered spirit released the truth as plainly as if it were writtenon parchment.
“No point,” Annalisa sniffed to the maid. She forced her chest still as her eyes leaked. “I am not marrying a prince. My father does not care about me. My friends cannot use me to get to Derrick anymore. I am just…worthlessto everyone.”
The word pounded through Annalisa’s mind likea heartbeat.
Worthless.Worthless. Worthless.
“She considered you a friend. She faithfully kept your secrets for years and covered for you in times of trouble. Yet you struck her down when she was ather lowest.”
I hated seeing Annalisa cry, but I had to do something. Shehurt Brietta.
“She was not the only one whohurt Brietta.”
The world swirled into gold and blue. Derrick laid on top of Brietta on a velvet couch. Both of them stared at each other with wide eyes and white faces as they came out of a fog. A door slammed open like a clapof thunder.
“There it is!” Duke Hyton roared. He grabbed Derrick by the back of his collar and yanked him off Brietta to drag him into the ballroom. The door slammed shut, trapping Brietta with the aftermath of whatever hadjust happened.
Brietta laid motionless, wondering why her hips ached. She pressed against the velvet couch and sat up. She hissed through her teeth as pain sparked between her thighs. Sitting had never hurt before. Brietta slowly lifted the hem of her skirt up until she found spots of blood on her thigh. Her undergarmentshad disappeared.
Brietta dropped her skirt and stared at the swirling yellow wallpaper in front of her. The gravity of what must have happened settled in the bottom of her stomach as her mind spun to try to explainthe unexplainable.
She shook her head slightly, if only denying to herself what had happened. No, it was not supposed to happen that way. Not with Derrick, not on a couch, and not where she couldnot remember.
The cold words of a broken Duchess crept down her spine. Welcome tohell, meat.
Tears had just begun to blossom in the corners of her eyes when the door clapped open again. A roar more horrible and cutting than the Duke’s tore throughthe room.
“How could you? Youruined everything!”
“You manipulated your best friend to bear the shame of an annulment for you and then you shamed her when she needed you the most. Ice cracked beneath her feet and you shoved her into the frozen depths because you wanted to give her a taste of the nothingness youfeared most.”
I…I never knew how much Brietta was hurting. HadI known…
“But you didn’t stay to find out. You made her your villain instead of facing the fact your little plothad failed…”
Green bled over blue. Dark wood overtook gold. Teenage Derrick trembled under the eye of the sharp-faced girl in front of him as he stood in the foyer ofRavenwood Manor.
