Chapter 32
A s soon as Xandros departs, Queen Adina springs into action, putting me to work.
And no matter where I go or what I do, his Beta follows.
It’s like having an additional shadow, one that refuses to detach even when the sun is gone.
However, his presence I don’t mind, it is a distraction.
I feel it around lunchtime, a guttural gnawing, not only from my stomach but the bond as well.
It’s as if it senses Xandros’s absence, causing an uncomfortable throbbing.
Just as I sit to devour my lunch, a simple egg sandwich, Queen Adina waltzes into the kitchen. “Did I say you could eat yet?” Her voice is venomous, dripping with scorn. Her eyes feel like they could burn holes in me.
“I always have lunch at this time. It’s when it’s scheduled,” I protest, turning my gaze toward Javier, he remains motionless and impassive.
“You’ll eat when I say you’ve earned the right.
Now get up!” Queen Adina’s words echo around the room.
She leads me to the foyer, where a maid is waiting with a bucket of water and a toothbrush.
She points to the driveway lined with a rock wall.
“You are to scrub every rock and boulder. When you’re done, you may have lunch,” she dictates, leaving me outside, the enormity of the task sinking in.
The driveway is over quarter mile long from the front door to the iron gates!
All day all I can hear is the metallic clank of my buckets hitting one another, the slosh of water from the scrubbing, the grating of the toothbrush against the rocks that is nearly down to its plastic base, its bristles nearly worn completely.
Glancing around, I am barely halfway around the horseshoe that moves around the outside of the fountain.
The sun is slowly disappearing behind the forest.
The wind whistles through the trees, carrying the sound of the forest. Like a horde of hungry animals, their hoots and growls sounding as if they are waiting for night to fall, so they can hunt, planning to gobble me up.
By the time I finish scrubbing the horseshoe part of the driveway, it’s late into the night.
My skin is blistered from the sun, and chapped from the wind.
My fingers bleeding, my lips cracked, my hair matted with soap from my bucket, and knees aching.
Queen Adina stands in the doorway of the castle, watching me.
“Lazy girl. Well, no point cleaning in the dark. You can finish it at first light in the morning.”
Reluctantly, I get up, each movement sending fresh waves of pain through my body.
“I suppose I should let you eat,” Queen Adina snaps, pointing toward the kitchen before sauntering off.
The thought of walking the distance to the kitchen seems too much.
I decide to forget food for the day and head back to my room, Javier steadying me a few times as I sway on my feet climbing the staircases.
I make my way across to the other side of the castle.
“Ignore her. You really should have eaten. You’ll feel worse tomorrow,” Javier whispers, his voice low and concerned.
I dismiss his advice, making my way to the room.
The moment I step inside, I’m enveloped in Xandros’s scent.
It makes the bond ache more, if that’s even possible.
Staggering to the bed, I collapse onto it, the smell of him providing a guise of comfort. I pass out, exhaustion taking over me.
I barely feel like I’ve shut my eyes when a loud rap on the door startles me awake.
“Slave, get up! You’re late!” Queen Adina’s voice booms from the other side.
Javier unlocks the door, and Queen Adina barges in, halting abruptly as she takes in the state of the room and Javier’s hand stopping her crossing the threshold.
“Look at this mess. You live like a pig. You’ve destroyed his clothes,” she snarls at me as I rub my eyes, trying to wake up.
Javier steps in. “Xandros had them sent here so she doesn’t fret.
I’m sorry, my Queen, but his orders rank above you.
I can’t let you enter this room,” he tells Queen Adina.
She looks like she might explode. Yet she doesn’t enter, tapping her foot impatiently as I stumble around, changing into fresh clothes, gulping down water from the bathroom sink, and splashing some on my face.
Once again, my day is filled with laborious cleaning, working under the harsh sun, and the bitter cold. Snow fell last night, so it sinks into my flats making my toes numb. My every movement echoes the pain of his absence - along with the pain of working from sun up to sun down.
I can barely contain the searing pain in my body, a hundred needles piercing through my muscles with each movement.
My stomach is so empty it feels like it’ll eat itself alive, while the wound in my soul rips and tears deeper every second, its raw agony, too much for me to bear.
Even with a deep exhaustion weighing heavy upon me, sleep refuses to come.
Just when I think it can’t get worse, Queen Adina pulls me out of bed for yet another day of tormenting labor.
I drag myself through another nightmarish day under Queen Adina’s care.
Every breath I take is pure agony as I struggle just to keep going.
It’s like the queen takes pride in punishing me further without Xandros here to protect me. However, my physical pain is nothing compared to the gaping wound in my soul—an agonizingly intense burn. The bond feels like a bleeding scar that won’t ever heal.
I am at my breaking point, brought to it by the weight of exhaustion and hunger, coupled with the agony that comes from having one’s freedom taken away.
Javier’s voice is like a lifeline, offering me strength in a moment when I feel none.
He holds out his lunch to me, his insistence that I need it more than him overpowering my reluctance.
Every bite feels like a laborious chore, as if the muscle fatigue in my body has now extended into my mouth.
My stomach continues to growl angrily, yet hesitation lingers until finally I give in and eat.
The small morsel does nothing for the emptiness inside me, but Javier’s words fill its place, an assurance that Xandros will hear of his mother’s dreadful treatment, imparting a tiny bit of solace into my overwhelming despair.
“How can she despise me so much? I didn’t do this to her sister,” I say out loud, silently hoping for a response.
Javier clears his throat and replies, “And the baby.”
My heart drops as I struggle to comprehend what Javier has just said.
“Her sister was pregnant?” He nods in confirmation. Despite desperately wishing it wasn’t true, all evidence points to Javier’s words being true.
“Yes, her treatment of you is cruel; I do not agree with it just so you know. We aren’t our parents, and she should know that better than anyone else; her father was a ripe bastard, yet she seems to forget that her father killed her father-in-law, yet King Rehan never blamed her.
Despite what he did, he still loved her. ”
“So she is not only a bitch, she’s a hypocrite.” I sigh, then cover my mouth at my words, glancing at him worriedly. He snorts, tapping my shoulder.
“You can speak freely; you’re safe with me,” he tells me, and I smile thankfully.
“So, what else can you tell me?” I ask, wanting to know more.
“What do you want to know?” he grumbles bitterly, his angular face chiseled with sharp edges.
His gaze is fixed on the castle walls, rising high in the sky.
He kneels with surprising swiftness and grabs my bristle brush, thrusting it into the murky bucket of soapy water.
My heart sinks as I realize he’s taking over my task.
I watch as he begins scouring the stone path that winds around the castle, quickly taking over my cleaning duties.
I move to set down my meager lunch when I feel his burning gaze upon me once again.
“Eat. I’ll finish your work here,” he commands, his voice laced with a hint of exhaustion.
I know he stands outside my door all night; I’ve heard him in the corridor.
His dark brows are furrowed in resignation as he works, scrubbing the years-old stains from the pavement with a fast hand.
“Hopefully we can be done before nightfall,” he mutters.
A war wages within me between staying put and protesting his takeover of my work or accepting his help and having enough time for dinner. I resign myself to the latter.
I hesitantly take a bite of his sandwich, my mind racing with questions.
“How far along was her sister?” I ask apprehensively.
Javier’s gaze falls and his shoulders sag. “Five months. They were expecting a little girl.”
“I don’t remember hearing about her husband. Did my parents kill him, too?” Juggling questions in my mind, I watch Javier’s face tense with agitation.
“Princess Neve was single; she hadn’t found her mate yet,” he murmured, his voice barely above a whisper, as if he didn’t want to hurt me further.
“You said she was?—”
“Pregnant? Yes, she was a surrogate for Queen Adina.” My world stops at his words. Time freezes. I now understood why she hates me.
The revelation hits like a cold wave crashing against me, drenching me from the inside out. The shock engulfs me as understanding dawns on me - why Adina hates me so viciously; the baby…
“Wait… the baby…”
“Was to be Xandros’s sister. When Adina was pregnant with Xandros, the kingdom was attacked by humans, and Adina was injured badly.
Xandros was cut from her prematurely, and somehow he survived, leaving her with a damaged womb; she tried for centuries to have another baby.
Instead, her father had a daughter; when Neve was old enough and Adina managed to help her escape her father, Princess Neve agreed to be a surrogate for Adina and Rehan. That wasn’t public knowledge, though.”