Chapter 29
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Joy
"What do you mean?" I looked at Brynn through the steam rising from the bathwater, my heart still. The warm water lapped gently around me with each small movement, creating tiny ripples.
"Let me see your wrists."
I lifted my wrists out of the lavender-scented water, droplets cascading back into the tub with soft plinking sounds.
The dreaded silver bracelets caught the flickering candlelight, their cold metal a stark contrast to the warmth surrounding me.
They sat heavy on my bones, constant reminders of my powerlessness—the cursed jewelry that kept my shadow ability locked away like a caged animal.
Brynn walked over to the ornate vanity with deliberate steps, her bare feet silent on the cold stone floor.
She picked up a sharp nail file from among the scattered cosmetics, the metal glinting ominously in the dim light.
Without hesitation, she pressed the pointed tip against her palm and drew it across her skin in one swift motion.
I gasped, reaching toward her as crimson welled up immediately. Dark red blood pooled in her cupped palm, overpowering the lavender scented air. "Brynn, what are you doing?”
Her dark eyes met mine with fierce resolve, and for the first time since I'd known her, I saw not the broken, defeated girl but the royal blood that flowed through her veins.
"If my blood is special, supposedly strong enough to revive the Anchoring Obsidian stone,” she said.
“Then maybe it can help loosen your magical bindings. "
She smeared the warm blood across my bracelets with trembling fingers, the crimson liquid coating the silver metal like war paint.
The moment her royal blood made contact, electric tingles brushed over my skin like tiny lightning bolts, starting at my wrists and radiating up my arms to my shoulders.
But then the pain hit.
It cut deeper into my flesh than anything I'd experienced before, as if razor blades were slicing through my bones from the inside out.
The agony battled against the tingling sensation, two opposing forces warring for control of my very soul.
I winced involuntarily, my teeth clenching so hard I tasted blood as a whimper escaped my throat.
More agony crashed over me in searing pulses. My vision blurred at the edges, black spots dancing before my eyes like static on the screen. My body convulsed with each fresh assault of pain.
Brynn's cool hand clasped my shoulder, her touch a lifeline in the storm of suffering. "Joy, are you okay?" Her voice seemed to come from miles away, muffled by the roaring in my ears.
"It's like..." I gasped between shocks of pain. The bracelets felt like they were burning my skin, the metal growing scalding hot against my flesh. "It's like there's a battle going on between good and evil on my wrists."
Brynn's face paled as understanding dawned in her dark eyes. Horror flickered in her eyes as she watched the magical conflict playing out on my body. "That may be what's happening. Those bracelets are laced with powerful black magic."
"I don't know if I can take it." The words came out as barely a whisper.
Brutal white pain, pure and searing as molten metal, ran up my arms like liquid fire.
The agony was so intense I arched my whipped back involuntarily, my spine bowing as every muscle in my body went rigid.
A scream built in my throat, threatening to tear its way out.
The stone walls of the room seemed to pulse with each heartbeat, and I could taste copper and desperation on my tongue as the battle between light and darkness raged across my very flesh.
She gripped my hands with desperate strength, her fingers interlacing with mine like buoys trying to keep me from drowning in the pain. Her palms were warm and slick with her own blood, the steam rising around us. "You can do this. You said you can control shadows. Draw on them now."
The thought of summoning my power after everything I'd endured—the torture, the revelations, the soul-deep exhaustion—was like being asked to climb a mountain with broken legs.
The very idea of fighting against dark magic sucked out the last bit of energy from my depleted reserves, leaving me feeling hollow as an empty shell.
"I've tried..." The words came out as a harsh whisper.
My shoulders sagged with defeat, tears threatening to spill down my cheeks.
“I don’t think my blood is powerful enough to break through the wards of the castle, but I firmly believe they can help you break the spell binding your powers.
” She squeezed my hands tighter, her grip becoming almost painful as she tried to transfer her determination into my broken spirit.
Her dark eyes blazed with something I'd never seen before—not just hope, but absolute refusal to give up. “You have to at least try."
Brynn had been trapped in this hellish castle most of her life, surviving cruelty and degradation that would have broken most people. She'd endured decades of what I'd suffered for only days, and yet here she was, still fighting, still believing I could escape.
I wasn't going to be defeated. Not when she'd sacrificed her own blood to give me this chance. Not when freedom was so close I could almost taste it.
I closed my eyes and took a deep, shuddering breath, feeling the warm bathwater shift around me as my chest rose and fell. The steam filled my lungs, and somewhere deep inside, beneath the layers of pain and exhaustion, a flicker of the power that had always been mine switched on.
Something moved through me, fighting to get out. It pulsed beneath my skin, wild and eager, building with each heartbeat. As I held onto her hands, magic surged through my veins, fierce and insistent, demanding release.
Then the bracelets immediately burned against my skin like brands, fighting to contain it.
But I pushed past the agony, past the fear, past everything that told me I was too weak, too broken, too human.
The pressure in my chest crested, the magic straining against the bonds.
Something inside me gave way—not breaking but opening—and the power began to flow.
Slowly, the bracelets began to shift toward my fingers. A surge of hope rushed through me—it was working. I wiggled and wiggled, the silver biting into my flesh as if it had teeth.
"Come to me," I whispered into the candlelit darkness.
As if responding to my call, the bracelets loosened just enough—and then, like brave little soldiers, each of my pinky fingers escaped.
The shadows in the corners of the room seemed to stir, responding to an ancient call that thrummed through my very bones.
A laugh bubbled up in my throat, half-sob, half-triumph. My magic was answering. I was going to break free.
Shadows slid toward me across the stone floor, dark tendrils reaching from every corner of the room.
But as they drew closer to where I sat in the warm bathwater, they began to quiver and tremble, as if they could sense the malevolent energy radiating from my wrists.
They hesitated at the edge of the tub, writhing uncertainly, clearly afraid of whatever dark magic was woven into the silver bracelets that bound me.
The sight of my own shadows cowering made my heart sink like a stone. Even my most fundamental power was terrified of the cursed metal wrapped around my wrists.
"Keep trying," Brynn urged. "I will continue to tend to your needs. I just need to bandage my palm.”
I watched the shadows writhe at the tub’s edge, mesmerized by their strange dance. Brynn moved somewhere behind me, then I felt the gentle press of a warm cloth against the angry lashes across my back.
Each contact made me tense, jagged pain shooting along my torn flesh. As she checked the bandages she’d applied earlier, I forced myself to focus past the pain.
So I concentrated on my shadows, calling to them with every ounce of will I possessed. The familiar tingle of my power stirred deep in my chest, weak but persistent, like embers fighting to become flame.
Something fluttered inside my ribcage—a sensation like butterfly wings against my heart.
The feeling spread outward, tingles flowing down my arms like melted gold despite the searing pain from the bracelets.
The shadows at the tub's edge seemed to sense the change, creeping incrementally closer, their fear warring with their desire to answer my call.
My breath came in shallow gasps as I fought to maintain the connection, sweat beading on my forehead from the effort.
Her touch gave me strength, and I channeled that into my escape attempt. One more determined wiggle sent the silver cutting deeper and deeper into my flesh, drawing blood. My ring finger popped free with a small rush of relief.
Shadows glided toward me like living silk, no longer hesitant or afraid.
They wrapped around my arms in cool, gentle spirals, their touch like velvet against my skin.
Their pulsing energy responded to my heartbeat as if they were extensions of my own body.
Thank god, the bracelets had loosened just enough!
"I knew you could do it," Brynn whispered. She continued washing the filth from my tired body with a soft cloth, her movements reverent, as if she were tending to something sacred. "See if you can put your fingers back inside the bracelet then slip out again. They can't know you can do this."
She didn't have to spell out what would happen if the queen discovered my newfound ability. The unspoken threat fueled my determination to beat the queen at her own game.
For the next few minutes, I practiced the delicate dance of freedom and captivity.
My pinky and ring finger slipped in and out of the loosened bracelet with increasing ease, the motion becoming more fluid with each attempt.
The silver still burned against my skin, but now it felt less like a prison and more like a lock I'd found the key to.
Something lightened in my chest alongside the bracelet. Hope—real, tangible hope—bloomed warm and steady. My breathing quickened. This wasn’t just wishful thinking anymore. I was actually going to be able to use my shadows.
Brynn moved to the wardrobe and withdrew a white, sleeveless, gauze dress, the fabric so pure it seemed to glow in the dim light.
She held it up with a rueful expression, and I couldn't help but notice how it flowed like angel wings.
It actually reminded me of something a sacrificial lamb would wear—virginal white, simple, designed to make the wearer appear innocent and helpless.
But as I looked at my reflection in the bathwater, a fierce smile tugged at my lips. This lamb had teeth and shadows that answered her call.