Chapter 31
Chapter Thirty-One
Darius
For all the torture Alanna had ever done to me, this was the absolute worst.
Alice was still strapped over that metal barrel, her body broken and bleeding. Her blonde hair was tangled with her own blood, matted to her face and neck. She wasn’t moving. Wasn’t making a sound.
Alanna had used that damn spell again. The Unwatch.
The only solace—if you could call it that—was the spell had stopped Alice’s magic, and hopefully, it masked her pain too. Let her float somewhere far away from this nightmare.
But when she woke...
Grief wrapped around my throat like a fist.
I strained against my chains, stretching until the metal bit into my shredded wrists. My fingers brushed her arm—cold, too cold—and pain blazed behind my eyes. White-hot, splitting. Another memory clawing its way to the surface.
A face. Identical to mine. A laugh that matched my own. Two boys racing through a sunlit courtyard, their mother calling after them.
Armond.
My twin brother.
The name surfaced from somewhere deep and buried, dragging more fragments with it. He could heal. He had the gift—could mend broken bones, knit torn flesh, pull people back from the edge of death.
If only he was here. He could heal her. He could fix the damage Alanna had done. But he wasn’t. He was in another dimension, completely out of reach.
I was here. Chained. Powerless. With absolutely no way to help the woman I loved.
That thought nearly toppled me.
I’d promised to protect her. Sworn that no one would hurt her while I still had breath in my body. I’d claimed her as mine—and what did that mean if I couldn’t keep her safe?
She was broken and bleeding because I’d failed her. Because I wasn’t strong enough. Fast enough. Smart enough to see Rabbit’s betrayal coming.
This was my fault.
Alanna handed the bloody cane to Ari. “Put this away. I think I’ve made my point.”
“I’m not your pet,” Ari muttered.
Alanna turned on him, her eyes flashing. “Actually, you are. Your failure was epic. My brother can still steal my crown.”
“You were there.” Ari’s jaw tightened. “You saw what happened.”
“Yes. I did. You failed.” She stalked toward him and went nose to nose, her voice dropping to a deadly whisper. “I still haven’t forgiven you, Ari. Test my patience, and I’ll strap you to that barrel next. See how you like being on the receiving end.”
Ari’s eyes flashed red—just for a second—before he bowed slightly. “I apologize, my queen.”
I watched the exchange, filing it away. Ari hated her. That flash of red had been pure rage—smothered fast, but not fast enough. Maybe that was something I could use. Someday.
She chuckled. “Much better.” She cupped his cheek, her touch almost tender. Almost. “Now leave us—pet.”
The hatred in his eyes was suffocating. For a moment I thought he might snap. Might wrap his hands around her throat and end this once and for all.
But he didn’t.
“As you wish, Your Majesty.” He hung the cane back on the wall and left, his back rigid as he climbed the stairs.
Alanna had made herself a deadly enemy—one she should never turn her back on. Ari’s pride was wounded, his loyalty hanging by a thread.
Maybe if these two turned on each other it would give me a chance to escape.
To rescue Alice.
I looked at Alice—broken, unconscious, barely breathing. Because of me. Because I hadn't been fast enough. Strong enough. Enough.
Alanna came over to me and put her finger on my chin. “Now, where were we?”
I wanted to crush her like a bug. Do to her what she’d done to Alice. But I forced myself to keep my jaw clenched tight. Because it wouldn’t be me who suffered—it would be Alice.
And next time, she might not survive.
Alanna gestured toward Alice as if she was proud of what she’d done. “You saw what I can do to the little wench. But she’s nothing between us. A distraction.”
She was fucking delusional.
I refused to answer. I hated her. I fucking hated her. One day I’d wrap my hands around her throat and watch the light leave her eyes. For Alice. For all of this.
“Silent treatment, huh?” Alanna tilted her head, studying me. “Well, let me spell it out to you, Darius. I could easily condemn her to die, but there are worse things than death.”
This time I couldn’t keep silent. Not when it came to Alice.
“What the fuck are you talking about?”
Alanna’s lips curved into a smile that made my blood run cold. She reached into the folds of her gown and produced two small vials, holding them up to the dim light. One glowed purple, luminescent and almost beautiful. The other was black—so dark it seemed to swallow the light around it.
Something fucking horrible. Something that would deepen my hatred for her even further.
“Do you know what these two are?” She turned them slowly, watching the liquid swirl inside each one.
I didn’t answer. I didn’t want to know. But I couldn’t look away.
She raised the purple vial first, letting it catch the torchlight. “This one is called Drink Me. A healing elixir. A few drops and your precious Alice would be whole again. No scars. No broken ribs. No pain.” She lowered it, her eyes never leaving mine. “Wouldn’t that be lovely?”
My heart pounded. There had to be a catch. With Alanna there was always a catch.
She raised the black vial, and the temperature in the room seemed to drop.
“And this one... the Slithy Torment. It produces an endless sea of nightmares. Imagine it, Darius. Your little witch, trapped in her own mind. Reliving her worst fears over and over. Unable to wake. Unable to escape. For eternity.”
No. No. Not that. Anything but that. I'd watched Alice suffer through torture, watched her bleed and break—but this was worse. This was forever. An eternity of terror with no way out. I'd rather she died. God help me, I'd rather she died than face that.
I thought of Alice reliving her mother’s death over and over again. The fire. The screams. The helplessness of a three-year-old watching her mother burn. And then being left behind. Alone. The one thing she feared more than anything.
She’d been devastated when that vision had surfaced—shattered by an event she couldn’t even fully remember. What would happen if she was trapped in it forever? Forced to watch it on an endless loop with no escape?
It would destroy her. Break her mind completely.
I couldn’t let that happen.
“So.” Alanna tucked both vials back into her gown. “Which one do you think she deserves?”
I met her triumphant gaze. “She deserves to be free.”
“Free?” Alanna laughed softly. “Perhaps. But not to be with you, Darius. You belong to me.”
The words made my skin crawl. I’d rather die than belong to her. But this wasn’t about me anymore.
“If I do what you want, you’ll let her live and set her free? Allow her to go back to her world? Without nightmares? Without pain?”
“Absolutely.” Her smile was a spider’s invitation to the web.
“And Flint and Steel?”
She shrugged as if their lives meant nothing. “I haven’t ordered their executions, if that’s what you’re wondering. But I can’t afford to let them go free either.”
I leaned my head against the cold stone wall and closed my eyes. Alanna had me cornered, and she knew it. The bitch. She’d orchestrated this perfectly—used Alice to break me in ways chains and torture never could.
She stepped closer, her perfume overwhelming. Her hand slid down my chest, her touch light and possessive.
I shivered. Not from the cold. From the evil radiating off her.
Where Alice was warmth and light, Alanna was ice and darkness. Where Alice’s touch set my blood on fire, Alanna’s made my soul recoil.
“Your answer?” she murmured.
I opened my eyes and looked past her to Alice, still slumped over that barrel. Broken. Bloody. Barely breathing. Because of me.
Mine. She was mine. And I’d let them destroy her.
If I refused, she’d be trapped in nightmares forever. Reliving horrors until her mind shattered.
If I agreed, I’d be Alanna’s slave. Her pet. Her prisoner for eternity.
There was really only one choice.
And we both knew it.
“I’ll agree.” The words tasted like ash on my tongue. “But only if Alice lives without pain or nightmares. And you don’t kill Flint and Steel.”
Alanna’s eyes lit up with victory. She clapped her hands together like a child receiving a gift. “Ah, that’s my sweet boy. I’ll accept your terms.”
My stomach churned. This was too easy. She’d given in too quickly.
“But there’s one more thing.” She held up a finger, her crimson nail catching the light. “And this one is nonnegotiable.”
By the glitter in her eyes, I knew whatever came next would leave a foul taste in my mouth.
My hands curled into fists. “What?”
She leaned closer, her breath warm against my ear. “You must publicly humiliate Alice in front of my court.” She pulled back, watching my face. “You must reject her.”
Ice slid through my chest, slow and suffocating. “You’re not serious.”
But even as I said it, I knew she was. Alanna didn't bluff. She schemed. And I'd just walked straight into whatever web she'd been spinning.
“Oh, but I am.” She traced a finger down my jaw, and I flinched. “I want Alice to know that you never wanted her. That you used her. That everything you did—every kiss, every whispered promise—was to make me jealous. To win me back.”
My lungs forgot how to work. Everything inside me had gone still and cold.
This was almost a hundred times worse than the nightmare elixir.
Alice had never felt wanted. She’d spent her entire life being rejected—by the coven, by a family she couldn’t remember, by everyone who should have loved her. She’d finally let her walls down. Finally believed she was worthy of love.
And Alanna wanted me to destroy that. To crush her spirit in front of a crowd. To make her believe everything we shared was a lie.
This would break her in ways the cane never could.
My stomach heaved. I'd seen Alice bloody. Seen her beaten. But that—watching the light die in her eyes, watching her spirit shatter—I couldn't. I couldn't.
And I’d lose her forever. Mine—and gone.
But she’d be alive.
That was all that mattered. She’d be alive, and Grump would get her out of this dimension. Back to Earth. Back to Tinker Bell. Back to a world where Alanna couldn’t touch her.
If the queen kept her word. A big if. But what choice did I have?
Alice would hate me. God, she’d hate me with every fiber of her being. She’d think I’d used her, manipulated her, broken her heart for sport. Every tender moment we’d shared would curdle into something ugly in her memory.
But she’d be alive. And she’d be free.
Away from Alanna.
Away from me.
I looked at Alice one last time—her broken body, her bloodied hair, the rise and fall of her shallow breath. I memorized every detail. The curve of her cheek. The way her lashes fanned against her skin. The lips I’d kissed just hours ago.
This was goodbye. She just didn’t know it yet.
I hung my head, the fight draining out of me completely. “I accept your terms.”
The words were a death sentence. Not for my body—but for my soul.
Any hope of happiness, of love, of a life worth living—it all died on the spot. Shriveled up and turned to dust in my chest.
Alanna had finally won.