Chapter 13
MADDISON
I fall into a state of shock as I’m taken to an examination room where I’m asked to strip my pants and panties off. I zone out when the doctor comes in and performs the examination, and float in and out of reality.
I’m on the examination bed…
The doctor injects me with something, but I’m not sure what…
I’m numbly putting on my clothes…
Mr. Averson comes in…
The doctor says something…
I’m walking…
Then I'm in a room with a bed…
Again, Mr. Averson says something, but I don’t know what…
And then I pass out into the bed…
I dream of darkness. I dream of pain and blood-stained white dresses. I dream of a baby crying and of my life shattering around me in fragments of glass that show me what was and what will never be.
Through the haze, I feel the warmth of strong arms wrapping around me. I’m not certain who it is, but their scent brings me a bit of comfort, so I curl into them and let the drowsiness tug me under.
“Once upon a time, there was a princess,” I say to my aunt Ellie as we sit in the bed and she holds a book in front of me with pictures of a princess and a castle on it. “And she was the prettiest in all of the land.”
“And the smartest,” my aunt adds as she turns the page.
“She is?” I ask, and my aunt smiles at me as she nods.
“She was fearless, too,” she adds as she leans back against the headboard of my bed.
She’s reading me a bedtime story before I go to bed, and my parents aren’t home, so it’s a great night.
“She was?” I peer up at her. “Why?”
“Because she had a lot of darkness she was going to have to face,” my aunt explained with a frown.
“Like dragons?” I wonder. “And monsters?”
“Monsters for sure,” she tells me. “But she also was going to have to carry a curse so heavy she’d have to be the strongest princess in the world to endure it.”
I’m so confused. “Doesn’t the prince just save her?”
She shakes her. “No, the princess is going to save herself. She’s going to save all of the princesses and princes and everyone in the world. She has to. But remember, she’s strong. Maybe the strongest person in the world.” She smooths her hand over my head.
“That’s a terrible story,” I tell her. “She sounds like she’ll be lonely and scared all the time.”
“She won’t be,” she assures me. “She’ll never be alone. And like I said before, she is the bravest princess to ever exist. It’s why one day she’ll be back on the throne with her crown, taking care of the world again so that all of the people can be cared for and not just some.”
“Even the people in northside?” I ask with doubt.
She nods. “Even the people in northside.”
I wake up groggy and disoriented. My limbs are heavy, and my body feels overly warm, like I have a fever.
I worry I do, but then consciousness plucks me from my dream enough that I can make sense of my surroundings; that I’m in a room in a bed that’s not mine, and someone is pressed up against me, spooning me from behind with their arm draped over my waist. For a split second, I flip out, but then all the events of what occurred prior to when I dozed off rush back to me, and I calm down.
Well, sort of.
I feel sick to my stomach so much that I sit up and frantically see who’s curled up behind me. I exhale in relief when I see a halo of blood hair that belongs to Finn.
His eyes are closed and he’s lying on his side with his lips slightly parted.
He’s changed his clothes and is wearing a pair of baggy sweatpants and a T-shirt, and he smells like soap, so I’m assuming he took a shower at some point.
I desperately want to take one, and I really need to pee.
When I spot a doorway across from the bed, I cross my fingers that it’s a bathroom.
Careful not to wake up Finn, I climb out of the bed and shuffle across the room.
Every one of my muscles aches with each step I take, and my stomach, while empty, is lurching.
When I step through the doorway and spot the toilet, I jog over, drop to my knees, and dry heave until my stomach muscles get so sore I have to stop.
The pain in my limbs is worse than if I’ve run fifteen miles, I’m thirsty, and I’m pretty sure the doctor who examined me injected some sort of drug in me that made me drowsy because it feels like my head is filled with cotton balls.
For a while, I simply kneel on the tile floor with my head resting on the toilet seat, wishing I were dead. But conclusively, I drag my ass off the floor and focus on getting in the shower. Then once I’m out, I’ll figure out a way to get Finn and me out of here. Because I’m not a quitter.
I am strong.
I always have been.
I’ve gotten through tough shit before, and I can get through it again.
I just need a plan.
The shower is spacious, and the water warms up quicker than even at the Academy. As I strip my clothes off, the painful realization that my watch is gone smacks me across the face.
That was my last tie to the real world, to River.
Tears burn in my eyes as I step under it and scrub my body down until my skin is raw in an attempt to wash away what happened. By the time I’m finished, I’ve managed to make myself bleed in a few places due to scrubbing too hard.
“Maddy?” Finn’s voice rises over the sound of the water pouring out of the showerhead.
I stiffen, my gaze snapping at the doorway, but he must be outside it since I can’t see him. “Yeah?” I call out.
“I don’t want to bother you, but I wanted to tell you there are clothes for you in the dresser out here.
I know it’s probably a bit weird to wear them, but I also thought you might want to wear something else besides what you had on,” He sounds strangely unsettled for Finn, who’s typically confident.
But I guess, considering the situation, it makes sense.
“Okay, yeah, I’d like to put something else on.” I shut off the water.
“All right. I’ll go into the closet while you get dressed,” he replies, putting me at ease.
Well, with him anyway. Nothing could calm me in this situation.
Once I get out of the shower, I wrap a towel around me and make my way into the room.
I find the clothes he’s talking about in the top dresser drawer, and I pull out a pair of baggy sweats, a fitted grey shirt, panties, and a bra.
I dry my hair off, then get dressed before sitting down on the edge of the bed.
“You can come out,” I inform Finn as I crisscross my legs.
As he exits the closet, his eyes instantly finding me and sweeping over my body, as if searching for wounds.
“Are you okay?” he asks as he cautiously approaches the bed.
I dither. “I’m as okay as I can be in this situation. How about you?”
“I’m fine,” he replies dismissively as he stands in front of me. “I’m more worried about you.”
I haven’t known him for very long, but what I have learned about him over our month-long friendship is that Finn plays off his emotions pretty well.
I push to my feet. “Don’t do that.”
His head tilts to the side. “Don’t do what?”
“Fake being okay. We’ve been through a lot and will probably still go through a lot, and if we want to make it out of here, we need to be honest with each other. So, let me ask again, how are you feeling?”
His throat muscle bobs as he swallows. “I feel like shit,” he confesses, staring at the floor. “I feel angry. I feel helpless. But most of all, I feel like a real piece of shit.”
“Why do you feel like a piece of shit?” I ask. “Your dad should, but not you.”
His eyes meld with mine. “I raped you, Maddy. I did that. Not my father.”
“You did not,” I snap, rather harshly. But I don’t want him thinking that. “Your dad forced both of us to do that. We both made a choice. You didn’t force me.” Unsure how either of us will react, I raise my hand and place my palm against his cheek.
His gaze never strays from mine, but his jawline tightens. “What’re you doing, Maddison?”
“Showing you that I’m not afraid of you or upset.” I arch my brows. “But since you just used my full first name, I’m wondering if you’re upset with me.”
“I’m not upset with you,” he utters softly, his gaze briefly flitting to my lips.
I recall what he said right before he kissed me, how he liked me from the moment he saw me, but never made a move because of River. Does he still feel that? Does it even matter?
I don’t know…
With an exasperated sigh, he steps away from me and puts space between us. “I’m upset with myself. I shouldn’t have agreed to my father’s demands. I should’ve found a way.” He looks away from me. “River would have.”
“No, he wouldn’t have,” I disagree. “He would’ve done the same thing to you because he wouldn’t have let Noah die, and I wouldn’t have either. But River wouldn’t have had a pity party right now.” I’m not entirely certain that’s true.
River would’ve felt just as guilty.
Finn throws me an incredulous look, confirming my suspicions.
“Look,” I say before he can dwell on this even more. “We have two options here. We can sit here and feel sorry for ourselves, or we can figure out a way to get the hell out of this place. Wherever the hell we are.” Spotting a curtain, I walk over and pull it aside.
What I see steals a bit of my confidence away that we’ll be able to escape. Because we’re no longer in the Royal City. No, all I can see is miles and miles of trees that lead to who the hell knows where.
“I think we’re on my father’s island,” Finn explains, moving up beside me.
I glance at him. “You don’t know for sure?”
He shakes his head as he stares out the window, the lightning blazing across the sky reflecting in his pretty eyes.
“No. After you went into the examination room, my father had Eli inject a drug in me that knocked me out.” The corners of his lips curl into a ghost of a smile.
“I managed to slam my fist into his face, though, before I did.”
I fold my arms around my chest as rain begins to shower from the clouds. “Good. Hopefully, you broke his jaw.”
He grins. “It sounded like I did.”
I return his smile, but then the book of thunder yanks me back to reality. “How are we going to get out of here?”
His grin fades. “I don’t know, but we’ll figure out a way. I owe you that.”
“You owe me nothing,” I assure him. “So stop saying that kind of shit.”
He doesn’t respond and turns away from the window. “Come on. Let’s go look around this room, and if we can at least get a grasp on what’s going on. And make sure there aren’t any cameras hidden anywhere.”
A shiver rolls down my body at the idea that we’re being watched again.