Chapter 3
Screaming, I rear my head back, tipping my chair and making me fall backward. My eyes widen as I see the ceiling move in slow motion.
Pain.
Sharp, blinding pain spreads across the back of my head as I lay on the ground, still tied to the chair.
Avira’s face appears above me and she smiles. “I’ll take that as a yes. Too bad I didn’t miss you back. In fact, I didn’t want to come back to you, but I knew I had to.”
Everything around her spins as we stay in this position, my head throbbing with each passing second.
Sweets! Kieran yells in my head, making me flinch.
I moan in pain, tugging at the rope around my wrists. All I want to do right now is cradle my head in my hands and curl up into a ball.
But I can do neither.
“Let’s get you sitting up… how you should be,” she says. “If you feel like puking, please hold it in. Unless you want your cell to smell like puke until you get out of here… if you ever get out of here,” she mumbles.
Why are you in pain? What is she doing to you? Kieran fires off questions.
I just fell backward on my chair and couldn’t stop myself, I tell him. Everything is okay. I’m okay and sitting back up straight.
I completely forgot about him being able to feel all of my emotions and pain. How am I going to keep this from him so he doesn’t come storming into the dungeon to get me?
Adeline, I can tell when you lie.
I inhale slowly, closing my eyes as Avira snaps her fingers and my chair flies forward with me in it, back into a sitting position. Nausea rumbles in my stomach as everything spins around me.
I’m really okay. I just got scared and forgot that I was attached to a chair, I reply, trying to reassure him.
“I was really hoping that you would puke so that you could smell it and be in even more misery. Such a shame,” Avira sighs. “Maybe today we can make you puke and scream for mercy.”
I’m so glad Kieran can’t hear what Avira is saying. Now I just need to have enough strength to block him out from my pain.
Don’t you even think about it, Kieran growls in my mind.
I’m not thinking about doing anything, I reply, hoping he believes my lie.
How did he know what I wanted to attempt to do? It’s like he could read my mind but I know that he can’t. I have asked him so many times and he has always told me that unless I project my thoughts to him, he can only feel my emotions.
Because I know you, Adeline. I know that you won’t want me to feel any of your pain and try to save me, but I don’t want you to do that, he says.
It’s too bad that he wants to feel my pain because when I figure out how to keep it up while Avira is here and hurting me, I will have it up.
I know if Kieran constantly feels me in pain that he is going to come into the palace and try to find me, resulting in himself getting captured and more than likely getting killed in the end.
I don’t want you to die, I whisper. I know you as well.
Avira grips my cheeks tightly, digging her nails into my face as she gets close to me. “What did you do with the book?”
I stare into her eyes. “I didn’t do anything. I don’t have the book.”
She growls and pushes my face to the right. Moaning, I move my jaw around, trying to get rid of the aching pain from her nails.
What is she doing to you now? Kieran asks. Tell me everything so that when I get my hands on her, I will make her suffer ten times more than she is making you suffer.
The right side of my lip twitches up at his possessiveness. He is going to have a lot of people to get revenge on when the curse is broken. But I don’t mind one bit.
“I know you took the book from my room today. The smell is all over you.” She waves her hand over my whole body. “Do you really think I wouldn’t put some type of smell on the book so I knew who took it from me? I knew the day would come that someone would take the book, and I was prepared.”
“I don’t have it.”
“I never thought it was going to be you who took the book,” she rattles on, ignoring me.
“I didn’t think you were smart enough, let alone brave enough to go into my room and find it.
” She takes a step closer to me. “Which begs the question. How did you know it would be in my room, and how did you know what it looked like?”
Adeline, if you do not answer me I am going to storm into the castle and find you, Kieran growls.
Don’t you dare, I reply. We have come so far and we are not going to waste this opportunity. She has done nothing to me yet but ask questions.
“Who told you what it looked like?” she asks, bending down to my eye level. “Tell me who and I will let you go.”
“No one told me what it looked like because I didn’t take the book. I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I say.
Intense fiery pain engulfs the left side of my face as her hand connects with my cheek. Tears prick my eyes as I move my head back to where it was.
“Stop lying!” she screams. “I know you took it so just answer my question honestly and I will let you go!”
Sweets, what was that? Kieran asks.
Tingles spread across my chest as I take in several deep breaths, trying to calm myself before I have a breakdown. Having Avira talk to me while Kieran also wants to know everything is getting overwhelming and I don’t know how much more I can take.
Avira lightly taps the cheek she slapped, making it ache even more.
“If you were just honest and told me where you heard what the book looked like then you would be out of here and back to your mother and younger brother,” she chuckle.
“How did you even know there was a book? It must have been someone who told you. Someone who knew about everything that actually went down all of those years ago.”
Avira takes a step back, her eyes going wide as she stares at me. Ever so slowly a smile spreads across her face.
“I know who told you.” She sounds so happy as she says those words. “It must have been a Fae. Someone who was there back when it all happened and could remember everything.”
My stomach sinks at her words. She is figuring everything out on her own. Before I know it, she’s going to have all the information and I won’t be able to do anything about it.
“Who is the Fae?” she asks.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about. I have told you countless times that I don’t talk to the Fae. I don’t interact with them, besides the man you got to help out with the chores,” I reply.
If there is one thing I can do before I die, it’s keep the Fae all safe from this. I don’t want them to be caught up in this and get punished for me stealing the book.
Intense pain forms in my stomach and I move forward, yelling out in pain. Wh-what is going on?
“With every lie you tell me, the more pain you are going to feel. Is it really worth it?” she asks.
The pain stops and I take several deep breaths in, trying to stop myself from puking.
Adeline, tell me when to come and get you and I will. I will stop everything to come and save you. I do not care what happens to me. I do not want you in pain, Kieran says. Please.
A single tear falls from my eyes at his plea. He sounds so desperate to come and get me.
“Is it worth saving the person you love?” she whispers in my ear.
I rear back, my mouth open as I stare at her.
She knows.
A wicked smile spreads across her face.
“I remember you talking about a person who you liked and it wasn’t the prince. You’re doing all of this for him, aren’t you?” she asks.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I whisper, not sounding confident at all.
Sweets. Kieran’s voice breaks. I don’t want you in pain.
Everything is okay. I am fine, I lie.
Kieran tugs at the bond, making me suck in a breath.
“What did he do for you to fall so in love with him? How did he brainwash you into thinking that you should help them?” She walks back and forth in the room.
“I thought everyone in town hated the Fae and wanted them dead. I know you hated violence but I didn’t think you were that sympathetic with them. ”
My eyes track her movements as I stay silent, letting her talk and come up with wild accusations. Maybe she will come up with some bizarre reasoning that is so far from the truth and she’ll stick with it.
“That’s okay, though. The Fae are all going to die soon anyways,” she chuckles. “The prince has a plan to become king sooner than planned and I think I might actually let him do it.”
My eyebrows bunch together as I process her words.
“I never thought the day would come when the Fae would all die, but it’s coming a lot sooner than I thought. How exciting,” she says as her shoulders pull up, a big smile on her face.
“Why are you telling me this?” I ask.
She shrugs. “I want the realization to sink in that the one you love is going to die soon, you are going to marry the prince, and there is nothing you can do about it.”
Biting my lower lip, I stop myself from spewing out things she shouldn’t know. I need to be smart about this.
“I’ll be back tomorrow. Let you think about everything I just said and what kind of situation you’re in. Maybe then you’ll be more willing to answer my questions,” she says, and walks out of the door.