Chapter 7
Aweek has passed since I last saw Henry. Every single day Avira brings John with her and leaves while he punches me, trying to get me to break.
Each time I pass out.
Each time I block Kieran from feeling my pain.
I’ve gotten better about keeping the block up, sometimes even while I’m passed out. Nas talks to me until I wake up as he has told me. He reassures me that I’m going to get out of here, but with each passing day, and with each beating, my hope grows smaller and smaller.
Did Henry talk to Kieran about telling Prince Archie? Or did he completely ignore me and move on with his life?
Kieran and I have talked briefly every day, but it’s getting less and less. It’s getting harder to contact him, his voice sounds so faint.
It feels like someone is reaching into my chest, gripping my heart, and slowly sticking their long nails in and pulling at the same time.
I’ve managed to move myself each time to a sitting position when I wake up, taking all of the strength I have.
“You’re lasting longer than I thought you would.” Avira purses her lips as she looks at me through the bars. “When are you going to give up and tell me the information that I want to know?”
I just look at her.
“I can see in your eyes that you’re going to break any minute now and I can’t wait to witness it.
To see you spill all your secrets and watch everything around you crumble and not being able to do anything about it.
” She smiles. “Do you want to see John later? Or maybe you want to see him twice today?”
I take a shaky breath. I can feel my body growing weaker with each beating, and my stomach aches each time I think about food.
“Or maybe we should leave you alone for a couple of days to allow your body to heal, and then come back and destroy it again,” Avira hums. “I think that would be a good thing. Give you some reprieve so that the pain is even worse. Maybe I’ll even be kind and give you some food.”
Licking my lips, I look away from Avira.
“Oh, I can see the hunger written all over your face. When everything is taken away, it makes you think real hard if the secret you’re keeping is worth it,” Avira continues. “Is it?”
Yes. It’s worth it because I’m going to make it out of here alive, and Kieran is going to find out how to break the curse. Even if I die in here, I know he will figure it out and every Fae will be free.
All worth it in my opinion.
“Or maybe I should bring in someone that you deeply care about and make you watch John hu—”
“Adeline?” someone calls.
Avira’s eyes go wide, her head snapping to her left.
“Adeline, are you in here?” Prince Archie calls out.
“Prince Archie, what brings you down here?” Avira turns.
“Who are you talking to?” he asks.
“Just a Fae. You’re looking for my sister, Adeline?” Avira asks and walks forward.
“Who were you talking to just now?” Prince Archie asks again. “Was it Adeline?”
“Prince Arch—” My mouth quickly shuts, my body frozen still.
“Adeline isn’t here,” Avira chuckles. “Why would she be here? She’s back home with my mother doing chores, probably. She’s always helping her out to get things done.”
Silence fills the dungeon and I fight against her magic but I don’t budge.
“Are you sure about that? I think I just heard her voice,” Prince Archie says.
“I promise, Prince Archie,” she replies sweetly.
“So you wouldn’t mind if I looked in the cell you were just peering into?”
My heart beats faster as his footsteps start walking again. Don’t do a spell to make me disappear. Please don’t.
“Why are you curious about where my sister is?” Avira asks. “Is she hiding from you?”
“I was just at her house and her mother told me she has been at the palace for the last week and a half. But I don’t recall her moving into the castle.
Then I got an anonymous letter saying she has been in the dungeon the whole time.
Care to explain why I would get something like that?
” Prince Archie asks. “Care to explain why my future bride is in this cell, battered and bruised?”
Tears run down my face as Prince Archie and I make eye contact. I never thought I would be so close to see him.
“Unlock this gate right now,” Prince Archie demands. “Don’t worry, Adeline. I’m going to get you out of here.”
Kieran, I’m coming home, I whisper, hoping he can hear me.
Avira glares at me while she opens the door and Prince Archie rushes to me. The magic around me leaves and I twitch my finger.
“I’m going to pick you up and take you to our wing of the palace and call the royal doctor,” Prince Archie tells me.
“I just want to go home,” I whisper, letting the tears continue to run down my face.
“You aren’t going home.”
My eyebrows bunch together in pain as I push myself to sit up straighter.
“Prince Archie, I need to go home. I will heal there with my mother taking care of me. I will feel the most comfortable there,” I try to reason with him.
“I don’t like that. You are going to stay here in the palace and heal,” he declares.
I bite my lower lip and grab onto his hand. “Please, Prince Archie. I have missed my mother and younger brother terribly. I just want to go home and be with them. I want my mother’s food.”
He peers down at our hands and lets out a sigh. “Okay, I will help you there.”
Shaking my head, I run my upper teeth against my lower lip. “I do not wish for bad rumors to spread about you if you take me back home. People will wonder if you did this to me and I would hate for that to happen. Let me go by myself and if people ask then I can say I was walking and got mugged.”
“Prince Archie, you cannot be cons—” Avira starts.
The prince holds his hands up, not looking back at Avira. “What Adeline says is very true. Even if I told them what happened, they would always second guess if I was telling them the truth.”
Yes. Continue to think this way and just let me go home by myself.
“Do you want me to send the royal doctor with you so he can check you over at your house?” Prince Archie asks.
I shake my head. “I don’t think that would be wise either. Everyone knows what the royal doctor looks like,” I lie.
But he sure would stick out like a sore thumb if he came into our town. Everyone would know he came from the palace, and if he was seen with me the rumors would spread.
“No one from the palace can come with me. I don’t want you or your father to get a bad name if people start talking about you guys doing this to me.
It’s better if I go alone so that I can control what comes out and lead them toward me getting mugged instead,” I explain, my ribs aching with how much I’m talking.
He looks up and down my body. “Will you be able to walk back to your house?”
With enough grit and breaks.
“Yes,” I whisper. “You can even have one of your guards in the town keep an eye on me from a distance and watch me go into my house.”
He hums. “I like that idea. They will come and report to me after they see you enter your house. Do not go anywhere else.”
“Prince Archie.” Avira steps into the cell.
“You and I will be talking to my father about this.” He stands up and looks at her over his shoulder. “Let me help you up and guide you out of the palace.”
Every muscle in my body screams at me as Prince Archie grabs under my arms and slowly lifts me up. Heaving, I close my eyes tightly, trying to fight off the swimming vision threatening to send me to the ground.
How am I going to make it to the house in this condition?
“P-Prince Archie,” I hesitantly say as I look over at him.
“Yes, Adeline.” He steadies me.
Tears pool in my eyes from all of the pain. I look down at my body and back at him.
“I don’t—” I take a deep breath.
“It's okay, you can tell me anything and I won’t get mad,” he reassures me. “Please, do not cry. Whatever you have to say I know you are very concerned about, but you don’t have to be that way with me. I will take care of you and make sure that you have everything you need.”
A little happiness blooms inside of me when he thinks the tears are out of fear.
Perfect.
“I don’t know if the wedding can happen on time,” I whisper and grip onto his arms. “I don’t know if my body will be fully recovered and looking okay by then.”
Prince Archie gently cups my face with his hands, missing all the bruises. “Do not even think about the wedding right now. I will talk to my father about postponing it until you are fully recovered. You just focus on healing right now.”
“Thank you.” I force a smile on my face.
“Anything for my future bride. Now, let us get you out of here.”
Hissing, I pull my foot back as pain spreads across like a million needles being inserted into my foot at once.
“Are you alright?” Prince Archie asks.
“She is perfectly fine. You don’t need to hold onto her arm like she is going to fall over,” Avira sneers, rolling her eyes at me.
“Avira, enough,” Prince Archie snaps. “Guards, please take her to the throne room but do not allow her to talk to my father.”
“Prince Archie, you cannot be serious,” Avira scoffs.
“Dead serious,” he replies before turning to me.
Two guards latch onto Avira’s arms and drag her away as she yells at Prince Archie the whole time.
“Are you ready to try again?” he asks.
Nodding, we carefully walk down the hallway, passing Nas’s cell. I turn my head slightly and make eye contact with him.
“Thank you,” I barely whisper. “I won’t forget that you’re in here.”
He nods and smiles. It takes forever for Prince Archie to help me up the stairs and to the entrance of the palace before we stop walking and face each other.
“I’m sorry this happened to you,” Prince Archie says. “I will be talking to my father about your sister and what she has done.”
“Thank you,” I hesitantly reply.
I don’t know why Prince Archie is being so nice to me right now when he has never been the whole time that I have known him. Is he planning something? Am I going to owe him later?
Don’t think about that right now.
Right now I need to focus on getting back to the house before it gets dark.
“I will check up on you in a couple of days,” Prince Archie informs me. “Rest, and if you need anything, let me know.”
Not going to happen.