Chapter 33 – Desta
DESTA
My head spins, and my muscles quiver, and oh fuck. Vomit spews from my lips straight into the toilet I’m somehow perched over. My body feels as though it’s attached to weights. What did they give me?
My shoulder aches. Why does my shoulder ache?
And my head is miserable. Aching and painful, and I’m so dizzy I can hardly stand it.
Looking at the toilet, this isn’t the first time I’ve thrown up.
I strain to remember last night, but I’m only getting foggy pieces.
Whatever they gave me is strong. Then I’m knocked sideways with it.
Ferrin. He was shot. We were trying to get to shore. Oh god, Ferrin. He died. His body…
I throw up again, only it’s nothing but dry heaves.
When that’s done, I collapse to the floor and lose time. I think I fall asleep or pass out again. Sven. He was there. It was him. But… I don’t remember anything after that. I remember him pulling me from the water. I remember seeing Ferrin’s body float up. But that's it. Nothing after that.
I’m not at the cottage. I don’t know where he took me.
I flush the toilet and pull myself up and off the floor to the sink.
Holy shit, I look rough. The cut Ferrin bandaged the other day is open, I have bruises and a fresh cut on my other cheek, and my whole face is caked with dried blood and dirt.
He didn’t clean me up at all. I have leaves and brush in my hair, and my clothes are filthy and still wet.
I check the door and see that it’s closed but not locked, which feels odd to me.
I’m shocked he gave me privacy, but maybe I threw up, and he tossed me in there on the toilet?
I wish I could remember. I lock the door, then go about washing my face and cleaning out my mouth.
There’s nothing in here other than hand soap and a towel. That’s it.
The drawers are empty, and so is the shower. But the bathroom is… gross. It makes the inn where Ferrin and I stayed our first night look lavish.
Where the hell am I?
I wish this grogginess would clear. It feels as though I’m underwater. Again.
My cuts sting, and the large gash bleeds more, but I had to clean it out. I hold the towel to it, not sure what else to do. I’m trembling and seriously fucking scared.
I move over to the door and press my ear to it. I can just barely make out the faint sound of voices, but I can’t tell anything they’re saying or who they are. Sucking in a shaky breath, I slowly and as quietly as possible open the door.
It leads to a small, dingy bedroom, and I peer around.
The door is closed, and when I test it, I find it locked.
So that’s why he left me in the bathroom.
I’m locked in and wasn’t locking them out.
On the other side of the bedroom is a grimy, crust-covered window.
It’s tough to see out of. The only thing I can tell for sure is that it’s still night. What time of night? I have no clue.
I don’t know if I’m in a house or a hotel or what.
I return to the door and press my ear against the wood, straining to catch anything. I can hear two women and a man talking, and I lower myself to the floor to listen at the crack beneath the door.
“He’s taken care of,” the man, whom I think is Sven, says.
“What does that mean?” my mother questions. I’d know her voice anywhere.
“He’s dead. I shot him a few times, and I saw his body in the water.”
“He better be dead. I don’t want him near her again. He’s the reason all this happened. She never would have left on her own.”
That’s true. I don’t know if I would have mustered the courage.
I was closer to killing myself than I was to that, which is simply sad in retrospect.
I was more afraid of what would happen if I tried to live and failed than I was of death.
And that’s the most tragic thing of all.
If I hadn’t tried, even with some of my failures and things that went wrong, I wouldn’t have had everything else. All the magic in between.
Life changes from moment to moment, and nothing is ever set in stone. I know that now, whereas I didn’t before. Despite it all, I’m so incredibly happy I left my cottage. That I found the courage to finally take that one step to change everything.
“He’s dead. Trust me,” Sven continues. “I gave the girl chloroform and Versed and brought her here. She’ll be out for a while.”
“Chloroform?” my mother exclaims. “That’s toxic.”
Now I know why I threw up so much. But he must not have given me as much as he thinks since I’m awake.
“It did the trick,” Sven states with no emotion.
Another woman makes a harsh noise. “I didn’t agree to this, Antonia. I don’t want to be here.”
“You agreed to meet me. And you’re as involved with this as I am.”
“I thought she’d finally be dead!” the woman yells.
“You should have killed her years ago. I understand why you wanted to keep her. You felt like she should have been your daughter and not Marie’s.
I get that. Sort of. He was a bastard, but I’m not going to argue my former husband with you again.
But the time for that has long since passed. ”
“Marie stole him from me, and I stole the girl from her. You know what he made me do. You remember how it all happened.”
“Yes, and he snuck it past me with her. Snuck it past both of us.”
“Which is why I deserve her.”
“We shouldn’t be discussing this in front of him.”
“Wait,” Sven cries, terror in his voice. “What are you doing? This wasn’t our deal.”
Bang.
I start and bump my forehead on the door, which makes it rattle. I wince, both from pain and hoping neither of them heard that.
“Better. One problem solved.” The other woman is as cool and collected as it gets. “Desta was yours. Now she’s a problem we need to get rid of.”
“Anyone who knows about her is dead. Other than us.”
“You’re assuming my children haven’t been notified.”
My mother scoffs. “Who was going to tell them? The thief evading the law? Desta, who wouldn’t know how to search for them, let alone find them?
And it’s not as though they’d believe her anyway, even if she tried.
No. Besides, you spoke to your sister yesterday and said nothing seemed out of the ordinary. ”
“I don’t like it. I don’t like any of this. No one can know I’m involved.”
“No one knows. I killed your husband. He more than had it coming for all that he did to us. I helped you with Brea so no one would know the truth about her. Our deal was that if I stole Desta from Marie, she was mine to keep.”
“I’ve helped you all these years too. Don’t forget that. Without me, none of this would have been possible. We need this taken care of, and both of you need to go. This place isn’t safe to stay, and frankly, it’s disgusting. Plus, there’s now a dead body in it.”
“I agree we need to leave here, and I’m glad he’s dead. I was going to kill him myself in the morning. But I can’t bring Desta back to the cottage.”
“Why not? The man who found her there is dead. No one else knows about it, and it’s not searchable.”
“I won’t be able to keep her there anymore.” Antonia makes a displeased noise before she emits a loud, tired sigh. “You’re right. I’m going to have to kill her. Or talk to her first, maybe. I don’t know. But I want Marie dead. I want every possible loophole closed, including Marcella.”
“Marie, we can handle, but how do you expect me to get to Marcella? The filthy trash is engaged to Rowan and living in the palace. In these months, no one has found you. Your aliases are working, and I’ve had the record of your fingerprints wiped from the system.
Kill the girl and leave the country. It’s your best option. ”
“What about the tiara?”
I don’t stick around to find out about the tiara.
I don’t care about it enough. I have to get out of here, and I have to do that now or Antonia will kill me.
I scan the bedroom, searching for something, anything that will help me, but my legs are sluggish and uncoordinated, and I trip over a lamp cord as I race for the window.
The lamp comes crashing to the floor. Fuck!
Before I can figure anything out, the door bursts open, and there is Antonia and another woman who looks familiar. Her features are regal and her clothes expensive. She eyes me with brutal disdain.
“Well. You look like your father, don’t you? You have his eyes.”
My father? The former king?
I hold out my hands to them and take a step back.
Antonia eyes me, and I swear I see regret in her features. “My girl. Don’t be alarmed.”
“Where am I?”
“It doesn’t matter,” she states. “I’m not going to hurt you.”
“That’s a lie.” I take another step back but bump into the edge of the bed, which throws me off. I trip, stumble back, and fall to the floor.
Antonia makes a noise like I’m a disappointment. In a flash, she’s on me and pins me to the ground. I don’t have time to react. Hell, I’m not sure I can with the drugs still swimming through me.
“No! Stop. Don’t do this. Please don’t do this!” I cry.
“Hush. Stop fighting me.”
Like hell. I scream and thrash with everything I’ve got, but it’s no use.
I’m weak, and she’s strong, and she has me pinned to the ground by my wrists, her weight pressing down on me, rendering me immobile.
The other woman has a sadistic smile on her face, more than a little pleased by what’s happening.
“I know who you are!” I bark at her. “You’re the dowager queen. Once they find out it’s you—”
My words cut into a cry as she bends and jabs a needle into my shoulder. A burning sensation swarms through me as she pushes drugs into me.
Once she’s done, the queen stands over me with an evil glint. “Desta, the thing about telling anyone is not only will you not remember anything from the drugs we’re giving you, but you’ll be dead. The dead can’t tell secrets.”
“No!”
Antonia holds me down, and slowly my mind grows fuzzy. Darker. Then black once again.