Chapter 33
The Timeline
Cora
Sabel stood across the room from me, pacing, her breath coming out in short bursts as she muttered unintelligible things to herself.
I’d been back in Whitbourne for two nights now. The first night I’d walked in—after riding a full night through, and only stopping for half a day until rain clouds covered the sun—Keres had just stared at me, a smug look upon his face that made my fists clench at my sides.
He’d told me to go clean up and stay in my chambers until he arrived, and arrive he did.
He strode into the room later that night with Rusor and Lovel at his side, telling me my time of having free rein had ended.
I’d been escorted to a room near his own in one of the towers of the castle, a guard at my door at all times.
I’d expected the dungeon, but I hadn’t gotten it yet. I’d only received the silent treatment. Normally I’d be glad for it, but now it just said there was more going on than I knew. That, I struggled with.
Rusor had brought me down to see Sabel, saying Keres wanted a checkup done just in case. I didn’t need him to elaborate on the rest of what our ruler had muttered. I’d been here long enough to just know to read between the words he’d spoken.
Not that I was expecting much of anything from this visit, but the snide look Sabel, typically wore when our visit came to an end, was vacant. Instead, she paced. The nervous energy rolling off of her in waves.
“Can I go back to my room now, or must I watch you pace longer?” I questioned, trying to keep my attitude to a minimum.
She stopped pacing, her gaze meeting mine, eyes wide. “You don’t know, do you?”
“Know what? That I’m exhausted and you’re making matters worse with your inability to let me leave?”
Sabel laughed—not a giggle, no, a full-on cackle that filled the small stone room we sat in, and she began pacing once more as I tried to listen to whatever she was mumbling.
“I can’t believe this. All these years, the Fates have finally smiled upon us, but you only just arrived back, and he’ll kill me if I point it out. If I explain the timeline of things, it’ll surely be the end of my life, so what do I do?”
She stared at me for a moment, her hands running through her hair, only to begin pacing once more.
“Would she lie to him to save herself? Maybe, maybe not. She’d lie to save her baby though, right?”
I felt my lips part and my heart dropped.
“What?” I whispered. “What did you say?”
But the pacing continued. The mumbling lower once more.
“Sabel!” I yelled, stopping her in her tracks. “What are you talking about?”
She stared at me, the uncertainty clear in her eyes.
“Cora, you’re with child, but we both know it isn’t our master’s,” she replied quietly.
“You have two options. We lie. We lie to him and say you’re further along than you are.
He’ll believe it’s his and save us both, the three of us.
But if you don’t, if you tell him the truth, we’ll all die, Cora. Yourself, me, and your baby.”