“Let her go. She needs time to come around to our way of life. I imagine she’s used to much—how do I say this—softer methods of justice,” Taranus smiles knowingly at me, and I swallow down bile.
Where I’d once seen a handsome man, now I only see a monster—a murderer. He said the man meant to kill me.
But from where I’m standing? He’s the threat.
With a glare, I shove past Conary and rush out into the hall. There’s no one around, but I know I need to find Flora. If anyone can get me out of here, it’s her. Maybe we can leave together.
Even if this is a dream, I want to spend no more time within these walls.
Gathering the skirt of my dress, I rush forward, and the soles of my leather shoes barely make a sound as I put as much distance between me and the murdering king as possible. I never cared for horror movies.
Too much blood—and honestly? Life is hard enough without adding that type of entertainment. While my friends were binge-watching bloody TV shows, I was watching re-runs of Scrubs or Cougar Town.
So, how the hell this got into my head, I’ll never know. What I do know, though, is that the more time I spend here, the more I’m starting to doubt I’m dreaming at all.
Taking the corner at a run, I’m not prepared for the stairwell, and by the time I hit it, it’s too late to stop. My feet fly out from underneath me, and I tumble down into the dark. The tunnel whirls around me, and my elbows slam into the ground every time I try to stop myself.
Pain radiates through my body, but still, I don’t scream. My head slams into something hard, and my body stills, the fall finally over. A shadow moves in the corner of my eyes, but before I can fully understand what it is I’m seeing, everything fades to black.