Family listens. They will love you.
They will listen. They will listen.
I had been staring at the fire for so long, I hardly knew the rest of the room existed.
It was lit with only a small fire in the hearth that was quickly dwindling down to coals. A chain around my neck was attached to the center pillar. I sat in a chair, one of the few pieces of furniture in the room. Against the wall was a bed covered with a rough-spun blanket, and a small pine chest sat beside it. They had dragged me up several flights of stairs. With open rafters above me, I decided it was an attic room, maybe a servant’s quarters. A small window high on the wall where the pitched roof met was black with night now. Besides the chain around my neck, my hands were tied to the arms, and my ankles to the legs of the chair. I was not going anywhere.
Banques had told me to wait for the king, like I had a choice. “He wants to have a little talk with you.”
He laughed as he yanked the chain, then left.
The room closed in. Shadows danced on the walls. The inn was deathly quiet. Not even timbers or floors creaked. The fire didn’t crackle. There was only the glowing burn.
I heard the slow tick of a clock in my head. Time running out. No more second chances. I pulled at the ropes on my wrists and ankles. They only cut deeper into my skin.
There is always a way out, Kazi. Blink last. Die tomorrow. I twisted and pulled at the ropes again, but they didn’t give, just as they hadn’t every time I tested them.
Enjoy your journey straight to hell.
Everything sank inside of me, dry and dead. Hell. It had finally caught up with me.
We all have fantasies. Even Jase and I had them. Fantasies we fed. It will all work out.
But sometimes it didn’t.
Sometimes life and fantasies and family all went completely wrong. Finally, I heard something.
Footsteps. Faint. Even. Steady. Montegue was coming.
