“Help me,” I whispered before everything went black.
Wedding Bells and Darkness
“You must wake up, my lady,” a chipper voice said from above me. I slipped back into consciousness, the fuzziness of my dream ebbing away.
I blinked, my eyes adjusting to the sudden onslaught of light as I stretched out my hands.
What?
My brows furrowed as I pressed my fingers down. This wasn’t right. Dirt wasn’t soft or bouncy or smooth like fabric. And above me…
This wasn’t the early morning sky, kissed by the rising sun. No, I was lying under a crimson canopy. And beneath my fingers…
This wasn’t dirt. This wasn’t right. Nothing was right.
My heart pounded in my chest as I croaked, “Where am I?”
The same voice tittered, “Why you’re at home, of course!”
“What?” I exclaimed loudly, jolting upright.
Home.
No.
This wasn’t my home. This had never been my home. But these circular walls. The black and gray stones. The four-poster bed.
It couldn’t be.
I blinked, rubbing my hands over my eyes. This had to be a dream. A nightmare. A hallucination. Gods, this couldn’t be real.
But I pinched myself, and nothing happened other than the burst of pain that rushed through me.
The servant stared at me, her head tilted to the side. She was pleasantly plump, her thick middle covered by an apron as she held a tray bearing food. “My lady?” The question was clear in her voice. “What is the matter?”
“No,” I whispered, my heart breaking as my lungs seized. I had no other words. Not right now. This achingly familiar room. This bed. The memories of punishments that stretched into hours and days. My voice cracked as I moaned, “No.”
“My lady? Are you feeling alright?”
Alright. I wasn’t alright. I would never be alright again. How could this happen?
Ignoring the servant bustling around me, I looked down. My eyes widened as I stared at the white lace nightgown that adorned my body. The dress from Nonna and her pendant… They were gone.
“It can’t be,” I whispered.
“What’s wrong, my lady?” The servant tilted her head, watching me closely.
“I… I shouldn’t be here. This is wrong.”
I had escaped. Gone out the window. Found Xander. Gone into Thyr. This wasn’t supposed to happen. I wasn’t supposed to be in this tower ever again.
I must have said the last part out loud, for the servant said, “Not to worry, ma’am. You won’t be here much longer. After all, today’s the day you’ve been waiting for!”
I blinked. “What day?”
A horrid suspicion began to grow within me. An aching, terrible, horrifying suspicion.
She grinned, her gap-toothed smile proudly on display as she said the words that brought my entire world crashing down around me.