Chapter 128 THE GIRL YOU KILLED
MERRIELYNN.
By the time I came to, my head felt like it weighed a thousand pounds.
I tried to move, but my body wouldn’t cooperate.
Looking down, I saw rope. Thick, rough rope binding my wrists behind me. More rope around my ankles, tying them to the legs of a chair.
I was completely trapped.
I twisted around, trying to get my bearings.Where the hell was I?
The air was damp. Cold. It smelled like earth and something stale.There was light ahead.Flickering weakly.
My stomach dropped.
A cave. I was in a fucking cave.
Fear shot through me and I tried to move, chair and all, but that’s when I noticed the two figures standing in the shadows, watching me.
My heart pounded as I squinted, seeing Juniper’s lips curl into this wicked smirk, her head tilting like she found my confusion amusing.
Valtor looked different though. Radiating the kind of calm that made my skin crawl.
“I’m so going to enjoy this,” Juniper said, walking over to me.
Before I could process what she meant, she hit me.
The first slap landed so hard my head snapped to the side. My mouth fell open, a gasp escaping before I could stop it. Another slap followed. Then another.
She just kept hitting me.
Tears gathered in my eyes.“Stop!” I screamed, but Juniper just laughed. It echoed through the cave...manic, unhinged—as she kept delivering slap after slap to my burning cheeks.
“Goddess, I’ve been waiting for this,” she said, gripping my chin roughly and forcing me to look at her. “How do you feel now?”
Tears stung my eyes. Not just from the pain, but from the sheer horror of what was happening.
“Why are you doing this?” My voice trembled. “What do you want from me?”
Valtor moved then. He stepped forward and crouched in front of me, his face only inches from mine.
“What do I want?” His voice was eerily calm. “I want justice."
I swallowed hard, confusion clouding my thoughts. “What are you talking about? Justice for what?”
His jaw clenched. His eyes darkened with a hatred I didn’t understand.“For the love of my life. The girl you killed.”
I stopped breathing when I heard that.
What?
Valtor’s expression twisted even more. “You walked into my school, lived your life like nothing happened, and even had the nerve to crawl back to Cormac again. Like you didn’t destroy everything.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I whispered, shaking my head.
Valtor’s hand shot out, gripping my jaw so tightly that his fingers dug into my skin.
“You don’t get to pretend,” he seethed. “Not anymore.”
I shook my head as my mind tried to make sense of all he was saying. But I couldn’t. I looked at Juniper as if she would explain to me, but she just had that smirk on her face, enjoying the show.
All I cared about was understanding what Valtor was talking about. What did he mean that I killed the love of his life? When?
“What do you mean crawling to Cormac ‘again’?" I asked, even though my voice was hoarse. I never knew any of these people until I started at Pinnthorpe. “I don’t understand what you’re saying, Valtor,” I cried desperately.
He let out a sharp, humorless laugh, standing up to his full height. “Of course you don’t,” he said, shaking his head like he pitied me. “That’s the worst part about all of this. You’ve lived so freely, so blissfully unaware, while the people you destroyed have had to suffer every day from just watching you exist.”
My stomach twisted. “I don’t…”
Valtor’s face darkened, and he crouched in front of me again, and I instantly swallowed the rest of my words in fear.
“I was merciful, you know,” he said. “Years made me merciful.”
I swallowed hard, watching him. Praying someone would find me and put an end to this.
“I tried to warn you,” Valtor continued, tilting his head, like a sick psycho. “I tried to scare you away. The pig’s heart, the blood, the messages—all of it was me. But you refused to take the hint. You insisted on staying.”
The threats…
So it had never been Cormac.
“It was you…” I muttered inaudibly, too shocked to even move.
I felt sick. And my eyes welled up again.
I just wanted to get out of this place. I desperately wanted to leave.
“I—I didn’t know,” I stammered, my voice breaking. “I don’t even know what I did. But if I hurt you, if I hurt anyone, I’m sorry. Please, Valtor, just let me go. Please.”
His lips curled up but he wasn’t smiling. “Sorry?” He scoffed, shaking his head. “You think an apology would fix this?”
I blinked back my tears, glancing at Juniper for some mercy. “I don’t know what else to say.”
Valtor’s jaw tightened. He exhaled through his nose, standing up again before looking down at me with nothing but cold hatred in his eyes.
“King Killian should have killed you the very day you took his daughter from him.”
I looked up at Valtor when he said that.
Why were we suddenly bringing King Killian into this? When did I take his daughter?
Before I could even begin to process what he was saying, Valtor leaned in again.
“But don’t worry,” he said. “The King and I have finally agreed—it’s time you get the punishment you’ve always deserved.”
Staring at Valtor, everything slowly started to make sense. No wonder, I thought. No wonder Cormac never liked talking about his sister.
She was dead.
And Valtor blamed me.
It didn’t make sense. None of it did. My mind was in confusion and terror. I had a million questions––
A horrified breath sizzled past my lungs.
The visions.
What if those visions aren’t just in your head?
My vision blurred with tears.
Valtor tilted his head, watching me like I was something filthy. “Look at her,” he sneered. “Acting like she doesn’t know.”
Valtor turned his back to me, nodding toward Juniper.
Juniper moved first, putting a thick, rough towel over my face, pressing it down against my nose and mouth. Panicking, I struggled to breathe but before I knew it, a sudden rush of water hit my face.
I thought it would stop, but it kept coming.
I gasped, but the water filled my mouth, my nose, and my throat. I thrashed, but the ropes held me down.
My chest burned, and my body screamed for oxygen, but I got nothing.
I was drowning.
I felt like I was dying.
As the water kept coming, the scar on the back of my neckburned with tension.
And then—
Memories started flooding into my mind.