Chapter 6 The Prince's Vow
I’m launched into the brick wall behind me with a scream. A leather-gloved hand smothers my mouth. Without my orb, I can’t see who’s assaulted me, but I can smell him.
I know who has me in an iron grip.
“I knew you’d be slinking around these hidden passages like the rat you are,” Zaries hisses. I can feel his hot breath on my face, his nose so close to mine it brushes.
I try to push him away, but he’s much larger and full of rage. He presses his body to mine, pinning me against the wall. His leather armor pushes against my obsidian plates, causing them to clink and pinch into my skin.
“You will withdraw from the Trial, Anara. Do you hear me?”
I shake my head violently, thrashing against him until he takes his hand off my mouth, only to pin my hands above my head. He presses into me harder, the muscled planes of his body grinding mercilessly. I think about screaming again, think about lunging forward and biting his nose in the dark, but something makes me freeze.
Something I don’t want to name.
“You don’t get to redeem yourself, nor do you get to die and get out of suffering for eternity,” he growls menacingly. “Do I make myself clear?”
“Zaries, I—”
He slams my hands into the wall hard, wrenching a gasp of pain from my slightly parted lips.
“There’s no fixing what you’ve done. You will withdraw, and you will live. Live to suffer an eternity knowing what was lost thanks to you. I want you never to experience a moment of peace. I want you to drown in turmoil until your bones grow brittle, and then I want you to die slowly and alone. That’s the only future you deserve, Anara.”
Tears burn my eyes, tears I refuse to let fall. He doesn’t get to make me cry anymore.
“The only way I’m not competing tonight is if I’m dead.” I lean forward, baring my teeth in the dark and pressing back against him. “So what are you going to do, Zaries? Are you going to kill me?”
“I should kill you,” he growls. Slowly, he lowers his head until his forehead is pressed to mine.
I startle, pulling away, but he cups the back of my head and forces me to stay there.
“The last time we stood here, we made a pact,” he whispers. “The three of us, do you remember?”
I nod slightly, ready to fight him as his touch goes soft and his body against mine trembles. “We p-promised to always be there for each other. Zaries, this isn’t what El—”
“Don’t you dare speak her name!” he roars, grinding his forehead into mine and pressing me harder into the wall. “She can’t want anything anymore, can she?”
When he releases my hands and drops his arms, I reflexively reach for him. I wrap my arms around his neck and hug him, something I’ve wanted to do for the last three years and have never been close enough for.
For a second, Zaries leans into the hug, his hands trembling at his sides. “I should have killed you three years ago. Living with you has been torture, an agonizing hell. I never want to see you again, Anara. Never.”
“I know,” I whisper, and my tears break free. I hate every one that falls, knowing I broke my own wishes with every wet drop. I know he can feel the dampness on his neck as I turn my face toward him and brush my cheek against his bare skin. “I know, and I’m so fucking sorry, Zaries. I have to do this. I have to find it…”
His face turns, his lips brushing my ear as he speaks. “You will not find the dragon before I do, Anara.”
I nod as he pulls away, and the absence of his body holding me against the wall causes me to stagger and almost fall.
“It should have been you, Anara. You should have died that day.”
“I know,” I whisper, sliding down the bricks and pulling my knees to my chest.
“Do one thing right in your miserable life. Don’t come to the Trial. If I see you there, I’ll have to kill you. Don’t make me do that, Anara.”
“If you could kill me, Zaries, you would have done it a long time ago.”
Silence answers me. I don’t even hear him walk away, just as I didn’t hear him behind me.
We used to play in these halls when we’d come to visit the Stormcoast. Elysandra, Zaries, and I. Hide and seek in the dark, tag, picnics, and ghost stories. We did everything in here, much to the dismay of the royal families when they had to look for us.
Zaries was such a goofy kid back then. One missing front tooth, hair that stood straight up no matter what the nursemaids did to control it. He was wild and fun, and everything I loved about this kingdom. Going home to Obsidian Reach felt like I was leaving half my heart behind, but I did it, year after year. When the royal families decreed that Elysandra and Zaries would wed, I couldn’t have been happier. I’d get to stay with both my friends for life.
The day before the wedding, we snuck off to the woods. We were so happy, all three of us thrilled with the future that lay ahead. If I’d known what would happen that day, I would have insisted we stayed in the castle. Zaries would still smile at me, and Elysandra would still hold my hand as we walked the halls.
Exiting the secret passage, I make my way across the hall to my rooms in two quick steps. The moment I’m safe, I turn and bolt the door. I stumble toward my bed, chest heaving with emotion. I want to scream, to break something, to hurt myself, but I can’t do any of that. If I do, redemption is over. I have to fight, I have to push through.
For Elysandra.
For everything I owe her, and her mother the Queen of Obsidian Reach.
At twenty years old, I’ve spent many long years learning how to serve my princess with love and adoration, and protect her with a fierce passion held secret to all save a very specific few.
When the queen took me in as a babe she could have sent me to the scullery, she could have given me to a peasant, but she didn’t. She gave me to her daughter as a gift, a person who would always be there for her to love and protect her. I swore at a very young age that’s what I’d do and I’ve met that promise faithfully. Elysandra was my best friend, my sister…. She was everything.
And I lost everything the day she died.