Chapter 58

Eve's POV

The silence stretched so thin and tensed between us that for some moment I thought I had lost oxygen. I wanted to burst out and cry. He looked shaken by my words.

I wanted to run to him and tell him I didn't mean it.

But I did.

I have to.

"Fine," he said. His face went eerily calm.

"If that is what you want, I'll give it to you."

I blinked and swallowed.

The way he said it was quiet, stripped of heat, stripped of the man who once looked at me like I was something fragile and infuriating and precious all at once.

My stomach twists like I've been stabbed.

"The marriage will be annulled," he continued, cold as ice. "Just before my final judgment on you."

His eyes were stripped of any form of warmth.

I had seen that look before on the battlefield, when there was no room for mercy.

My throat went dry and my eyes watered, but I refused to let him see it. I needed my freedom, my real life, an end to the gilded cage.

So why did it feel like the floor was cracking beneath my feet?

He stepped closer, and I hated that my heart still reacted to his presence, still remembered the warmth of him in the dark.

His shadow swallowed me.

"You saved me once," he said. His voice was flat, almost gruelingly. "In your father's hideous bars. You remember."

I recall Raven did that in the book.

"You brought me water," he went on. "When no one else dared."

I blinked, refusing to take my eyes off him.

"All I've done is to return the favour by saving your life."

I felt the stab in my heart twist.

His gaze slid over my face, unreadable. And his next words tore me apart, "Now we are even."

Tears threatened to fall, but I held them back.

"I won't spare you anymore," he added.

Something inside me trembled, but pride glued my feet in place. I lifted my chin, refusing to beg, refusing to ask if any part of him still cared.

He leaned in close enough that I felt his breath on my ear.

"I swear," he murmured, low and lethal, "I won't shield you from my people this time."

A chill crawled down my spine from the absence of emotion in his voice.

Rygar was a man of fire and fury. This cold version of him felt like a stranger wearing his skin.

He straightened, looked at me one last time.

I searched his face for hesitation. For regret. For anything.

I found nothing.

Then he turned and walked out.

Just like that.

The quiet exit of a man done caring.

For a moment, I stood there, rigid, telling myself this was victory. I wanted out. I wanted distance. I'd wanted him to stop deciding my fate.

So why did my chest feel hollowed out?

He cheated. He cheated on me. He should be sorry and rolling over to beg for my forgiveness, not the other way around.

"I refuse to be gaslighted!" I wanted to scream at him, but I couldn't find words. Couldn't find anything to say.

I cupped my palm over my face, and just as my tears were about to break out, I heard footsteps.

"Rygar!" I cried, happy he came back.

But it wasn't Rygar. As I lifted my head, I saw the face that had willed my death since I got here. Garrick.

His expression was carefully blank, but he wouldn't quite meet my eyes. That told me enough. Word traveled fast in these halls.

"My lady," he said, voice formal and distant, with no form of sympathy.

Afterall, they won. The marriage is over, and they can do whatever they want with me. I'm no longer their Luna.

He took my wrists and snapped chains around them. The metal was cold and biting like Rygar's words.

I flinched despite myself.

"I'm to escort you," he said.

"To jail?" I asked, though I already knew.

Garrick paused and then gave a small nod.

My feet felt heavy as he guided me forward.

This was the path I chose.

This was freedom, wasn't it?

I swallowed the ache down and walked, holding back the tears that threatened to fall.

The cell door shut behind me with a heavy clang.

Cold stone pressed against my back as Garrick guided me inside. The cell was just as good as Lira's the endophines cell.

Ah, finally made it to jail before 30. What an achievement, Eve. My mum will be so proud.

The chains around my wrists were removed from the escort ring but left locked in place, a cruel reminder that I was no longer a wife, nor a lady of the hall, just a prisoner awaiting judgment.

I turned to him before he could step away.

"What will happen to me now?" My voice came out smaller than I intended, scraped raw by everything I'd hurled at Rygar. "For… treason."

The word tasted foreign and ugly on my tongue. Treason. As if I had burned villages and slaughtered children, not spoken to a witch out of desperation to get my life back.

Garrick paused.

He didn't look like the smug man from earlier when things were playing out in his favor. Now he looked sort of human. Like he felt sorry for me. (Of course, I don't believe that Garrick hates me with all his guts and muscles.)

"Treason," he said slowly, "means death by lynching."

The words landed bluntly, without decoration.

My fingers curled into my palms. Rygar once saved me from lynching before. He won't do that now.

My stomach twisted, but I forced myself to hold his gaze.

"And if he's merciful?" I stammered.

I hated that I still framed it around Rygar. His mercy. His choice. His power. His lies! His infidelity!

Garrick exhaled lightly through his nose. "If Rygar is feeling merciful, he might grant banishment instead."

I almost laughed.

"Different flavours of horrible deaths, I guess," I muttered beneath my breath.

"Your judgment will be in the morning," Garrick replied.

I nodded once, as if he'd given me the weather report. As if my heart wasn't pounding hard enough to bruise my ribs.

He stepped back, and I thought that would be the end of it. The guard outside shifted, the torchlight flickering shadows across the corridor.

I turned away from them all and finally allowed my legs to give in. I lowered myself onto the narrow bench.

A tight sound escaped my throat before I could stop it.

Then another.

I bent forward, covered my face, and suddenly the tears came. Ugly tears, ripped from somewhere deep in my chest.

I cried because I was a fool to believe in love.

I thought love could tame a beast like Rygar.

I cried for the marriage that rotted before it could bloom. For Rygar's words that pierced my heart.

"Now we are even." He said.

I cried because beneath the anger, beneath the betrayal, a part of me still loved him, and that part would likely die at dawn.

My sobs quieted into shaky breaths. Somewhere far in the fortress, a horn sounded for the changing of guards.

I wiped my cheeks with the heel of my hand and stared at the floor, at the thin lines of dirt between the stones. Anything to keep from thinking.

It took me a while to notice he hadn't left.

A prickle crawled up my spine.

I lifted my head slowly.

Garrick was still standing there, just beyond the bars, staring at me.