Chapter 22 Twenty-two.
I carry the now empty tray Isadora brought to me yesterday evening to the general kitchen. As I walk, the dread of seeing Kane again gnaws at me. His threat from yesterday lingers in my mind, and I fear I won’t be able to control myself if he touches me again. The thought of what I might do terrifies me.
The kitchen is eerily quiet when I enter. The sink is piled high with unwashed plates and pots, and cockroaches scurry across them, some even climbing over the chunks of rotten turkey on the counter. I can barely stomach the sight, but I’m relieved. At least I’m not on kitchen duty. Quickly, I wash and dry my plates, my right hand stinging as the bandage grows wet, but I push through.
Just as I'm about to leave for my first duty of the morning, I hear a sob coming from around a corner. Someone's there… crying.
I turn in my track and head towards the place where the sound is coming from, and there I see a female, head buried between their knees. Their cloth is identical to mine. I know who that is. I can recognize that wavy auburn hair anywhere.
It's Eliana.
I'm tempted to leave once I realise that it's her, but I don't. I haven't seen Eliana since the day her family was executed. She looks pitiful, but could I sympathise when I had it so much worse?
“Bad morning?” I ask, bending beside her, though I can’t quite disguise the coldness in my voice.
Her sobs cease immediately. She lifts her tear-streaked face, eyes swollen and lips cracked, a trail of snot running down her nose. She looks like she’s been through hell. “What the hell do you want?” The venom in her tone is still there, though it’s mixed with raw pain. “Just leave me alone, Olivia.”
“I'm not here to comfort you,” I reply flatly, the words coming out harder than I expect. There’s no love lost between us. While at the Shadow Moon Pack, she was horrible to me and treated me like dirt beneath her shoe. After all, I haven't forgotten that she tried advocating for mine and Kyle's execution in their pack. “I can leave if you want me to.”
“I'm in no position to tell you what to do now,” she mutters, her voice hoarse, as she scrubs her face with her hands. “I take orders now, not give them.”
“Funny how life works out, huh? We're both slaves now,” I chuckle bitterly, resting my head on my knees. “So, what happened? What’s got you crying?”
“What hasn’t happened?” She snaps, fresh tears welling in her eyes. She gestures toward the sink. “That. That’s what happened. I get six times that at noon, and ten times more at night. I never lifted a finger growing up, and now I have to deal with cockroaches, spoiled food, and palace guard’s plates. They don't even give me gloves. Now tell me, what hasn't happened? This place is a prison.”
“Why would dirt need gloves to clean dirt? You should be grateful. If anything, you should have been killed when the rest of your family were executed. You should feel honored to even wash the palace guards plates,” I shoot back, my voice low but biting.
A single tear rolls down Eliana's cheek, and she stares at me, stunned. Then, to my surprise, she lets out a soft, almost humorless laugh. “I guess what they say about karma being a bitch is true. I said those words to you, didn’t I?”
“Yes.” I answer. “It’s time to face reality. Here, you’re not Eliana Katz—daughter of Alpha Coleman Katz and Luna Karina Katz. Here you’re just like me. A slave. Equal to the dirt you once saw me as. This place is both our prison.”
Her shoulders tremble as more tears fall. She clenches her fists. “Why do I have to suffer for the sins of my parents and Carter? I didn’t know anything. I’m innocent!”
I stand up and stare down at her. “Aren’t we all? I didn't know about the crimes of my ancestors either. Your only crime, Eliana, is being a Katz, just like how mine is being tied to the lineage of the Faes. And the only crime Carter was guilty of was being compassionate.”
She stands too, her legs shaky, but she forces herself to remain upright. “I shouldn’t have trusted him.”
“Who?”
“Adrian,” she whispers, her voice breaking. She leans against the wall, squeezing her eyes shut. “I shouldn’t have given him the key to my father’s study. I should’ve known. He was using me to enable his father to become the new Alpha of Shadow Moon, to gain favor with King Sven. I was... I am such a fool.”
Adrian? He caused all this? I'm not surprised in the slightest considering he's always been a villain in my book. “But isn't he your mate?”
She nibbles her lip, her eyes meeting mine for a split second before she lowers her gaze. “He rejected me once he got what he wanted. Since we never marked each other, it was easy. Now his father is the Alpha of Shadow Moon, and he’s a Gamma to King Sven. I thought he loved me... I still see him at the palace, but he ignores me. Pretends I don’t exist. He was the love of my life, and now…”
“Now what?” I urge her to continue. To let her thoughts out. It's what she needs to continue her day.
Her jaw tightens and she swallows. “I just want to kill him. I want to strangle him until he takes his last breath.”
Exactly how I feel towards King Sven.
Kane makes me feel uneasy as I work, removing some of the weeds on King Sven private farm. I can feel his eyes on my butt as I'm bending, but I don't say a thing. It's noon already, and I've been here for almost five hours since I left Eliana at the Kitchen.
My mind goes back to our conversation, and I'm again reminded that Adrian is now in the palace as King Sven's Gamma. I pray I don't come across him at all, a wishful thinking, but still.
“Once you're done here you'll be coming to my room with me,” Kane's voice shouts from behind.
I stop weeding as I turn to look at him. “I won't,” I declare, standing my ground. The dread I was feeling earlier is now gone, replaced with a strong sense of determination.
Kane frowns, clearly surprised by my defiance as he moves closer to me. “What do you mean by you won't?”
“You heard what I said. You're not deaf now, are you?”
“Seems like you didn't learn your lesson from yesterday.”
“And it seems like you're forgetting that I only answer to King Sven.”
He takes another step, reaching out as if to grab me, but I smack his hand away, taking a quick step back. “I could kill you right now and defile your dead body and no one will say a thing,” he sneers, lips curling as he strides towards me. “You only answer to King Sven? Don't make me laugh. I'm his subject and you're nothing but a Fae, a slave, whose life do you think he'd value more?”
“It’s simple. Me. Because I'm his mate, and you're not,” I say, unafraid.
Kane stops in his tracks and raises a brow. He’s shifting, eyes are turning yellow, fangs and claws protruding. “Blasphemy against the king is punishable by death at sight. Now I have every reason to kill you, foolish Fae.”
“Why—”
“What is happening here?” A voice asks. Authoritative.
I turn around to see an elderly woman. She's dressed in a suit fit for a female warrior, silver hair held up in a tight ponytail and her face is unreadable. I don't know who she is, but by how Kane immediately bows to her I can tell she's important.
“Oh, my lady,” he says, his voice suddenly submissive, no longer carrying any of the menace it did moments ago. “This Fae committed blasphemy by claiming King Sven is her mate. She’s guilty of numerous crimes.”
“Gracious Cessi,” The woman laughs, holding her belly as she turns to look at me with familiar green eyes. “Mate?! So you're the Fae my boy took in as his first slave?”
“I'm Olivia,” I say, introducing myself as I wonder who she is.
She smiles widely, studying me closely. “Ah, how rude of me. I forgot to introduce myself. I’m Maggi Magnusson, Sven’s Aunt and godmother.”