Page 115 of Her Dark Promise

Breathing rapidly, I looked up into the eyes of the hunter, and in this light, they were too similar to my father. His hands were placed on my shoulders, and his face was inches from mine. Callum was standing by the door, looking between the two of us. I looked back into the hunter’s eyes as my breathing started to slow when it finally clicked that he was here, witnessing whateverthiswas.

“Traitor!” I pushed his hands away and yelled, “Get the fuck off me! Get out!”

Tears appeared again, I was so fucking tired of crying, but I couldn’t stop them. I remembered the dream again and doubled over on the bed, screaming from the pain of the nightmare. It felt so real that it was nauseating. I had never felt a nightmare as real as that one.

I couldn’t breathe.

The room felt like it was closing in on me. I started clawing at myself, if I could just rip open my chest that would help bring air into my lungs. I was in a frenzy. I couldn’t focus on anything that was going on. The only thing I felt was hands all over me, and it burned.

“Breathe, your grace. Come on. There you go. Breathe.” Callum was next to me, rubbing

my back in what he thought were soothing strokes.

“What is wrong with her?” I heard another voice ask Callum.

“I don’t know. She has never done this before.” Then addressed me. “I am here. I have you. You are safe.”

They were treating me like a fragile doll. A glass vase ready to shatter at any moment. I was not that girl. Their touches were burning a hole through my skin. The same skin that Father justbruised, I tried to look at my shoulders to see if he had left a mark. It was too dark, but the pain was still there, still sore.

I grabbed one of the hands and tore it away from my body, scrambled off the bed and as far away from them as I could. I finally got a good look at the room. It was in total shambles. My magic was swirling around the room, destroying everything in its path.

Had I done this? Was my magic back?

I planted my body firmly against the wall as Soren and Emilia came into view. “I told you to get out,” I said with deadly calm. The same calm as Father had before he pushed me out the window. A sob broke past my lips before I could stop it at the thought of his face. “Get out!” I waved my hand, threw them from the room, and slammed the door behind them.

I could faintly hear their shouts of protest, but I couldn’t have them around me. Too many emotions were wreaking havoc on my mind, body and soul. I clutched my stomach as I fell to the ground, expelling all the emotions that I felt in that nightmare.

Anger swept through me. Rage so potent that it was almost palpable in the air. Thick and heavy. I threw the closest thing to me against the wall. Shredded the sheets. Shattered the table. Broke every single glass surface until I was numb.

I stepped back until my back hit the corner of my room next to my bed and I slumped down. I was breathing heavily, looked around at the carnage that I had just inflicted upon my room, and knew in my heart that this was how I was supposed to live. A life of loneliness. Scaring off every person who ever tried to care for me. Never deserving of anything good and pure.

I couldn’t trust myself around anyone.

I climbed onto my bed, in the town sheets, and stared up at the feathers floating above me, slowly descending, with no care in the world.

And just laid there.

Empty.

Cold.

Alone.

I sat at the dining table, waiting for my pets to arrive. I had not even bothered to change out of my wine-stained dress, straps falling off my shoulders, hair in disarray. What a vision I must have looked like when they finally entered.

I raised my bottle to them as all three of them entered and I laughed, widening my arms to the side of me. “Oh, you’re all still here? Didn’t I send you two away? And Emilia, didn’t you promise to leave as well?” I brought the bottle back up to my lips, took a swig, and waved my hand in their direction. “Nevermind all that nonsense. Sit. Dine with me.” They all stopped and gaped at me, none daring to say a word. I then laughed some more at the horror and confusion mixed on their faces, which made me laugh even harder, that I almost fell out of my chair.

Callum moved forward to help balance me, the wine splashing all over the ground and on our clothes.

“Your grace… Are you alright?”

I brushed him off and leaned against the table for support. “Of course, little bird. Does it not look like I am the vision of perfection?” I used my hands to scan down my body, as if that made my entire point.

Soren had moved to the table and Bastian had disappeared off to the kitchens. He returned with a bowl full of soup and set it down in front of me.

He said, “You missed a few meals. You must be starving. I have made you a vegetable soup as I am not sure your stomach could handle much more than this.”

I grabbed his chin between my fingers and drawled out, “Oh, Bastian darling. You have no idea what I can handle.” I touched his face, licked his lips, and said, “Feed me.”

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