Page 60 of Her Dark Promise

Chapter eleven

“Emilia?”

I had gone up to her chambers almost immediately after Callum left. He was right. I had avoided her for too long.

I pushed the doors open and was surprised to find the curtains drawn, as she usually enjoyed having them open to stare out of the windows. Not even with my sharp eyesight could I make out anything in her room.

“Emilia?” I called out again.

Purple shadows surrounded my hand and lit up the space enough for me to see Emilia huddled on her bed, hands wrapped around her knees, eyes staring straight ahead at nothing.

I walked swiftly to the bed and sat down next to her, not touching her. I didn’t want to startle her out of her trance. I sat there and looked her over to see if she harmed herself. I didn’t find anything wrong, and as my eyes made their way back up to her face, I found that she was looking at me.

“I am so angry. I have never felt so angry before.” Her face was hard, full of fury.

“I know.” I did know. I knew exactly what she was feeling, and I didn’t want that for her.

“I hate them.” Her voice was full of menace.

“You hate their father,” I corrected.

“Are they not a product of their maker?”

“Are you?” I shouldn’t have been as harsh, but I needed her to know that they were not him.

Her eyes widened, taken aback.

I sighed. “You need to find a way to come to terms with this.”

“I don’t think I can.”

“You must try.” She didn’t answer me, her eyes downcast. “I’ve been inside their heads, Emilia. Both of them have been victims of their father in different ways…both hate the Reapings. They share blood with a monster, but that doesn’t make them one.”

My own words wrecked me, and I thought of my father. The burnings. My eyes began to sting. What was happening to me?

“When I look at them, I seehim.”

I reached up, wanting to push some hair back behind her ear, like I used to do with Belle, but resisted. Emilia rarely liked being touched. I sat with her until she fell back asleep, both of us breathing the tense air without another word spoken. I watched her slumber like I did when she was a child, her chest rising and falling. I should have let Mariam take her to a village to find a new family, just as I had with all the other children. Instead, she reminded me of Belle, and I kept her like a doll. A play thing. I’d done the same to Callum.

You spread misery, Circe said.

I got up and left her room, wanting the balcony—the night air. Too much had happened in such a short amount of time that I had barely taken a moment to think about the ramifications. I constantly went back and forth between letting them go and doing exactly what Emilia wished and kill them.

I aimlessly walked through the halls of the castle, not bothering to pay attention to my surroundings. I had been here so long that I could navigate the passageways blindfolded.

So, I did just that. I closed my eyes and let my body move freely, wherever it wished. I didn’t know how long I kept my eyes closed until I was done and ready to head up for a bath, but when I opened my eyes I was shocked.

Why was I here?

I dropped my head and ground my teeth together, rooted to the spot, unable to move my feet. Why would my body bring me here?

I took a deep breath, staring down at the bottom step of the staircase leading to the West Wing. I roved my eyes slowly up, taking in the intricate circular carvings engraved on the wood, doing my best to avoid the inevitable.

And when there were no more carvings to look at, I raised my eyes even more and found myself trembling under the heavy gaze of the corridor. A place I hadn’t been in hundreds of years, I didn’t even dare pass by these steps, avoiding the area completely.

I turned away and started back toward my chambers, telling myself that too much had changed. I wasn’t ready to reopen old wounds that I would rather stay scarred. I was down the hall before I stopped, my mind not allowing me to take another step.

Was there a reason that I was supposed to come here tonight? Little Annabelle, were you trying to tell me something?

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