Page 61 of Her Dark Promise

I reluctantly moved back toward the staircase. Staring up into the abyss, the darkness of my past. I could see that day so clearly which was the main reason I stayed away. I didn’t want to revisit that moment. The running. Screaming. Pleading. Killing. Devastation. Chaos.

It was all too much. I took a few deep breaths, clearing my mind. And placed one foot on a step. My heart was beating sofast that it would have beat out of my chest if possible. I almost conjured myvenin, but if I was going to go there again, I wanted to attempt to stay clear-headed. Respect for them—for her.

I slowly made my way up the staircase, staring at my feet the whole way up, too ashamed to hold my head high. I made it up to the landing, and I felt lightheaded, took a few deep breaths to try and get my bearings. I was stronger than this. They were dead, and I was alive. Immortal. I was stronger than this, wasn’t I?

I took another deep breath and started walking. Nothing had changed.

I made my way over to her door. If I thought that walking up the stairs was hard enough, opening her door made me want to burst into flames. My hands were shaking as I pushed the door open, an audible squeak filled the room.

The room itself was shrouded in darkness, the only light coming in was from between the curtains. The daunting shadows cast throughout the room had me on edge. I dared not touch a thing, not wanting to tarnish her memory. I conjured a ball of purple shadows in my hands and walked around. Nothing had changed besides a thin layer of dust that coated every surface.

Her four-poster bed was against the far left side of the room in the middle of the wall, drapes hung down from the posts. She had a vanity that was situated in front of the window across from her bedroom door. She loved to look out over the grounds. Her bathing chamber was across from the bed and her boudoir to the right of that. She had a couple of shelves that held all of her most personal items. Her walls were covered in the paper that adorned this entire wing; gold-plated leaves of varying sizes.

I left it just how she had it when she died. I left this entire wing the way it was after that fateful day and moved myself to the South Wing. It was the furthest point away.

As if my mind conjured it, figures materialized out of thin air. Mother had rushed into Belle’s room and I heard coughing from the bed. I heard Annabelle’s voice and gasped, clasping my hand over my mouth.

People rushed all around me. It was pure chaos. There was no other word for it.

I remembered this. Was this a manifestation of a past memory? Everyone looked exactly as they had. What was happening? This couldn’t be real!

A trail of blood littered the floor all the way to Belle’s bed, where she was bathed in it. No one had been able to staunch the bleeding and the doctor was on his way here.

“Is she alright?” I could see myself asking.

No one listened.

“Is my sister alive?” I was still being ignored.

Father rushed past me. “Someone tell me what happened now!” Everyone stopped what they were doing, flinching in the process. No one spoke up. He looked to the man who brought her in. “Tell me.”

The man bowed. “We found her in the forest. An animal attack.”

“Why was she alone?”

No one answered. She wasn’t watched, and now she was on the verge of death.

I looked over to the doorway, knowing what I would see.

I watched as Circe grabbed my younger self on the shoulder and dragged me slightly behind the door, but not far enough away that Annabelle wasn’t visible.

I walked over to them and heard myself whisper just low enough so that only she could hear me, “Save her!”

She narrowed her eyes. “You know I can’t.”

I pleaded, “Please!”

She hushed me. “Enough.”

“I will do anything.”

She looked away and sighed. She wasn’t going to do it.

Her eyes met mine again.

“If she miraculously heals, then they will know it is magic. I will die.”

“But…it’s my sister.Yourprincess.”

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