Page 74 of War of Her Heart

The light turned off, and I was alone in the darkness.

I curled up into a ball and sobbed. My back burned. It was already starting to heal but with a faerie’s ability to heal faster comes the pain from your body working in overdrive.

I wanted to scream for Calum, for my father, for anyone that could get me out of here, but it was no use.

I was alone.

When Celine and the creature walked through the wall and left me alone, I knew that she wasn’t planning on letting me go.

She wasn’t worried about Calum finding out because he would never find out.

She got her revenge and now she was leaving me here to die. At least it wouldn’t be long.

It couldn’t have been more than a few hours when the lights turned back on. I lay there unable to move or look around. I was too scared to see who—or what—it was.

“Vi-violet?” A familiar voice. A voice I hadn’t heard in almost two decades.

“Astrid?” I sat up to see my nursemaid. The closest thing I’d ever had to a mother. We kept in touch through letters, but this was the first time I’d laid my eyes on her since the day she left almost a decade ago.

Astrid was fae, but of the lower class which was why she became a nursemaid. She was very short and stocky with light brown hair that she always kept tied in a braid.

“Are you really here?” I asked.

“Yes. I got a letter from Calum saying you were sick, that your heart condition had gotten worse and wanted to say your goodbyes. It wasn’t until I arrived here that I realized that was a lie.” She wrapped a blanket around me and held me in her arms.

“You . . . you shouldn’t be here.”

“No, but you shouldn’t be here either.” Astrid waved her arm around before sitting me up to look me in my eyes.

“Where is Calum? He promised me he would protect you.” I could see the anger in her eyes. She was the most loving woman I’d ever known, but she was sassy and opinionated. Even though she was from the Mountain Realm, she didn’t have a problem telling Calum and my father how she felt. Especially when it came to me.

“He’s in the Night Realm getting to know his fiancée.”

“And your father?” She asked

“Protecting Calum.”

Astrid scoffed. “And not protecting his daughter. I will have a long talk with him when he gets back.”

“Celine sent that letter. But why would she bring you here?” I asked.

“She told me that you were in trouble and being punished for your crimes. She needed to make sure that you took your medicine because she feared that you would end your life.”

“Why would she care? If I died, it would make her keeping control of Calum and the realm so much easier.”

“She knows he would never forgive her if something happened to you.”

“He will never forgive her for this,” I said as I felt the anger build inside of me. He would punish her.

She moved my hair out of my face. “Maybe, but we have to get you through this first.”

“Through this? I-I’m not done?”

Astrid looked at me with such sadness in her eyes. “I fear this is just the beginning.”

I couldn’t breathe. It had only been three weeks since Calum left. Was Celine going to keep me here, torturing me, until he returned?

She pulled an apple, a waterskin, and my medication out of her satchel. “You have to stay strong, Violet.”

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