Page 77 of Cruelest Kiss and Fairest Blood
I’m shoved into my room. That’s a first. The guard doesn’t say a word as he slams the door. I’ve never been treated so roughly by any of the guards. Surely Gestin wouldn’t allow them to act in such a manner.My men, not hers.That’s what he said. The queen has her own guards here in the castle.
A slender strip in the oversized emerald and cream rug that dominates my bedroom floor flattens beneath the repetitive pathof my pacing. My mind hasn’t stopped spinning since I was banished to my room.
When the door swings wide, I’m greeted by one of the only faces that could lift my spirits under these circumstances.
“I knew ye weren’t dead!” Melly rushes me. She leans in for a hug but stops herself. “Lord, though, you smell like death. What’s this on your dress? Animal guts? We need to get you in the bath and burn these garments for good.”
“My father is married.” My voice comes out surprisingly quiet considering the maelstrom of frustration and outrage swimming through my veins.
“Aye, he is.” Melly looks as if she wants to say more. Her uneasy gaze shifts to the door.
“What is it?” I move in closer, taking her in my confidence so that no guards will hear our words.
“Such a strange week. First, yer mother. Then this new queen arrives.” Melly rubs her fingers across her forehead.
“Where did she come from?”
“The stable boys said a carriage arrived in the dead of night. How she got into the castle and what she did next are a mystery. None of the guards on duty that eve ’ave been seen again.” I’ve never seen Melly so rattled.
“No one knows who she is?”
“No one cares. Yer father announced their engagement the following morning. She is the Queen of Roseheart. None can question ’er now.”
“But my father, he is changed.” I can’t even put his strangeness into words.
“A sickness or some spell. The king is a ghost on the arm of the golden queen.”
Her words are like claws scraping against the sadness I’m trying to hold in. My eyes sting as I fight back tears. “I don’t know what to do.”
“We must find a way to protect ourselves from everything.” She shudders, eyes dropping to the floor.
“What have you not told me?”
Melly wrings her skirts, sighing. “The servants have been going missing. Delia, Beatrice, and Tabitha, all gone.”
“They’ve run off?” The three are slightly younger than Melly and I.
“Sienna swears she ’eard a scream from Tabitha’s room the night she disappeared. She ran to check on ’er but the room was empty.”
“Foul play?” It’s not completely unheard of for a servant girl to run off with some newfound love. Three girls in this short amount of time cannot be coincidence.
“I don’t know for sure, but there are other sounds, unnatural sounds and screams in the night from somewhere in the castle.”
A chill skitters down my spine. Her words strike fear in me. My thoughts drift to Harrow. What I wouldn’t give for him to appear now and comfort me. He would be able to get to the bottom of the frightening sounds and missing girls.
Melly helps me to bathe and dress. We remain quiet throughout the rest of our routine. Fatigue sends me to bed while the sun is still up. Death really takes its toll. I invite Melly to stay in my room that night. It’s a risk to have someone else present if Harrow shows up, but then again, maybe she would believe me of his existence if he did. And anyway, I won’t have Melly vanishing while I’m asleep. My room is the safest in the castle. At least, it always was before.
Chapter 24
Lenore
The vast emptiness of the Great Hall mirrors the hollowness that’s taken up residence in my chest. The castle is like a skeleton of its former self—so few staff, even fewer nobles. The only faces I see roaming the halls are Catreena’s new guards.
I half expected my door to be locked when I tried to leave this morning. It wasn’t, but the way the guards have been eyeing me since I emerged reaffirms the suspicion: I’m a prisoner in this castle. Something tells me I’d be swiftly stopped if I tried to leave the grounds.
My porridge sits cold and gelatinous. My stomach is so tightly knotted, I couldn’t find it in me to force food down too.
Grief bubbles up, challenging the unfeeling mask I’ve put in place. I wish my mother were here. She would know what to do.Her wisdom and guidance were always spot-on. Without her, the castle itself seems lost in shadow.
