Page 24 of The Princess of Nothing
The heat drained from my face. “Why are you in here?” I asked.
“Treason.” He scoffed. “As if.They’ve been looking for me for a long time. I ran a group. We were against the monarchy. Xenos didn’t like that, you see, wanted me dead. He doesn’t know they’ll never back down. He’s made me into a martyr. I’ll bring him down, dead or alive.”
I sucked in a deep breath. “Well, you and I have a goal in common, it seems.”
“I’m Patrick.”
“Nice to meet you. I wish it was under better circumstances.”
“You and I both.”
“Hmm.” I rested my head against the bars, looking away. I hoped he’d realize I wanted some privacy, to be alone with my thoughts—as laughable as the idea was, considering where I was. I closed my eyes and rubbed my arm with my hand. My skin was blistering. I hissed when I ran over a sore. I had no tears left to cry.
Cedric was out, which meant he would be trying to obtain my release, although I had no idea how he’d manage it. He could barely secure his own, and he was a prince. The sun bled into midday, my most despised time. The heat wore me down fast. The anger I’d accumulated overnight, the spark of fight, extinguished more with each passing hour.You have to keep going, I told myself over and over, but the words did nothing by the end of the day, when a guard finally brought me a small cup of dirty water and a piece of moldy bread. I’d become so accustomed to hunger, I didn’t even feel it as much anymore. Eating was harder than drinking. It brought with it new pains that I’d sedated with time. I squeezed my eyes shut. When would the torture end?
CHAPTER NINE
The days bled intoeach other. I could no longer pull together a coherent sentence. It felt as if I’d already died but was trapped inside my body as it slowly decayed. I couldn’t feel pain anymore. I wasn’t sure when it happened, but I was numb through and through. I just lay baking under the sun. Patrick had tried to keep us both in better spirits, but like me, he was finished. I had caught the occasional glimpse of him when I’d tried to open my eyes. His arms and legs were tangled as he lay resting against the bars, like a puppet who had its strings cut.
The door to my cage was unlocked. Someone grabbed my feet and dragged me along the grainy ground. I didn’t try to fight. I parted my dry, cracked lips and looked up at the blinding sun. Perhaps they were finally going to kill me.
I closed my eyes and accepted my fate.
“She’s going to die!” a man shouted, his tone clipped. “I told you not to let her die.”
Another man stammered,“We... We gave her water and some bread, what—”
“Two days ago,” a third man said, interrupting the second.
“Two days!” The first man growled under his breath. I heard a loud slap, then I was lifted to my feet.
I couldn’t hold myself up. I let my weight fall into whoever’s arms I was in. Everything was blurry.
“I got you,” he said. “Don’t you dare die.”
Blackness folded over me before I could say anything.
