Lover's Curse (Red Queen Awards Winner)

Chapter Eleven - Tethered

Stared in a mirror and punched it to shatters                                                                                                                        Collected the pieces and picked out a dagger                                                                                                                                  - Nightmare by Halsey

His birthday.

He scheduled his brother's execution on his birthday.

"I didn't get you anything."  I refuse to look at him, focusing on the clawed branches outside my window.  "I thought it appropriate."

"Your affection knows no bounds."  He's far too pleased with himself, spinning his bracelet around his wrist like a newly discovered toy.

"Yours does."

Maven has no response.

"Are you going to make me watch?"  I squeeze a pillow as if it were his throat.  "Because I'll cry.  Do you want that?  Do you want to broadcast me crying to millions of television screens?  Does it get you off?"

The air grows too cold to breathe.  "He can't live."

"You're delusional."

"So are you."

My hands reach for his neck, but he catches them.  "You're worse than a monster.  You're worse than a murderer.  You're a parasite who feeds on bitterness and misery.  You--"

"I would never make you watch."  Maven moves from my wrist to my palms, intertwining our fingers.  "I'm not that cruel."

The words squeeze my insides.  "You are."

"I wouldn't."

"You would.  If I pushed you."

Maven lets go.  I trace my bracelet until my finger catches on a sharp edge, drawing blood.  "Leave."

He obeys.

_

Obsess over my reaction. May your gaze wander towards my chambers and away from Cal.  May your mind be consumed by plans to seduce me, little mind games to pull me back into your arms.  May you forget to take precautions.

May you make a fatal mistake.

The Scarlet Guard will attempt a rescue.  They have to.  Cal divides the Silver Court, pitting house against house to seat him on the throne.  He is our best chance to strike against them.

I slump against my window.  I had begged Maven not to place me in the audience, but not seeing is somehow worse.  The Bowl of Bones is not visible from my chambers, no matter how I squint.

Why am I so useless?

A bang pierces through the silence, the crumbling of stone.  Screams clamor over each other in the distance.  My window taunts me with its stillness, its tranquility.

I slam against it.

Clover hauls me backwards before my fists make contact.  I thrash and twist and buckle, crying.  I need to see him.  I need to help him.  I need to get out of this cage.

She pins me to the ground.  "Shut up."

I scream.

Her hand clasps over my mouth, and I bite it.  She curses, yanking at my hair and clawing my jaw.  I will not let go.  If I am a dog, then I will be one that yowls, claws and bites until it is set free.