Her Maiden

Chapter Thirty-one: Truce

***Author's note: Okay sorry really quick and then I'll be quiet - as I finish editing this for posting, I've noticed this story has just hit 50k reads...

WHAT.

WHAAAAAAT.

WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT??? :O :O :O

I'm kind of... like... absolutely lost for words. The fact that my story is being read by people is just the coolest thing in the world and I genuinely don't take it lightly, I am so so SO happy and grateful that people have been reading and enjoying this fic. ALSO THE COMMENTS - they legit leave me creasing half the time, thank you so much. Over and over again they have absolutely made my day! :D

I'll shut up now, but I just really wanted to say thank you so much, from the bottom of my heart, for all of the love this fic has been receiving. Hope you're all staying safe and having a fantastic week!

Cass xxx

P.S. As a thank you for all of your support, I've really worked hard over the past few days on writing all of this. I can confirm I am in the midst of editing the final chapters of the story. Once this chapter is published, I'm aiming to edit and release the final subsequent chapters each day afterwards, to kill the wait time for you! ***

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Just as you had sunken into blackness, you now find yourself emerging from it, like a tender new butterfly from it's cocoon.

You gasp, feeling yourself sit upright from where you had fallen to the ground.

Yet, as you glance around wildly, you realise that you are no longer in Castle Dimitrescu.

In fact, you're somewhere completely alien. It's cold, dark and unforgiving. The only thing you can quite make out is the small trace of your breath clouding before you.

You take a step forward carefully, extending your arms, feeling your way blindly through this enigmatic new space.

The air feels oddly damp, which only adds to the cold. If you didn't know any better, you might have thought that you had awoken in the pit of some long underground cavern, lost deep beneath the earth, never to find your way home.

Yet, you had to get home, didn't you?

You remember then, Alcina, her body, laying upon the ground, so weak.

What if Miranda planned to go back on her promise?

To kill Alcina as soon as you were out of the way?

Whatever happens, you are determined to make it back to her.

You'll do anything.

You yelp as you feel your knee connect with a hard, stony wall, which feels coated with something freezing and slimy. It makes your skin crawl, but you swallow back your trepidation as you carefully lean against the surface, using it to lead yourself forward cautiously.

You continue walking, planting one foot in front of the other blindly. Seconds go by, then minutes... then... well, it could have been hours, for all you knew.

A terrible thought rears it's ugly head amidst the gloom.

What if this is life now?

It's true. Eva might have already taken over, using your body like a puppet in the real world, right at this very moment, whilst you were be trapped here, forever in this inescapable void.

But I'm still conscious. I still exist, you tell yourself.

As long as you had that, you had hope that you could find your way back to Alcina.