Her Maiden

Chapter Thirty-two: Alcina

I shouldn't be alive.

Pain.

It sears through my side, sending my chest on fire with each and every slow breath which I am barely managing to take.

Her merciless attack - it should have ended me.

Yet here I find myself, on solid ground, now exposed to all of these terrible, painful sensations running across my body. Their sharp aches prove to me, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that I am now all-too conscious.

Y/n. My daughters. Where are they all?

My eyes finally flicker open and I find myself struggling to adjust to the bright light of my surroundings. The golden rays of the chandelier above me sends intolerable shooting pains through my head. It feels as though I'm being skewered by an icepick.

I do not remember the last time I ever felt this weak.

Groaning with effort, I try to writhe, to move myself so that I may look around the now utterly destroyed foyer, but to my dismay, my body refuses to stir. It feels like I have been saddled with lead weights, leaving me useless, unmoving, unable to protect the girls.

But I must.

I vainly try to prop myself up once again, crying out at the sensation, feeling my own legs give way beneath me and sending me crashing back down to the floor.

"I wouldn't try to move, Alcina. Not in the state that you're in."

Miranda.

That execrable viper.

I feel my rows of teeth clench at the sound of her voice, raw feelings of anger and betrayal piercing me more painfully now than any of my physical wounds ever could.

My gaze is forced downwards, all I am able to survey from this position is the blood red patterning of the Persian rug I have crashed down upon.

To be so helpless like this should scare me.

But I find instead, I am seething with fury.

"What have you done with my maiden?" I snarl, the last fleeting, hazy memories of Y/n now returning to me.

She had offered herself as a host, had she not?

For... For me.

Even after seeing me like this. The form that I have always tried so very hard to conceal. The ultimate piece of evidence for those who would dare to call me a monster. The final nail in the coffin of my humanity.

Yet, she stayed by me.

Now, in her time of need, I feel a creeping, cold sensation, as I realise that there is a chance I may be too late. That I may actually have lost Y/n.

And it will be all my fault.

I should have forced her to leave the castle. Been cruel to be kind. Gotten her as far away from this ghastly mess as I possibly could, before she was placed in any danger.

That was my promise to her, after all. She gave me her trust, her devotion, her obedience and in exchange I was supposed to protect her, treasure her.

Once again, I find this beautiful, clever, funny and caring creature reminding me of my own humanity. She evokes within me those fickle human emotions which I thought had long since evanesced from my very soul itself - if there even is a soul still left within me, after all these years eaten away by the Cadou, by Miranda.

Yes, Y/n evokes such wondrous emotions.

Joy, excitement, desire.

These are the many priceless gifts she has bequeathed unto me in the short time in which I have known her.