It's been four weeks, exactly a month, since Scarlett Solaris took to the throne and has been leading her nation, Goldaria. She and her friends still hurt from the traumatic mental wounds inflicted on them during their captivity weeks prior, but the...
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✰✦✰ Chapter Eleven ✰✦✰ " Scarlett "
I TRIED MY best not to collapse as we entered the castle.
Each time the words repeated in my mind I felt less and less alive, my heart thundering in my chest as if to remind me that I was but everything else told me I wasn't. My blood had turned ice cold since I'd received the message and I was moving only by force, otherwise I would probably have dropped to the floor.
Darius reached for me, his hand brushing against my arm. "Scarlett—"
I shook my head and walked on through the corridors of the darkened castle. It was night time and we weren't even supposed to be here yet. Originally, the plan had been to sail back to Golden Isle tomorrow morning but ever since I had gotten the letter I hadn't been able to think of anything else. Not my very recent interaction with Darius that nearly ended in me kissing him—perhaps even more if we hadn't been interrupted—and not of how furious the Leader of Crysilia—Charlois—had gotten after demanding his Guards find us to continue the discussion. Thankfully, my PR manager, Lilia, managed to stop it from carrying on and escalating even further, however was unable to prevent the journalists and photographers from catching the showing up at The Gax the second they received word we were there, only to harass us with questions as to why Darius's knuckles were tainted a faint purple. Lilia and my Guards scared them off but not before a few comments were thrown my way; such as "emotional trainwreck" or "incompetent little girl". I wondered briefly how long it would take for me to tune those voices out.
For now, all I wanted was for the world to explode and take me with it.
"Scarlett—"
The urgency bound to Darius's voice somehow persuaded me to come to a halt in my tracks. My chest heaved and frustration in me threatened to allow the tears to roll down my cheeks. "What?" I asked frailly.
He wandered to stand across from me, his tall frame giving the few hanging in this corridor even less access to shine. "You can't go in there like this."
I studied his face. "Like what?"
"Like you're about to slice off the heads of everyone in that room. You have to remember we're on your side."
"I know," I said the words a little more coldly than I wanted. "But I can't just stay here and practice breathing exercises while Jacks might be out there, planning his revenge."
"He isn't—"
"How would you know?" A scoff escaped me. "The man betrayed us all because of his past. A past that we had nothing to do with!"
