Crown of Faeries

6 | Virility

I was escorted roughly into the castle. My feet scrambled behind the iron grip of the guards as Lucian walked maliciously behind us. His gaze bored into my back as he looked my frame up and down. I got the vague feeling he was searching for the perfect spot to murder me by. Or, even possibly torture.

The black and silver lining marble floor glittered with gold specs as my bare feet screeched against the waxed layer. I tried to move around in the guards grips so I was to be more comfortable, but movement was out of the option. I tried looking back to find Kieran, but he'd disappeared.

As the two men at my sides lifted me up so I could be carried up the grand stairs, I managed to look behind me to find Lucian paused in the doorway as he talked to a slender man. His gleaming eyes reached up to mine and he gave me an arrogant wave.

Tears threatened my eyes as my forced entry into this world came crashing down. Kieran had blocked the truth I should have seen so clearly the night the Firebirds came after me. And I should have listened to the Seer...

"Where are you taking me?" I scrambled with my words as my heaving breaths became over bearing.

The guards hands became firmer underneath my armpits as they swung me over the last landing and tossed me through the air. Never leaving their grasp, however, they caught me on my down fall as they hurried me down the hallway.

Through my rushed state, I could see the ivory doors painted in numbers. 32...34...36... Each number becoming more daunting as they dragged me along. The air seemed colder up here as well as the guards came to an abrupt stop at a door without a label.

"This is your room." The guard to my right stated. He reached out with his free hand and tossed the door open.

The room was not nearly as grand as the rest of the castle. It was plain grey steel on the inside with a barred window directly across from the doorway. Here I could see the side of the castle with the tree tops just in the distance.

The guards let go of me, dropping my feet roughly on the ground and my ankles popped an ugly noise. I didn't dare cry out as their hands fell on my shoulders and shoved me inside. The eerie winter feel of the room caused a shiver to rack up and down my spine as the loud boom of the door closing echoed through me like a dream.

Humiliation scratched ferociously at my stomach as it knotted and snapped in half as my imprisoned state became too close of a reality to bear. I missed my mother, and even the wretched Silas as my knees buckled and I crashed onto the floor. At least those surroundings were home and comforting. But as I laid on the cold steel floor of my small box of a room, I slowly cried myself to sleep...

The day was gone.

Leaving a white light that was so pure and heavenly, you had to devour it in one easy breath. And, that's exactly what I did.

The light faded and quickly swarmed around me, causing my broken state to lift only then to pivot as my home became a distant scent in the back of my mind.

The fresh grass, the fluttering of bugs, the warmth of the sun, and the way it made your skin smell. The washed clothes and the wafting sent of the river just below the bend of hills.

A hint of laughter broke in the silence as my mind searched for something, anything. I was grasping at straws and panic began to to seize me. My heart thumped and sweat trickled down the back of my neck.

But then everything stopped as the white light stopped swirling to show the faintest whisper of my mother galloping in the distance, a smile so clear it conquered the sun's own happiness.