Ever After | Book 2 of the Selected Series

19.

"I can't believe you actually convinced me to come here." Louis shuddered, wrapping his coat tighter around himself. The royal dungeons were cold and dirty, and absolutely terrifying. He could hear the prisoners' distant groans and it made him shiver.

"Stop being a baby." Grace rolled her eyes, lowering her hood to avoid eye contact with the dark figures behind bars.

"For such a high tech castle, this looks so out of place. Feels like the medieval age." Louis whispered, cringing when a droplet of disgusting dungeon water fell on his shoulder. "Grace, I want to get the hell out of here."

"We're almost there, shut up." She snapped under her breath, glaring at him. Louis sighed, quickening his pace to meet Grace's. He was surprised the tiny woman walked so fast, and she clearly knew her way around. She vaguely told him why they were there, to meet "someone important" as she said, and he didn't want her to walk around this place alone. But obviously, he was more scared than Grace. As they got deeper inside the prison, the number of royal guards increased and Louis was anxious that they were going to kick them out but to his surprise, they let them in easily. Grace only had to show her face and they would step aside, and let them go through the dark hallways.

"What the hell did you do to make them let you in?" he asked and she gave him a sly smirk.

"I look very innocent." She shrugged only making Louis frown, still confused. He decided to give up on pushing for more answers, Grace was obviously not going to tell him more.

"You are full of surprises, little Grace." She scoffed at him and turned a corner. His eyes got used to the darkness and he could see the hallway was a dead end, only three cells were in front of them. "Is this it?"

"Who's there?" A voice echoed, making him jump in fear. Grace smiled, walking towards the closest cell and gesturing at Louis to follow her.

"It's Grace. I have someone else with me today." The dark figure walked closer to the light and Louis gasped when he recognized Anastasia, the blonde girl covered in dirt and hay from her cell. She looked like a mess, which was expected from the prison's environment, but Louis was more shocked that she was the one Grace wanted to see.

Reconsidering his thoughts, he'd rather have to talk to Anastasia than to a creepy, dangerous prisoner.

"You brought the Duke?" Ana scoffed, eyeing Louis up and down.

"And food!" Grace smiled, pulling a sack from under her coat and handing it to an eager Ana.

"You're an angel." The blonde girl rushed to pull out a sandwich, devouring it with a moan. "You haven't visited me in a while."

"You come here a lot?" Louis asked in shock and Grace nodded. What the heck, he thought.

"I'm sorry about that. Many things happened up there, one being that the wedding has been cancelled? Or Postponed, I guess." Grace explained and Ana choked on her food.

"No way, what?"

"Yeah...Mady got sick and we still don't know when she'll be ready for the wedding."

"Holy shit." Ana gasped, but the three of them all jumped when a new voice echoed in the hallway.

"What happened to her?" Their heads snapped to look at a cell further back, a small silhouette stepping into the light. Louis and Grace's jaws dropped, recognizing the prisoner, and stayed stoic in shock. "What happened to Madison and Harry?" The prisoner repeated, pressing her face to the cold bars, her green eyes reflecting under the dim lights.