Leta's family were presumably killed during a Rebellion, and she was whisked away by one of her father's most trusted guardsmen to a faraway island to live out her days in exile, as ordered by the new King Calas. After King Calas's death, the Lady L...
Ops! Esta imagem não segue as nossas directrizes de conteúdo. Para continuares a publicar, por favor, remova-a ou carrega uma imagem diferente.
"Are you ever going to read it?"
Astrid stares at the letter, a familiar name scrawled in foreign handwriting across the back of the envelope: LETA.
Her sister, hesitant, presses the letter to her lips and glances at Astrid. "Yes."
Astrid rolls her eyes. "You're not at all curious what it says?"
"Of course I am." Leta rolls over onto her other side and extinguishes the candle, leaving them in darkness.
"Are you afraid?" She doesn't answer. "Guilty? Don't be. We'll always be your family, Leta. Don't let them be forgotten."
"I—"
In the distance, Leta hears the faint sound of boots trampling throughout the castle. But it's different than most nights. There's running, an urgency in the steps. And then...
Leta hears a woman screaming. The shrillness makes it feel as if a thousand daggers are being stabbed into her skull.
The girls sit up, listen. Men shout indistinct orders. "Stay here," Leta says. Peeking out into the hallway, she sees that strange men storm through her home, entering the bedrooms.
She quietly closes the door and turns around to face Astrid, who has gone pale with fear. Her head is ringing; everything around her is fuzzy and spinning, to the point she is so nauseous and disoriented she might be sick.
Men had infiltrated the castle, passing westward through the woods in the evening, unseen and cloaked.
"What do we do?"
A fist pounds on the other side of the door. "In the name of the Blood King—OPEN!" Astrid and Leta reach for each other and run for the balcony but the soldier is quick to storm into the bedroom.
A red-clad soldier grabs Leta by her hair, pulling her back and out into the hallway, assaulting her head with a mailed fist so hard she almost forgets her own name.
Blood trickles from the gash in her head, dropping onto the stone floor. She can hear Astrid screaming, If I could stand, I could help...
But her limbs are stubborn and her head is filled with fog. The soldiers trample through the hallways, taking little notice to her kneeling on the floor. It's a chilling thing to witness these men pass her by without a single care. She is nothing more than another casualty on the enemy's side.
There are more voices and more shouting.
Leta reaches out for the wall, grasping at the slippery stones as she attempts to pull herself up.
I have to find Astrid.
She stumbles down the hallway, staying close to the wall for protection and support, her legs shaking with every step she takes. She's not sure she can make it much further before a pair of arms catch her and drag her into an abandoned hallway.
