Lady Death

NINE

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Rae opened her eyes, her vision swimming as she groaned in pain. A metallic taste filled her mouth. Rae rolled to her hands and knees as she spat on the stone floor of her cell. A silvery liquid swam in the spit on the ground.

Liquid iron.

The same poison that had killed her mother. Rae cursed, doubling over, she forced herself to vomit up what she could of the poison she had been forced to consume. Sure enough, more silver liquid came up.

Hot tears ran down her face as she squeezed her eyes shut. She would not be so lucky to die from this, but part of her wanted to. It had all been a dream. The second one had been a twisted nightmare, but the first one, that had been real. It had happened less than two years ago. Even thinking about him hurt.

Benjin's easy smile had always made her feel warm and safe inside. She would never again hear the carefree way he laughed. She would never again get to sneak off with him at dinner parties or go for a run in the early mornings before the sun had fully risen in the sky. Rae would never get to spar with him in the afternoons or go on hunts in the King's forest.

Rae later learned she had killed twelve guards that day. It had not been enough to quiet the pain she felt inside. Rae wondered if she might have loved him, or would have possibly even married him one day. That strange dream had dug up her greatest fear of all. What if Benjin had been her mate? What if she had been too stubborn to realize it and had lost him forever?

If she stayed in this prison much longer, she would see Benjin and her mother again soon. Rae leaned her back against the cell wall, wincing at the small movement. Thinking of her mother only caused guilt to fill her. When she had first joined her father's ranks, she had made a promise to herself, that her father would never have to light a pyre for her. He would not lose her too. But now, she was not so sure. She was not even sure if her father was still alive.

Rae closed her eyes. The world was so quiet and she was so tired. A sound, as if the sky itself was cracking open, exploded into the night. Rae did not even have time to process what she had heard as a booming sound quickly followed the explosion. It was like a clap of thunder directly overhead, it shook the walls and ceiling of the cell. Small bits of stone showered down above her. Her hair stood on end.

Rae was already on her feet as three alarm bells began their morbid chimes. Dragging her chains behind her she stood on the tips of her toes at the door. The small grate at the top of the door was just big enough that she could see a small distance down the hall in either direction. Prison guards ran down the halls, a few glancing in her cell's direction before carrying on. Rae knew it was not her they were looking at, but the two black-masked guards that stood outside her cell door. Neither of them moved.

Rae could smell them, smell the magic coming off of them. Traitors. That is what these males outside her cell were. Traitors to their people, and now serving their enemy. The lip pulled back in a silent snarl at the thought. Had they been given the same option as she was. Join the Prince, or die?

Rae pushed away from the small window. The sound of the bells was quieter in her cell. Much quieter than they had been near the door and in the hall. Her ears still rang with the noise. Rae covered her pointed ears, backing as far away from the door as possible. Breathing, she focused her mind, through the haze of liquid iron still burning through her system. Slowly, the bells quieted. She could hear new sounds beneath the sound of the bells. Guards running through the halls, shouting orders. Armor clanking as they ran. And then screaming.