Darkness carved in bone

Chapter 40

Helen

Helen didn't know when she had moved from standing in front of the window staring out at the ocean to sitting underneath the window, leaning her back to the wall behind her and staring at the black stone tiles before her. Her body must have gone into shock, her mind not able to comprehend all that had happened. Her body was cold, and the floor was hard and uncomfortable underneath her.

She wasn't even sure if she was dead or alive. She should be dead. The queen should have wanted to kill her immediately, to eliminate the threat the prophecy posed to her plans, but she was still alive. An inkling of interest spread in the back of her mind, because why was she still alive? There was no reason for the queen to keep her alive.

The inkling of interest died out as the image of Ten screaming and reaching after her flashed before her eyes, her vision blurring. What if the queen had done something to him? What if he was hurting right now? A feeling of panic started rising inside her, becoming more dominant than the feelings of shock, as a sudden urge to find Ten and make sure he was all right, filled her. She looked at the locked iron barred door, keeping her closed up in this cell, with malice and hate. A part of her wanted to run over to the bars and shake them until they gave way. The more dominant part of her felt how the numbness and shock made her limbs go nearly limp, there was simply no energy flowing inside her body. She looked down at the floor, her head falling down in defeat.

Ten had come for her. He had chosen her. He loved her. Each of those thoughts should have filled her with joy and happiness, but now they only filled her with sorrow and left her heart filled with regret and loss. Loss because of everything she would never get to experience with Ten. A life she wanted to experience if she could experience it with him. Tears started streaming down her cheeks as her body started convulsing again. The numbness inside her was fading alarmingly fast, and she knew there was nothing that could stop her from breaking completely now. Pain racked through her body, radiating from her broken heart and burning throughout her body. At first her crying was silent, but after a while she started sobbing loudly into her own hands, the sound echoing off the stone walls.

"Child," a hoarse voice sounded from the cell opposite the one Helen was sitting in, the hall separating them. "Child," the voice hissed again when Helen made no sound in acknowledgement that she had heard the voice, her body momentarily frozen.

"Y-yes," she said through sobs.

"Come closer," the voice said in a hiss.

Helen didn't bother to stand, and instead pushed herself forward, towards the iron bars and closer to the cell opposite her own.

"Tell me that my eyes are deceiving me and that your skin doesn't glow like the sun has embraced you?" The voice spoke from the darkness of the other cell.

Helen squinted her eyes, trying to see if she could see anyone, but it was too dark for her Sòlung-eyes to make anything out in this darkness.

"Your eyes are not deceiving you," Helen said flatly, as she licked her chafed lips.

A sharp inhale of breath came from the darkness. "Why did you come here?" The face of an old woman appeared in the other cell; her eyes wide with horror as she looked at Helen.

Helen was startled by the woman's sudden appearance through the darkness and flinched back but realized that there were two walls of iron bars between them, separating them. This woman couldn't hurt Helen.

"I came to fulfill the prophecy," Helen said her voice breaking as she spoke. The feeling of being an utter failure filled her as she spoke.

"Why?" The woman wheezed. "You should have stayed away; you should never have come here!"