"I still wonder about it," I said.
His brow furrowed, eyes searching my expression. "Wonder about what?"
"Whether you're the villain in my story."
~~~~~~~
Mara Monroe is at the center of a war she wanted no part in.
But with her new throne she fac...
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Change of plans. The plan was still to rescue Cedric and save my kingdom and the rest of Elphame from Cenred's tyranny. Except now, I wanted to kill Edwin too.
I made a promise to myself as I watched Rhys struggle for his last breath that I would do everything in my power to not kill again. So early in my promise to myself for me to make an exception. But as I stared at the back of the heir to the Autumn throne, I realized that if he hurt Cedric then he warranted an exception.
Cedric, where are you?
Nothing. Again.
My pulse quickened. If he was in the keep and our connection was still not working, then... I struggled to come up with a rational explanation other than one I refused to entertain. Andras walked beside me, his hands were bound now too.
We expected as much when we arrived. The Autumn Court wouldn't trust him immediately. Not when they knew that Winter and Summer had, what they thought, was a tentative alliance. Cenred was a hateful man, surely he would assume the hatred between our two courts ran deeply and hopefully Andras' betrayal would be believable.
I wondered if he could feel the strange energy in the air, like static on my arms and the feeling was growing stronger the more we walked. The hair on the back of my neck was standing straight up and my face felt flushed. It felt like the episodes I was having, but there was no pain involved in this one.
Neither of us were quite sure what to expect once we got into the Keep. I just hope that the message I sent before we left the Summer court was received. Otherwise... well, I didn't have a great plan for an otherwise.
Edwin led Andras and I into the back of the throne room, looking out into the entirety of the room. It was almost deserted, thankfully, apart from three figures. One sat on a throne that looked almost to be marble, but was a darker yellow-hue. Bone. That's what Cedric said that the Autumn Throne was made out of.
I didn't know whose bone and I didn't care to know. But the man that sat on it he likely derived great pride from watching people tremble before it. The other figure stood next to him, shoulders slightly hunched and arm raised.
Another man, the only one whose face I could see was kneeling before the throne. Not of his own volition. He was holding his head in his hands and loosing unholy screams while something invisible to me attacked him. I recognized him as one of the knights that stopped me in the forest with Rhys. An Autumn Knight. I didn't know this man and I didn't know what attacked him, still my heart squeezed painfully at the sound of his terror.
But as we neared, I realized the things attacking him weren't invisible. His Élan Vital. It was being ripped from him, ripped from inside of his soul and enveloped in... shadows.
"Cedric," I breathed.
The screaming suddenly stopped. The man whose shoulders were slightly hunched dropped his arm in an instant, turned and looked at me with horror drawn on his expression.
