CARDIGAN, acotar ¹

chapter thirty seven

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CHAPTER THIRTY SEVEN

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CECELIA LYRE ENTERED the dungeons the next morning, with a light-hearted smile that looked purely forced.

two guards wearing crests of a sleeping dragon, representing amarantha's damned court, followed closely behind her, and watched her every move with wary carefulness. carson straightened against the stone wall curiously as cecelia stopped at the door to her cell and glared.

"well?" she shot bitterly, shooting a glance over her shoulder toward the guards. with obvious reluctance, they handed her the keys.

carson peered up at her, as if she was a mad woman, but cecelia seemed to ignore her as she strode right into her cell and offered a steady hand to help her up.

"what's happening?" she asked, her voice tinged with dread. while she frowned as she got to her feet, she couldn't help but feel satisfaction as the guards seemed to loathe their own actions as they let them both out of her cell.

cecelia kept her silence, but frowned at the scar on her cheek, before quickly tugging her forward. carson nearly flinched as they left the dungeons, light flashing against her vision. it was always so dark in there, so quiet. and besides her guards and eris's rare and forbidden visits, she hadn't seen anyone, either.

it was all slowly getting to her, to the point that she could was hallucinating that the shadows in the corner whispered.

"you can leave now," cecelia said, feigning a cheerful tone, to her guards as she linked arms with carson and held her tightly.

the older guard, with crimson skin and dark eyes, let out a scoff of disbelief. "we were ordered to escort you."

"and now i'm ordering you to go away?" cecelia countered in a suggestive tone.

the guards, who'd sworn loyalty to the wretched queen of the mountain, both let out their own set of frustrated growls. however, instead of disappearing like cecelia had wished, they fell back, keeping a short distance between them. carson wondered if it was because they knew what rhysand might do to them if he found out they were troubling his wife, or what cecelia might do if they continued to do so.

either way, she was grateful as cecelia led her down another hallway, past dark yet appealing tapestries and paintings of history.

"i had you moved to feyre's cell," she explained after a moment. "it's not much — and i wish i could do more, but your next task is coming up and i just thought ... " she shrugged, and carson knew what she was trying to say. cecelia was giving them borrowed time, just in case they didn't survive this.

carson squeezed her hand. "thank you."

"it's the least i could do," cecelia replied, and looked a little bit embarrassed as if she was scolding herself for not doing it sooner.

they turned another sharp right, and though cecelia was just leading her to another prison cell, carson was more than glad that she could at least see feyre before her second task. she had no doubt amarantha would only make it harder in attempt to get rid of her and by doing that, keep her control over the courts of prythian.