Serpent in Shackles

Chapter Seven

I could hear Prince Roan's footsteps behind me as I barrelled down the hall to my room.

"Wait, stop!" He shouted.

But I didn't stop.

Adrenaline flooded through my veins filling me with excitement and fear. Free. I was finally going to be free. Well, only for the next few months, but it was better than nothing.

The Prince's footsteps quickened. Sprinting- he was sprinting to catch me.

As I reached the door to my bedroom, he lept in front of me blocking my way.

"Please don't do this. You can't go," he begged.

I stepped aside to push past him but he shifted over, blocking my way again. My patience for him was running low. "There's nothing you can say that's going to make me change my mind."

The air knocked from his lungs as I twisted the doorknob and shoved him with all my strength, forcing him back into the room. I moved to dart past him and start packing my bag.

He threw his arms around my waist, pulling me back to him. "What if I beg?" His chin dug into my collarbone. Stubble scraped against my neck. "I'll get on my knees and beg if I have to. Just, don't go."

After all the years we had been friends, he really had no idea who I was. Or maybe he didn't care to know and I had never noticed because I was so busy with work. Did he think I was trying to punish him?

Maybe I was the one who didn't know him.

"Let go of me," I growled.

Hesitantly, he released his hold on me. I turned back to him, back to my fiancé. His eyes were gloomy, bitter.

And it was that look in his eyes, the heaviness of his heart, that filled me with anger. He didn't trust me. He never did. He never saw me as his equal, only as a means to an end.

"You don't get it," I snapped. "I'm doing this for our people. For us. You heard the King, this could lead to a war. You'd rather risk a war and keep me here than let me go fight for our people? I've been on missions way more dangerous than this."

His chin dipped, refusing to meet my gaze. "It's not the missions I'm worried about. You've heard the stories." A step back. "About him, I mean."

The Shadow Knight. "Who's to say the stories are true?"

"Who's to say they're not?"

My voice raised. "What? You think I can't handle myself?"

"That's not what I said."

"No but that's what you meant."

"Don't put words-

"Sorry to interrupt," Leila shouted over us as she stepped into the doorway, saving me from the growing tension in the room. "The General wants to see you in his office. Now."

The Prince's rage soon turned to sadness and guilt, and it was enough to make my anger fade. But I didn't forget his lies.

I would never forget their lies.

I lifted my hand to his shoulder, squeezing softly through the thick blazer. "I'll be fine."

The black waves shook. "I won't be," he whispered, resting his hand on top of mine. His attention dropped to the diamond resting on my finger. "Because I don't think you'll ever come back to me."

...

I expected to be met with a lecture, trying to convince me not to go, but instead, I was met with two arms wrapping around me in a tight hug.