Profound Devotion

Chapter 27

July 31st
Monaia

I was rushed away as soon as I'd polished off my plate of food. Seraphina promised not to keep me too long, though I should have known based on the many times in the past she had lost track of time that it would be a lie.

Atticus waved us off, his lips stretching into a taunting smirk as he knew he wouldn't have to suffer through the same fate.

My mother was waiting for us in my brother's living room with Syrene and Jamie, both lingering in pastel pink and blue dresses that had been pinned to their sizing.

"Finally." She sighed, ushering us in with her hand that held a measuring tape that had once been wrapped around Syrene's waist. "Hurry and get into your dresses. I want to make any finishing touches."

Before I knew it, a black garment bag was draped in my arms, and I was nudged into the nearest room to change. As I unzipped it and slipped my own outfit out, sprawling it across Atticus's desk the best I could, all the muscles in my body stiffened.

I knew this dress.

A floor-length, flowy lavender piece hung from the wooden hanger, each detail down to the blended flowers across the waistline and rayon skirt exactly as I'd seen in my nightmare. All that was missing now was the vibrant blood that had stained and ruined the material.

Everything I saw was now coming true, from my outfit to the neatly trimmed clearing along the cliff. It was now real, and the fear I had been managing poorly from the start was now unbearable.

The walls of my brother's office grew tighter with each quickening of my breaths, my reality settling in. I was going to die, and it was going to be soon.

That thought alone made me discard the dress to the floor and claw at the doorknob to escape.

I had to get out of there. It couldn't be real. It couldn't.

I wasn't going to let this happen. Not to me. Not now. I was going to find a way out somehow, as long as Jackson didn't win. He didn't deserve it.

The conversation in the living room dulled to silence as the heavy door bounced off the wall. My mother frowned in disapproval as her eyes raked over my outfit and lack of dress, Seraphina modeled before her in a tule white dress that made her look even more like the angel she was known to be.

"What's going on? Why aren't you changed?" Her words rang foggy in my ears, failing to pierce through my mind as I scanned the room for my quickest escape route. The entire house was now far too small, and not knowing Jackson's current location sent my wolf into a panicked frenzy.

"Monaia, come on. We don't have all day."

My mother was growing more impatient as she pinned my sister's dress in strategic places to lower the bodice and tighten the satin bow at the back of her corset.

"Naia?"

Her voice called out to me again, but it was no use. My feet carried me desperately toward the back door, my lungs and racing heart begging to be free from the stifling air around me.

I needed space to calm down and map out my next move.

I shouldered through loitering village members, too enthralled to offer them an apology as my legs carried me deeper and deeper into the woods. I wasn't sure exactly where I was going, but the distance that continued to increase between me and my brother's house helped relieve some of the taunting thoughts in my head.

"Naia?" A familiar voice chimed as I emerged from the trees, finding myself along the edge of the cliff that had been ornately decorated for the ceremony that would soon be held there.