Prisoner of Chaos (Redemption Book #4)

Chapter 10

Kyla

I am escorted from Wes' room to the steam rooms by my dayshift maid, Rama. Rama doesn't talk much. I guess I can appreciate the silence.

I wish Lila were with me to offer her assurance, or Helle was around to tell me not to dress in black, or Rift because...

I'm so alone.

There isn't anything for me in this world, but to obey the will of others. My body, my actions, my mind, they are all controlled by those around me. They expect me to walk through this door, take off my robe and humiliate myself in front of Sylvia by letting myself be under her scrutiny, and then I'll humiliate myself tonight by letting Wes have sex with me so that Wes thinks I'm pregnant with his child.

So he can enjoy the warmth of my bountiful bosom... I shudder.

"Here is the door to the baths," Rama tells me, gesturing at the wooden door.

It occurs to me as I stare at that doorway how gloomy everything here is, made of stone and wood with hardly any windows.

"Would you like me to help you out of your clothes?" Rama asks.

I don't answer her. I can't stop staring blankly at the door. My brain isn't working like it used to. Everything is fuzzy.

Am I really even here? I wonder. This can't be me. This can't be my life.

Rama raises her eyebrows at my stunned state. "Your majesty?" 

Whoa, don't slip away. I know what I need to do, even if it's a bad idea and politically and relationally incorrect.

I clear my throat. "No, Rama, I'm fine. But I don't think I'll be joining Princess Sylvia in the steam rooms today."

"Oh?" Rama says skeptically, "And what shall I tell her? The reason as to why?"

"I don't want to," I say. "I've always taken baths privately in Underlund and I intend to continue doing so. Give Princess Sylvia my apologies."

Rama nods and bows at me. She wordlessly enters through the door and I turn to go up the stairs to my own room again. By now I understand this castle enough to navigate my way back to my room.

I turn the corner at the top of the stairs and bump into someone.

This person is a child. They have black hair, and when they look up at me, eyes with a golden shade to them. It's a little boy. He doesn't look much older than seven or eight. "Princess Kyla," the child tells me. "You need to get out of here. It's not safe."

"What do you mean?" I ask him.

"It's not safe," he says, and I recognize his voice. This is the child who visited me last night. The child whose eyes had turned red.

"Are you a Cursed?" I ask him, my voice hushed. "What are you doing here?"

"I'm not a Cursed, I'm a Drakon Blood," he states, sticking out his bottom lip. "My mother told me that Cursed is such a mean word to describe us."

"Princess Kyla!" I jump at the shrill tone in which my name is called. I look over my shoulder to see who it is.

Princess Sylvia stands in a dressing gown, hair damp and pulled up in a bun, and her facial features brimming with scorn. "You dishonor me by your absence."

Arlite, just let me die already. I mechanically turn around to face her. "I'm sorry, but I've more modesty than that."

"You're just avoiding me," Princess Sylvia says, wrinkling her nose. "Maybe you don't understand it, but here in Erlund when someone invites you to join them in the steam rooms they mean to settle their differences. Both naked, both vulnerable, both equals."

"I wasn't feeling up to that either," I say truthfully.

"I think you're just too afraid because of your ugly drakon wings coming from your back," Sylvia verbally jabs. "You don't want to disrobe in front of anyone because it will show just how different you are."

"You and I are not equals," I shoot back at her. Damn, what am I saying?

"Excuse me?" Sylvia looks startled and infuriated by this.

"We will never be equals, naked or otherwise, Sylvia. Already in status, I'm your superior, I am meant to become the queen of your country," I continue as I've already lit the fire. "But before that, I'm a Cursed human. You are a mortal human. I may have ugly drakon wings on my back and turn into a hideous monster, but if someone shoots me with a dart or stabs me in the chest, I will get through it unscathed."

"I will not be spoken to in this way!" Sylvia snaps. "My father thinks you are a disgrace and I agree with him!"

"Does he now?" I ask her. "Then why is he letting his son marry me?"

"It's Wes' idea to marry you, and I have no idea what he sees in you!" Sylvia shouts, and she turns from me and stomps away. "You're a monster!"

Like I haven't heard that one before, I muse. I know it's probable I've created a solid rift between Sylvia and I, but at least I've shown her we shall not become "fake" friend where she can psychologically torment me with her passive aggressiveness.

I hope.

As I suspected, when I turn back around, the child is gone too.

Something wet trickles down my lip. What? I reach up and touch it with my hand.

I gasp as I stare at my fingers. Blood.

I'm having another bloody nose.

Maybe this pregnancy is actually killing me? Or it's making me crazy.

There's so much magic surrounding my pregnancy, both parents of this child are powerful magical beings. I wonder if Rift and I are not compatible, and my body is rejecting it.

I recall my father's story of his first wife, how she died because she got pregnant with a Cursed baby. I'm a Cursed myself, the first female Cursed in existence, everything about me is an unknown.

Perhaps my body isn't able to carry children due to the transformations it undergoes? I realize this is why I haven't taken on my Cursed form in so long. I don't want to risk injuring the baby.

Why don't I want to risk that when this baby came from circumstances I'd rather not have gone through?

This baby is all I have left of Rift, my eyes glaze over at the thought, as twisted as it sounds, I never want to forget Rift.

I hurry to my room and close the door behind me. I walk over to my mirror and notice there is no blood.

Hmm...

I collapse on my bed and take a deep breath. Reality is not going to slip from my grasp. I'm going to be strong and I'll do what I've lost everything for: Bring peace to Axus, just as my father brought peace here. Prove that the Cursed are not what the people make them out to be.

I'm going to take a nap, pull myself together, and tonight I'm going to visit Wes.