Kingdoms Lost

04

      I regain consciousness slowly, each sense returning one at a time, lazily becoming clearer. The bumping on the carriage is the first thing I notice, my knees bumping together with each jostle. I peel open one eye at a time, but still see nothing. My heart skips a beat as sweat gathers in my hands. I find myself jolted into awareness instantly.

Thick cloth presses against my eyelashes, a blindfold. A rough rag lays against my tongue, tasting of stale spit and mildew. I have to fight to keep from gagging each time I swallow. Rope binds my wrists and ankles, the rough, frayed strands rubbing my skin raw. I take a controlled breath, my stomach lurching with each jolt of the carriage.

By the time the carriage jerks to a halt, I've lost feeling in my fingers and toes. My lips are chapped and raw, twin rivulets of blood dripping down my chin from each corner of my mouth, staining the lace neckline of my dress crimson. The stomping sound of feet against packed dirt lurches my heart into my throat.

I don't know what's going on. I want to go home. I wish desperately that Father had never agreed to that treaty. He should have known the Adriennic would only break it. I should have known. Out of all the ways I'd thought this arranged marriage would crash and burn, I'd never thought they'd break the treaty.

The heavy footfalls grow closer; the carriage door opens with a shuddering groan. I shut my eyes, despite already being blinded, as if that could make everything disappear.

"Arabelle?" someone says tentatively. The voice is deep and accented heavily, my name tumbling from the man's lips with soft vowels and hard consonants. The bench I'm sitting on shakes as he climbs into the carriage. Rough hands graze the base of my neck as the man fiddles with the knots there. A shudder races along my spine and I have to fight to keep myself from flinching away.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry," the voice says, low beside my ear. "They said we had to bind you, lest you get away."

The gag and blindfold fall onto my lap, light battering against my tightly-shut eyelids. I don't respond. Don't open my eyes.

The heat that radiates off the man's body lessens as he sits back. "I truly am sorry," he says, again. "If there were any other way..."

This, over everything else, is enough to hock me out of my denial-filled stupor. My eyes fly open and I turn to him, ready to lay into him. "Any other way? You're saying you had no choice but to kidnap me? I was already going to your—" I cut myself off with a choking gasp in the back of my throat. Shocked, though I shouldn't be, because the man staring back at me is the one I pledged my life to mere hours earlier.

Theodore runs a hand through his hair, now loose and curling around his shoulders, as I gape at him like a fish out of water. "I just... I mean, I was going to go—I married you and you kidnapped me." I finally spit out. I try to reach and wipe the blood from my lips, but flinch as rope digs in to raw skin. Right. Still bound. I laugh, the sound bordering on hysterics. "Does it even count as a kidnapping if we're married? Couldn't you have waited an hour? I was only going to change out of this stupid dress!" I rave, my vision spinning, flashing red.

Theo's brow draws together, but he stays silent, chewing his lip as if thinking. "It had to be a scene," he says, finally. "We need your parents to worry."

I consider telling him that they won't worry about me. That they only worry about me when I'm doing something improper, something that could ruin the Montellen reputation. But I decide against it. If they realize I'm useless to whatever ends they have planned, they'll likely just kill me. "Why?" I settle on saying.

Theodore, who had appeared open to some semblance of discussion, seemed to shut down at that. His expression grows dark and his eyes narrow to onyx slits. "Don't be coy," is all he says.