Bridging the Ancient ✓

Chapter 24

My chambers are an empty pit of silence, there is nothing for me to do there, so I take that leap and venture through the castle. Listening to Renit pace back and forth is not how I want to spend my morning after scarfing down as much food I could eat without vomiting. My entire being is stressed enough and the more I'm around him, the worse my anxiety will become.

Renit won't tell me what his plans are. I don't bother asking but I've come to understand the prince and his plans are best served in secret. If he sends me to the dungeons...I can't fault him for choosing that. He's said time and time again that his loyalty lies with the crown and with his father, cruelty and all.

I don't blame him. His father is a safety net, as much as the king might avoid to catch him when the prince falls. Without his father, Renit has nothing. His status would become nothing more than a lowly prince who shakes the hands of lords and stands idle at parties and celebrations. With his father, he is something. The king's weapon. Without a king, Renit loses the title.

After taking a bath and combing out the knots from my hair, I change into a black tunic with gold embroidery. I stuff my trousers into leather boots and take one last look in the mirror. I frown at myself through the silver glass. From being in those abandoned dungeons with lack of food, I've lost some of the frame to my face and I'm nearly back to where we started.

This is the first time in years I've been able to pull back my hair. The scarlet strands are long enough now and after being washed and brushed out, my hair is silky and holds a shine. Feeling emptiness around my face, I stick two golden earrings through my lobes—the daggers I wore on the night of our engagement celebration. That's the only pair that interests me.

With the king departed from the castle, there is a much easier feel in the halls. The servants aren't stressed, running about with baskets of clothes and sheets for guests. Instead, they walk at an even pace and smile at me when I pass. They've never done that. The departure of the king has changed everything about this castle, even the guards and how they maintain their posts.

Although still professional, they aren't scared to talk to each other.

This carefree behavior...this is how the castle should be. We shouldn't be scared to talk to each other or smile at those we pass in the halls of stone. I try to avoid thinking about how this could become an everyday occurrence with someone else on the throne but that's exactly what I'm trying to avoid. I don't want to think about it anymore.

Celestine's door is shut and no sounds come from the other side. In this small stretch of hall, empty except for the torches on the walls and a brazier crackling in the corner before another stretch of hallway, there are no other doors.

My sister is lonely down here in the crown prince's tower. Only one window looks out to the courtyard, now cleaned except for the adjustment of stone and the construction of a new fountain. At least something pleasant came from my foolish mistake of trying to kill Darius.

Instead of knocking, I peek my head inside her chambers and find Celestine sitting at her desk, her back to me. From the doorway, I can hear the pen scratching against a clean piece of parchment in one of her journals. I wonder how many she has filled, if Silas ever got the chance to give them to her in the first place.

Celestine's hair is unbound, flowing down the back of her dress in gentle waves. Her feet are bare, her ankles crossed—just as she used to sit at her desk in Arego. At the memory, tears prick at my eyes but I shove down that sorrow. I cannot allow myself to break here, I cannot always go to Celestine with my troubles of the past.

Not wanting to startle her, I rasp my knuckles on her door. "Not now, Hallie. I'm almost done, just give me a few more minutes," she says without turning to look at me.