[THIS STORY WILL BE TAKEN DOWN ON SEPTEMBER 30, 2024]
He had hunted me, captured me, and locked me in a tower.
Season 3 'Of Crows and Thorns'
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While in RISING, Tabitha discovers something peculiar that may assist Nelle in her plan to escape the...
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Part of me was still confused. "This didn't happen to her when she was locked in the Tithe Prison." Nelle hadn't mentioned it to me when she'd shared her secret. But I knew it couldn't have happened to her back then.
My sister sucked in a horrified breath. "What did you just say?"
I blinked, coming to, realizing this was a part of Nelle's history Ferne didn't know. "After our mother..." And I didn't need to go into it further because my sister knew what I'd be talking about. "Marissa locked Nelle in their family's Tithe Prison. Guilt, I expect, at betraying our mother." Even at that young age, Nelle's strange powers would have been growing stronger, and I'd say fear of her daughter would have been another reason why Marissa would have done such a desperate and cruel act.
"She would have...been..." the words drifted apart as she thought it through, calculating just how old Nelle would have been. "Seven years old."
"Yeah." Seven years old and trapped in absolute darkness, alone.
"Gods, that's—"
"Monstrous? Horrendous? Despicable? Is it any worse than what we're doing? What's going to happen to Nelle if she survives this sickness?"
In the corner of my eyes, I saw Ferne wince. And I sensed her confliction deepening as she chewed on her bottom lip, glancing away. A moment later, she leaned a shoulder against the doorframe, her black eyebrows nudged together beneath the lace strapped around her forehead covering her empty eye-sockets, as she gave what I'd said earlier some further thought. "The wyrm's growing, maturing with her. It would have been a youngling back then. Only when it reaches adolescence is it allowed out of the burrow to bask in moon rays or sunbeams."
And right now, we didn't have either.
I'd done this to Nelle. She was dying because of me. She'd die even if she survived the night because later on at the Witches Ball, I'd be the one that would place her on the auction block.
"She needs a friend," I said turning back toward my sister.
Ferne pushed abruptly off the doorframe. She pulled an anxious are-you-sure? face, instantly knowing who I was referring to. She clicked her tongue twice. "I've worked with him the past week or so. He can't bite your face off but he's going to let you know how he feels."
I was about to ask—beg, really—for her to bring him up here when she answered for me. "I'll go get him."
As Ferne fled down the stairwell, I walked back inside and lay Nelle gently on the leather couch, and carefully dragged it outside so as not to jostle her.
I squatted down so I was closer to peel the sticky locks from her temple and forehead and brush them aside, tucking them behind her ears. Her eyelashes fluttered shut, on a long whistling breath... And she didn't take another.
