[Book 3 of the Grounding the Storm series] Renit's worst nightmare has come true. Roux isn't at his side, and he's banished from his throne and his crown, leaving him nameless and on the run. While trying to escape his father's cruel reign, he has t...
The entire world stills. My eyes squeeze shut as the arrow slams into my chest, yet I don't feel the pain. I open my eyes to find the arrow sticking out, the feathered fletching pointing into the open air. Blood drips down from that seemingly fatal wound, yet I'm still alive and standing here. He missed—Binx must have missed.
I stumble back, gasping at the wound in my chest, to...find it gone. My hand drags over that spot of my body where I could have sworn the arrow was, but the skin is untouched. The arrow didn't break through the armor and there's no wound plaguing me. How?
Renit screams out in anger, and I whirl to find him standing there—with me. Yet, that's not me. I call out for him, screaming his name to tell him that's not me, but he can't hear me. Instead, the figment of me falls to the ground, gasping for air as my hand grips onto the arrow wound in my chest.
"Hold on," Renit pleads. "Just hold on."
The prince drops to his knees in front of my body, the one that isn't me, and grips onto the sides of my face. I've never seen such terror before, Renit grips onto the shaft of the arrow but doesn't tug, he knows this is the end. I try to call for him again but my voice is lost in my throat and no one can hear me, not even the guards on the other side of the throne room.
They appear to be frozen, as if they're waiting for something.
Renit's voice cracks as I again wheeze and search for the air in my lungs that won't be there. The sound is sickening to hear, even if it doesn't belong to me...and I can hardly stand to watch. What is happening? The king is gone, he departed as the arrow flew—but Binx is still standing there.
The prince grips onto the back of my head, shushing me gently as a single tear rolls down his cheek. He gently lays my body down onto the marble floor and ignores the wounds plaguing his body as he leans over, gently brushing back a strand of scarlet hair off my forehead. My body heaves and writhes, attempting to hang on, and I watch in horror as Renit takes my bloodied hand in his and grips tight.
"You're going to be all right," he whispers to me. His voice breaks again. I rush over, not wanting to hear another word, and attempt to shake his shoulders. My hands go right through him. I stare down at my invisibility, finding myself not completely there, and panic. Have I trapped myself in a different world, another dimension? Am I...dead?
The king's dark power is still within me, sitting idle, but that's caused by him thinking I'm dead. He will not use me if there isn't a soul to use. Everything else is the same, except no one can see me. Like I'm invisible and what's before me, Renit whispering goodbyes to my dying body, is an illusion.
I turn to Binx and find him already staring at me. He doesn't say a word and just shakes his head, urging me to be silent. He doesn't smile, doesn't reveal any glimmer of hope, and his frown is deeper than I've ever seen it. Renit didn't come in here prepared to sign off on his death—Binx did.
Everything before me...he's causing it.
Renit kisses the back of my hand and rubs up and down my forearm. "I'm so sorry," he whispers. "I'm so sorry for everything."
I wheeze again and the sound cracks a hole open in Renit's heart. His bottom lip quivers, but he does his best to smile. He's trying to stop me from feeling the fear of an impending death, he's keeping me sane in a time where I'd be more likely to lose all control over my emotions.
The figment of me looks to him, head turning, but she says nothing. The fake Roux Aimrey, the one dying, doesn't speak a word. And Renit takes my silence as goodbye; he brings his lips to mine one last time and gently kisses, whispering something in my ear before pulling away. The hand he holds goes limp and Renit shakes with rage, with sorrow, with the loss of another woman he has loved.
I wait for Binx to lift the veil of his illusion, but he doesn't. Instead, he turns to the guards at the entrance to the throne room and nods. What does that mean? I try to warn Renit again, screaming out in warning, but the words don't come. Instead, there's only silence.
The guard approaches behind the crumbling prince, and as hard as he can while Renit strokes my hair, drives his pommel into the back of his head. Renit drops immediately, falling over my body, limp and cold.
Binx can't hear me, either. My voice is ripped from my throat as I scream at him. I didn't come all this way to have Renit die at the hands of the king's guard, all for the purpose of making himself look good. That is not how this is going t happen. Renit will not go out that way.
I try to reach for one of my weapons, but my hands go right through. Furious with my inability to do anything, I scream as loud as I can. Nothing. Not a single sound.
Binx jerks his chin at another guard, a faceless male standing in the opening of the throne room, and provides his order. I can't hear it, all sounds resemble whispers on a windy day, but watch as the two guards pick Renit up and take him out of the throne room. My body vanishes into nothing more than dust, the dead Roux Aimrey disappears and the throne room is empty except for discarded weapons and myself, watching as the prince is taken away from me—again.
I won't let this happen again. Renit likely went through hell to get me back. As if these past few months weren't enough, the king's dark power swirls with command. It's acting on its own. This time, I don't have the chance to shove it back down; the Grounding isn't in place because Renit is unconscious.
The dark part of me returns, the one determined to kill the prince, and I stride after the guards carrying him. Binx shouts a warning as I break out into the hall, and the last thing I feel is the blunt end of a pommel smacking into my skull.
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