The King's Cursed Bride

The Final Vow

"I don't... feel well." Mera began to sat up, only to collapse back down.

Carissa rushed to her side. "Don't move. You've taken quite a few hits to the head." And a rather brutal one to the stomach. Carissa swallowed back bile. Hopefully the baby was still small enough that there wasn't any damage...

Mera's struggled to sit up again. "I just need to lean on something."

"I'm afraid that's not an option."

"What do you mean?"

Carissa glanced at the walls. They shimmered with thousands of needle-sized spikes, like a black lake beneath moonlight. "The walls here are the same as the walls of the city." Judging from the bloods and scraps of shriveled skin, a few of the cell's previous inhabitants had figured that out the hard way.

Mera moaned, her eyes fluttering closed. She drove her fingers through her hair. When she drew them away, they were glossy with blood.

Carissa drew her hand back. "Don't touch your wound. This cell is filthy." She was doing her best not to think of the substances staining her trousers.

"Now what?" Mera croaked.

"We wait."

"Until he comes back to torture us?"

Carissa drew her knees up to her chest. This was not the end she'd had in mind.

Mera stared up at the ceiling, tears wiping the scum from her cheeks as they rolled down her skin. "What was the point of all of this?"

She wasn't sure. Surely Elon couldn't have wanted her tortured. Which meant, somewhere along the way, she'd deviated from his plan. She pressed her forehead to her knees. Despite her best efforts to ascertain his will, it hadn't been enough. She'd failed.

Mera continued to stare at the ceiling without blinking, as if she could find the answer scrawled into the stone above them. "I don't think I've lived my life the way I really wanted to. I thought I was."

"What do you mean?" Mera had always seemed to live life on her own terms.

"What if I die? What happens then? What did I really accomplish, Carissa?" She laughed, making more tears pour down from the corners of her eyes. "Nothing. I don't think I even loved anyone."

Carissa placed a hand on Mera's shoulder. She couldn't let the girl continue this downward spiral, not when she was about to die. "Mera, don't think like that. What about your father? Think of all the good—"

"No. I didn't love him either. He took care of me. Because he took care of me, I cared for him. That's not love. That's not when Elon did."

"So if you could do things differently, what would you change?"

The tears slowed. Mera sniffled. "I'd love hard—even when it was hard, even when it hurt, even when it wasn't returned. I made so many mistakes, Carissa."

Carissa thought back to her life, before Elon. There had been so little love in that life and so much of herself. Even now, she hadn't loved as fully as she could have. If she could redo her life, how would she live it differently?

She thought back to her mistakes, the pain she'd caused others and herself. But she couldn't regret them, because they had led her to Elon.

"Maybe your mistakes could lead to something better, Mera."

Carissa expected Mera to retort, to point out the hopelessness of their situation. But instead she sniffled and fell silent.

The seconds melted into minutes, which congealed into hours. Carissa flinched every time she heard footsteps and a murmur through the bars of their cell. She wasn't afraid to die but she was afraid of pain, of endless hours of torment, of letting death do no more than lap at her fingers.

"Do you think it's too late for me, Carissa?"

To escape from the cell? To relive her life? To undo her mistakes? Yes, it was too late. But instead she asked, "Too late for what, Mera?"

"When everyone in the caravan made their blood vows to Elon, I stood back. Now I wonder what would have happened if I'd realized the opportunity I'd been given, to live for a purpose bigger than myself and to love back as I've been loved." She turned her head toward Carissa, flinching as she did so. "Elon did love me, didn't he?"

"Yes, Mera. He did protect you, didn't he? And he saved you from the destruction the rest of the caravan faced."

"He did. He sacrificed so much for me. What if... what if I could do something for him? What if I could give back to him? Repay him somehow..." Mera gasped. "I know! I'll save you, Carissa."

Carissa suppressed a snort. Barely. "Save me?"

"Yes. Surely Elon would appreciate it if I saved you."

"Given our circumstances, Mera, I think it's much more likely that I'll be saving you. And I don't think that's what Elon wants."

"You're saying that Elon doesn't want you to be saved?"

Carissa blew out a slow breath. "Honestly, I don't know what he wants most of the time. But I don't think he needs you to do that for him. If he were really motivated, he could pluck me out of the cell and hold me t–tight." Her words wobbled, as if balanced on a precipice. So if he could, then why didn't he? Carissa blinked back her tears and continued, "But he has something else in mind for me. As for what he wants for you, there is no way that you can repay him for his love. Love isn't mean to be repaid. But it is meant to be returned."

"What are you saying?"

"I'm saying that the only thing Elon wants is for you to love him back, to have a relationship with him."

"But it's too late. The blood vow—"

"Mera. Elon is not one for formalities or traditions. What he's looking for is sincerity."

"So... how do I tell him that?"

"There's no 'how' about it, Mera." Carissa smiled at her. "Just tell him."

***

Author's Note: I'm really sorry about the short chapter. I intended to type more. But I ran out of time. :( And no sneak peek this time, though I'll try to have one up for Friday.