Charmed

Chapter Seventeen

My head was in agony. No matter how hard I tried to open my eyes, the pain was just too much. Eventually, I coaxed my eyes open. I was pretty much led in darkness, apart from a few candles surrounding me. They didn't illuminate much, other than the fact that I was in a barn; the smell helped me to decipher that, too. I strained my ears, but it was completely silent. Whoever had taken me wasn't here.

I tried to sit up, but I couldn't. I angled my neck to see my wrists bound against a metal slab by leather straps, and when I lifted my head I could see the same had happened to my ankles. They weren't tied painfully tight, but it was tight enough that I could barely move my body. My breath was coming out of me in nervous gasps as I realised something else - I wasn't in the dress that I was wearing at the coronation.

The dress that was covering me now was made from a very thin, almost transparent material that stopped at my mid-thigh. It reminded me of the dress I was wearing the day I met Darius, when I was nothing more than a slave because of Pa's decision to sell me to the slave masters.

But as I led there thinking about it, if it hadn't been for Pa selling me, I never would have met Darius. I wouldn't be in love with him. He could be preparing to marry Taylor for all I knew, and as a subject of Glydale all I would have had to do was attend his wedding.

But if Pa hadn't sold me, I also wouldn't be stuck in this current predicament, in a lot of pain and scared out of my mind. I wondered if Darius had realised that I was missing yet. He must have, especially if he was coming to the stables to meet me like we had agreed.

Perhaps he had seen who had taken me and was organising a force to come and rescue me. I dismissed the thought - the Queen would never let him do that for a servant. But I had to keep reminding myself that Darius was the king now. What he said would be the final say, and there was nothing she could do about it.

Movement from the barn door made me jump, my head whipping in the direction of the noise. I winced against the bite of the leather straps as I instinctively tried to move my legs. My hopes rose immediately, only to have them crushed when the door slid open, revealing who was behind all of this. And the reveal was no surprise. 

"Kane," I growled, clenching my hands into fists. My hair was tickling my back, and I wanted to swipe it away. But I couldn't move.

He held his hands up with a smug smile. "Who else?"

I scoffed and rested my head back down on the slab. It was extremely uncomfortable. "Unbelievable." I locked eyes with him, staring into those expressionless blue orbs. "I don't understand why you're doing this."

Kane chuckled, walking around the slab so that he was stood over my head. He slammed his hands angrily down on either side of my head. I jumped, not expecting it at all. "How stupid are you?"

"Excuse me?"

"I just can't believe you haven't figured it out yet."

"Figured out what?" I snapped.

The door to the barn slid open again, and Kane's focus wavered for a moment. A smile spread across his face and he pulled away from me to stroll over to whoever had just walked in. I heard kissing noises and narrowed my eyes, desperate to see who my other kidnapper was. Kane pulled away, and the second person walked into the candlelight.

My mouth dropped open and words caught in my throat. Stood in front of me, in a disguise, was Princess Taylor of Bourbon. She was dressed in a tatty old dress that looked like it was once white but was now yellowing in colour. Her hair was in a ponytail and her blue eyes looked wild. 

She laughed at my expression, crouching down beside me so we were eye level. "What? You don't think that being locked in that tower was going to stop me, did you? Oh, Guinevere. How naive you are."