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"I'm sorry, Nia." The boy's head thrummed. He felt the world closing in around him, trapping him in a thick layer of glass. As if he were inside a marble. Able to see everything, but unable to touch it. A ringing sound ran from ear to ear. He compulsively tapped his ring finger to his thumb as he walked. His heart was pounding, it had left his body. His skin felt as if it were holding back a furnace from within. The world spinned. "I'm sorry, Nia."
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The Queen had wrapped a shawl around him.
"You are a traitor," she said.
"What?" he looked up, confused.
The Queen looked back at him, equally puzzled. "I never said anything."
"Oh."
"You betrayed her," she said.
He looked up at her again, only to find her quietly looking out the panes of glass.
He heard the distant clop of horse hooves.
"Why do you shiver?" she asked. And this time, she had spoken.
He held back a scoff for such a plain question. He was soaked to the bone. But... that wasn't why he shivered. He knew that. And so did she.
"Can you turn back around and take me to the Deveil Eggs?" he asked, suddenly desperately. Guilt now pumping through his veins as if whatever barrier had been holding it back before, now gave way.
She turned to look at him with a neat gaze. "Did you not come into this carriage of your own accord?"
"I did... but-" his voice trailed off, unable to voice the words. I was a different person, a few minutes ago. A coward. I still am, but I need to go to her. I can't leave her. Now, he couldn't even fathom how he'd ever willed his legs to walk away.
"It's all right. We're already here," she said, just as the carriage came to a halt and the doors opened. Two coachmen stood in succession with open waiting umbrellas.
The Queen stepped out, grabbing an umbrella and walked to the open doors. Warmth spilled from them.
The boy had no choice to follow, the carriage tipping slightly as he stepped off and grabbed an umbrella, and trailed after the Queen.
He looked back, once he stepped through the doors, but he only saw a sliver of the rain-covered city as panes of dark wood closed behind him. Protecting him or trapping him inside. He couldn't tell which.
The Master trailed down the steps to the crowded tavern full of people seeking shelter behind doors from the weather or behind jugs of alcohol from their lives. Their voices were disturbed, panicked, tousled. Each of them on end.
He surveyed the audience until one of them started walking towards him. Ana.
"What is it?" he sneered.
She stood right before him, but didn't say anything.
"Where is Nia?" he asked, since he'd come here looking for her in the first place.
"She isn't-" Ana hesitated.
The Master's spirits rose.
"She was hurt. Very badly," Ana shook her head and resolved, "She's upstairs."
Without a word, the Master turned around and headed for her rooms.
As he approached the corridor he noticed dark blobs of liquid on the floor thick as oil, when he stepped over one and drew his foot back, a streak of dull crimson smeared itself over the wood. He grunted in response and opened the door before him, unprepared for the warm and deranged scene before him. He didn't know where to look first. To the curtains in strips. Or to Nia laying on a mattress on the floor with her eyes closed and a piece of bandage wrapped around her abdomen, her short hair fanned around her face like a halo. Or the smeared blood and tears and cloth around her. Or to Acelius sitting braced against a wall with his head tipped back to rest against the wall, his eyes closed in tired sleep, bloody scraps tangling from his fingers. He sat far too close to the fire burning in the hearth casting an earthly glow over the room, and on his hair so that they looked like strands of burning embers. Or to the flurry of rage and confusion growing inside him.
Grinding his teeth, the Master turned around and slammed the door behind him. Leaving the two ghosts alone.
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Author's Note: we're not going to talk about when the last time i updated was... anways, thank you for reading! vote and comment and i'll see you soon in the next part (it will be soon)
love,
cora. ✮
YOU ARE READING
unraveled
Fantastik"I've seen rats with better attention spans than you," she said onto his face. And then the boy was there pulling her onto her feet and off of him. "But have you seen them with such beautiful faces?" he asked, standing up, brushing off th...
