Threatened [W&W Book 2]

Chapter 25

Author's Note:

Chapter 25 on the 25th of December, the coincidence pleases me more than it should.  Although this chapter is definitely not exactly the place to look for your Christmas cheer...

Either way, merry Christmas and thanks for reading!  Hope you have a good one!

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Anya left Jim at the entrance to the castle. She was feeling oddly shy about the whole situation. Was Jim developing some sort of tender feelings for her? Her heart leapt a bit at the thought, until she reminded herself that he did not even really know who she was.

That was the problem. Jim knew the duplicitous false version of Anya, not the real Anya. She liked the old, real Anya better than this Anya who she had been forced to become. Maybe the old Anya would deserve the regard of someone like Jim.

Yet, was she truly someone different, or had all the duplicity she had discovered inside herself been in her all along? Had it been hidden with the resentment and violence she had discovered in herself?

Perhaps she had never been forgiving or kind or good. Perhaps she had simply been lying to herself, pretending that she was what she wanted to believe herself to be.

Anya shook her head. It did not matter. Who she was did not change what she had to do.

Anya retreated to her room. She lay on her bed with her eyes on the ceiling. She was feeling drained, probably from maintaining the shield. She did not feel like sleeping, but she also did not feel like facing anyone else. Without quite realizing that it was happening, Anya drifted off to sleep.

* * * * *

A loud noise took Anya from her sound sleep into a dark room. The last vestiges of her dreams clung to her, and for a moment she was confused about where she was. Anya heard voices in the hall, which was unusual. The castle walls were thick and sounds rarely travelled through.

Anya had a feeling of dread deep in her stomach. She quickly lit a candle and wrenched the door open.

Footsteps and a light quickly moved towards her. Hanna's frightened face revealed itself in the light.

"Hanna? What's wrong?" Anya asked, and the near panic in her voice was real.

"Lady Theresa! Help her! I'm going for help." Hanna gasped, and she continued on at a frantic pace.

Anya felt raw fear slide up her spine and a sick feeling settle in her gut. Had Lady Theresa drank from the brandy? Had Lord Wildwood?

Anya broke into a run in the direction that Hanna had come. Her candle flickered and sputtered, and she slowed down so that she would not be lost in the dark in the halls of Wildwood. She could feel cold sweat on her brow.

Anya reached a junction between two hallways and she realized that she did not know which way to go.

"Wildwood! Stop this," she heard Lady Theresa's voice faintly. The desperate cry told Anya what she needed to know. Something was wrong with Lord Wildwood and there was a high likelihood that Anya knew exactly what was wrong.

Anya moved to chase Lady Theresa's voice and then stopped herself. What was she doing? If she went, she would be obliged to help. Being there would increase his chance of survival and prolong her ordeal. Perhaps, if she left Lady Theresa there alone with Lord Wildwood, he would manage to do away with himself before help arrived.

If Lord Wildwood died, Anya would be free. She would get the twins and they would flee the country. They could go far from the people that she had wronged and from the people who had wronged her, far from poor Lady Theresa and the despicable Thorne.