Chapter 8

The darkness was the first thing I felt. It wasn't the soft darkness of sleep, but a heavy, wet darkness that smelled like old coins and rot.

  I tried to move, but my limbs felt like they were made of stone. When I finally opened my eyes, I couldn't see anything. 

 I reached out my hand and felt cold, slimy rock. I wasn't on the soft bed anymore. I wasn't wearing the silk gown or Ezekiel’s warm fur coat.

  I was lying on a floor made of dirt and jagged stones. I was completely naked. 

 The air was so cold that my breath came out in small white clouds, but I didn't have anything to cover myself with. I curled into a tiny ball, trying to use my own skin to keep me warm, but it was no use. The dungeon was a freezer.

  As I lay there shivering, I remembered what happened. I remembered the way Zayn had pinned me down. I remembered the cruelty in his eyes and the way he treated me like a toy. And then, I remembered the light.

  What was that? I wondered.

  I had never shifted. My father had spent years calling me a shiftless dog. But that power... it didn't feel like a wolf. 

 When a werewolf shifts, they feel hot, like their blood is boiling. But I felt cold. I had felt like I was the center of a blizzard. I had thrown a King across a room with just a scream.

  The thought terrified me. If Zayn thought I was a chosen one before, what would he do to me now? He had called me a witch. He had looked at me with disgust and a glint of fear. In this world, people destroy what they are afraid of.

  "I'm going to die here," I whispered. My voice was small and cracked. "He's going to kill me because I'm a monster."

  I don't know how many hours passed. My body was shaking so hard that my muscles started to ache. 

 Just as I thought I might freeze to death, I heard the sound of heavy metal sliding. A small door in the wall opened, the kind they use to slide food to prisoners.

  "Ariana? Are you awake?" a soft voice whispered.

  I crawled toward the light. Three faces appeared at the small opening. It was the three Omegas from the room earlier, the girls who had been sold just like me. 

 They looked scared, but their eyes were full of pity.

  One of them, Lyra, pushed a bundle of clothes through the hole. "Quick, put these on before the guards see us. They are just old rags, but they are dry."

  I grabbed the clothes. They were rough and smelled like soap, but they felt like heaven against my frozen skin. I pulled on the tunic and the pants, my fingers fumbling because they were so numb.

  "Thank you," I sobbed, leaning my head against the cold bars of the door. "Why are you helping me? Zayn will kill you if he finds out."

  "We know what it’s like to be the property of a monster," Vivian said. She pushed a small piece of bread and a cup of water through the gap. "We saw what you did in the bedroom. The whole palace is talking about it. The walls are still cracked. You’re the only person who has ever made the King bleed."

  "I didn't mean to," I whispered, clutching the bread. "I just wanted him to stop."

  The girls looked at each other, and their faces went very sad. Vivian reached her hands through the bar to touch mine.

  "Ariana, there is something you need to know," she said quietly. "We heard the guards talking. The Alpha King is... he is very angry. He says you are dangerous and that the marriage is over."

  I felt a small spark of hope. "Does that mean he's letting me go?"

  The girl shook her head, and my heart sank. "No. He says he still needs a pure bloodline to break the curse, but he won't touch a witch like you. He has brought your sister, Caroline, to the upper chambers."

  I froze. "Caroline?"

  "He told the guards that if the first daughter is broken, he will take the second," the girl explained, her voice trembling. "He is making her the Luna. He is going to give her the crown, the gold, and the title. He said he will keep you in this hole to watch your sister take your place. He wants to show you that you are nothing."

  The bread fell from my hand and landed in the dirt.

  The physical pain Zayn had caused me was nothing compared to this. 

 My sister, the girl who had mocked me my whole life, the girl who had watched my father beat me and laughed was going to be the Queen. 

 She was going to live in the sun while I rotted in the dark. She was going to have everything I was promised, and she would use that power to make sure I never walked free again.

  "He's taking her... tonight?" I asked, my voice barely a breath.

  "Yes," the redhead said. "There is a feast happening right now. We have to go back to serve the wine. We just wanted to bring you food while we could."

  "Wait!" I called out as they started to pull away. "Does Ezekiel know?"

  "The King's cousin tried to stop him," they whispered. "But the King threw him out of the Great Hall. No one can stand against Zayn when he is like this."

  The small door slammed shut, and the light disappeared.

  I sat back in the dirt, the darkness swallowing me again.

  I should have been happy that Zayn wasn't coming back to my bed. I should have been relieved that he didn't want to touch me anymore. But all I could feel was a deep, burning hole in my chest. My family had sold me, and now they had replaced me. 

 I was discarded like a piece of trash.

  I looked down at my hands in the dark. I tried to find that silver light again. I tried to feel the cold power that had saved me before. But there was nothing. I was just a girl in a cold cell, listening to the faint sound of music and laughter coming from the floors above.

  Zayn was upstairs with Caroline and he was doing it all to punish me.

  I curled back into a ball, but I didn't cry this time. The tears had frozen inside me. 

 If Zayn wanted to make me a monster, if he wanted to treat me like a witch in a cage, then that is exactly what I would b

ecome.

  I closed my eyes and whispered to the silence of the dungeon. 

 "I will not die here. And when I get out, I will turn this whole kingdom to ice."