16|| The Result

“Your Highness!” Poppy ran toward me, grabbing my arm just as my knees buckled like I was going to fall. I walked out of the library, holding the heavy book I’d dropped against my chest as I nodded my head.

Every step felt like a thousand needles were digging into my feet and my head was filled with so many thoughts that it felt like it could swell up and burst. I gritted my teeth, leaning into Poppy’s shoulder as she helped me down the quiet hall back toward my quarters.

“I need a bath,” I muttered, my voice dry.

“Dahlia, but—”

“Please,” I cut her off, turning to pull away from her. “Cold water. And I want to be alone.”

Poppy hesitated, biting her lip like she wanted to ask more, then nodded. She opened my door and helped me inside, worry written all over her face.

When she left, closing the door behind her I sank onto the floor, the book sliding from off my lap. My hands trembled as I stared down at the faint marks on my wrists where he’d held me.

I felt something cold crawl up my spine and I shivered. My stomach twisted with shame, fear, and something darker I didn’t dare name. I was simply terrified. What if someone had seen us? What if he told the king?

I pressed a hand over my eyes, trying to force my tears back. But when I looked up at the mirror, I scoffed. I looked pathetic.

I looked so weak and breakable like a wet dog caught in a thunderstorm.

If Coralie saw me like this, I could already hear the sharp clap of her heels as she walked into my room. She’d stand over me with her shoulders pushed back, her lips curled in that perfect, poisonous smile.

“Wow, Dahlia,” she’d smirk down at me. “My sweet little sister. You were born to lose, aren’t you?”

My hands balled into fists at my sides as I pictured the evil superiority in her eyes, the way she always looked at me like I was something she’d scrape off her shoes. No matter how I tried, I always gave her reasons to be right, always ending up the defeated one, the unimportant character in my own story.

I imagined her bending down as she gripped my chin with her perfectly manicured fingers.

“The king’s going to find out,” she’d whisper, leaning closer to my ears. “He’ll see what you’ve done. He’ll strip away your title, toss you out of the palace like trash.”

She’d laugh then, her nails digging into my jaw. “What will you do then, sweet sister? Hide? Run? Or just disappear altogether, so Father never has to look at you again?”

I plunged into the bath, letting the icy water swallow me whole. It covered every inch of my skin, until it felt like I was dissolving into it. I stayed under the water, holding my breath, forcing my body to stay still even as my lungs burned. I thought that if I drowned the noise in my head would finally quiet.

But the voice came anyway.

‘Your mind is even weaker than your body. Pathetic.’

‘It wasn’t enough that you threw yourself away on that useless mate… now you’re nothing. Mate-less. Empty. What am I supposed to do with you?’

My hands reached to grab the edge of the bathtub and I pushed myself upward, gasping.

‘You’re not what you think you are, Dahlia.’

‘Wake. Wake up, before you ruin everything.’

I had so many things pressing down on me, heavy enough to crush my chest if I let them. I took in a shaky breath and tried to sort them one by one, like stacking blocks that kept slipping through my fingers.

First, the dreams. That voice that kept haunting me and saying things too perfect to be real. They weren’t just haunting my sleep, they were having effects on my body and making me have a strange heat in my body that I have never had before because I do not have a wolf.

Then, the man in the library. A man who looked as if the goddess had craved him herself and who had the same devastating eyes as His Majesty. If anyone learned what had happened in the library, I’d be ruined before I even had the chance to fight for myself. I needed to find him, to make sure he kept quiet, maybe even bring him to my side. Someone with power like that could be a dangerous enemy… or a priceless ally.

And lastly, the Second Trial. I still had no word from his majesty, which seemed like a bad thing rather than a good thing. Waiting so long was like lying helpless on a boat in the middle of nowhere. I didn’t have anywhere to paddle, south or west.

That is what I was thinking when I heard a knock that snapped me out of my thoughts.

“Y–Your Highness,” Poppy’s voice trembled from the other side of the door. “People from His Majesty’s court are here to see you.”

“What? Why would they be here to see me? Unless…”

I pushed myself out of the bath, grabbing a robe and tying it tight as I walked to the door.

“I told them you were resting,” she whispered, “but they said it was urgent. Head Maid Smite’s with them and she looked happy. That’s never good. What if they’re here about the Second Trial… and it’s something bad?”

I placed a hand on her trembling shoulder, trying to calm her even as my own heart was pounding fast.

“Let me get dressed first.”

We hurried into my room, looking through the clothes I had. That was when I realized that I didn’t have nice dresses. Apart from the few warm clothes I’d gotten after fighting with Smite, I didn’t have anything elegant or important. I finally wore a plain black dress, and let Poppy do my hair, then wrapped myself in a thick coat.

By the time we walked into the sitting room, my heart was a drum in my chest. I first saw the same man I’d seen beside the throne on my first day. The one with hair white and standing behind him was Head Maid Smite and two maids and they were giving me slight smirks.

“I don’t know what I’ve done to deserve the honor of the king’s advisor in my quarters,” I said carefully. “I hope all is well.”

The advisor looked at me slowly, his expression unreadable. Then he smirked. “I’m here to deliver His Majesty’s words. It concerns your Second Trial that is the Temptation Trial.”

Temptation. The word almost made me vomit. I curled my fingers into the fabric of my dress.

“Oh… are you here to explain what the trial will be?” I asked, clinging to the hope that this was only a warning.

He shook his head. “No, Your Highness. I’m here to tell you the result.”

The floor immediately began to turn under me and my knees buckled, and I had to grab Poppy's arm so I wouldn’t fall.

“T…the result?”

A cold realization crawled up my spine. I couldn’t help but think about what happened at the library. Being finger fucked by a man who looked like temptation himself.

Ah… that was the trial.

And if that was true… then I had already lost.