6. Chapter

Eira

The silence in the room was not peaceful. It was suffocating. I listened to the prince's steady deep breathing from the massive bed across the room, and every beat of my heart told me the same thing.

Run. Now or never.

I waited. It felt like hours before I dared to move. Moonlight stretched a thin silver line across the floor, just enough to illuminate the heavy oak door. Slowly I slipped off the small bed. My feet touched the cold stone and my heart nearly stopped, but Zade did not move.

I moved toward the door like a shadow. I was a thief. The night was my ally and silence was my weapon. The lock clicked softly as I turned it. The prince had made the mistake of leaving the key inside.

Or maybe he had never believed I would have the courage.

I stepped into the corridor. The torches had burned almost down to nothing, casting trembling shadows across the walls. The corridors seemed endless, the ceiling disappearing into darkness above, but I focused on one thing only.

The exit.

My lungs ached for the free air outside, without dragon smoke and noble perfume.

I had almost reached the main staircase when the hairs on the back of my neck rose. A cold draft passed beside me and a figure stepped out of the darkness at the end of the hall.

"You really thought it would be that easy?"

His voice cut through the night like a sharp blade.

I froze.

Zade stood in the dim light, leaning against the wall with his arms crossed. He wore nothing but his trousers. The distant glow of firelight reflected across his bare chest and his eyes burned in the darkness like shards of ice.

"I am not your property!" I shouted, anger pushing aside my fear.

I turned to run the other way, but Zade moved with terrifying speed and appeared in front of me before I could take two steps.

Before I could react his hand closed around my throat and slammed me back against the cold stone wall. My back hit the stone with a dull impact and the air rushed from my lungs.

"I told you a secret, little girl," he hissed, his face so close I could feel his hot breath fueled by anger.

"I thought you understood. Noctis and I are one. When I sleep, he watches. Nothing happens in this palace without me knowing."

"Let go of me... you monster!" I tried to pry his fingers away but his grip was like iron.

"I gave you a clean bed. I gave you food and protected you from my own dragon," he continued, his voice vibrating with anger now.

"And this is how you repay me? By trying to sneak away like an ungrateful rat?"

"I did not ask you for anything! I would rather die on the streets than become your toy!" I spat the words into his face.

Zade's eyes narrowed.

For a moment I thought he might kill me right there. His jaw tightened and the scar on his cheek turned pale with rage.

"You want to die?" he asked in a deadly calm voice that was far more frightening than shouting.

"Fine. But before death you will learn what happens to those who defy me."

He released my throat, but before I could run he grabbed my arm and snapped a heavy cold chain around my wrists that he pulled from his belt.

"No! What are you doing?" I pulled against the chain but he dragged me forward.

He was not taking me back to his room.

We were going down.

Deeper and deeper into the palace where the stone was no longer carved marble but raw rock. The air grew colder and the smell of damp mold filled my nose.

"Please... Zade, no!" My voice trembled.

I remembered what he had said in the cavern. I remembered the dark hole.

"Do not take me down there. Anything but that."

Zade did not answer. His boots echoed through the narrow staircase. I heard my own ragged breathing and my heart pounded wildly in my chest.

The walls.

The walls were getting closer.

The corridor grew lower.

"Zade! Stop!" I screamed and dropped to the floor so he could not drag me further.

"I cannot breathe! I am suffocating! Please!"

The prince stopped and looked down at me. His expression was merciless, like the freezing northern wind.

"It is too late to beg now. You need to learn your lesson."

We reached a thick rusted iron door. Zade pulled it open and shoved me into a tiny windowless cell. The room was no more than two meters wide. The walls were damp and the darkness was so thick it felt like it pressed against my skin.

"No! Do not close it!" I threw myself at the door, gripping the bars with both hands.

"Please, Zade! I will do anything! Just do not leave me here in the dark! I cannot breathe!"

Panic flooded my mind. My vision blurred and a heavy knot formed in my throat that blocked the air from entering my lungs. The walls began to move. The ceiling felt as if it would collapse and bury me alive.

Zade stood on the other side of the bars. A single torch lit his face, making him look like a demon of vengeance.

"Good night, little girl," he said coldly.

"Maybe by morning you will realize my room was not such a terrible place."

"ZADE! NO! PLEASE!" I screamed, digging my nails into the iron until they began to bleed.

But he turned his back.

I heard the sound of his boots fading along the stone floor.

Then the last light disappeared.

The darkness swallowed everything. It was silent and deep like a tomb. I collapsed onto the ground, pulling my knees against my chest and trying to breathe, but every breath only filled me with my own terror.

I screamed until my voice broke.

No one answered.

Only the walls remained, slowly and mercilessly pressing closer in the deep darkness of the night.