Chapter 1

Serena

Drip. Drip. Drip.

Water drips from somewhere above me, in a slow, indifferent rhythm, falling against stone. The sound is distinctive even within the sounds of morbid despair assaulting the senses.

Down the corridor, someone is crying softly- the sound unmistakably female. Further off, someone moans in fever-sleep- thin and worn out. The kind that comes from someone who doesn’t have much longer to live.

“Shut up b*tch!” a man’s furious voice cuts through followed by a loud slap, “If it weren’t for you, we wouldn’t be here.” He snarls.

“Keep crying and I’ll strangle you myself before the executioner gets to you.” He spits venomously- his aggression failing to hide unmistakeable treble of fear in his voice. The crying immediately stops.

The prison returns to silence. But it doesn’t last before a blood-curdling scream erupts and I flinch in spite of myself. The sound is loud and piercing, sending shivers of terror down the spine of anyone listening.

I close my eyes and let my head fall back to the stone wall behind me.

The torture is starting again.

They’ve been at it since I got here. I don’t know who is being tortured- or even what the jailers are doing to him- but the sounds being torn out of his mouth are unnerving enough that I can be sure it’s unspeakably cruel.

They are just far enough from my cell that I cannot see what is happening, yet close enough that I can hear every sound with terrible clarity. It leaves me to imagine what horrors that person is being subjected to- and what kind of instruments could elicit such gruesome sounds from a werewolf…

Sometimes what the mind conjures is far more sinister than what the eyes could ever see.

I have no doubt this is intentional- and entirely for my benefit. It is one of the psychological games they play on spies, traitors of the kingdom, and war criminals, designed to break their spirits. And now they are playing it on- the Queen of said Kingdom.

This man’s torture started yesterday morning- I assume it was morning because the guards had changed shifts twice since then- and to my knowledge, the guards change shifts once in the morning and once at night. The last shift change had been just a bit over an hour ago. It’s hard to gauge time otherwise in this windowless underground dungeon.

I pull my knees tighter to my body and feel the straw covering the floor beneath me give a soft crunch. Has it been two days already? Yes, two days. The guards had barged in at dawn-

The King’s Royal Decree.

Evidence of collusion.

By the Blackwoods. By my family.

That’s impossible. My family have served as generals and loyal to the crown since the kingdom’s inception. How could they possibly ever engage in something like treason?!

I was dragged through halls I had walked as Queen, past servants who stared and whispered, to the palace dungeons that hold only the worst criminals and locked in this cell. I had demanded to see the King but the guards had ignored me. They threw me in and left, without sparing me another glance.

I have screamed until my voice tore itself ragged- screamed Cassius’ name- demanded he see me and explain. I screamed my innocence and that of my family’s, but…nothing.

I am still in abject disbelief. Whatever ‘evidence’ had been found, how could Cassius disregard eight years of marriage and believed it? Collusion with an enemy state is a treasonable crime punished by extermination of the immediate family and exile of the clan.

No one has touched me since I was put in this cell. Granted, I haven’t been given any food or water either, but compared to others in this prison, I am entirely unhurt.

I understand why. Regardless of the King’s attitude towards me, I am still the Queen. And unless and until I am deposed, no one would dare lay a hand on me without his express permission. So, for now, they’ve simply ignored me.

But being unhurt does nothing to stop the shivers wracking through my body.

And they have nothing to do with the cold.

My mind desperately continues to turn over the recent events, searching for where it had gone wrong, when I hear it. Footsteps.

Not the heavy steps of the jailer doing his rounds. These are sharp- the crisp, deliberate clip of heels against stone. Unhurried, almost elegant, and entirely wrong for this place of rot and ruin. And beneath it, the whisper of fabric. Luxurious heavy fabric. Moving closer.

My eyes snap open just as the footsteps stop just outside the bars. Standing in front of my cell, staring down at me through the bars is Lady Ava Vespertine. She stands draped in a rich dark purple gown, the torchlight flickering against the stone wall behind her, catches the jewels at her throat. Her eyes slowly travel over my curled up form, taking in every detail before her lips curl in a satisfied smile.

She makes no effort to hide her delight.

“Well…well…well”, her smooth voice purrs in delight, “doesn’t this just paint the picture. The great Queen Serena, huddled up in the dark like a lowly criminal. I always knew this day would come”, she narrows her eyes, drinking in every inch of my embarrassed state- my messy hair, my trembling hands and my once fine gown now filthy with wet stone.

I push to my feet- trying my best to do so as gracefully as possible and not trip over my own gown. Her eyes fall to the jangling chains shackled around my wrists and her widening smirk tells me that I have failed.

But I would be damned if I gave this snake the satisfaction of a reaction, so keeping my face cold, I bark, “what are you doing here?”

She takes no offense to my tone. Instead, her smile grows even wider. She steps closer, “I brought news… and also to see you off. After all, it’s only fitting considering our history”.

I ignore the latter half of her sentence. “What news?” I ask, my heartbeat beginning to accelerate.

I don’t know how I know- but by some instinct older than reason- the shift in her expression tells me that whatever she’s about to say is going to be bad. That cruel hunger in her eyes. That barely-contained anticipation. Whatever she is about to say, it will be devastating. And Lady Ava can’t wait to be the one to deliver it.

“Your family is dead-,” she purrs, savoring each syllable like wine on her tongue, her eyes glinting with cruelty, “-all of them”.

The words don’t make sense at first. I understand what each individual word mean, but my brain is unable to comprehend them strung together.

Color drains from my face.

“What?”

The word leaves my mouth like a drunken slur.

“Yesterday”, she adds, as though that piece of information is supposed to make the unintelligible words she just spoke make sense.

“His Majesty ordered their arrest yesterday morning”, Lady Ava continues, watching me with the same fascination and cruelty as a cat watching something it had hunted struggling to live. “Your father and brother tried to resist the arrest. How foolish of them”, she tuts, shaking her head, “From what I heard, the soldiers tried to bring them under control and well… I guess they used too much force and they didn’t survive the skirmish”, she shrugs, “it was an accident”, she finishes. 

Her body language indicates that she finds all this trivial information, but her eyes that refuse to leave my face- filled with morbid pleasure- not missing a single expression tells just how invested she is.

I stumble back. My subconscious controlling my body in a futile effort to escape the words.

What the hell is she talking about?

But there’s more. Lady Ava is not done…

“And your grandfather, the Duke-“ a small delighted giggle escapes her, like she genuinely couldn’t help herself, ”-his heart supposedly gave out when he heard. Which is a surprise, isn’t he only a hundred and fifty or so? Anyways, he collapsed right there in the hall.”

“And lastly, your mother”, Ava’s eyes gleam, the smile on her face growing even bigger as she drinks in my anguish, “apparently, she ran mad. She was able to get her hand on a silver dagger and stabbed it through her own heart. Couldn’t bear to go on without her husband and her son it seems.”

She clicks her tongue in mock-sorrow, “Its a tragedy. Truly. Your entire bloodline, gone in a single day.”

Her head tilts, “well except for you…” she laughs with joy, “you’re still here.”