Chapter Two

Devlin's POV

I had been in my room for the past hour angrily packing but no one had bothered coming up to check on me.

 They were probably still celebrating the news of Mara's new engagement, I thought bitterly. 

Sounds of mugs clinking together, the local band playing and loud voices congratulating my father rang out from downstairs.

 The music drifted up through the floorboards. I could hear laughter. Full, bright, unashamed laughter.

 Nobody was laughing like that when my engagement was announced. 

When my engagement with Corvin had been announced there was no fanfare, few neighbours had come to congratulate me when they found out I was getting married to a chief's son.

 A polite nod here. A brief well-wish there. Nothing that truly looked like joy.

 I threw my gowns down on the bed angrily as I paced the room, trying to let off some steam. The motion helped nothing. 

My chest was still a furnace, still burning with something I had no clean word for. Rage, yes. But underneath all this rage was grief. 

My door opened, hitting the wall with a loud thud.

 Standing in the hallway was no one else but the devil herself. "What do you want, Mara?" 

I spat out." I just wanted to bring you some beer." She walked into the room like she owned it, a ceramic mug in each hand.

 "Since you refused to come down for my engagement ceremony, I thought to bring the ceremony to you." 

"Get out. I don't want anything from you." I wasn't in the mood to play her mind games right now.

 I turned back to sort out my gowns. The mug fell out of her hands, landing in the pile of clothes I had spent the last hour packing.

 The beer spread fast across the fabric. I stood there staring at it for one full second.

 "You fucking hag." I shoved her aside and began pulling up my gowns one by one, assessing the damage with shaking hands. 

I felt a hard shove on my back. I fell forward, my body hitting the bed and my head striking the headboard hard.

 The sound it made was dull and terrible. My head felt like it had been split in two. 

The ringing came back, but now it was ten times louder, a high sharp whine that pressed against the inside of my skull.

 I cradled my head in my hands and groaned into the mattress. "Mara, are you okay, love?" My body went still. 

That voice belonged to Corvin, I realized with dread. "You pushed me." I said it quietly, still lying there, still trying to get the room to stop tilting. 

His soft gaze hardened as he turned it on me. "What is wrong with you, Devlin?" He spat the words like they tasted bad. 

"Why would you shove your little sister?" "You pushed me." I repeated it. 

Firmer this time. His gaze wavered, just briefly. Then it sharpened again. "It was a mistake. I didn't mean for you to get hurt." 

His fists clenched at his sides. "Corvin, my knee is bleeding." Mara's voice came out small, cutting through the tension.

 He turned back to her immediately. Completely ignoring me like I had already ceased to exist in his world. 

"That's a really deep gash," he murmured, crouching in front of her. "You're going to need stitches." 

"No." She shook her head, her eyes filling perfectly on cue. "No, I don't want a scar."

 "Don't worry, M." His voice dropped, gentle in a way it had never once been with me. "I would never let a blemish touch your skin."

 I let out a short laugh at that. It came out broken. He straightened up as if suddenly remembering where he was.

 His expression closed off. He crossed the room in two strides, grabbed my arm roughly and dragged me off the bed.

 "Devlin. Apologize." "No." I stared at him. I let him see exactly how much I hated him at that moment." 

Don't make me repeat myself. Apologize." He hissed it low into my ear. 

Out of the corner of my eye I saw Mara smirk. Just a small flicker of it. Just enough. 

"No." I pulled my arm back. "She came into MY room. Threw beer on MY clothes. Stole MY fiancee. So no, Corvin. I am not going to apologize to this shameless whore."

 I barely got the words out before he slapped me. I hit the ground with a thud. 

The side of my face erupted in pain. The ringing in my ears doubled.

 I lay there blinking at the floorboards, trying to center myself. He turned me over with his foot. 

"Apologize." His eyes had gone dark. My hand found my apron pocket without thinking. 

The small knife was there, the one I kept as I worked around the house. 

My fingers closed around the handle. I stabbed his foot and bolted out the door.

 His curses tore through the room behind me but I was already through the door and moving.

 The staircase came fast. I took it too quickly, one hand scraping the wall for balance, the other still gripping the knife. 

The guests downstairs blurred past me in streaks of colour and confused faces. Someone called my name but I didn't stop.

The night air hit me the moment I cleared the door. I ran. My body had no right to be moving the way it was.

 My head pounded with every stride, a deep nauseating throb that radiated from the point where it had hit the headboard.

 My left ear was still ringing. My face ached where his hand had connected. Each breath came in sharp and uneven. 

I ran anyway.

 The city walls rose ahead of me, pale and enormous in the darkness.

 I reached them and pressed my back flat against the stone for a moment, chest heaving, checking over my shoulder. 

No one had followed me. Not yet.I looked up at the wall. 

Before I could overthink my plan I jammed my foot into the first groove in the stone and pushed.

The pain in my body protested immediately. 

My arms shook as I pulled myself up, fingers finding the uneven gaps between stones, feet scrambling for purchase.

 Every movement sent a fresh pulse of pain through my skull.

 Halfway up my grip slipped and I hung there, cheek pressed to the cold stone, breathing through my teeth until my arms stopped trembling enough to continue.

 I climbed, inch by inch. My body screaming in protest the entire way. 

When I finally pulled myself over the top and dropped down the other side, I hit the ground hard and stayed there. 

Only when my breathing began to slow did the full weight of what just happened settle over me.

 I had just stabbed the future chief of Edevane.