Chapter 3

“Stop wasting the capital’s resources. You’re not worth it!”

Celia’s words fell.

The investigator glanced at me.

“Be glad the Royal Law stays my hand,” he said, his voice lethal. “Don’t dirty our ears with your lies again.”

The portal closed.

They were gone.

Kael walked over to me.

He glanced at my broken right leg.

He raised his hand.

An invisible force seized the back of my neck and lifted me into the air.

He threw me into the manor’s abandoned dungeon.

The heavy iron door slammed shut. Darkness swallowed me.

A horrifying chewing sound came from the corner.

The ghouls. They kept ghouls down here.

For three days, I lay in the damp rot.

The ghouls’ sharp claws tore at my arms.

I beat them back with broken stones from the floor.

To survive, I had to eat the scraps of rotten meat they left behind.

Ghoul rot seeped into my blood.

My skin festered, weeping yellow-green pus.

The fever blurred the line between reality and nightmare.

I wasn't the daughter of a High Priest anymore. I was a monster, clinging to life in a gutter.

On the fourth day, the rusted iron door creaked open.

My sisters’ husbands—both temple guards—returned from patrol.

They covered their noses, picked me up with their spears, and tossed me back into the manor’s great hall.

Urgent footsteps sounded from outside.

“Elara!”

Grandfather.

The most respected elder in the city council. The only person in this family who ever loved me.

He rushed into the hall and knelt beside me.

His trembling hands traced my festering skin and my twisted leg.

His old, clouded tears fell onto my face.

Grandfather shot to his feet. He marched up to Kael.

SLAP.

The sharp sound echoed in the hall. Kael’s head snapped to the side.

“She is your daughter! You animal!” Grandfather’s voice shook with rage and grief.

Kael didn’t argue. He wiped the blood from his lip with his thumb.

“Elder, you should visit the temple,” Kael said calmly. “Go and see the truth.”

A cold dread seized my heart.

Ignoring the searing pain in my leg, I crawled forward through the blood.

I grabbed Grandfather’s robe.

“Don’t go.” I looked up, tears washing paths through the filth on my face. “Grandfather, I’m begging you. Please, don’t go to the temple.”

Grandfather knelt down. He cupped my face.

He raised his right hand. “I swear to the gods, I will not go. I won’t look at his tricks.”

He wiped my forehead with his sleeve. “Rest now, child. Tomorrow morning, I’m taking you to the capital. We’ll leave this place forever.”

A gentle sleeping draught slid down my throat.

For the first time in ten years, I closed my eyes in peace.

When I woke again, the morning light was cold.

The manor was dead silent. Not a single sound.

I opened my eyes.

The space around my bed was full of people.

Kael. My two sisters. And their two guard husbands.

No one spoke.

They just stared at me.

Their eyes were a mixture of pure disgust and contempt.

Grandfather was gone.

My younger sister, Lila, raised her hand.

A whirlwind caught my hair.

My body was ripped from the bed.

THUD.

My head slammed against a hard stone pillar.

Warm blood trickled from my temple into my eye.

“Don’t get her blood on the carpet,” my older sister said, taking a step back. “It’s so filthy.”

“How do we execute her?” her husband asked. “The pyre or the river? The altar will need to be purified beforehand.”

They were discussing how to kill me.

Their tone was casual, like they were deciding how to dispose of a pile of rotting meat.

Every one of them had a strange, murderous look on their face.

I pushed myself up with my good left arm. I started crawling toward the half-open door.

Grandfather. I had to find Grandfather.

My fingers dug into the doorframe. I dragged my broken body out of the room.

A familiar pair of deerskin boots stopped in front of me.

Grandfather was back.

I grabbed onto his leg like it was a lifeline.

“Grandfather, save me…”

He didn't bend down. He didn’t cast a healing spell.

He took a step back, shoving me away in disgust.

I tumbled to the floor. The movement jolted my broken ribs, and a cold sweat broke out on my skin.

Grandfather looked down. He furiously brushed at his pant leg, as if my touch had infected him with a deadly plague.

“You deserve this,” he spat.

The blood froze in my veins.

“You…” my voice was a shattered whisper, “you went to the temple.”

Grandfather looked down on me, his gaze freezing my soul.

“How else was I supposed to know you were such a disgusting monster?”

I stared, my bloodshot eyes fixed on him.

“Grandfather… you went to the temple?”

His eyes were cold and terrifying. “How else would I know what a filthy monster you are?”

“But you promised you wouldn’t! You said you loved me most! Why did you lie to me?”

My last shred of hope was gone.

Grandmother. Uncle. Celia. Grandfather.

Everyone who ever loved me, once they entered that temple, they all became my enemy. An enemy who wanted to tear me limb from limb.

I dragged myself up. I faced the monsters who used to be my family.

"If I have to die," I screamed, my throat raw. "I want to die knowing why!"

"Take me to the temple. Show me the truth!"

I glared straight into Kael’s eyes. I wasn't crying anymore.

Kael narrowed his eyes.

They looked at each other. Finally, it was Grandfather who nodded.

Dusk fell.

The sunset was the color of dried blood.

Kael walked in front.

I dragged my broken leg up the dark stone steps of the temple, leaving a long smear of blood behind me.

We entered the temple's underground sanctuary.

It was pitch black. Kael raised his staff, and a magic circle on the central altar lit up.

A giant memory crystal floated in the air.

The light blazed, and a vision unfolded in the air.

I looked up.

The scene played out before my eyes.

My breath stopped.

It felt like all the blood had been drained from my body.

I stared at the images in the light, my pupils shrinking.

No wonder… no wonder no knight would ever marry me. It’s because…