Semua Bab The Mad King's Mate: Bab 41 - Bab 50

Evelyn's POVNoon is the worst time of day.The sun hangs high and cruel, burning through the thin clouds and pressing down on everything beneath it. It's hot, sweltering and so not for me. I swear Urelle has the ability to change the temperature and weather within the wards. I'm starting to think my suffering gets her high because the weather always seems to be on the extreme. EVERY. DAMN. TIME.I pace the narrow path that circles the garden.Back and forth.Back and forth.I thought being out here would calm the storm brewing within me, but it seems that I was wrong. I barely make it another step when the pain hits.It isn't the soft ones that fumble your insides a little bit. No…. It spears through me, sharp and sudden, stealing the breath from my lungs. Gasping, I brace myself against the low stone wall that borders the path, knees threatening to buckle.“Not now,” I whisper through clenched teeth. “Please.”The pain answers by tightening.It feels like something inside me is tw

Evelyn's POV Pip hasn't really spoken to me since Wren snuck her in. We seem to have come to some sort of quiet agreement of giving each other space but I've stayed more than three months without seeing her… I don't want to give her space. I miss my best friend. I agree that she was right and I should have probably listened to her about Arkan and my entire homewrecking escapade.Whoooshhhhh! What to do, what to do?She is perched on the high beam near the ceiling, pretending to groom her wings while very obviously watching me pace the length of the room. I let her. I’ve learned that pushing Pip never works; she comes around on her own terms or not at all.I let out a sigh as I pause to stand underneath her. I take back my words, I'm not waiting for her to come to me. The silence is stabbing. I can’t take it anymore. “Say something….” I plead. “I'm sorry, okay. Gosh… sorry is too small of a word. I messed up. I should have listened to you, but I was stupid and you have every reason

Evelyn's POV:The first sound I notice is the music. The palace is too loud for a place built on secrets.Even hidden behind magic, I can hear it, the thrum of drums, the swell of voices, the distant howl that marks the beginning of the mating ceremony. It slides through the walls like smoke, vibrating through the floor beneath my bare feet. The mating ceremony.The sound carries through the wards like a taunt, like the palace refuses to let me forget what tonight was.I press my palm to my stomach, standing still as a wave of nausea washes over me.Four months.Only four, yet my body already feels like borrowed land, restless, aching, alive in ways I have never learnt to control. The baby shifts again, slow and heavy, as if it can feel the music too.“I know,” I murmur, rubbing my belly slowly. “I hear it.”Pip hovers near the ceiling beam, unusually quiet. Her wings trembles, shedding a faint shimmer of silver dust. She has been like this all evening; alert, sharp, pacing the air t

Evelyn’s POV I feel the moment the ward gives way as I pass. The magic that has pressed against my skin for months flickers, and then is… gone.My knees buckle.I grab the stone wall of the corridor, breathes tearing from my chest. Freedom.A sudden deafening roar shakes the ground. The corridor rumbles in response.Pip clutches the neckline of my cloak, wings tight to her back. “That was him,” she hisses. “That was definitely him.”Arkan.He’s discovered the decoy.There’s no time to think about it. It won't be long before a search party is assembled.We run.The servants’ corridor spits us out into the lower city. The air outside is colder, filled with smoke and the distant noise of celebration.The ceremony is still happening.People are laughing somewhere above us.I pull my hood lower and force my breathing to steady. Panic will get me caught faster. My body feels wrong. It feels heavy, but my instincts are razor sharp. Every sound is too loud, every scent too clear.Fear.Win

Evelyn’s POV Somebody kill me!Should I weep blood before the universe hears me?Damn you goddess and whatever shitty gods that live with you in the freaking stars.What time is it?With no way to measure, time seems insignificant. I stopped trying to count the days after the first few cycles of waking, walking, resting, and eating. If I had to guess, I would say weeks. One? Two? Three?Fuck you, stupid god of time for making something so fickle that determines everything. To be honest, telling the time is the least of my problems down here.At first, every step terrified me.The dark is thick, the kind that swallows sound and makes your footsteps echo too loudly. Even my enhanced vision is barely of any help. I learnt quickly to move slowly after I almost took myself out of this world by tripping into a small chasm. Thank the heavens I caught my footing in time. I don't think the world I'd ready to lose me yet.The tunnels are not empty too.Something I discovered on the third… or