Page 4 of A Bond of Fire and Roses

I pull my elbow away from him, noting the hurt in his eyes. “Do you really want to see me married off to the person who slaughtered my parents, burnt down my castle, took the survivors hostage, including you? He is a traitorous, murdering usurper and I will never give him what he wants. He’ll have to drag me down the aisle because I will not be going willingly.”

He grips my shoulder, and I can barely contain the wince as he touches the fresh bruises left from the priestess earlier. “If you think all he’ll do is drag you, Mae—” He stops himself, briefly closes his eyes, and takes a sharp breath before opening them again. “I’ve prayed to the gods of old every day to release you from this fate. But there is nothing more I can?—”

I know how this excuse is finished, and I cut him off, tired of hearing it. “I’ve got things to do. Goodbye, Uncle.”

I slam my room door behind me, my hands shaking as I clench them, and I rest my head against the heavy wood with a thump. My uncle sighs on the other side but doesn’t follow me. I need to be alone right now. A full-length mirror stares at me from across the room. I see only a caged bird in my reflection. My rose gold hair falls down to my waist, and it almost highlights the bright purple specks within the lavender haze of my eyes. My eyes remind me of my father, whereas my hair comes from my mother, and it is distinctive of her line. The mirror is the only time I get to see my parents, even if it’s just for a moment. The king is going to be disappointed when he sees me. I’m too thin, perhaps made worse in my white dress I’m forced to wear for my purity, but the cloak is smothered in gold, and it’s clipped tightly around my neck like a noose.

The Dragon King’s symbols in silver lie down the helm of the cloak, like it’s mocking me that I won’t ever escape him. Gold stands for the new Dragon King whereas red had stood for my father’s. It’s funny that my hair colour is the exact mix of both. Red and gold. I unclip the cloak, throwing it to the side.

“You can come out now.”

My only friend in the world steps out from the closet at the side of my small rickety bed. My best friend, Lochlan, playfully grins at me before lying back on my bed with a groan. “Sister Faye insisted on a three-hour walk this morning in the snow, and I had to read old chants to her the entire time. Even praying to Hekai didn’t help me, Lena.”

Lochlan is the only one who calls me Lena.

Laughing, I jump on the bed next to him and look up at the ceiling at his side, feeling his warmth. The stone is cracked, dusty, but the bed is comfy at least. Lochlan works for the priestesses as a servant, mostly translating old texts for her.

“At least she didn’t make you read to her during her bath this time.”

Lochlan lets out a painful noise. “You promised we would take that secret to our graves!”

“Speaking of graves,” I edge. “How is our escape plan going?”

He leans up on his arm, looking down at me with his deep brown eyes. “All planned perfectly for tomorrow.” I hand him the cake from my pocket, and he happily takes it. He eats as he tells me the last details of the plan. Until now, we both agreed I shouldn’t know anything about the details in case the priestesses hurt me to find out the truth. But none of that matters anymore. In one more day, I’ll finally be free.

“Tomorrow morning, one of the servant girls, Kya, is covering for you at breakfast. She works predominantly in the gardens and won’t be missed. We’ll be claiming you aren’t well and need to stay in bed.”

Hope flickers in my heart, threatening to come alive again. Hope that I might escape my fate at long last. I trust Loch with my life. He was from the castle, like me, but his family were nobles who refused to bow to the new king. They were killed, and Loch was sent here to live in exile with the rest of us. Most of the people here were children orphaned on that day, but Loch is like me, and he doesn’t support the king.

I can’t help but look at him for maybe a second too long, my heart pounding. His light brown hair looks so soft, shining in the sunlight coming in through my small, glazed windows. He wears all black, which is typical of him, and his dark shirt has gold seals running around his cuffs. Some of the buttons are loose and I have to force myself to look away from them, my throat turning dry.

Sometimes I’ve found myself fantasising about how things could’ve been between us if I were a free princess, and he was a noble. We might have become best friends then, too. Maybe even more, since royals are allowed to choose whoever, they want to be with. At least that was the way for my father and my grandfather and so on.

Although I was the first girl born to the line, I like to think I would have chosen Lochlan, and in another life, he would choose me too.

However, in this life, in this prison, it’s too risky for him to even talk to me in public, let alone touch me. The punishment would be a slow and painful death if we were ever caught alone together, and I’d never risk that. I have no idea if Lochlan feels that way about me, but he’s my heart from the beginning, and I have a feeling he always will.

Lochlan was the only one brave enough to talk to me when I first arrived here. He used to sneak into my room and tell me stories that made me laugh so hard I cried. He made it possible for me to breathe through the nightmares and always held my hand when I needed someone. Those nightmares still come and go, but I don’t wake up screaming anymore. No. The nightmares haunt me in the day now, and I won’t ever escape them. I can escape the dragon king, though.

“There’s a cart leaving for the shore,” Lochlan says. “They won’t notice us in the back with the crates. We’ve paid them enough to make sure.”

I nod, trying hard to control my excitement. “How did you convince your friend to help us?”

He winks at me, and my heart lurches for a moment. I wonder how exactly he convinced the servant to help, before I tell myself to push it to the back of mind. It won’t matter tomorrow. We’ll finally be away from here. “We’ll get off at shore and then board a cargo ship that’s headed east.” He puts his chest pocket. “Already got our papers and new certificates ready to go. Nearly cost me a kidney, but there’s enough coin left over for us to have a good start.”

He shows me the travelling papers and our new identity certificates, and I stare at my new name with tears in my lavender eyes. It’s so beautiful seeing it in person. I had wanted to pick a name in memory of both my mother and father, but Loch felt it was safer to pick something that had no obvious connection to them or my former life. Gruve seemed like the next best choice for me, especially since violet roses were my mother’s favourite flower. It was such a subtle detail that really only my father and I knew about.

I pass the documents back to Lochlan. “Where will we be docking?”

He stretches his arms. “Miseiss, the place where your mother came from. Figured you’d like to see it? You might need to cover up your hair, though. It’s too obvious, but then again, we’ll be long gone before they even realise.” He glances at me, a little nervously. “We won’t be able to stay in one place for very long, remember? It’s too dangerous.”

“I know. We’ll always be on the run.” I blink up at him, nodding. “I’d rather run free than be trapped in a cage.”

I rest my head on his chest and listen to his heartbeat; its rapid pace matches the beat of my own. He’s as excited and no doubt scared as I am.

Only one more day and we might finally be free!

We’ve waited so long for this moment. Soon, this will all be over, and we can finally start living our lives again. Tears fill my eyes at the thought of leaving my uncle behind. I’ll miss him, more than he might ever know, but I can’t endure this anymore. And I refuse to marry the king even if it would unite our people. It’s not like they will harm my uncle once they find out I’m gone. With his experience in battle as well as in court, he’s too useful to be discarded. Or else they would have done so already. Besides, they’ve never hurt him before. It’s only ever me they hurt.

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