Page 55 of Desperately Yours

“You left her alone?” The news quickened my pulse. “Could she still be there?”

“No, I sent Kabir earlier. He said the cellar was empty.”

It wasn’t good enough. I needed to see it myself. With long strides, I started for the door. Bishop’s hand gripped my arm and halted my steps.

“Where do you think you’re going? You have a ball to attend. A bride to marry!”

“Not until I know where she is. There must be a clue down there. If she was abducted from the cellar, perhaps she put up a fight. Maybe she left a message.”

“She did.” Bishop motioned to the crumpled note tucked into my fist. “But you’re choosing not to believe it.”

“I’m choosing to believein her,” I corrected him. Once more, I started for the doors.

“Fine!” Bishop called after me. “I’ll look myself. But you have to get to the ball. You can’t delay another moment. The wedding will be tonight, no matter what. Understand?”

Duty. It had forced my hand every day of my life. As much as I hated to admit it, I would do the same again tonight. The country needed a king, and I had to have a queen.

“I understand,” I conceded. My grip locked around the handle on the door, and I pulled it open, but not for me. “So, I suggest you find my bride before time runs out, or you will be facing your own duty tonight, Cousin.”

Michaela

Breath rushed into my lungs all at once. My skin grated against the rough stones as I twisted my face to see better. Aching limbs groaned in pain. I blinked as I tried to bring the world back into focus. Tiny lights danced in the darkness, like fireflies in the summer air. But the frigid temperatures told me I had to be wrong.

This wasn’t summer.

I was nowhere near home.

When I swallowed, an acrid taste filled my mouth. My lips tipped downward as I frowned. What had caused such a—

The blue-tinged smoke rose up in my memory.

Sadie.

The vial.

Fitz.

Each new thought brought on a surge of panic and urgency. I pushed my palms against the stones to right my body and my memories began to return. When she threw the vial, I remembered crawling, but blindly. I blinked hard, trying to force my eyes to adjust. The breeze caught my hair and pushed it away from my face, like a friend trying to help me wake up. My palms rested on stone blocks, but my rib cage leaned over thetop of them, pushing my head through the open archway into the night’s cold air. I must have managed to crawl to the window and shove my head outside the tower far enough that I didn’t breathe in all of the smoke that had filled the room.

Sadie had promised I wouldn’t wake up until it was too late, but if I didn’t inhale as much as she had planned, maybe I hadn’t missed my shot.

That was a pipe dream if there ever was one. Even if I wasn’t too late, it’s not like I had a way out. My hair barely hit my shoulders, I couldn’t plan some Rapunzel repelling act or anything. As my eyes continued to adjust, my predicament only worsened. The tower was isolated, likely used as a watchpoint at some point. From the window where I’d jammed myself, the drop had to be sixty to seventy feet until I hit something solid. Even if I jumped out far enough to reach the neighboring roofs, they all slanted at steep angles that would leave me careening to my death below.

Laughter floated on the wind like petals I could pluck from the air. I forced my feet beneath me and stumbled to another archway that acted as a window. From the new vantage point, I could see the edge of the entryway where cars were arriving for the ball. I wasn’t too late at all. If only I could get someone’s attention.

Cupping my hands around my mouth, I drew in a deep breath. “Hey! Up here! Help me!” But it was as if my cries for help evaporated in the atmosphere. No one so much as twitched at the sound of my voice. “Hey!” I tried again. “Please! Help me! I’m in the tower!”

Nothing. Sadie had chosen my prison well.

Utterly hopeless.

I drew in a breath to try to yell again, but it seeped out without a sound. I couldn’t get free. Sadie had made sure of it.

No escape.

No rescue.

Just stuck.

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