Page 45 of The Throne's Undoing

Kallie kept rocking as she continued to cry and scream into the air.

Then, when she thought she couldn't scream anymore, darkness consumed her whole.

Chapter 13

MYRA

The walls were crying,and Myra could do nothing about it besides sit there with her head against the floor as she wrapped her feeble arms around her knees.

When she had initially agreed to assist the king, Myra had never imagined that she would be right back where she started nine years later. So much had changed since then, yet so much remained the same.

Among the shadows within the cell, a stench that Myra couldn't shake slithered across her skin. No matter how much she tried to rub it off, the horrid residue of the dungeons stuck to her flesh. Iron, moss, and something putrid filled the air of the cell just as it had before.

As she sat, the insides of her stomach gnawed at her, yet she had no desire to consume the half-eaten porridge that sat abandoned. The portion she had managed to eat earlier, she retched soon after.

Throughout the day, the guards came and went, sliding her meals through a small compartment at the bottom of the cell door. Occasionally, they came inside, poking her with needles to take her blood and check her vitals.

Every time a guard pried the small door open, the torchlight spread across the floor, illuminating the blood that stained them.

As soon as the door closed and the cell became swathed in shadow once more, the stains faded into the stone. Yet, while the darkness might have hidden them, it couldn't erase the anguish that seeped up through the ground and soaked her skin.

Since she had been in his employ, Myra had manipulated Kallie's emotions to the king's will.

In the beginning, Kallie was no more than a stranger. The guilt, although present, was minimal and a consequence Myra would easily swallow if it meant protecting her brother.

But then, as the years wore on, Myra never saw Mynhos.

Whenever Myra asked about her brother, the king would supply some elaborate excuse that Myra didn't dare question. And perhaps that was her downfall: never asking questions, never seeking the answers she wished.

Instead, she naively obeyed. Because as long as she never made the king mad, she and her brother would be set free one day.

But that day never came, had it?

At the time, Myra believed the choice she had made was the safest one--the right one.

She couldn't have been more wrong.

Her brother's supposed safety was only a bargaining chip.

And as Myra sat in the cell, she wished she could justify her actions solely in the pursuit of her brother's freedom. But at some point over the years, she had begun to question Mynhos's survival. Years went by, and she never saw him.

Still, she had continued to manipulate Kallie. Perhaps she continued because Myra didn't wish to anger the king out of fear that he would not only hurt Myra but Kallie as well.

Because despite knowing she shouldn't, Myra had befriended Kallie.

Myra had tried to stay away, of course. She had tried to distance herself. Yet when Kallie opened up to someone, it was as if she was letting them in on a secret--one that Myra desperately wanted and craved while alone in the castle.

Their friendship was one she had not predicted, but one she had learned to cherish. As a result, she tried to do what she thought best.

She did not wish for Kallie to suffer.

There were several mornings when Myra witnessed the bruises marking Kallie's skin and the haunted expression she wore after spending an evening training with the king. Kallie would startle at the smallest of noises or an unexpected touch.

Myra had thought that by altering Kallie's emotions and taking away the pain, she was helping her friend. When Myra erased the pain, Kallie's smile returned, the jumpiness vanished, and the bruises soon disappeared. But not all suffering could so easily be wiped away.

As time passed, fissures appeared in the careful tapestry Myra had woven within Kallie's mind. Stitches unraveled, holes appeared, and threads became too fragile. All it took was one misstep, one event, one training session with the king to undo Myra's work. But now that the tapestry was so tightly crafted, Myra feared there was no undoing it. Not without the risk of completely destroying Kallie's mind.

Especially not after what Myra had done to Kallie the night before the wedding.

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