Page 2 of Bound By Darkness

“I did not steal,” I hissed. “I haven’t in a while. Not sincethe necklace I gave you.” The scar along my finger pulsed, a vivid memory replaying in my mind.

Moria’s eyes softened. Even with dirt caked on her face, her beauty shone beneath as her full lips parted. “Okay, but you need to lay low. You can’t keep bringing attention to yourself. You’re asking for the trouble you put yourself in.”

I squeezed a piece of hay between my thumb and pointer finger. “What else am I supposed to do when my strength is failing? They know I’m not as swift anymore. I can barely manage the trek to the grounds. All I have left is trouble.”

Every day grew harder mentally and physically as I withered away with each waning moon and rising faelight. Nothing prevented my steady decline… the slow state of starvation inflicted upon me. It scared me the longer I rotted away within these cells.

The longerwerotted in these cells.

I had no hope, no fate, and nothing to live for except escaping with Moria to the Mainland. There, we would be safe.

Moria bit her lip, her brown eyes shining brighter than before. “Maybe—” She licked her lips. “Maybe I can talk to one of the guards. Call in some favors.”

“Moria.”

“It’ll be fine. Gayle wouldn’t let any harm come to me.”

I swallowed the bile rising in my throat. “Gayle would if it meant giving him the acknowledgment he seeks.” He would, too, if it meant spilling someone’s blood.

Moria’s brunette hair spilled over her shoulders. She refused to let anyone touch it in the years she’d been held here.

“Yes, but he gives me things.”

“In return for your services,” I muttered into the hay.

Her eyes narrowed as the hard planes of her face cut daggers into my cell. “Judge me all you want, but he’s the solereason you and I are still alive. Who do you think provides us with extra food, or provides me with tonics if one of us falls ill?”

“But we shouldn’t have to rely on him! He’s manipulative, and treats you worse than a pile of garbage. I’d rather starve than see him push you into the ground again and—” I bit my lip as I shoved the sounds and images into the depths of my mind.

I hated reliving memories, because any ounce of suffering I remembered brought back images of that night… of the darkness seeping from me in great swells.

“It’s how I’ve survived here for so long,” she whispered. “It’s howwehave survived,” she corrected. “If I have to whore myself out for food, medicine, or whatever else we need, I’ll do it every time.”

I dipped my head in a swift nod as I avoided her lingering gaze. The least I could do for someone who’d survived here a year alone.

Running a hand through her hair, she blew out a breath. “Speaking of, he’s supposed to be stopping by later today. Be asleep when he comes.”

“Right, right,” I mumbled as I tucked a few curls behind my rounded ears.

My eyes traced the three lines etched into the stone wall. I’d carved those lines with my fingernails the day they’d thrown me into this cell. By the time a single guard noticed, my fingers were already bloody and raw.

I hadn’t realized I’d done it either.

Oddly enough, nothing brought me more comfort than those three lines. They were a testament to my resolve and determination to survive in such unlivable conditions.

As Moria withdrew into the shadows of her cell, the light flickered once… twice before oil coated the wick, snuffing the flame entirely.

Darkness filled my heart as I stared into a blissful, opaque night.

Moria didn’t need to know I was planning to snatch the keys Gayle kept in his pocket. If it meant we’d achieve freedom outside of these stone walls, I’d steal them by any means necessary.

I was tired of rotting away.

Chapter 2

Almond Details

THALIA

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