Page 12 of Trapped By Vengeance

“You know I can’t—”

“Then I’ll starve.” She crushes the bread between her gloved hands, and crumbs rain down on the spilled broth.

I barely hold back a whimper. Outside, the seagull shouts its shared disgust at her waste.

Swallowing hard, I manage to prevent my next words from becoming shouts. “Lady Valda, it’s imperative that I restore you to your father healthy and well.”

“Then you should deliver me to him quickly.” Valda collapses on her bed again. “Because I do not intend to eat one single crumb until I’m free.”

My gaze sweeps over her. Her skin is already so pale, and her frame so delicate. It’s like she’s wasting away in front of me.

Then she makes the most tragic mewling sound, and a new level of desperation shoots through me. “If I get you another portion, will you eat that one?”

She drops her head to the side to stare past me. “Maybe . . .”

I hurry out of the room, bolting it even though I’m returning in a moment. Then I hurry back into my cabin.

Eloise is happily dipping her bread into her broth and eating it like a proper citizen of Constantinium ought to.

“Hold this for me,” I say, setting my turkey leg on her plate. Then I grab my bread and broth and ignore Eloise’s questioning look as I return to Valda’s cabin.

She doesn’t make another attempt to bolt past me. In fact, she hasn’t even left her bed.

“Here— restore your strength.” By the light of the setting sun, I step around the puddles of broth to set the soup and bread on the table.

“Thank you,” Valda murmurs weakly. She makes no movement to approach the table.

Surely, she’s not wasting away so quickly! Then again, she drank only ale for breakfast, and I provided her no lunch.

Taking the soup, I sit on the bed beside her and wait for her to sit up. I can’t help but notice that the blooms I purchased for her are no longer in her bodice.

“Thank you,” Valda says again— her voice is barely a rasp as she gingerly takes the soup from me.

Then, before I can register what has come to pass, the soup is all over me.

I jump back, glad it is no longer scalding, but such waste—

When I look back up, Valda has recovered enough of her strength to have snatched the bread from the table. That wicked gleam is back in her eyes.

Then she tosses it out the porthole, appeasing the seagull withmysupper.

Valda crosses her arms. “I will starve before I submit.”

“Fine!” I storm back to the door. “We’ll see if you change your tune come dawn!”

I slam the door shut and dramatically bolt it shut.

When I squelch into my cabin for a second time today, Eloise contains her laughter only nominally better than last time.

Chapter Six

Valda

The worst part about my day is the moment the sun slips below the horizon.

It’s at that moment that my spirit rises from my body, an unfortunate side effect of being dead. My body and soul are no longer fully entwined, and night is when I have to pay my dues for invulnerability by day to all but silver and blessed blades. Nothing can harm my spirit in this state— but my body can be killed while I’m banished from its side if I’m separated from it for too long after sunrise, or if I do not feed tonight.

I glower down at my body, that has no one to protect it. Even with a deadly weapon beneath each of my nails, something all estries possess, I can’t exactly wield them. My body is as useless as the bleeding heart bloom I tucked beneath a floorboard for safekeeping.

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