Page 31 of Omission: Part 2

How can that be? Am I dreaming?

“Enough, Daughter. You will come home and stand beside your husband; this game is embarrassing.” The deep timbre comes from my left; his nails dig into my tiny bicep and break skin. I feel the sharp sting. How he doesn’t stop until I scream.

Yet my lips haven’t moved.

I’m too aware to be the culprit of such a heartbreaking cry.

“You’re helping him? You’re turning your back on your daughter?” Maman’s voice breaks, her hands shaking, and I catch the glint of a blade in her grip, something they haven’t. “How could you?”

“And I’ll do worse if you don’t submit.”

Eerie calmness fills the foyer, interrupted only by the scurrying of footsteps as they draw near. The person stops just out of sight, but their perfume is cloying. Too heavily floral.

“I’m not going back. Leave.”

“Then you leave me no choice.” Larue snaps his fingers, and more royal guards infiltrate the space. They come from all angles and grab Queen Amelia, dragging her outside while Grandfather picks me up and does the same.

There’s thrashing. Some pleading.

It falls on deaf ears as we pass through a long corridor and approach already-open French doors that lead outside to a lake. It’s vast and looks deep, its water murky and cold.

“You have two choices, my love.” Larue’s sneer is evil, his expression gleeful. “Come home and be my pet, my blood whore, or I drown the little future queen. Either way, I’ll get what I want, but the dynasty ends here.”

“She’s your daughter!”

“She’s a fucking problem, Amelia.” It’s a hiss, the true feelings of a man who should love and protect his mate. His offspring. “That child is a walking, breathing threat to?—”

“Touch her…” Maman says, her voice is lethal “…and I’ll show you what a true savage is. You know it’s not an empty threat either.”

Father’s eyes narrow as a deep gouge appears on his cheek, the skin torn open jaggedly and oozing blood. A knife wound. “You’ll pay for that attack; I will never forgive you.”

“Don’t force my hand, then.” She grits out.

“Or maybe I’ll break your spirit instead.” A tray appears in the hand of a woman; I can’t see her face, but something about her is familiar. Her dark hair and stature are one I’ve seen. “One cup is a poison, while the other will put her to sleep. Both will harm her; Amelia, make no mistake about it. I could toss her helpless body in the water and watch it sink; the added weight I’d tie around her neck will make sure of it.”

“Don’t you dare!”

“Then come home, Daughter, or we end this in the most painful way for you.” My pitiful body is released. I hit the ground, and another wail rips through the group as my hair is pulled and my head forced back. “You chose, Amelia. Love, or utter heartbreak?”

“It will always be love.”

“Then kneel and kiss the ring. Show me how sorry you are.” She’s forced to her knees by the kick of a loyal guard, her eyes flashing to me with sheer, pain-filled panic as her fangs drop and she bites her lips hard enough to break the skin. Immediately they shimmer with her blood, a few drops falling to the ground where a small bloom appears.

In slow motion, Maman leans forward and presses her lips against the large stone at the center of the ring. It shimmers as she does—every amulet in the room glows a lovely blue—as the ring’s gem binds itself with her essence before a cold liquid drips into my mouth...

Wake up, Anaya. You’ve seen enough, child.

“Precious one,” Leonardo calls out, his timbre soft as to not scare me, but I’m slammed back into the present so hard I gasp. Clutching my throat and coughing, I’m spluttering when my male wraps me in his arms and walks us over to a cuddler. There’s one in every room, his decree, and he sits with me in his lap.

The dream—I’ve never felt anything like it before.

So real. So vivid.

“What happened?” He’s stroking my blonde hair back, fingers skimming the tip of my left ear each time before moving onto the right side. “You saw something.”

Not a question, but a statement. As if he understands what I don’t.

“I was there.” My voice is so low that even my ears twitch to catch the whisper. “Like a spectator in my own memory; I watched how they ambushed us and threatened my life. All this time I thought they wanted to drown her, but it was me Larue wanted dead. Saw me as a threat.”

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