Page 123 of Blooms of Darkness

I twisted, reaching toward another dagger, hidden on my leg, but I couldn’t move fast enough before it had been overtaken by the vine. All I could do was scream.

Debris dug into my skin, sharp and painful, as I bumped and slammed across the destroyed arena. My body marred with scrapes and scratches the more the vines tugged me away.

Desperately, I clawed at the vine, trying to rip it apart and break it with my hands and nails. “Help! Kade! Ian!”

My cries for help went unanswered as they were both locked in ferocious battles of their own.

I searched for Kalliah, only to find her slicing at a hedge of holly bushes blocking her path toward me. “Hold on,” she shouted as she battled the thorny leaves to come to my aid.

The vines stopped. I jerked my head over my shoulder, and the smile which haunted my nightmares for years appeared before me.

“Playtime is over, Princess.”

Andras.

Andras had me against my will. Something I vowed to never happen again. My screams became even more frantic, trying to get anyone’s attention. I couldn’t let him take me again. My attempts to get my dagger and free myself from these vines grew frenzied, more desperate.

Andras grabbed the trail of vines holding my legs and dragged me the rest of the distance toward him.

I struggled, clutching at the dirt of the arena floor, as if it could somehow give me purchase to free myself.

A small roar echoed behind me, and I watched in horror as Lucien flung himself at the vines held by Andras. He breathed fire onto the patch so fiercely, I felt a wave of heat on my ankle.

“Stupid beast.” Andras grabbed Lucien by the tail and flung him backward.

“No!” I shouted as his body hit an outer wall of the arena before crashing onto the grass.

Bootsthudded, storming forward on the ground.

Casimir walked toward me, inching closer.

Thank the Fates.

“Lord West, help!” I screamed. “Casimir, please!”

He stifled a laugh and stood by Andras’s side. “This was easier than I thought.”

My body went rigid.What?

Andras grinned at him, his eyes brimming with a bold, deceitful darkness. “Soon, Lord West, you will be the only contender left alive. We can put these ridiculous trials behind us and let the kingdom grieve for the loss of its Fates-forsaken King and Queen.” Andras’s body hummed with excitement. “And then, perhaps in a week or so? We can let the kingdom rejoice with the marriage of Lord West to Princess Illiana, the new King and Queen of Brookmere.” He practically hissed my name as he spoke.

“I willnevermarry him!” I spat at the ground.

This man, this traitor, had the audacity to laugh at me. “Oh, but, my dear, you will.” He flicked his wrist, and one of the Royal Guard’s walked forward, carrying Kalliah in his arms, passed out. “Or your precious lady's maid here will die.”

I gasped. “Kalliah!”

Andras bent down, crouched before me as he savagely grabbed the back of my head. “Trust me when I say I’m not using my power of illusions to enter your mind. This isrealand there is no one to save you.”

Illusion magic.

Mind Magic.

My entire twisted childhood suddenly snapped into place. How the torture in the dungeons seemed so real. It was why I needed Ian to tell me if things had actually happened or I’d dreamt them. Almost all of it had been a figment of my imagination.

Put here by this man blessed with a magic unheard of due to its dangerous nature.

“My parents never knew what you were doing to me, did they?” I asked, as I continued to fight against the vinesovertaking my body. I had been using my nail to cut through one of them while Andras had been speaking. I was nearly there.

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