Page 201 of I Ran Away to Evil
Keith raised an eyebrow. His voice dripped with contempt as he said, “I strongly doubt that. I have my doubts that they’ll have enough willpower to come back at all.”
“What are you going to do with them?” the duchess asked. “As your undead, you’ll control them. I doubt anyone on the council failed to notice that little trick in your request.”
“I don’t know …” I murmured. “But … I don’t want to see them. Not for a long while, at least.”
“Nilheim law will require us to release them as soon as possible,” Keith answered. “Though they will still count as prisoners of the kingdom. I believe Henrietta wanted her parents to experience what it meant to be amonster. I was thinking they could spend some time in the army doing grunt work. Or they could always spend the next decade in the dungeons leveling up. They made a child do it, so I’msurethey havenoqualms completing the same tasksthemselves.”
“You could always send them back to Drendil,” the grand duchess opined. “Let them taste what they built.”
Keith and I sharedthe look. I’d been told married couples could speak with their eyes, and I was pleased to see that it worked for fiancés, too.
“That sounds like a wonderful plan, thank you,” I agreed.
“Alright, I’m ready.” Chloe closed her eyes as she concentrated. “Soil of the Earth that Connects the Flesh. Way of the Wind that Breathes Life in the Storm. Fire in the Soul, Hosted after Death. Blood that Binds, Return and Take New Form. [Raise].”
Glowing green mana pulsed from her fingertips and settled over my father. Chloe immediately repeated the spell, and the glow covered my mother as well. It was an anticlimactic way to lose everything; Drendil law was quite unforgiving to the undead. Mother would hate that.
We waited.
Simon Doryn of Drendil awoke first, moaning, his body shifting slightly. Soon after, Thalia sat up and stretched as if she were waking from a simple nap. Or rather, hersoulsat up, leaving her body behind. When mother opened her eyes, they were black pits set in a spectral face, her “skin” now looking more like transparent white cloth than anything else. Her mouth hung open unnaturally wide, and her body wore the dress she’d died in, though now it was pure white and filled with ragged holes. My father grunted and sat up next, disoriented as he looked around. His eyes were yellow instead of white, and his skin had lost all its vibrancy. His gaze fell on me, and he immediately snarled.
The sound was as inhuman as he was. I’d gotten so used to the high-level undead in the castle that I was momentarily shaken. My father coughed and managed a broken, “Hen-ri! T-Traitor!”
“I should have known better than to expect anything else.” Keith looked on in disgust. Not at how they looked, I presumed, as he was used to such things. He confirmed my thoughts by saying, “Though it doesn’t surprise me that Thalia had more backbone than Simon. A basic zombie and ghost. Not good for much more than cemetery guard duty. Typical.”
“What have you done?” my mother screeched, and I flinched from the pitch. She looked down at her patchy body in horror. “What am Iwearing?!”
“Simon and Thalia Doryn of Drendil.” Duchess Calisto drew their attention. “It is by order of the Valarian Council your fate was given to your people, and by the grace of those you have wronged, you have been permitted to live the rest of your natural life. For consorting with criminals, trafficking, andso much more,you will be returned to Drendil with Regent Havork and supervised until such a time as he feels you are ready to make a fresh start.”
“What?!” My father glared at Havork. He was the first to get used to his new state, standing beside the bed to face the regent. “You! You betrayed us!”
“You betrayed your kingdom and your people,” Havork replied with no remorse. “And you betrayed your own daughter.”
“She cavorts withmonsters!” Thalia declared, casting hate-filled eyes my way. “Ooooh!How will I ever matchanythingwith this skin tone!”
My rebuke lodged in my throat.
Keith frowned, finally speaking to the pair. “I wouldn’t throw stones. You are now what you have always discriminated against.”
“What?!” Father demanded, looking down at himself. He still wore his fine button-up suit, though it showed all the signs of what had transpired.
“Amonster.” Keith grimaced. “Weak ones, at that. Though I hesitated to say it, as I believe you’ve both proven more monstrous thananyof my own minions.”
I gripped Keith’s arm. He covered my hand with his own. I took a deep breath.
“Mother, Father.”
Mother looked at me then pointedly away; she hadn’t accepted things yet. Father already had that look in his eyes when he was searching for something to criticize.
“This is the last we will ever speak, so know this: I am disappointed to call you my parents,” I told them. “You areforbiddenfrom entering the Dark Enchanted Forest. I hope you live long lives, knowing that your line ends withme, for I am disowning you. Goodbye.”
I pulled Keith’s arm, and we both walked out.
The intangible weight of a lifetime of expectations and worry and grief slowly fell from my shoulders. No morerunning away. No more assassins in my sock drawer—though I’d still ask Keith to check every night before bed.
I was finally, truly,free.
I dragged my fiancé off to celebrate.
