Page 11 of Broken Fate
“It’s my Fate Night,” I responded. “I don’t know what you mean.”
His fingers clamped down on my jaw, turning it left and right as he looked me over, searching for something. Whatever it was, he didn’t find it. He cast me off with a sniff of disdain. I sagged back into the guards, any remaining strength I might have had sapped from the interaction with my Alpha.
“Take her to the dungeons,” he commanded.
“But …” I protested weakly as I was hauled off, the guards moving me briskly from the platform, everyone eager to have me out of sight.
“Calm, everyone,” the Alpha said as he addressed the crowd. “Let’s all remain calm. I think we’ve had enough excitement for the moment, don’t you?”
An awkward chuckle ran its way through the crowd. A crowd that included my parents.
I twisted within the guard’s reach, desperate to look at them. I wanted them to know I was sorry. That I hadn’t meant to … to what?
What hadn’t I meant? To cause a scene? To shatter the Arcadian Fate Stone? I’d meant to do just that. There was no escaping the consequences. Consequences I hadn’t bothered to think about. I’d been so caught up in doing my own thing, in doing whatIwanted, that I hadn’t really stopped to think about what came next.
As we reached the ground, I caught a glimpse of my parents in the crowd. My mother pressed firmly to my father’s side, her face torn apart with fear and worry for her only daughter. My father held her with one arm while he watched me be taken away in chains. On his face, I saw nothing but the worst emotion one could experience from their parent.
Disappointment.
I sagged at the additional gut punch. Would I ever have a chance to make them proud again? Or was the beaten, bloody image of me the last one they would ever have?
“Calm,” the Alpha repeated behind me amid a sea of hushed murmurs and shocked whispers that were swiftly rising, despite his commands.
What was she thinking?
Why would she do such a thing?
“Silence,” the Alpha said, his tone demanding to be obeyed, though he didn’t raise his voice. Silence slowly followed.
Mostly. I heard one voice in the crowd as it grew closer. I turned my head, twisting at the waist, earning myself another wrenching of my arms behind my back as the guards forced me on. But it caused them to slow just long enough for me to see Clive push his way through the crowd to stand at its edge.
We locked eyes.
I expected to see shock and perhaps sadness. We both knew that we likely would have ended up mated. In trying to destroy the stone, I’d taken a drastic measure to prevent such a thing from happening. An ultimate form of rejection, even if it wasn’t anything personal. So seeing him hurt would have been no surprise.
Instead, he looked back at me with an unreadable expression of mild surprise and curiosity. Like I was a stranger.
I didn’t know what to make of that. Behind me, the crowd was already moving on, the next person’s name being called to approach the platform and put their hand on the stone. Just like that, I was forgotten about.
My fingers clenched uselessly into fists. They were sobrainwashed!Why couldn’t they stop for one second and ask themselves why I’d just tried to do what I’d done? To consider that maybe there was areasonfor it. But they didn’t.
Green light flared behind me as the stone was activated, and happy noises followed soon after. I saw none of it, and a moment later, the light was cut off as I was forced through a door and into the palace.
I’d never been inside before, but any sense of majesty or beauty was lost on me, given where I was headed.
“Enjoy your stay,” one of the guards rumbled as they tossed me into a cell.
I fell to my knees in a puddle, rank standing water splashing across my clothes. It reeked of rot and other disgusting things that I tried not to think about. The stone was cold to touch as I got to my feet.
“Please,” I said, grabbing the bars, only to find they were covered in a layer of slime. “This isn’t necessary. Let me go. I’m not trying to cause trouble.”
“Well, you did,” the same guard snarled from beneath his armored helm. “And now, you’ll stay here until someone comes to …talkto you.”
The other guards chuckled. I couldn’t see anything but their eyes through the helmets, but I didn’t need to. The promise of unpleasantness was evident in their tone.
“Until then, enjoy your stay, traitor. We’ll be taking bets on how long it takes you to break.”
Grunts of agreement came from several other guards.
