Page 27 of Cherished By the Gargoyle
Instead of leaving, she pulls me into a hug, smoothing a hand over my hair like I’m still a child, like she hasn’t been lying to me my whole life.
Her embrace feels safe and familiar. Except it isn’t. Not anymore.
“Everything was a lie.” I draw in a shaking breath. “You let me believe I was ordinary. That my choices were mine. You let me believe I was free.” My throat burns as I swallow against another sob. “But I was never free. Never.”
Her silence is heavy, thick with guilt.
Anger wars with devastation as tears stream down my cheeks. “Fiora says I must return to the castle. To parents I’ve never known… to marry a stranger. She doesn’t care that my heart is broken, Maribel.”
“Oh, sweetheart,” Maribel’s voice cracks. “Of course she cares. You know she does.”
She presses a trembling kiss to the crown of my head, but it only makes me cry harder. “No, she doesn’t,” I deny. “She’s cruel.”
Lyria kneels beside the bed, her green eyes red-rimmed. “Now, my dear, you know that’s not true.”
I shake my head.
“Take this.” She hands me a cup of tea. “It’s chamomile. It will help calm you so you can rest.”
“I don’t want rest.” My body shakes harder. “I wanted Thalric. I wanted a future with him.”
Lyria brushes damp hair back from my face. “I know, my darling. I know how much you love Thalric.”
She holds the cup out again, and I take it. The tea is soothing on my tongue as I take a few sips.
Maribel hums, stroking my hair the way she always has, but the sound only twists the knife deeper. Because now I know that every soft song, every tender touch was built on lies.
I thought they raised me out of love. That they chose me because they wanted me, but I was never theirs. Not truly. I was something to guard and to hide. A secret. A duty.
After they leave, I close my eyes, but the tears will not stop. Shifting onto my side, I sob and cry until I finally fall into a fitful sleep and straight into a nightmare.
Black threads snake up my arms and legs, winding tight until I can’t move. I thrash, but it’s useless. Ahead, the spindle gleams, its sharp point waiting.
“Aurora!” Thalric calls out, his wings spread wide as he reaches for me.
For one breathless instant, hope surges, but then the threads wrench me back.
Thalric begins to fade, his voice growing farther away.
I open my mouth to scream for him, but the spindle pricks my finger.
I jolt awake, gasping. Leaning forward, I shake my head, trying to push down the memory of my nightmare, but it refuses to leave me.
A series of hiccupping sobs rises in my throat as I think of Thalric. I want so much to go to him, but I can’t. A terrible truth settles in my chest. Despite his heart being stone, mine refuses to stop loving him.
And that is the cruelest truth of all.
CHAPTER 14
AURORA
Araven came yesterday. Royal guards have been dispatched from the palace by order of my father—the king—to bring me safely home.
Staring at my reflection in the mirror, I clutch the starlit gemstone hanging around my neck—the one Thalric gifted me less than a week ago. I barely recognize myself. I’m dressed in a silken gown, the bodice covered in tiny glittering crystals in a pattern of flowers and vines. The enchanted fabric alternates between gold and dark blue as Fiora and Maribel try to decide upon a color.
“Gold for courage,” Fiora muses, flicking her wrist as a shimmer of sunlight spills across the gown.
“Too bold,” Maribel counters. “She needs serenity, not fire.” She whispers an incantation, and the fabric fades from gold to deep cerulean.
