Page 33 of A Clash of Stars

My enemy.

My weakness.

He betrayed me. I should have listened to Madok when he thought he would be my problem. I wanted to laugh at myself and scream, but I was paralyzed. No sound could escape. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. I wouldn’t allow him to fool me ever again.

Once I woke up, Evander would pay.

As I blacked out, I felt the pressure of hands on my stomach with the scent of teakwood, and then I was out.

Chapter 7

Ismelled musty water, rusted steel, and blood when I awoke. I was covered in it. I instinctively started moving my hands when I realized I was restrained by the rusted metal piercing my skin.

Shit.

My eyes opened wide as the realization hit me, I was in a dungeon.

I was a prisoner.

I began to sit up when I noticed that the stab wound to my abdomen was completely healed. Only dried blood was left behind as a reminder of the betrayal in the woods.

My mind began to race. How could all the people who supposedly care and love me betray me?

How could I have been so blind to it all? Was I that idiotic, or was there a larger realm of despair that swallowed me whole every time I decided to put my heart on the line?

Although the physical wound on my body was healed, an even bigger wound was gaping open inside of me. It felt as though my insides were wallowing in pity outside my skin, the barrier to my heart was riddled with shards of misery, and my heart was broken. Broken in every possible way that it could be.

How many times can someone’s heart be shattered and pieced back together again before it gives out and succumbs to the overwhelming darkness that lingered around, waiting for you to give in?

As fury built inside of me, a small piece of hope fluttered as I looked around the dungeonesque cage for a way out, anything at all.

I quickly realized that I had no clue as to where I was or who was behind taking me. I had no way to get out, so I would wait. I would wait for an opportunity to escape. I would need to find my parents and ensure they were okay. Then, I needed to find the council and tell them I was the victor, the Queen of Carondelet.

I laughed softly at myself because I didn’t even know where I was.

I glanced around the dimly lit room when I noticed sharp green eyes peering at me from outside the cell’s iron bars.

Instantly I started to charge him when my chains reminded me painfully that my hands couldn’t wrap around his throat like I wanted to.

“Why! Why would you do this, Evander? How could you do this to me?”

I sobbed, barely able to breathe. With the hurt seeping from me, I knew the rage was unstoppable, and if I could touch him, I could kill him. I felt the power churning through my veins, but nothing would emit from my body. The chains must have an enchantment on them, or maybe he controlled them from outside of the bars.

My eyes flickered back to Evander, “I thought I could trust you, Evander. Yet, here I am, chained up like some animal. How often will you build trust with me only to break it?” I spit on the ground in disgust. “I have had enough of you. I never want—”

He quickly interrupted me, staring into my eyes with ill intent. “It wasn’tmychoice per se, but my duty. I had to stop you from returning to the council. The King of Aster seems to believe you are the key to his power. You can helphim. Don’t take it personally, Clara Bear.”

I screamed a scream that felt more like a roar, the energy leaving my body, shattering the stones on the way toward him.

He didn’t even flinch. Didn’t bat an eyelash. Stoic and unmoving.

I growled, “Oh. So I should just be okay with all of this? You don’t do this to a person who is your friend, Evander.” I huffed out a breath, “You let Luke stab me. I almost died. Does that not affect you?”

Evander took a deep breath and tilted his head, staring directly into my soul as if he could read every internal part of me.

“It’s not all about you, Clara.” He approached the bar and whispered, “I’m not your friend. Ineverwill be. And…don’t be too hard on Luke. He didn’t have true control of what he did.”

Wow. This guy was a real piece of shit. I had never had so much rage fuming from me before. The power was immense and all-consuming. I thought of the one person I could trust at this very moment and internally smirked, knowing that it would only be him.

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