Page 34 of A Clash of Stars

“Where is Madok?” I questioned him.

Evander turned and gestured towards the cell across from me. “Oh. He’s just taking a little nap in his new room.”

I glanced towards the cell, seeing a soft, tired shape asleep on the ground. Evander caught my attention when he laughed.He laughed.At me. At Madok. In this situation that he put us in.

I tried to move again, being met with resistance over and over.

His eyes glanced away from me for a moment, then back to me before speaking in his signature tone of righteousness.

“Handmaidens and guards are coming here to get you cleaned up and dressed.”

I breathed and tried to respond calmly to him, “For what? Or should I ask, for who?”

He sighed, “You’ll find out soon enough.”

Evander walked away from the cell, and I continued to scream at him. I thought of anything and everything I could say that might rile him up, but he was gone, and I was there alone again.

When the handmaidens and guards entered my cell, I continued to fight, and they rightly had to drug me to remove me from that dungeon to wherever they wanted to take me.

When I came to, I wasn’t chained.

I was in a massive king-sized bed with golden threading that resembled snakes. I glanced around the ornate room decorated in shades of navy and old gold. Everything in me told me to run and escape, but my vision stayed locked onto the tapestry and design of the room, trying to take in where I was and thinking about who the lead in this betrayal could be.

When I finally had enough strength to stand, I noticed what I was wearing. A gods awful black floor-length dress that was itchy and filled with tulle wrapped around my body like a bandage. The slit of the dress halted just below my right hip bone, and the sheerness of the black mesh exposed every part of me except my chest and lower midsection.

I noticed the significant cuts and scrapes once so prominent on my body, and the scars were no longer dark but white. Illuminescent.

It was odd that I had healed so quickly, but maybe the ring had something to do with it.

The injuries I had accrued during the Variance weren’t nearly as bad as I thought they might be, but still, it fueled the angry fire in the pit of my stomach.

My eyes drifted to my hands that delicately sat on my hip bones, and that’s when I noticed I still wore my two most prized pieces of jewelry. My morganite family ring and the onyx ring black as night sat perfectly along my left ring finger. The onyx ring must have had an essence of power because it melded to my skin with such ferocity. It almost felt like an extension of me.

I caught a glance of my eyes in the golden-framed mirror. I noticed that flecks of purple in my eyes seemed to have grown and almost seemed to radiate throughout the blood vessels in my eyes, similar to the woman in the painting in Claiborne. I closed my eyes, imagining my deep gray eyes, the ones that matched my father’s, and when I opened them, that was what I saw. The purple had gone as if it was never there.

The doors to my room abruptly opened, and I saw the two guards who would escort me to whoever was in charge of this. I walked towards the door, and the guards gripped my arms tightly as if they expected me to run, which I don’t blame them as it took multiple guards and drugs for them to subdue me earlier.

As we walked down the hallway, I started to notice large crests of snakes… Aster. It couldn’t be, yet I wasn’t that surprised to find out Evander’s father was behind this.

I immediately spotted the King and Queen of Aster when I entered the room. He looked vile and hideous, with his dark pockets of purple draped under each eye and spots of yellow on his cheeks.

The Queen, however, was magnificent. Long lush brown hair with soft colors of gold woven throughout. Her eyes were the wildest green, like the forest I grew up by. Her eyes held kindness and love, opposite the man who bore their title.

To their left were Luke, Madok, and Griffin. All looking away from my face, ashamed, as they should be. To their right sat Evander. His look wasn’t the same as the others. He stared directly at me as if I was his prey and he was the predator.

“Well, hello,PrincessClara. It is lovely to see you. Thank you for being our guest this evening,” the King of Aster directed towards me. I imagined his breath smelled like garlic and old socks. Part of me wanted to laugh, but I knew it would only further my time here.

“I can’t say the same, sir,” I spoke coarsely.

He laughed. It was not just a laugh but a deep one, as if it tickled him pink.

“I can understand your confusion and anger right now, but you must understand that this is theonlyway,” he stated.

I wanted to throw something in his smug face. I could easily sense the radiating evilness from this man, and I’m just upset I didn’t pick up on it sooner when I initially speculated that the Aster Family was out for blood.

“So stabbing, kidnapping, and chaining me up to a wall are all things I should just…understand?” I choked out.

A stern look crossed his face as he said, “The stabbing part was not part of the plan,” his eyes flickered to Evander, “and I specifically told our young gentlemen to bring you in without harming you.”

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