Chapter 4 Before The Tears Win

Ryn POV

I'm up before the light comes through the window. Not because I'm rested but because lying still in this place feels like waiting for something bad to find me.

I follow a few maids who are going about their duties around the castle because standing still in an unknown place is not an option.

A few turns later, I find myself at the end of a corridor I don't recognise with a door with a red cloth tied to the handle. Even I can figure out what that means.

"Don't enter rooms you weren't invited into." Maren's words ring in my head but I pushed it open anyway.

The image stops me before I finish stepping inside.

Seraphina is on his lap, her lips at his neck, and he looks like he has nowhere else he would rather be.

She turns slowly, like she knew I was there before I opened the door.

"Oh." She looks at me. "The human." She says it like I am something she stepped on.

"So this is what you do in your spare time." I spat, glaring at Zevran. "The garden was what, twelve hours ago? I see your fiancée got comfortable fast."

She lets out a sound that isn't quite a laugh.

"I can't believe this," she says. "You have been here for just two days and you already think he belongs to you?"

She slides off his lap slowly, like she's making sure I watch every movement, then walks toward me and stops close enough that I can smell her perfume.

"Did you think the garden meant something?" She tilts her head. "That's sweet. He does that with all of them. The garden, the vulnerability, the almost kiss. It's how he gets them to offer their necks willingly."

She takes a step closer. "The women who came before you were prettier, more powerful, and far more interesting. They all thought they were different too. Ask your friend in the kitchen what happened to them."

She turns to him and kisses his cheek slowly while her eyes stay on mine the entire time.

He holds my gaze over her shoulder like he wants me to see every second of this. No guilt, no apology. Nothing.

Instead he reaches out, pulls her back by the waist and kisses her.

I keep waiting for him to push her off. To look at me the way he did in the garden but his face is blank.

"And here I am thinking he likes me" I choke under my breath.

"I think it's best," She says quietly, "if you remember your place." Her amber eyes don't leave mine. "You don't want to end up like the rest of them."

I barely make it to the kitchen before the tears come.

Maren turns around and takes one look at my face.

She doesn't ask what happened. She just puts food in front of me and sits down across from me which is something she hasn't done before.

"You know what's different about you?" she says after a while and I look up.

"The others came here wanting something from him. Power, protection, the need to be chosen." She looks at me directly. "You came here wanting nothing for yourself at all. I just hope you know what you are doing child."

"You said the others wanted something from him." I push my food around the plate. "What did he want from them?"

She pauses long enough that I think she didn't hear me then she shakes her head. "That's not my story to tell. But I will say this, whatever you think is happening between you and the king, be very careful with it. Not all things are how they look."

"You aren't the first person talking about them. Who are they and why... What's going on," I sniffle but she goes back to her work without saying another word forcing me to sit with that for a long time.

"Go to your room," she says without looking up when the sun went down. "Lock the door and please don't come out until morning. The night here isn't like back home and sure isn't safe for humans like me and you."

I push back from the table. "You don't need to tell me twice, I've already had enough drama for one day."

I should have listened.

My room is dark and quiet and it should help me sleep but it doesn't. Every time I close my eyes I see him pulling her back by the waist.

Was I really that easy to read? I turn over and press my face into the pillow but the thoughts don't stop. I think about the garden and how stupid I must have looked touching his face like that.

I'm on my feet and heading for the door before I make a conscious decision to move.

Maren's warning keeps playing in my head even as I open the door anyway. I can't breathe in this castle. Not after what I saw today. By the time I find myself outside I don't even remember deciding to leave.

The grounds look different at night. The garden I found this morning is barely visible in the dark and the paths between the buildings twist in directions I don't remember from daylight.

Something moves in the trees to my left but when I turn there's nothing there.

That doesn't stop me from walking. I didn't go far when I hear heavy laboured breathing and uneven footsteps like something is dragging itself forward on pure will and that makes the hairs on my arms stand.

It keeps getting closer and closer until the feeling of dread envelops me. Every sensible person I know would have turned back but because I am Ryn, I kept moving towards the sound until I round the corner and stop.

The creature in front of me is barely upright, with one hand against the wall, and its head down. I try to slowly take one step back but a branch snaps under my foot.

He looks up, his eyes locking onto mine. It's Zevran.

"Please." His hand reaches out then he collapses.