Opening my palm, I let a few flakes fall onto it, then wiped it with my thumb. A long, grey streak smeared across my skin where the white particles had been. “This… This isn’t snow.” That’s when it hit me, the taste in the air that left my tongue dry—making it nearly impossible to swallow. This wasash.
The sound of a branch snapping had me clutching the boy to my chest and spinning faster than my eyes could track. Everything blurred again for a moment, but then I got my first good look at our surroundings. The trees were withered and tilting, half leaning, some already fallen. However, it wasn’t their state that had my brows pinching together; it was their color.
Grey. A kind of grey that didn’t even look real. I wasn’t aware that trees could look like that.
Swallowing the trees was a thick, misty fog that blinded most of my visibility. But within it, a small figure began to emerge.
“Morrigan?” the older voice called through, feminine but thinned with age.
I knew that voice.
“Shae?” I answered. The moment she came into view, my heart fluttered with relief. “Shae, you’re?—”
“What are you doing here, princess? You… You can’t…” she panted as if she were out of breath, and my skin chilled at the sight of her now.
Her eyes were sunken, and her cheekbones pushed against her skin in a way that made my stomach turn. She looked sickly. As Azrael turned around to look at her, I felt his body tremble against me and remembered what had happened.
“Shae…” I whispered. “You’re—You’re dead. How are you?—”
“Thisplaceis death, princess. You mustn’t be here.” Her greyish eyes appeared worried as they darted across the empty clearing.
This place is death.
I gasped, clinging harder to the boy in my arms. “Did we—Are we… Are we dead?”
Shae quickly shook her head and continued approaching us. “No. No you’re not. That’s why you can’t be here. If they…” She turned her head weakly to the side, as if peering behind her. And when she faced forward again, I noticed a slight raise of her nose before her eyes fluttered closed. After a long inhale, they opened once more, and the fear and trepidation seemed to disappear. “Come with me,” she said. “I’ll get you somewhere safe.”
“Princess,” Azrael whispered in my ear, “I’m scared.”
I shushed him and placed him down gently, grasping his hand in mine. “It’s alright. Shae is a friend. She’ll help us.”
“Yes,” she agreed, stopping in front of us. “Gods… Look at you, Morrigan. Look what’s been done to you.”
I had to bite back the slight quiver of my lips as her fingers brushed away curls from my face. “Me?” I laughed bitterly, placing my hand on her arm. “Look what he did toyou.” My voice shook heavily as I spoke, and a single tear escaped.
But Shae, in her normal Shae fashion, smiled at me. “You’ve been through too much, sweet girl. They should have protected you.”
Heavy with emotion, and utterly drained, I could no longer fight the weight in my chest as I pulled her in for a hug. One simple embrace. I had been deprived of far more these past few weeks. But I just needed to touch something… someone.
“I don’t know what I’m doing,” I cried, clutching the fabric of her tattered gown like it was the single last thread of my own sanity. “I don’t know where we are… How to get back… I don’t know how to protect him.”
My breath hitched in my lungs as Shae returned the embrace. “It’s okay,” she whispered. “Just let it out, princess.”
My sobs were heavy, freeing the tension that had coiled so tight from Cain’s daily abuse. It felt as though my anguish poured from me, heightened and intense. I barely even noticed the change in her voice.
“Theydid this to you, Morrigan,” she said in my ear, pulling me tighter. “They used you. Theycagedyou.”
Yes, I thought to myself. Perhaps all of my emotions were draining me, but my eyelids grew heavier.They did this to me. None of this would havehappened if it wasn’t for them. I could have been normal… I could havelived anormal life.
“Princess?” a small voice called out nearby.
“They deceived you. They lied to you, sweet girl,” Shae continued.
Lied… Yes… They…I was so tired. My arms dropped to my sides, and my head fell limp onto her shoulder as she rubbed my back with her hand.They took advantage of me. They used me to get what they needed and didn’t care what happened to me in the process.
“They didn’t love you, Morrigan.” Shae’s voice felt closer somehow, like her words scratched the inner walls of my mind in a gentle caress. “They didn’t even want you. Lord Kaidenhatedyou.”
Hated… Y—No.
