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To show any sign of affection for him after all this time would be a betrayal to herself and to her family, who had survived Castor's wicked shadow all these years.
While Ianora had never truly forsaken him until she knew the truth of how far he'd gone, coming here had made her surer than ever that she had to keep her heart locked to him forever. No matter what happened to her as a result.
Castor had already anticipated her plan to make his life hell so that he would cancel the wedding, so it seemed like that idea was out. He wasn't going to let go of her so easily. However, they had once been close enough that, if given a chance, she might be able to come up with another way to escape him...but only if she could get out of here.
She expected that if she never bends to Castor's whims, his threat to turn her into his whore would become her reality. It was either that, or this room would be her tomb.
The hours went by in her head like a ticking bomb, five days until the wedding.
Finally, that thought rallied Ianora to search again. There had to be something she'd missed the first time around, right? Castor could not have made the room completely impenetrable.
Before, Ianora had just tried the walls, but when she stood up on the stone floor, she realized that she hadn't searched for a way out through the floor. Stone as it was, she hadn't thought it possible. But old castles like these hid many secrets.
Starting at one corner of her bedroom, Ianora went on her hands and knees and felt for anything strange on the floor. She ripped up rugs and moved dressers until everything was out of place, all the way from her bedroom to her sitting room. However, for each foot of space that she cleared, she still found no answers, and her frustration only grew.
By the time she had spent hours on her hands and knees, crawling around like a desperate animal, she was still no closer to freedom than she had been on her first day locked in here.
A flash of anger rose through her. She grabbed the nearest vase and threw it at the windows overlooking the courtyard. The window didn't so much as crack or flex, but the porcelain vase shattered, sending shards scattering across the floors.
"You fucking bastard, Castor!" Ianora shouted in a rage, grabbing things from every direction—flowerpots, picture frames, books, anything not too heavy to lift—and throwing them at the walls, windows, and door. "Why? Why would you do this to me? All I wanted ... I only left you because ..."
Nothing around the room had budged. She was still a prisoner, locked away until he decided to free her.
When Ianora's arms were so sore from throwing things, a hiccuping sob escaped her, and she fell to her knees to let the tears fall. Despair clung to her like a second skin, knowing that as long as Castor kept her, she would be beholden to him.
He could starve her of blood to make her do his bidding. Neglect to let her family see her. Trap her, use her body as he pleased.
And there was nothing she could do about it.
With one last dying breath, Ianora grabbed a candle stick and threw it at the wall. It hit the heavy tapestry, an image of a man on horseback, and the fabric ruffled in place.
But the candle stick was gone.
Ianora blinked at the tapestry for a minute. She hadn't heard the heavy brass hit the wall or clank on the ground. So where had it gone?
She wiped her eyes and stood on wobbly legs, leaving her position to investigate the tapestry.
When she touched it, her hands fell through, and the momentum sucked her forward into the darkness of a tunnel.
As soon as she was on the other side, Ianora ran. She didn't know where she was going ... just that she had to get away from here.
The walls of the tunnel weren't polished like those of the refined rooms Castor had locked her in. They were of jagged rocks, and the floor was bumpy and uneven as she navigated her way through the darkness. In the distance, she heard rushing water. She clung to the sound and ran in that direction. The air in the passage was stale, as though no one but her had tread here in centuries.
Soon, the tunnel began to open up, splitting into two directions.
There was still no light to be found, no sounds beyond the hint of water. Would the water be outside? Ianora stepped toward the passage where she heard the sound coming from, but her foot snagged on something, and she tripped. Catching herself on the stone wall, she turned to see what had snagged on her foot.
She swallowed when she saw that her foot was embedded in a skeleton's rib cage. Taking a deep breath, she carefully unwedged the ancient bones from her ankle, discarding them on the dusty floor.
"That's rude, don't you think?" a voice came from behind her.
Ianora jumped, but she was better prepared for the strange, talking entities wandering the castle by now. However, when she turned around, she hadn't expected to come face-to-face with the floating white body of a young woman.
"Trampling on my grave, shattering my bones, then tossing my ribs to the ground like they're nothing," the young woman went on. "At least put them back where you found them!"
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to." Ianora glanced at her feet, which refused to move now when they'd been in such a hurry moments ago. She shoved her sweaty hair out of her face. "I feel like I've been saying that a lot since I arrived here."
The ghost squinted at her. "You're her, aren't you? The bride the whole castle's been whispering about."
