AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Bedtime is the worst of it all. When I lay my head down at night, the pain and suffering hits me hard. Alone in the dark with only my grief and memories of my father—the family I once had. It’s overwhelming and all consuming. No matter how hard I try I just can’t shake it.
I know if I asked Tristan to come in and be with me, he would, but it’s unfair of me to go there. After having moments with both Dominic and Tristan, I can’t seem to get my head on straight. I have no clue what I’m doing or where I want things to go. We go through the motions each day without acknowledging what happened, but sooner or later, I’ll have to face what I’ve done with each of them.
I just need time to figure it all out.
And time is something I don’t have.
Sleep is even harder to find these days. I’m on edge, waiting for another attack or something else bad to happen. Not to mention my nightmares are getting worse.
There are nights I’m awakened by Tristan, others by Dom, but each time, I can see the worry in their eyes growing stronger. The knowing looks and unspoken words weigh heavy on my soul.
The massive void in my chest gets bigger with each passing day. I try my best not to let my thoughts or emotions run away from me—to keep them at bay. But nothing about my life makes sense anymore.
My father is gone. His death and not knowing the circumstances surrounding it hold a vice grip on my heart.
The prophecy. Always lurking in the back of my mind.
With all of that, my brother’s betrayal continuously fills my veins with poison. A toxin mixed with anger and rage so thick it’s starting to cloud my judgment. I want justice for my father. I need my brother to snap out of it and be the man I know he can be. Stand up for what is right and unjust the way our father had always done. Instead, he blindly stalks about in the castle with his master in tow.
Plotting. Planning. Who knows what else they are conjuring up behind our backs.
There’s nights I want to murder them. Pay them back for every horrible thing they’ve done. The crimes they’ve committed against our family—against IronHaven—won’t go unpunished.
Maybe that’s why my dreams have become so vivid. So real. So frightening.
Each night, I lay my head down and get sucked back into the same bone-chilling nightmare. The scenery may change but what happens never does.
It’s always the same.
The same hooded figure comes for me, but not before the crows—the crows always come before the hood. That much I’ve realized.
Like a sequence of events, crows, hood, then right before the hood kills me, one of the guys wakes me from my slumber. I never see how it plays out, and it’s kind of frustrating not knowing.
Sometimes when I wake, I’m still thrashing and trying to claw my way to safety. Other times, my body and sheets are soaked from the sweat that’s seeped from me in my panic-filled state.
I wish they would just stop, but the longer they continue, I know it’s a lost cause.
The preparations for my father’s funeral are underway. Everything should be ready any day now, not that I’ve been allowed to be involved in any of them.
I’ve wanted to help, but Mortianna and Ramiro have kept me in the dark about everything. The times I’ve snuck in and tried to make myself useful, they tell me it’s handled or it’s already being taken care of.
Part of me wants to be grateful that people are stepping up to plan everything, but I can’t help but think it’s just another way for them to conceal what they’ve done.
Until Greyson and Callum return, my hands are tied. Hopefully, they come bearing good news; otherwise, we are all screwed.
Cyra has been suspiciously quiet. Concern is written all over her face, but when I try to ask her about it, she just shrugs it off like I’m imagining things. I’m not. Whether it’s the looming tension in the air or something else entirely, I have no idea, but she isn’t herself, and I hate that.
There’s a knock on the door, and Dom peaks his head inside. “You ready?” he asks.
“Yeah, let me grab my stuff and we can go.” He eyes me suspiciously, then shuts the door.
I’m not dumb. I know what he’s thinking, what they are both thinking. They can hear it in my voice, see it in my actions, and I can feel it in my bones. The fight is leaving me. I’m losing hope. It’s hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel when everything is dark. I know what my father said, but he isn’t here. There’s no one here to help guide me or tell me if I’m doing the right or wrong thing. It’s just me... and them.
The days are dragging on, and the closer we get to the funeral, the closer my brother is to marrying me off.
He’ll happily send me to Morose and never think of me again. All the while, he and Mortianna will destroy IronHaven brick by brick. They will tear down everything my father worked so hard to build for our people.
And there won’t be a damn thing I can do about it.
