AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Thank you for coming. It meant the realm to me.” I blew them each a kiss, and both smiled, ignoring Georgyanna completely before they swirled away.
I gripped my cell bars, poking my face through the slats to watch my retreating friends.
“Stay strong, Ilara.” Meegana turned to walk backward. She brought a fist to her chest. “The crown prince won’t allow you to stay down here forever.” She let out a squeal when one of the prisoners tried to grab her through the bars, then cast worried-looking eyes my way, but I forced a smile even though inside my heart was breaking.
I made my smile stay wide, though. But I desperately wanted to know what was happening above. If they’d been able to stay longer, perhaps they could have told me how Norivun faired or what the king was up to, but Georgyanna had to come and ruin it...
I scowled.Alone once more with nothing but hideous fae surrounding me.
I eyed Vorl. He’d kept quiet during the brief visit with my friends, but I knew he’d listened to every word of our conversation.
Once Meegana and Beatrice were gone, Georgyanna crossed her arms. “You know you’ll probably die down here. I heard the king has no intentions of letting you go.Ever. Then the crown prince will have to be with me despite your eternal bond, and—” A huge boom rocked the walls. The Kroravee witch immediately ducked and scurried to the corner of the hall. “What in the realm wasthat?”
I gripped my cell bars when another boom, even stronger than the previous, rattled the entire floor above us. Dust sprinkled from the ceiling, falling on Georgyanna’s perfectly styled hair and glittering crown.
The tingling on my inner wrist increased. My lips parted when the petal throbbed anew, then my breath sucked in when understanding hit me.
Something was happening, and I would have bet rulibs that it was related to my fulfilled bargain with the prince—the bargain that stated I would replenish theoremin our land’s soil.
But how can that be?Our bargain was completed when we destroyed the veil of death in Isalee, and theoremhad been allowed to surge to the surface.
Righting herself, Georgyanna glanced warily at the ceiling again, then she narrowed her eyes and adjusted her crown once more. Straightening to her full height, she sauntered back to my cell. “As I was saying...I also wonder what our citizens will think when I tell them how you deceived and tricked Prince Norivun and that he never wanted to actually marry you, but you forced his hand at the altar, and?—”
CRACK.
A huge creakingsound came from above, and then a large fissure zigzagged across the dungeon’s ceiling, splitting the stone.
Georgyanna screamed, and my stomach bottomed out.
“Dear gods,” I muttered, no longercaring that Georgyanna had visited me simply to spew vile comments while forcing my friends’ visit to be cut short.
“What’s happening?” Georgyanna shrieked.
“It must be a very powerful earthquake.” Vorl huddled in the corner of his cell, as far away from me as possible. The other prisoners began to yell and shout.
The mark on my wrist flaredagain. Brow furrowing, I shook my head. “I don’t think it’s that.”
“Then what is it?” Georgyanna shouted as the other prisoners rattled their bars and called for the guards to free them.
“It’s the gods.” The castle shook again, and my heart beat harder. While I didn’t think the dungeon walls were going to cave in, I also didn’t know for certain that they wouldn’t.
Either way, I had a feeling it wasn’t safe to stay here, but I didn’t know how to escape, and I didn’t know why the gods were exacting revenge now. But the more time that passed, and the more explosions that came from above, all while my mark continually tingled along my skin, the more certain I was that such an event was occurring.
Especially when satisfaction barreled toward me on the mate bond.
Norivun.My heart surged.
My mate must have done something.
CHAPTER 6 - NORIVUN
My heart thudded, and its steady beat filled my ears. I held up my wrist. The shattered heart symbol that had disappeared after Ilara and I had destroyed the poisoned veil within Isalee was returning. It throbbed faintly along my skin. I now knew why the gods had chosen that symbol for me. My mate was imprisoned and being kept from me, and everything inside me was tearing apart at what my father was doing to her. My heart was indeed breaking, although shattering would have been a more accurate description.
Another rattle shook the castle, the entire floor rumbling beneath my feet.
Balbus’s eyes widened. “My prince! Your power’s returning. How wonderful. Perhaps Tylen’s grown too weary to suppress?—”
“It’s not me, Balbus.” When more tremors shook thewalls, my lips twisted in a cruel smile. I grabbed the window frame to keep from falling. That rumble had been even stronger than the first.
