Bastien snarled at Morgan. “Are we done here?”
“By all means, let the girl go find her long lost love. Bastien the Bold, you may accompany her to my sister’s mansion and see for yourselves how devoted Demi is to Avril at my command.” She clicked her finger at Bastien. “Go ready two horses. I need a few words with my daughter before she rides off in search of true love.” She said the whole thing like it was a joke – like I was a joke.
Bastien cleared the distance between himself and Morgan in two long steps, shoving her to the wall to knock the laughter off her lips. “You’ll speak to Rosie with respect, Morgan. She belongs to the Brotherhood now.”
My mother flinched at the use of her first name more than the assault. Rigby was at a loss, calling guards in, who were ready to attack, but lowered their weapons uncertainly when they saw it was an Untouchable who threatened their queen. They couldn’t lay a finger on him, and everyone knew it.
Morgan fumed at Bastien, her nostrils flaring. “Rosalie belongs to me until she’s been marked. I see no ink on her neck. I’ll speak to my daughter as I see fit.”
“It’s only a matter of time until she’s inked. Don’t make me send Madigan the Formidable in here. He doesn’t take kindly to his fiancée being pushed around.”
“Get him off me!” Morgan screeched, but higher than the queen’s command was the unshakeable code the soldiers lived by – if you were lucky enough to get out, you were free to live as you wished.
“I could gut you right now,” Bastien seethed in her face. “But I won’t do that in front of your daughter. I’ll take her to Avril’s mansion, and you’ll have a fresh attitude when I come back. Otherwise I’ll see to making you Madigan’s little toy, like you’ve done with Demi. All the rumors about his ruthlessness? They’re innocent compared with the truth. See how you like saying ‘Yes, Master Madigan.’”
Morgan’s face was red with rage, and she spat in his face in lieu of a threat.
When he turned back to me, he gave me a nod of solidarity. “I’ll get the horses ready and meet you in the stables. We’ll get Demi back for you, if that’s what you want.”
I couldn’t believe he would go with me to retrieve the man I wouldn’t cast aside for him. I was stunned at the selflessness I hadn’t thought him capable of feeling. “Thank you.”
He shoved the soldiers out and shut me in the room with Rigby and Morgan. Morgan straightened her dress and her hair, pushing Rigby out of the way when he tried to help her. “Avril said that your pal Master Kerdik gave you this ring,” she said, cutting to the chase as she pointed to my finger in accusation. “Let me see it.”
Wordlessly, I held up my hand so she could see my square-shaped aquamarine gemstone, accompanied by the three sparkling diamonds on either side of the white gold vine-like setting. I didn’t correct her that Kerdik wasn’t my pal anymore, and that he’d lost his temper and attacked me just a few hours ago. I hadn’t even gotten to go bowling with him.
“Hand it here.” She held out her palm expectantly. “Now, Rosalie. You wouldn’t know the first thing to do with a gem from Master Kerdik.”
Though I no longer felt the affinity for Kerdik I used to, my fist closed around the ring. “He told me not to take it off.”
She snapped her fingers to Rigby, who summoned in four guards from the hallway. “Fetch me the ring from my daughter’s finger. She’s being particularly stubborn today, and doesn’t deserve trinkets for her bad behavior.”
Before I could protest, the soldiers closed in on me. I got in a few good punches, but it was four on one. Two held me still even after I’d punched out the third dude, who was asking for it. The two wrestled me to the rug and pinned my thrashing and terrified body. I screamed for Bastien, but he didn’t hear me. I shrieked my terror at the implications of being helplessly pinned down by grown men who didn’t even flinch at what they were doing. I normally like to think I can hold my own in a fight, but this was four full-grown military men on one tired me. The million-pound goon kneeled on my throat to stop my screaming and hold me more firmly in place. My hand was jerked over my head and pinned to the wooden floor, my fingers pried open.
Suddenly, there was a tingling in my hand that started in from my fourth finger. Something happened when the gold slid up my knuckle, sending a shiver through me and a flash of blinding light through the room. The soldier kneeling on my throat released me from the stranglehold, toppling sideways and falling off of me.
I coughed when I pulled in a full breath. The oxygen filled me with rage, expanding my ribcage with more fury than I could brush aside. I went spastic, knocking the other dudes off me in a battle of wild limbs before I realized the heavy goon with fat knees wasn’t moving.
Morgan’s voice was scared as she ordered them to fall back. “What magic did he put in there?” Then the fear turned to zealous greed as she lunged for me. “Give me the ring!”
My heart splintered when I punched my mother across the face with my ringed fist, unsure what other course of action I should’ve taken. She stumbled off me, clutching her bleeding face with venom in her soul. She didn’t look at Rigby as she spoke to him, her cheeks vibrating with rage. “Take her to the compound and give the soldiers a free pass to do as they wish with her. Tell them to make her wish she was never born. See if she won’t part with the ring then.”
Terror lit me like fire from the inside, but I held my ground, seething and readying for another fight.
Rigby was distraught, but stayed by Morgan’s side. “Your majesty, they won’t defile your daughter now that they’ve seen Master Kerdik’s affections for her. No one would dare touch the princess and risk his wrath. That’s not counting risking Madigan the Formidable’s displeasure, which I know the men will not tempt.”
Little did they know that Kerdik didn’t give two rips about me anymore.
Rigby leaned down and felt the jugular of the soldier who’d tried to take the ring off my finger. “He’s dead, your majesty. Kerdik’s put a protection around her, and we’d all do well to respect it, rather than push its limits.”
I gasped, horrified that I’d participated in someone’s death who I didn’t even know.
Morgan’s nostrils flared as she held her stinging cheekbone. I’d clocked her good, though I felt no triumph in it, only shame at raising my hand to the woman who’d given birth to me. “Very well. If I can’t take the ring, I’ll punish you until you give it over to me of your own free will.” She snapped her fingers at Rigby and the three remaining guards. “Relieve her of her clothes and lower her down into the dried well on the back of the southern edge of the property.”
Rigby swallowed hard, clearly not liking this order. “Your majesty, it’s been raining. The well will not be dry. Surely Master Kerdik will retaliate if the princess drowns under your care.”
Morgan hauled off and slapped Rigby across his face, stinging his heart more than his cheek. “Do as I say! Do you think I’m less than Master Kerdik? That I should cower? I cower to no one!” Her voice boomed throughout the room like the spoiled princess she was. “I am the Queen of Avalon! There is no one higher than me! Master Kerdik has magic? Well, so do I. Let him come for me. Let him see the country that he abandoned to ruin, and that I saved.”
Rigby bowed his head, his voice stony and his soul running on empty. “Take the princess and do as the queen commands.” Rigby broke what was left of my heart when he motioned for the soldiers to gag me, throw me into this giant black bag, and then drag my kicking and fighting body out of the castle.
32
Goodbye, Rigby
I had many acerbic things to spew at Rigby along the way, but none of them were heard behind the gag. The rain soaked through the sturdy black bag, and I was bumped and bruised as I was dragged for too long. I was stunned and furious, and couldn’t believe Rigs would betray me like this. When the soldiers fished me out of the bag and stood me, bound and seething before him, Rigs removed my gag and cut my bonds. “Take your dress off, your majesty.�
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I spat in his face, though the rain dripping down his nose softened that assault slightly. “Friggin’ make me! You want my dress, you’re going to have to wrestle it off me, Rigs.”
The use of the nickname I used for him cut deep, making him flinch at the sound. “Don’t make this difficult, sweet girl. If you’d simply hand over the ring, this would all be a short, unpleasant memory.” He brushed a stray curl from my sweaty face, his sad eyes locking in on mine. “I find it’s easier to give her majesty most high what she wants. No one who opposes her lives to stand in her way for long. I would not see you cut down.”
I didn’t have the same sentimental attachment to the ring I used to, but if this was how it was all going to go down, Morgan could try prying it off my cold, dead finger. “And yet, here we are. Do it, Rigs. Strip me down. Hold me while I cry one day, and then make me stand in front of you in the outdoors stark raving naked the next.”
Rigby lowered his chin and shook his head sadly, the slow motion distracting me while he raised his hand to the soldiers. “Get on with it, but see you don’t hurt her.”
“Why?” I challenged, furious and wanting to drive my point home. “Why can’t they hurt me? Is there something wrong with hurting a young woman? Do you find it disgusting what you’re asking them to do? But your precious queen commanded it, so how can it be wrong?”
Rigby nearly broke at my words. “What would you have me do, Rosie? Would you see my head severed from my neck? It would only mean someone who does not care for you ordering your clothes be taken, and they would not stop at that.”
My fists clenched at my sides. “Oh, so I should thank you?”
“No matter what you think, you cannot possibly hate me more than I despise myself right now.” Then my only friend left in the castle turned around so he didn’t have to see the fight that was me trying desperately to keep the dress I hated, and three older, grown men tearing it piece by piece from my body. I’d managed to break two noses, got in a nut shot, three kidney jabs and knocked one of them clean out, but still they won.
I sported a fat lip, a sore knee, and zero pride to go with my naked skin. At least they left me my underwear and Madigan’s ring that I wore on a gold chain around my neck. I sobbed into my hand, clutching my knees to my chest on the wet grass. The rain poured down on my bare shoulders, soaking me and making the grim evening seem that much more hopeless.
“I told you not to hurt her!” Rigby thundered, motioning to my scrapes that were mostly from Kerdik’s icy temper. On instinct, he removed his red jacket and draped it around my shoulders, holding me to his chest while I wept. “Please, my sweet. Please just give us the ring. I cannot bear this!”
I felt lost and very, very afraid. I prayed for Bastien to come and find me, to have heard my cries when they were nearer the castle. I was so far away now, the castle small from this distance. I knew he couldn’t hear me even if I howled. “Don’t do this,” I whispered, holding tight to Rigby’s shirt.
Rigby let out a tortured howl before he took his coat back and stepped away, leaving me to my fate. The soldiers wrestled me up and hoisted me into a bucket so wide that I could sit in it while it swung over the well. Rigby molded my fingers to the rope as they quickly lowered me down. I screamed and shook, my cries echoing off the stone, informing me that I had a long ways to go still. No one would find me in here, and this would be how I would die.
When I finally reached the bottom, the bucket landed with a splash, giving me something to hold onto when they cut the rope and sent the heavy cord crashing down on my head. The lower quarter of the bucket was submerged in rainwater, and I was too scared to test if I could reach the bottom of the abyss. I shook with icy fear, wondering how long I could hold onto the edges of the bucket and trust it to keep me afloat.
I was desperate, which is the only way I rationalized my actions when I pressed my ring to my heart and whispered, “Kerdik, Kerdik, Kerdik,” as he’d instructed me to do when I wanted to reach him. Rigby rolled something over the well to seal me in the dark, alone with only my terror and the creeping desperation.
The world grew deafening silent, trapping me in the well with my rampant fear that I would die without Lane. She would scour both worlds looking for me, but my bones would rot in the bottom of this stinking well. I could smell mildew and something that could only be described as earth gone rancid. I heard nothing, save my own blubbering.
I bobbed, sobbing as I waited for anyone to come find me. I waited…
And waited.
* * *
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Stupid Girl
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Book four in the Faîte Falling series.
1
Lying to my Mother
When the lid overhead opened up however many hours or days later, I couldn’t open my eyes – the light was so painful. My blood boiled when I heard Morgan shouting down to me, her voice echoing off the walls and creating a confusing dissonance. “Are you ready to give me the ring?”
More rain entered the well, frustrating me that I’d have to keep waiting longer now for the walls to dry. They’d almost been sturdy enough for me to make an attempt, but not quite. “I can’t get it off!” I shouted, trying my hand at lying to see if it would work.
“Then I guess you should make yourself at home down there,” she spat back. “Enjoy your meal for the day.”
I squeaked when something came flying down at me, hurling at a speed I couldn’t counter, banging off walls and landing with a bloody splat in my lap. I shrieked at the dead quail that had been skinned for me, and still had lines of blood sliding down over its body. I was horrified at the lifeless creature in my arms, and unsure what to do with it. Without thinking, I tossed it over the edge of the bucket, letting it splash in the water as the well closed overhead. Then I panicked, guessing that an animal carcass would pollute the only water supply I had. Quickly, I tipped the lip of the tub I was hugging my knees in, filling it with rainwater to the point where it was almost non-buoyant. Though I could go without food for a while, I knew depriving myself of drinkable water would ensure I died quicker.
I had to stay alive. I had a new brother I was only just starting to get to know. Draper had recently been adopted by Lane, and the two of us had hit it off right from the start. Draper was desperate for family, and I didn’t want him to finally get a sister who would fight for him, only to lose her so soon.
Lane and I were best friends. As much as I would never survive without her, I knew that same desperation existed on her end, too. She would find me.
I heard Morgan’s cruel laughter above the relentless rain. Then I was sealed in the darkness, unsure if I would ever feel the grass beneath my toes again.
* * *
Continue the Faîte Falling series
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Also by Mary E. Twomey
The Saga of the Spheres
The Silence of Lir
Secrets
The Sword
Sacrifice
* * *
The Volumes of the Vemreaux
The Way
The Truth
The Lie
* * *
Jack and Yani Love Harry Potter
* * *
Undraland
Undraland
Nøkken
Fossegrim
Elvage
The Other Side
* * *
Undraland: Blood Novels
Lucy at Peace
Lucy at War
Lucy at Last
Linus at Large
* * *
Terraway
Taste
Tremble
Torture
Tempt
Treat
Temper
Tease
Trap
* * *
Faîte Falling
Ugly Girl
Lost Girl
Rich Girl
Stupid Girl
Broken Girl
Untouchable Girl
Stubborn Girl
* * *
Faîte Falling: Faîte Rising
Common Girl
Blind Girl
Savage Girl
Dangerous Girl
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Mary E. Twomey also writes contemporary romance under the name Tuesday Embers.
Visit her online at www.tuesdayembers.com.
Rich Girl Page 22
