“I caught this one snooping around on the cellar steps, your majesty.”
I thought he was talking to me for a second before realizing he was talking to Luca.
Luca didn’t look angry. If anything, he looked pleased with himself.
“I thought so. I don’t know who you people are, but I can hazard a guess. If you want to see the basement so much, please, let me show you.”
“I was lost,” shouted Daniel, but it was too late. Luca clicked his fingers, and two guards ran towards Cynder and I. I tried to fight back as one of them dragged me out of the chair and pinned my arms behind my back, but it was no use. He was much stronger than I was, and the effort I was making to thwart him was having little to no effect.
Luca stood up and walked over to us. Taking it in turns, he looked us all in the eye. When he got to me, I tried to look away, to his collar, to his hairline—anything but right into his eyes.
“Take those two,” he said, indicating Cynder and Daniel. I’ll take this one.”
“No!” shouted Cynder as he was dragged kicking and screaming through the door. The man who had hold of me, relinquished his hold to Luca and followed the others outside to help them.
Luca grabbed my arm and pulled me out of the dining room towards the main stairs. The last I saw of Daniel and Cynder was the three men pushing them down another set of stairs. I cried out as I heard the sound of them both hitting the stairs as they fell.
“You monster!” I screamed, but Luca paid no heed. Instead, he dragged me up the stairs to the first floor. Pulling me into a room, he threw me down on the bed.
“I knew you’d come back. My advisors told me to go out looking for you, but I knew if I waited long enough, you’d come running back to me.”
“I don’t know what you mean!” I spat.
“Really now? You might not look like you, but I know it’s you. Your boyfriend put a spell on your face did he, Charmaine?” His face contorted into a grimace. It was mean and ugly. He walked closer to the bed and began to unbuckle his belt.
“What are you doing?” I screamed, pulling myself further up the bed to get away from him.
“You wanted our first time to be after our wedding. Well here it is. You are my wife now, and I think it’s about time we consummated our marriage don’t you?”
“You can’t be serious!” The full horror of what he was about to do sank in, leaving me short of breath and petrified.
“I’d have preferred to do this with your real face to look at. The magic spell makes you look like a commoner, but beggars can’t be choosers, eh.”
I tried to hold my voice steady as he came closer.
“Don’t you dare,” I hissed, “or I’ll...”
“Or you’ll what?” he laughed. “Scream? Fight back? I think we both know that I’m stronger than you. And as for screaming, you wouldn’t be the first, and you certainly won’t be the last. I like to hear a little spirit in my ladies.”
Just listening to him brought bile to my throat. I glanced around me, looking for some kind of weapon, but the room was tidy. All I had at my disposal was a pillow.
He crawled onto the bed and then on top of me. His weight crushed me, leaving me breathless, but I wasn’t going to go down without a fight. Pulling my legs up, I managed to leverage them into a position where I could push him off. It took every ounce of strength I had, but it made enough of a gap between us for me to bring my arms in and push. When there was enough of a gap, I kicked upwards as hard as I could, making him cry out in pain and roll to the side. Seizing the opportunity, I dashed to the door, but just as I got there, I felt my hair being tugged back, yanking my head back so roughly that I was looking towards the ceiling. Luca kept pulling, bringing my whole body backwards. As I fell to the floor, I could feel my hair being ripped out by the roots. I screamed as the burning sensation hit my brain, but Luca had been right. No one came running.
He dragged me onto the bed and, this time, pinned my arms to my sides. This time there was no escaping.
“Happy wedding night, honey,” he said.
I looked him in the eye and spit directly into his face.
Trapped
I closed my eyes, waiting for the inevitable. His body was so heavy on top of mine that I couldn’t move at all. His hot breath on my neck made my toes curl. I wriggled as much as I could to try and escape, but if anything, my struggling seemed to excite him.
“Leave me alone!” I hissed. “I’ll tell everyone the truth about the monster you are.”
Luca laughed. “The people think the queen is dead. No one knows you are here. Even the guards don’t know who you are. I have to say your boyfriend did a remarkable spell on you. I barely recognize you. I assume that’s your boyfriend down in the basement and the other one is...Daniel?”
“People will find out!”
Luca glared at me, his face a picture of ugliness. It was so strange how I ever thought him attractive. Yes, he was good-looking on the outside, but looking past that pretty exterior, all I could see was the monster within.
“Don’t think for a second I’m going to let you go,” he rasped. “I’m going to have my fun with you, and when I get bored, I’m going to kill you. Most of Silverwood believe you are dead anyway. I wouldn’t want to disappoint them.”
He moved his leering lips towards me. I’d kissed him so many times; and yet, this wasn’t a kiss, it was an act of power, and he was winning.
I tried moving my head to the side to escape, but he kissed my neck instead, making me want to throw up. He was rough, and I had to bite my lip to stop from crying out again as he hurt me. I could feel a bruise already appearing on my neck as he sucked down hard.
I had never felt so completely helpless or alone.
Suddenly I heard a kerfuffle outside. Someone was shouting although I couldn’t make out what they were saying through the closed window. Luca heard it too because he jumped off me and raced to the window.
“It looks like your boyfriend has gotten himself into some trouble,” Luca jeered as he looked out from behind the curtain.
Cynder!
I hesitated, torn between running through the door for my life or seeing what was happening outside to Cynder.
Something told me I’d not get very far if I tried to make a run for it. I’d seen a guard right outside the door as Luca had dragged me through it. I pulled myself from the bed and walked silently over to Luca. Peering out of the window from behind him, I could see Cynder on a horse. Sitting directly behind him was Jenny.
Another horse came into view with Daniel and a man I didn’t recognize sitting on it who could only have been Daniel’s father. A third horse held Dean.
I jumped up and down silently. They had escaped!
Why weren’t they leaving?
Policemen or guards rushed out of the house. Cynder danced around them on the horse as Dean and Daniel’s horses headed for the exit. There was more shouting, but Cynder didn’t turn to follow them.
Cynder was hopelessly outnumbered. The guards crowded around the frightened horse, trying to pull Cynder and Jenny off. One of the guards grabbed Jenny’s leg and almost pulled her to the ground, but as I watched she swung her arm around and landed a right hook to his face. I clapped my hands together as Cynder grabbed the back of her dress—the same one she’d been wearing at the wedding days earlier—and pulled her back up onto the horse.
“It looks like your boyfriend is staying for you,” Luca leered. “He won’t get away.”
As I watched, the throng around Cynder’s horse got deeper. There were too many guards now. He’d never get through them. As I watched, Daniel’s horse sailed through the air over the fence to the outside. Seconds later, Dean’s horse followed. Both shouted over to Cynder to follow, but it was apparent he’d waited until too late. There were too many guards
Daniel brought out his wand, and a flash of light hit the guards at the very back. They crumpled to the ground, but it wasn’t enough.
“Come on, D
aniel!” I whispered under my breath urging him to do more of the same.
Luca, on seeing what Daniel was doing, opened the window and shouted down to his guards.
“Shoot him!”
“Run, Cynder!” I shouted from behind him, causing Luca to slap me hard across the face. As I fell backwards, I heard the sound of gunshots ring out. My head hit the floor, and within seconds, everything had gone black.
Hours later I woke up with a banging headache and a dry throat. The room was dark, but I could see enough to know I was still in the same place I’d been hours earlier, only now I was tied to the bed. My clothes were still intact. Luca must have left just after the shooting. At least, that was something. I breathed slightly easier until it all came flooding back to me. The horses, the guards, the gunshots!
“Cynder!” I cried, sitting up in bed quickly as far as my restraints would allow. I was bound to each corner by four short ropes and moving was nearly impossible.
As Luca had closed the curtains, I couldn’t see out of the window at all except for a sliver of moonlight telling me night had fallen. I must have been out for quite some time.
Resting my head back on the pillow, I thought of Cynder and Jenny. Why hadn’t he just gone like the others had? Had Luca been right, and he’d stayed for me? If he had, he’d put both his and Jenny’s life on the line. If either of them had been injured or worse, I’d never forgive myself.
I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. There was nothing to say Cynder had been shot. Just because I’d heard shots being fired didn’t mean they had hit their mark. I could feel the tears beginning to form in the corners of my eyes, but I didn’t have time for a bout of self-pity. I needed to figure out a way to escape. I needed to find out if Cynder was ok. Pulling my right hand roughly towards me, I tried wiggling it free from its restraint, but it was no use. The harder I pulled, the tighter the rope became. Red welts appeared on my wrist as I pulled against the rough rope, and yet, I carried on trying, desperate to get out of the room to find out if Cynder and Jenny had made it.
I’d been working on it for over an hour and getting nowhere when the door opened. The blonde woman I’d seen whispering to Luca earlier walked in with a tray of food. She flicked on the light switch and threw the tray at me, sending the contents all over the bed.
“The king told me to bring you this,” she spat, before turning on her heels and leaving me alone once again.
The king? That’s what he was calling himself now?
“Well, good luck!” I whispered to myself. Being king hadn’t turned out so great for my father. With any luck, Luca would go the same way.
As the food was scattered all over the bed, it took a great deal of effort to gather it all up so I could eat it. Thankfully, it was all dry food such as sandwiches and cookies and not a bowl of steaming hot goulash. Even the drink was in a carton, although as the ropes were too short to bring my hands together, I wasn’t sure exactly how I was going to open it.
I wasn’t in the least bit hungry despite not eating anything since breakfast. Every mouthful went down slowly, nearly making me choke, but I ate anyway. I would need my strength if I was ever going to get out of this place.
I ended up giving up on the juice box, so I threw it to one side in frustration.
The blonde came back in pulling a trolley with a TV on it which she plugged into a socket on the wall opposite my bed. The screen glared to life.
“The king wants you to watch this,” she said. Once again, she turned without another word.
“Excuse me,” I said before she had the chance to close the door behind her. “Please, would you open the juice?”
“Do it yourself,” she sniffed and slammed the door shut. I guessed she wasn’t my biggest fan at the moment.
I also guessed I was going to go thirsty unless I figured out how to open the juice box.
I picked it up again and tried working the straw into the top of the packet with just one hand.
An advert for ice cream finished, and Frederick Pittser’s face appeared, filling the screen.
At the bottom were the words Breaking News.
Whatever this was, if Luca wanted me to see it, it wouldn’t be good. I held my breath, waiting for Pittser to confirm my worst fear, that Cynder was dead.
Pittser’s face was actually somber as he spoke. It made a change from his usually smug expression.
“It is with deepest sorrow that I bring this announcement to you, the people of Silverwood today,” he began. “Officials have confirmed that the Queen, Her Majesty Charmaine has been killed by her kidnappers.”
I dropped the juice box letting the contents spill out on the blanket.
A picture of four men appeared behind Pittser. Actually, it was only two men, but no one would know. It was Daniel and Cynder. The other two were drawings of Daniel and Cynder in their disguise.
“No!” I shouted out at the screen, but there was no one to hear me.
Pittser continued, “Reliable sources tell us that these men are the kidnappers. You might recognize the one on the left as Cynder York. It was I that broke the news earlier on in the year that Cynder and the queen were having an affair which resulted in another round of competition for the queen’s hand in marriage. Despite their sordid affair, her majesty picked Prince Luca. It looks like this was too much for Cynder who kidnapped the queen and her family and destroyed our great palace. It has also been made known to us that along with his accomplices; he has killed the Queen Mother and the Princess Elise, leaving no heirs. Therefore, from tomorrow, Luca Tremaine is Silverwood’s new king. We’ve had no formal announcement yet on the coronation date, but we’ll let you know as soon as we find out.”
Long live the king. Long live King Luca!”
Escape
I slumped back on the bed in shock as a news anchor came on. I was only half listening as he basically repeated what Pittser had said.
Everyone thought I was dead. They thought Mother and Elise were dead and they thought Daniel and Cynder were the ones to murder them.
A thought suddenly struck me lifted my spirits out of the gloom. If Luca had told Pittser to announce that Cynder was the kidnapper, it meant he was free. He’d gotten away after all.
Luca had made me watch this, thinking it would break me, but instead it had done the opposite. Determination rose inside me. I was not giving up. I was going to fight! Luca should have known me better by now. He should have known I wouldn’t just sit back and swallow his particular brand of evil. If Cynder and the others had escaped, there was no reason I couldn’t too. With a renewed vigor, I began, once again, to pull on the ropes binding me. When the blonde woman came back to take the TV, I pretended to sleep, and when she was gone, I went back to the ropes. It took me a few good hours to get through the first rope binding my right wrist, but with a combination of biting and using my nails of that hand, I managed to finally work through it enough to snap it free.
With each moment that passed, I was on edge, waiting for Luca to return, but he never did. Maybe he thought the news would shock me into quietness; maybe the blonde told him I was asleep? Either way, I got through the night without being disturbed. Once my first hand was free, the other ropes were much easier to unfasten, and by the early hours of the morning, I was completely free of my bindings.
Peeking out of the window, I realized that there was no way I’d be able to escape from there. Even though I was only one floor up, the drop was far enough that I could easily break my leg or worse. Plus I could see quite a few guards, and unlike Cynder and Daniel, I had no horse, nor magic to work with.
I already knew there was a guard outside the door. I’d seen him when Luca brought me in, and I’d heard him chatting with other guards every so often. I couldn’t hope to be able to leave without being seen, so I was going to have to fight. Literally!
I was reasonably tall, but in all my years of learning how to be a princess, not once was I shown the art of self-defense. Seriously, how hard could it have b
een to drop one of the lessons on how to hold a fork and show me how to stab someone with one instead?
I looked around the room for something I could use as a weapon, but nothing came to mind, not unless I wanted to hit the guard over the head with a pillow, which I didn’t.
The only thing I had at my disposal was the element of surprise. If I rushed out and punched him hard enough before he even realized I’d left the room, maybe, just maybe, I could run for it.
It was a useless plan, but it was all I had.
If I didn’t escape on my own, I knew Cynder would come back for me, and Luca wouldn’t let him escape twice.
Padding quietly over to the door, I burst through it quickly. Thank goodness, I didn’t try to yell at the same time because the guard was asleep. He was sitting in a chair, his head lolled to one side, snoring quietly. Even better, on the floor beside him was a gun. He must have dropped it when he fell asleep. The blood pumped through my veins faster than ever as I tiptoed over to him quietly. If he awoke now, I would be toast.
I picked up the gun and took off the safety release. For the first time since getting here, I had the upper hand. I was armed.
As I didn’t know the layout of the house very well, I decided my best bet was to try to get out the same way I’d come in, and that meant through the front door. The back of the house, I already knew to be filled with guards in the courtyard. I tried to think back to how many guards had been out front, but apart from a couple on the door, I couldn’t think of any. Of course, I still had to get out of the capital, or at least, find somewhere to hide within it. I wished that Matty’s spell had expired, but I could still feel that my features were not my own. If I looked like the queen, I could find someone to help me. After all, it wasn’t long ago that the whole nation was cheering me on.
At the top of the stairway, I glanced over. It was empty. Nothing stood between me and freedom except those two oak doors.
It was too easy. I didn’t like it.
Charmed Page 5
