She walked outside on the edge of the courtyard where the king and his knights were practicing their sword fighting. Crossing her arms, she stopped and watched Blackheart, willing him to grow uncomfortable under the intensity of her glare. But he continued swinging his sword as if she wasn’t there. He had to know she was there. He had a tendency to pick up on the slightest change in his environment. Though that trait impressed her, she refused to give voice to anything positive she noticed about him.
After five minutes of staring at him with a scowl on her face, she gave up trying to get him to look in her direction and turned her attention to the steps that led to the wall. She might as well check out the landscape again. The guard still behind her, she reached the top of the wall and studied the forest that spanned miles before her. Beyond the forest, she saw the sunlight glimmer off the ocean. Her kingdom wasn’t too far from there.
Grunting, she reminded herself that this world was fiction. It didn’t really exist. Her so-called kingdom was really an apartment, and she was a waitress, not a queen. Her thoughts turned to her family and Caitlyn. There wasn’t a day that went by that she didn’t wonder what they must be going through. They would have the police looking for her, and the police wouldn’t be able to find her. No one would guess she was stuck inside her computer’s hard drive. Help wouldn’t come from outside. She had no hope of escaping on her own. Besides Noel and two guards, she didn’t know anyone. Noel and the guards were extremely loyal to King Blackheart. They’d never betray him.
She spun around and looked back at the courtyard which was below her. Again, she willed the king to look up at her, to acknowledge her, to grow uncomfortable under the heat of her stare. But he didn’t. For all he cared, she might as well have been invisible.
A guard ran into the courtyard. Curious, she focused on him as he approached the king. King Blackheart glanced her way while the guard talked to him. She crossed her arms. King Blackheart gestured to the guard beside her.
The guard nodded and turned to her. “Your presence is required in the throne room.”
“Required?” she asked, thinking that was an odd way of saying she was wanted in the throne room.
“Yes. You have to go.”
“I have to?”
“Yes. The king won’t let you refuse.”
“Oh really? And what is he going to do if I refuse?”
He stared at her, unblinking. “Are you refusing?”
She almost asked him, What do you think? but resisted the urge. Instead, she said, “I have to tend to some personal matters.”
“That can wait.”
“I’m afraid it can’t. Not unless you want me to make an unpleasant mess.”
“I don’t believe you need to go to the privy.”
Before she could respond, he picked her up and threw her over his shoulder. Stunned, she didn’t fight to get away from him as he carried her down the stairs. The men around her chuckled, and her face flushed in embarrassment. If King Blackheart thought her guard could treat her like a wayward child in front of his men and get her to agree to whatever he wanted, he had another thing coming.
The guard strode across the courtyard, and as they passed the king, she noticed a slight smirk on his face. Aggravated, she yelled out, “I won’t do it! Whatever it is you have planned, I won’t do it!”
“We’ll see,” he called out.
She grunted. She hated how certain he was that he could get her to do anything he wanted. It only made her more determined to resist him.
The guard carried her into the castle and to the throne room, bouncing her on his shoulder like a sack of potatoes. When he set her down, she realized he had placed her in front of a man with a long blue satin robe and matching hat.
Her eyes grew wide. “The magician?” He looked exactly the way she’d pictured him while she wrote the book, but… “Didn’t King Blackheart kill you for betraying him to one of my knights?”
“In your version of the story, that was true, but we’re not in your version anymore,” the guard told her. Turning to the magician, he added, “You know what to do.”
“What? What does he have to…”
A blue haze surrounded her, and she forgot the rest of her question. She knew he was putting a spell on her. She felt the magic reach out and penetrate her mind, dispelling all protests from her. In its place was a very pleasant sensation. Though a part of her realized she should be alarmed, she couldn’t bring herself to care.
The door to the throne room opened, and she turned in time to see King Blackheart stride across the room with a priest, that knowing smirk still on his face. As much as she wanted to narrow her eyes at him, her body wouldn’t obey. She felt a smile form on her lips.
“You see, Father Augustine,” King Blackheart began, motioning to her, “she’s quite agreeable to the marriage.”
“Yes, I am.” She blinked in shock. Good heavens but did that phrase just come out of her mouth? And was she really smiling as if this was the best thing that ever happened to her? She looked at the magician. She had no idea she made him that powerful.
Father Augustine’s shoulders relaxed. “I’m relieved. While I understand much is at stake, my own life included, I can’t bring myself to marry a man or woman against their will.” With a smile, he stepped between the two thrones, one for Blackheart and the other for her. “Please, come.”
To Sandy’s horror, she hurried over to him, still smiling as if this was the best thing that ever happened to her. She glanced at the magician and mentally grumbled. Who knew magic could be so powerful? Blackheart walked toward her at an annoyingly slow pace. She wished she could groan or roll her eyes, but the magic only permitted her to give him a ridiculous grin. The whole thing made her want to puke.
“Please, join hands,” Father Augustine said.
Blackheart reached out and took her hands in his, and as much as she wanted to pull them away, she clasped her hands around his.
“The uniting of two lives is a splendid thing,” the priest began. “You are joining more than two kingdoms. You are joining your hearts, your lives, your hopes, your dreams. From this moment forward, you will no longer be two, but you will be one. It is a blessing.”
It was a curse, Sandy thought, but she couldn’t say it. All she could do was smile like an idiot. She tuned out the rest of Father Augustine’s spiel about the beauty of marriage. Granted, she used to dream of being a bride. She was almost one, long ago. She shoved the memories back into the recesses of her mind. Josh was in the past, and that’s where he’d always be. The jerk didn’t deserve to be remembered.
Her gaze focused on Blackheart, and she wished she could slap that stupid smirk right off his face. The thought crossed her mind that she could give him the same news she gave to Josh shortly after he proposed to her. That would be the easiest way out of the marriage, but what was the point? Blackheart was a character in her story. He wasn’t real. None of this was actually happening.
As real as it felt, this world and the people in it stemmed from her imagination. This was all fake, and when she found her way back to reality, everything that happened here would be null and void. So it didn’t matter if she was married. She was only married in the story, and any story could be rewritten. Even so, it irked her that he dared to force her into something she specifically said she didn’t want.
Father Augustine finally finished talking and clasped his hands over theirs. “From day to day may your love flourish and grow stronger, regardless of what happens, good or bad. You have my blessing and are now husband and wife.” He let go of their hands and motioned to the magician. “You may hand the king the bride’s crown.”
The magician stepped forward with a delicate gold crown with a few rubies embedded in it. Blackheart let go of her hands and accepted the crown. She wanted to run off and get out of this wretched castle, but the magic held her in place. He put the crown on her head.
“Let your kingdoms prosper and your subjects know peace,” Father August
ine said before he bowed.
“Thank you for coming,” Blackheart told him.
“It was an honor to be here for this blessed event.”
Sandy inwardly groaned and averted her gaze from the jovial men. Blessed event, indeed! It was something alright, but blessed wasn’t the word she’d use to describe it.
Once Father Augustine left, Blackheart instructed the magician to undo his magic spell. The instant he did, she was able to scowl at Blackheart.
“It’s good to have you back to your normal self,” Blackheart dryly commented before turning to the magician and guard. “I have it from here. You may leave.”
The two men bowed and hastened out of the room.
She crossed her arms and glared at him. “Don’t think you’ve won. This was but one battle.”
“I did what was necessary,” Blackheart replied, placing his hands behind his back. “As we speak, word is being sent to your kingdom that Crystaline and Havenshire are united.”
“I hate to admit it, but even with all the things you’ve done to keep me prisoner, I never thought you’d use magic to force me to marry you.”
“Now you know what it feels like.”
“Now I know what it feels like?”
“You had me slaughter innocent people and destroy villages against my will. I protested it each and every step of the way,” he pointed to her, “but you made me do it. So yes, now you know what it feels like to be forced to do something against your will. It’s not very pleasant, is it?”
“There’s a big difference between you and me.”
“Besides the fact that you’re stubborn to a fault?”
She narrowed her eyes at him. “If I’m stubborn, I have good reason to be. I am the author of this story. And not only am I the author, but I’m real. You are a work of fiction. Once I’m back in my world, you will cease to exist.”
Because she’d make sure the first thing she did was delete him from the story. She no longer even wanted to kill him off. The sooner she was done with him, the better, and there was no quicker way to be rid of him than to delete the entire book. At this point, she was fine with the thought of quitting the insane notion of writing a book altogether. It simply wasn’t worth the aggravation. The last thing she needed was another psychotic character abducting her.
“I was able to go into your world to bring you here,” King Blackheart said in a low voice that demanded her attention. “If I could materialize in your world, I’m real.”
She stared at him but didn’t say anything. She refused to give him the satisfaction of wondering how he managed that feat, especially since he wasn’t supposed to be real.
“It doesn’t matter what you think or what you want,” he continued with a shrug. “The fact is, our kingdoms are united now, and the story is finally going in the direction it should have gone from the beginning.”
“And how does your version of my story end? Do I fall off the wall because I’m miserable?”
“Why do you insist on killing people? Is your life so morbid you have to enact such violence?”
“My life is just fine, thank you very much.” Not that anything she did in her real life was any of his business, but she might as well humor him and tell him why she was happy. “I have a decent job, a nice apartment, and good friends. The only reason I was writing was because I had a dream that needed to be written down.”
“Protest all you want, but I sense an emptiness inside you.”
“That’s because I’m stuck here. Send me back and the emptiness will go away,” she said through gritted teeth. She didn’t know why his words irked her as much as they did. They were just words. There was no validity to them, none that she could see anyway.
“If you let me live, I’ll send you back.”
After a long moment, she shook her head. “The story isn’t yours. It’s mine.”
“Then you’ll stay here.” Taking a deep breath, he straightened and extended his arm to her. “I’ll escort you to your bedchamber so Noel can help you dress for our wedding dinner.”
“You’re not getting into my bed.”
“I don’t believe I mentioned doing so.”
“I meant tonight or any other night. You might have used magic on me to get me to marry you, but if you so much as use magic to—”
“Enough,” he interrupted, his eyes growing cold. “I know you take me for a villain, but I wouldn’t make you do something that personal against your will.”
“You made me marry you. From where I stand, that’s pretty personal.”
“I married you for political reasons. It has nothing to do with affection.”
“If I remember right, and I’m sure I do, you mentioned me having your child the night you brought me to this prison.”
“In due time, I’m confident you’ll see the error of your ways and will either write the story as it should’ve been written in the first place or will fall in love with me. I’m not opposed to the love story aspect, but I’ll take the first scenario if we end up going our separate ways.”
“You are taking a lot for granted.” She decided to leave their conversation on that note. At least she was assured he wouldn’t be forcing himself on her in bed, and right now, that was enough to ask for. “You may escort me to my bedchamber, but I’m not touching your arm.”
Without another word, he led her out of the throne room.
Chapter Eight
A very long week passed, and Sandy wasn’t any closer to getting back to her world than she’d been when she first got trapped in her story. When Blackheart wasn’t around, the guard was her ever faithful companion, and from what she could see, he didn’t even blink. He stared at her, as if he was afraid she’d suddenly disappear. Blackheart could say all he wanted about him not being a villain, but it was obvious that his men showed a healthy amount of fear—or respect—for him. They didn’t dare do anything to disobey him.
As had become her habit, she went for a walk along the wall surrounding the castle. And she glared at Blackheart as he and his men practiced their skill with their swords, but like always, he refused to look in her direction. She stopped her leisure stroll and watched the men practice their sword fighting, another thing that had become her habit.
She had to find someone to sympathize with her plight. But who? She scanned the courtyard below her. She didn’t think any of the men would sympathize with her. Well, they might feel sorry for her since she was imprisoned here, but they wouldn’t do anything to free her. What she needed to do was think outside the box. No one was going to save her. She needed to save herself. But how?
Spying the magician as he walked toward his quarters, a smile spread across her face. Of course! The answer was so simple. Why hadn’t she thought of it before? She glanced over at the guard who was talking to another guard. Good. He was distracted, and better yet, since she hadn’t run off before, he wouldn’t expect her to make a mad dash for freedom. Now was the time to act.
She inched toward the stairs, her gaze going to the guard as she did so. He laughed at something the other guard said. The other two guards lining the wall didn’t pay any attention to her, probably since they were used to seeing her every day. She studied the men one more time to make sure they were distracted. Once she was assured they were, she broke into a run down the stairs, making sure she stayed close to the wall so no one would see her.
She slipped in through the door that led to an underground tunnel that would take her to the castle. Who knew all her weeks of exploring the place would prove so beneficial? The only reason the king hadn’t prevented her from having free rein over the place was because he assumed one of his guards would always be watching her. Well, his guards were bored of their task, and that boredom made it easier for her to escape.
She paused as she came to the place where the tunnel separated into two parts. The torches lining the walls gave her ample light to proceed, but she had to remember which way led to the room where Blackheart organized his battles. The mag
ician kept his quarters close to that one. The wrong way would take her to the servants’ quarters. Finally, she decided to go right, praying she chose the right path.
Surely by now, the guard would realize she was missing. He’d either send out an alarm or quietly try to find her. She hoped it’d be the latter. If he didn’t want to disgrace himself by letting the king know he lost her, then it’d take everyone longer to find her. With any luck, by the time they spotted her, she’d be in another form.
When she reached the end of the tunnel, she climbed the steps. Behind her, all was silent. That was a good sign. The stairs ended at a wooden door, and she opened it a crack, suddenly mindful of the fact that the guard might be waiting for her. But luck was on her side. Blackheart’s planning room was vacant. Relieved, she slipped into it and shut the door which faded into the wall. No doubt, that was the magician’s doing.
She hurried to the window and peered down at the courtyard, careful not to expose herself as she did so. As she suspected, the guard was too proud to tell the king he’d lost her. At the moment, he was going in through the door that led to the tunnels. Good. That should buy her just enough time to do what she came here for.
She made it to the door and slowly opened it. Since there was only silence, she quietly stepped out of the room and softly closed the door. Glancing both ways down the hall, she saw it was clear and proceeded to make her way to the magician’s quarters. The magician hadn’t been important in her story, so he shouldn’t have received quarters in the king’s castle. But Blackheart had changed a few things around, and in this version of the story, the magician probably played a better role.
She continued to scan the dim corridor on her way to the magician’s door. When she finally reached it, she tapped on it, hoping the magician’s hearing was good because she didn’t dare knock any louder in case someone else heard. In agonizing silence, she waited. Please be here, please be here. If that guard found her before the magician granted her request, she’d be in trouble. Blackheart allowed her enough freedom to check out the entire castle, but he’d probably have her confined to her bedchamber if she was caught.
His Abducted Bride Page 6
