Page 12 of Stolen Princess

An eye roll, and she leaves the kitchen, the door to her bedroom closing a moment later. Scalding hot tears burn the backs of my eyes and the tip of my nose. I shove my fists into my eyes, pushing the tears back.

Damn her.

Is what she’s saying true? Is Rhys lying? Or… is she lying and he’s telling me the truth?

Argh! It doesn’t matter. I can’t do this anymore, and if she won’t let me go, I have no choice.

I clean up the spilled lemonade, finish putting away my week’s worth of groceries, and start the cassoulet. It’s mindless, tedious work, and with that, I can’t shut off my thoughts. They won’t be quieted. Once it’s simmering, I creep through the house and listen by her door. No sound. She’s napping.

On silent steps, I jog upstairs. I grab Rhys’s knife from his knapsack before I hide it at the bottom of my laundry hamper, pull the key from my pocket, and open the bathroom. He’s sitting on the closed toilet with his phone in his hand, and dammit, why didn’t I keep his phone?

“How’s Mother dearest?”

Nerves skitter through me, but I push them aside as I shut the door behind me and advance on him. He notes the knife in my hand before he slowly draws his attention up to my face.

“Not letting me go then?”

I shake my head. “We have to make a deal first.”

“A deal?” he echoes. “I don’t make deals.”

“If I let you go, you have to take me with you.”

“No,” he answers quickly, hitting a button on the side of his phone and standing so he can slip it into his back pocket. Only he doesn’t sit back down. He advances on me, coming straight for me until the tip of the blade touches the center of his chest.

“Yes,” I demand, refusing to cower. I dig the tip in enough that I meet a little resistance and see a small ring of blood stain his white shirt around it. A strange, dark thrill rushes through me, and I continue. “There’s a festival in Carona every year⁠—”

“The lantern celebration for the stolen princess, you mean?”

Stolen princess? Whatever. “Yes. That one. It also happens to be my birthday. You’ll take me there, keep me safe, then bring me back here.”

“Why there?”

Because that’s my last memory before I came here. Because I have to know it was real. All the memories of before that swirl through my dreams and rip at my thoughts when I search for them. Because I have to see what this world actually is. Or I’ll die. I will. If it’s everything she says it is, then fine, I’ll manage through knowing the truth.

But, if there’s a chance it’s more than that… oh god, I have to do this.

“You’ll keep me safe and make sure nothing happens to me,” I continue without answering him. “If you do that, I’ll let you have your knapsack with your gun and necklace and pretend like I never saw you.”

He stares me down with a cold intensity that makes my heart beat faster. “No.”

“Yes!” I cry only to temper my voice. “You have to. I’m holding a knife to your chest and drawing blood. I will kill you if you don’t. I think that’s about as serious as it gets.”

He takes a step, forcing me back one. He smiles triumphantly, but I can’t exactly stab him to prove my point. Unfortunately, I need him.

“Not quite ready to kill me yet, though. Why don’t you go yourself? It’s only about forty-five kilometers from here.”

“Then it shouldn’t be too difficult for you to take me,” I parry, my heart racing so hard and fast I’m lightheaded from it. He has to say yes. He has to.

“You’re not part of my agenda. I have plans and places to be that don’t include you or your little girl drama.”

He’s mocking me, and it shouldn’t sting, but it does. My life isn’t drama, and I’m not a little girl.

“Tough shit, considering I’m holding you captive and I have your necklace. You’re at my mercy. All I have to do is scream, and my mother will come up here and kill you. She won’t hesitate either.”

“I take it Mommy said no to you going to the festival, and I’m your last hope?”

“The details don’t concern you. You have no choice but to say yes. It’s yes and your necklace or no and you die.”