Book 2: A Princess Confesses

Rafe

Pain. Pain is the only thing binding me to reality. Pain–and my Ainslee. I know she needs me, and for that reason alone, I cannot surrender myself to the dark void.

I distantly hear the metallic scrape of my cell door opening. I wonder if Kris has come back to finish the job.

Instead, a cool hand rests on my forehead, fingers moving up into my bloody hair.

“Ainslee?” I ask. It’s little more than a breath, but the fingers tighten viciously.

“You, your little she-bitch is being taken care of,” Riley sniffs. “King Kris is going to kill her and make me his queen, as I always should have been.”

I groan and lay helpless in my own blood.

Riley lets go of my hair. I don’t know what she does with the blood she found there, but she does say, “Ew, gross.”

I don’t answer. I can’t muster the energy it would take to respond to Riley. I would if it were Ainslee, but she isn’t here. She’s probably locked up somewhere as well.