Chapter 47

~Grace~

Please, Alex, please, I need you right now.

I sobbed quietly into the silent night, Christopher sitting silently beside me. I could still feel his bare skin touching my side, and I recoiled at the sensation.

He disgusted me. I hated him.

He tricked me, trapped me, and forced me to stay here against my will. There wasn’t a single thing I liked about this place.

It was cold, dumpy, and I couldn’t trust anyone here. Everyone always looked at me like I was a piece of meat.

I could feel their hungry eyes watching me, and it made my skin crawl.

While at some point, I hadn’t felt threatened by Chrisopher, it scared me to see that same hunger in his eyes moments before he pushed me onto the bed.

I had held out hope that he might have had some semblance of humanity left in him, as he always only treated me with kindness since I’ve been here, other than the fact that he wouldn’t let me go.

Not that he kept me chained up or locked away or anything, no, if I wanted to, I could walk right out of that front door and walk through the forest.

But it was that stupid spell, whatever Chrisopher had me do in that ritual–it hurt.

I tried it.

When I would go for walks around the perimeter of the camp, of course it crossed my mind that I could just leave.

I would wait for the guards to turn the other way, to become distracted and chat with each other, or find something more interesting to look at. And then I would make my way into the dense brush so I couldn’t be seen.

I would walk farther away from the camp, but the more I did so, the more my heart squeezed. It became hard to breathe, and if I got too far away, I had to drop to my knees, the pain in my chest hurt so bad.

It wasn’t a physical pain, it was a deep, emotional pain. It felt like grieving.

My head would feel like it was splitting open, and my throat would tighten, and my chest would ache with a pain so severe I could not put it into words.

And it got to the point that I just couldn’t. I couldn’t mentally bring myself to try to escape.

That stupid spell–it kept me tied to Chrisopher. I knew that’s what it was.

And who knows? Maybe that's why he’d been so nice to me up until now.

I couldn’t even think of hurting Chrisopher, or else that same intense pain would overwhelm me. I could hate him, sure, but the thought of harming him pained me.

Maybe Chrisopher really did want to hurt me, but he couldn’t, restricted by the laws of the spell. And maybe that was the only good thing that came out of it. It provided me with a bit of protection.

As the Rogue King, he was in control of everyone here, and if he didn’t want to hurt me, he would make sure that no one else would hurt me while I was here, as well.

So that’s why it surprised me so much when Christopher suddenly became more forward, more aggressive with me.

He had been nothing but courteous and gentlemanly, but maybe he had just reached the limit of his fake personality. He couldn't keep up the facade anymore.

And he wanted to take from me what I wouldn’t give him.

Overwhelmed with helplessness, unable to fight back due to the pain in my chest, and feeling vulnerable due to Nola being missing, I could only plead for him to stop.

And he listened.

Again, maybe it was just the spell that made him listen, but whatever it was, I was glad it worked.

Even though he sat next to me now, looking down at me, no longer touching me, I still felt terribly frightened.

I cried uncontrollably, unable to stop the trembles that ran through my body.

God, I wished more than anything in the whole world that I could be with Alex right now. I just wanted to be in his arms, feeling safe, and at home.

I was stupid to come out here alone, stupid to not let him know my plans, stupid to end up here.

Maybe I deserved this, after all. Maybe this was simply the consequences of my own actions, and I needed to suck it up and deal with it.

But no matter how much I told myself that, it didn’t dim the longing I felt to have Alex by my side.

“Fine,” I heard Chritopher say next to me, his voice sharp.

I jumped at his voice, and it pulled me out of my thoughts. Fine? What was fine?

“You’re miserable here,” Christopher continued, his voice stiff with restrained emotion. But I could tell that he was being kind…? Even after all this time…?

My chest shuddered and I finally took a clear, deep breath as my sobbing subsided.

I rolled onto my side and stared up at him, desperate to know what he would say next. Would something good finally happen?

He took a deep breath, and I watched his chest expand and deflate. Honestly, his appearance scared me. I had never seen someone with so many scars and tattoos, it was an obvious sign that he had lived a very hard life.

And I did not want to get myself on his bad side, but I also couldn’t just lay down and let him do what he wanted to me.

“I’m… sorry,” Christopher continued, saying each word slowly and carefully.

My eyes widened. An apology?

I couldn’t help it. My heart beat quickly in excitement. Maybe this was in fact the good that I was hoping would come my way!

“I see now there is nothing more I can do for you here. Grace Windsong,” he said, looking gently at me.

When I looked at him, I did not feel kindness or sympathy. I still hated him more than anyone I’d ever hated, even more than Liam, when I felt at my worst with him.

I did not like Christopher, and did not want to please him in any way.

But if an apology meant he was changing his mind about other things…

I stayed quiet, listening for what he had to say next.

“I… release you.” He said quietly, and almost instantly, I felt something snap inside of my chest.

Immediately, I brought my hands to my chest to inspect it, but there was nothing visible on the outside.

I felt lighter, I felt… free.

Looking up at Chrsipher, he gave me a soft smile.

“Yeah,” he whispered. “The spell is broken. You’re free to go this time. Really.”

I laughed for the first time this week, almost not believing his words. I wouldn’t, had I not felt the spell’s effects wear off once I felt the snap.

Standing up, I rushed to the door. I hesitated before placing my hand on the door handle, looking back at Christopher. He gave me a small nod of approval.

I nodded back, and just as I pulled the door open, I realized a large figure took up the doorway, and immediately I knew who it was.

Alex!