Chapter 110

FELIX

My sleep was dark and dreamless. Quiet, as if I was underwater. I could vaguely hear someone saying my name in the distance, but it was so far and it was so peaceful where I was…

“Felix. Felix. Wake up, man, you have to wake up.”

Somewhere in my dream, someone was calling my name. There had never been any other presence in my dreamscape. Was I dead? Was this the afterlife?

“Felix. Felix, please.”

The world was shaking. Wait, no, I was shaking–or rather, someone was shaking me.

I wasn’t dreaming, or dead. Someone was trying to get my attention.

It took all of my strength, but I opened my heavy eyes. The world felt out of focus, hazy, but I could make out the shape of a person standing above my bed.

Mila?

No, this was a man. Whoever it was reached down and shook me again.

“Jeez, what did they give you? C’mon Felix, we have to get out of here.”

I knew that voice. I’d know it anywhere.

The world came into focus, and so did my best friend.

Joseph stood above me, his face pale and drawn. “Good. You’re awake. We need to move, now.”

I blinked at him blearily. “Joseph? What are you doing here? What’s going on’

He said nothing and began hauling me to a seated position.

My limbs felt like they were sinking into the bed, but for the first time in ages, I had no pain anywhere in my body. Maybe it was just taking longer to kick in. But strangely enough, there was no sign of paralysis in my limbs, either.

“What’s going on?” I asked again. “Where’s Mila?”

Joseph finally stopped moving to look at me. His face was somber and serious.

“They took Mila,” he said finally. “We need to stop them before it’s too late.”

I swung my legs out of bed. It had been ages since I had stood, and I could tell my muscles had already started to atrophy.

“Who has her?!” I demanded to know. Had Charles broken out of the dungeons? Had the Kingdom of Abernathy decided to seek revenge?

Joseph sighed. “Your parents and Esmeralda. We need to get to them before it’s too late.”

I bolted out of bed and tumbled to the floor. As I put out my hands to catch myself, something unfamiliar on my right pointer finger caught my eye.

An emerald ring.

I looked up at Joseph in horror. “What have they done?”

Joseph helped pull me to my feet. “They gave you a heavy sedative and gave you the emerald ring to contain the curse. Then they told Mila that she was going to be sacrificed and took her away. I think she’s in the courtyard.”

“They’re going to kill her.”

Joseph nodded. “We’re going to try to stop them.”

We made our way to the door. I was moving slowly, but already, my preternatural Dragon Knight strength was starting to overcome whatever drug they’d given me and my weeks of being bedridden.

“Mila’s stronger than she looks. She’ll fight against them. That will give us enough time to get to her,” I said as we pushed into the hallway.

Joseph gulped. “I don’t know if she will.”

I turned to him. “What are you talking about?”

Joseph’s voice was grim. “Your parents told Mila that this was your idea. Then they shackled her and dragged her away.”

I broke into a run.

Joseph’s intel was right–there was clearly a small crowd gathering in the castle courtyard. As we raced towards the second-level balcony entrance, my heart swelled with hope. We could get there in time. We could prevent Mila’s death.

All of the sudden, I was thrown backwards, as if I had run into a wall. I fell to the ground, the wind knocked out of me.

Joseph was next to me, groaning in pain.

I reached out, my hand bouncing against some sort of invisible barrier.

My heart sank. Esmeralda had magically sealed off the courtyard.

We burst onto a balcony overlooking the courtyard, horrified to find that the magical barrier extended all around. There was no way to break through.

When I looked down into the courtyard, what I saw broke my heart.

Mila, clothed in a thin white dress, was shackled to a large post in the middle of the courtyard, her back ramrod straight. My parents and Esmeralda, along with a handful of castle guards, observed her. She said nothing, even as they spoke in low, urgent tones to her.

“Mila!” I banged my hands against that cruel, cruel barrier. “Mila! Look up! It’s me!”

She did not flinch. I wondered if she could even hear me. Was Esmeralda’s magic somehow blocking sound as well?

There was no way for me to break past the bonds. Even though I had some magic as a Dragon Knight, no one alive could defeat the witch’s magic. It was what made her so valuable to the Fresonian court.

And so dangerous now.

Joseph jogged up to me, slightly out of breath. “I just checked. Whatever barrier Esmeralda put up covers every entrance to the courtyard. We can’t get down there, and they won’t be able to hear us through the magic.”

“How could they do this?!” I asked, staring down at the horror scene in front of me.

Joseph shrugged. “Your parents were so devastated after Charles, I can only assume they were willing to go to great extremes to prevent losing you, too. It’s understandable. But that doesn’t make it right.”

“They lied to her.” Tears pricked my eyes. Normally I would hide my more tender emotions from my assistant, but I couldn’t care about anything other than Mila at the moment. “She’s going to die thinking I wanted this.”

The Great Witch turned to my parents and the guards, raising her voice so that it carried over the wind. I could hear her even through the shields.

“She will die by poison,” she declared. “A mixture of hemlock and magic root. Her death will be quick and painless and a testimony to her great bravery. For King and Country.”

“For King and Country,” the guards echoed.

From across the courtyard, I saw Isla hiding in the shadows, her face distraught. Her chest rose and fell with heaving, silent sobs. She tried to move forward, but was stopped by that wall.

Esmeralda stepped forward to my wife, clutching a large golden goblet. I recognized the It was one of the sacred objects of Fresonia. How disappointing to see it being used for such a disgraceful act.

Esmeralda raised the cup to Mila’s lips. Mila stared straight ahead, looking at nothing. Her face was cold and empty, and the flames from a nearby bonfire flicked on her face.

I struggled against the invisible bonds, desperate to get to her.

“MILA!” I screamed into the ether. “Mila, please!”

Mila swallowed the poison. At the same time, she raised her eyes, finally seeing where I was being held hostage. Her eyes widened, either in horror or realization, I did not know.

With one shudder, Mila’s eyes closed forever and she collapsed to the ground.

Dead.