Slowly, I rise back, sitting on the floor.
My breath still comes in uneven waves, and my body feels flushed, warm, still trembling—like I've been caught in a storm and only now landed on solid ground.
Across the room, Morvena is slumped near the far wall. Behind her, the stone bricks are cracked, a deep dent marking where she must've collided.
A massive, beautiful portrait of me, or the one and only Princess Felicia, has fallen, its golden frame shattered on the floor beside a pair of toppled vases. Water soaks the rug, and the flowers that once stood so delicately in the vases are now strewn in disarray, their rosy petals scattered across the ground.
Morvena's dress is drenched. Clinging to her like silk. Her hair is tangled, her breath sharp and ragged. She looks like she's just returned from the frontlines of a crazy battle.
Which, in a way… she has.
I glance at the broken wall behind her.
Damn… what a close one.
