The carriage was my world. A dark, rattling world of wood and iron, its rhythm the only music left to me. The cold had seeped into my bones, but it was a welcome numbness compared to the other feeling—the one that sat in my chest like a stone, cold and heavy and final.
Flavia's blood.
It had dried upon my hands, a dark, flaking testament. I could still feel the ghost of its warmth, the terrible slickness as I had clutched her severed head, a final, mad embrace.
I never realized how similar humans and dark creatures look—I can hardly tell the difference.
Her final, defiant truth was now a brand upon my soul. I was the architect of her death. My pride, my inaction, my foolish belief in my own strength—these were the tools I had used to build her pyre.
I was a fool. The greatest fool to ever draw breath.
The chains on my wrists were not just cold; they were a part of me now, their teeth sunk deep, a permanent claim.
I was the one who should have stood on that block. I was the one who should have felt the kiss of the steel. The thought was a drumbeat in the dark: It should have been me. It should have been me. It should have been me.
---
The carriage jolted to a halt.
I did not move. Let this be the end. Let the silence take me.
The door was wrenched open. A guard stood silhouetted against the grey light, his features obscured by the shadow of his helm.
"Out."
When I did not comply, his hand clamped onto my arm. He hauled me out. My body struck the frozen ground. I did not rise.
He forced me upright. My legs buckled. He became my unwanted support.
I lifted my head.
A fortress of black basalt clawed at the leaden sky. The main gate was a gaping mouth, leading not to a city, but to a single, dark will.
He pulled. I stumbled forward.
---
The great doors groaned inward.
Within was a cavernous hall. Torches burned in iron cressets, their light gleaming on a floor of polished obsidian. At the far end, upon a dais, stood a throne hewn from jet.
And upon it, a figure.
The door boomed shut. Sealed.
Silence.
"Do you not know your manners?" The voice was calm, measured.
"Who are you!" I demanded.
"You dare address me in that tone."
A low growl. From the side of the throne, a massive black wolf rose. Its eyes were molten gold, fixed on me with unnerving intelligence.
The figure's hand rested on the beast's head. Familiar. Easy.
I recoiled against the door.
He stood. Tall. Draped in dark robes that seemed to drink the torchlight. He descended the steps. The wolf paced at his heel.
He stopped before me. A mask of polished obsidian hid his face.
Then he removed it.
---
The mask fell away.
His hair was black as a moonless night, falling past his shoulders in waves. His skin was pale, smooth as marble. His features were sharp, beautiful in the way a blade is beautiful.
But his eyes.
They were red. Deep as rubies. Cold as embers. They fixed on me with the disinterest of a man examining a new horse.
"You are the one," he said. "The girl with the purple eyes."
His voice was low, melodic, utterly without feeling.
"Your sister," he continued. "The fool who spoke before the Senate of the Damned."
Flavia. My chest constricted.
"I watched her die. It was... satisfying."
A sound ripped from me—half scream, half sob. I lunged. My chains snapped taut, jerking me back. The wolf snarled.
He did not flinch.
His hand rose. Sheathed in black leather. His fingers closed around my throat.
Not a chokehold. Something worse. His grip was precise, measured—a craftsman testing the weight of a tool. He squeezed.
My breath stopped. The world swam at the edges.
"You have courage," he observed, his red eyes boring into mine. "It will not serve you."
He held me there. My hands clawed weakly at his wrist. The chains rattled. I could not breathe. I could not speak.
Then he released me.
I stumbled back, choking, gasping, hatred burning in my chest.
He watched me struggle. His expression did not change.
He gestured to the side of the chamber.
I followed his gaze.
Statues lined the walls. Dozens of them. Girls. Women. Frozen in moments of fear, of defiance, of despair. Their faces were preserved in perfect, terrible detail. Their eyes were open. Their mouths were caught mid-scream.
Some wore fine gowns. Some wore rags.
Stone. Every one of them.
"You see them," the Prince said quietly. "My curse. My gift. I look upon a woman, and she becomes art."
He moved toward the nearest statue—a girl no older than Flavia, her hands raised as if to ward off a blow.
"My mother was the first," he said, his voice softening. "She looked at me after I was born, and she did not turn to stone. She had eyes like yours. Purple. The color of survival."
He turned back to me.
"You are the third who has not turned to stone. The other two are in the tower."
His red eyes swept over me—cold, assessing.
"But do not mistake survival for value. There are a hundred statues on my walls. If you displease me, you will become the hundred and first."
He let the threat hang in the air.
"You will kill me," I rasped.
His lips curved. A faint amusement, quickly gone.
"Perhaps. But not today."
He turned and walked toward the throne. He did not look back.
"Take her to the tower." He ascended the steps. Then he paused, his voice dropping to a tone of casual cruelty, as if ordering a vintage of wine.
"If she resists—break her fingers. One for every word she speaks before I grant her the privilege."
The guards moved. Instinct took hold. I opened my mouth—
"Let—"
The guard to my left acted without hesitation. He captured my left hand, pinning it against the stone door. He did not look at my face, only at the task.
He took my smallest finger between his thumb and forefinger.
There was a moment of perfect, agonizing tension.
Then—
CRUNCH.
The sound was wet, grinding. A green twig pulverized under a boot heel.
I tried to hold it in. I bit down on my tongue until I tasted blood. I tried to be stone, to be iron, to be anything but the broken thing they wanted me to be.
But the pain was white-hot. It exploded up my arm, through my chest, into my skull.
"AAGHHHH!"
The scream tore from my throat. Raw. Uncontrollable. It echoed off the obsidian walls, filling the cavernous hall with my agony.
I could not stop it. I could not be strong. The pain owned me.
For a single, horrifying second, the finger simply hung—a puppet with its string cut, connected by a grotesque flap of skin. Blood welled from the ruin and poured in a steady stream, dripping onto the pristine floor.
Plink. Plink. Plink.
The sound of my blood was the only thing in the silence.
I gasped for air. My body trembled. Tears—traitors—streamed down my face.
The Prince had not turned. He sat on his throne, the wolf at his feet. He did not acknowledge the act. He did not need to.
"Take her," he said, as if ordering wine.
I was dragged backward. My eyes locked on him—beautiful, terrible, utterly indifferent. Behind him, the statues stared with empty stone eyes. A hundred purple-eyed girls who had failed.
The doors closed. The sound was the sealing of a tomb.
And I understood.
He did not care that I had survived his gaze. He had two others already. I was not special. I was not precious.
I was just another girl with purple eyes.
And if I failed him, I would join the statues on his wall.
------------------
To be continued...