Chapter 23

It's our servant, Ania, who answers the door. If I were in a laughing mood, the look on her face would send me into a fit. But all I can think about as she takes me in, sputtering with disbelief, is what I felt when Lo'zar told me he was glad to have met me.

Together. We're supposed to be together. In that moment it was the only thing in the world I knew for certain.

But we'vealready decided. This is what's best for both of us.

After she's gotten over her shock, Ania hugs me tight and then pulls me inside the house, screeching my name up the stairs. Everything around me is familiar—the carved wood furniture, the vases of flowers, the paintings hanging on the walls—but it's like I'm wading through a dream, where it's not quite all real.

This place doesn't know who I am anymore.

I hear thumping along the second floor, and my mother appears at the top of stairs in a whirlwind. Her eyes are wide and surprised, but she is not smiling.

"Rimi?" She slowly comes down, like she doesn't believe I'm standing in front of her. Her sharp features are the same as when I left, and her eyes just as critical. "Is that really you, Rimi?"

"Who else?" I try to smile, to show my mother I'm glad to see her again, but it feels flat on my face.

"I'm going to find the master," says Ania, running off into the house. "He won't believe it!"

My mother marches down the steps one at a time until she's in front of me. She takes my elbow in her hand, just like she always does when she's about to chastise me for something. What could I have done wrong?

"How did you get here?" she asks.

"It was a long trip, I'll tell you that." I wonder what she thought happened to me when I vanished in the middle of the night. "Whoever kidnapped me, they took me really far away. I went through a lot to get home, Mother."

Her hand tightens on my elbow. "Why? Why would you do that?"

She's behaving so strangely. I'm her daughter, after all. This is my home. Of course I would do whatever was in my power to come back.

"Because I love you." I've never said it before, and neither have they—but I wouldn't have gotten on that ship if I didn't know my parents were mourning me.

My mother doesn't say anything to that as she starts to lead me down the hallway by the arm. "Well, I'm glad you did, honey," she says, a little more sweetly than I expect from her. "Because now we can fix what went wrong."

Does she mean... with us? Between her and me and my father? If I have to live a life apart from Lo'zar, then I would hope it's a happy one, where I can have a loving family.

"Great," I say. I'm not sure where she's taking me, though. We walk through the kitchens, to the low door that leads into the cellar. She unbolts it. "Are we getting some wine?" I ask. Perhaps we're celebrating my return.

"Yes." I follow her down the steps into the darkness. She gestures at the room. "Please, pick out something."

While I'm looking through the bottles, I hear her footsteps head back up the stairs. I turn around. "Mother?"

The door slams. The bolt locks.

I run up the steps, my blood thundering past my ears. No. I can't be locked in. I can't be trapped here.

I will not live in a cage again.

"Mother?" I call out, trying not to panic even though my hands are already shaking, even though I can feel the iron bars around me and see the holes in the crate over my head. "Mother?!"

"We won't make the same mistake twice," her voice says through the door. "Those idiot trollkin couldn't be trusted. The buyer will come and collect you personally this time."

"The buyer?" I repeat, rather stupidly, because it's now perfectly obvious to me what I missed all along.

No one kidnapped me from my bed.

I was sold—probably to pay off my parents' debts. By coming home, all I've done is put myself back in a cage.

A terrible rage comes over me. I scream and bash the door with my fist. I will not be locked up, not again, to be sent across the ocean in a barrel. I hit the door, over and over, until my screams come out hoarse.

Nobody comes.

Lo'zar, I think. Tears roll down my face in hot waves. My pulse is going so fast I feel like I might tip over and pass out. Please. Come back. Please help me!

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