Chapter 74

Chapter 74

AMALIA

T he cell in Lunairea would be cold.

Amalia considered bringing her jacket. But Vivian had been the one to choose it for her, hadn’t she? That memory had stayed her hand when she’d reached for it this morning.

She could handle the cold.

Her silk shoes made very little noise on the stones as she made her way down the stairwell and into the dungeons.

Amalia hadn’t been sure what to expect. She’d never been to see the prisons housed underneath Lunairea. Maybe she’d expected the prison cell to be dirtier, to be nothing but a pile of straw in the corner of a muddy room and a bucket. Maybe she’d expected it to be a miniature version of the guest rooms in the Western Wing of the palace, opulent and garish.

Whatever it had once looked like, Vivian’s prison cell was now destroyed.

There had been a mattress. And what Amalia could only assume was a chair, or maybe a wooden table. It was nothing but splinters now, scattered amongst the shredded bed sheets on the ground.

The mattress had been shredded. Long claw marks marred the soft cushiony top, and feathers and padding had been pulled from the corpse of what looked to have once been a rather decent bed.

Otherwise, the room was unremarkable. Just another room if you could ignore the bars that lined one wall. Thick, iron bars, set mere inches apart. Close enough together that even Vee couldn’t fit her way through them.

Vee .

She was sitting on the ground when Amalia approached, knees pulled against her chest, head down. For a moment, Amalia thought she might be sleeping.

“Good morning, Princess,” Vee greeted her, lifting her head and smiling.

Amalia’s gait stumbled as they locked eyes. Vee’s eyes…

Shadows. Dark, twisting beasts made of shadow danced in Vee’s eyes as they stared at one another. A swirling abyss, with no bottom.

She’s gone insane , Amalia thought, suddenly frightened. Her resolve faltered.

But then Vee blinked, and suddenly those shadows were gone, and her eyes were that perfect green once again.

“You cut your hair,” Vee said suddenly. She sounded almost sad.

Amalia resisted the urge to reach up and touch her short curls.

“I did,” she confirmed.

“You said you were thinking about it, before?—”

The shadows came back, filling Vee’s eyes for just a moment before they cleared away once more.

“Why are you here, Princess?” she asked, twisting her head to the side and picking at the hem of her pants, almost nervously. “Have you come to gloat? The big bad Wolf has been captured, and all the little Witches are safe again. You’ve won.”

There was so much hate in her voice, so much resentment. But this time, at least, Amalia could understand why.

“No,” Amalia said, drawing her shoulders back. “I didn’t come to gloat. I came to tell you that you were right.”

Vee looked up and blinked, and Amalia took a deep breath to steady herself.

“You were right,” she said. “About me being nothing but a doll. ”

Vee didn’t say anything, so she went on.

“I’ve been a doll my whole life. I didn’t even realize. What you told me that night? How I was just a puppet? You were right. I’ve always let people use me. Including you.”

Vee opened her mouth to speak, but Amalia cut her off, quickly. She needed to do this, needed to get the words out.

Not for Vee, but for herself.

“I came down here because I wanted to thank you,” she said, staring into those beautiful green eyes.

“Thank me?” Vee asked, sounding amused. Her lips quirked up into a smile.

“Yes,” Amalia insisted. Her stomach twisted. Vee had the most beautiful smile she’d ever seen. Even now. Even when it hurt to look at her. “Thank you for telling me and thank you for helping break me free of it.”

She’d been feeling stronger lately. So much stronger. Like the elements inside her had been dormant, pushed down by something heavy until she could barely reach them. But now? Amalia let that power fill her, just a little, just enough to give her the strength to say what she needed to say.

She only needed to say this once.

“I’m done being a doll,” she said. Something crackled in her voice. Fire, she thought. “I’m done letting anyone else control me. I wanted to thank you for trying to break me, Vivian. Because you showed me how strong I really am. And I won’t be broken so easily. Not by you. Not by anyone.”

Amalia couldn’t identify the emotion she saw on Vee’s face, but she didn’t need to. She found she no longer cared. With a final nod of her head, she turned to leave.

“I wouldn’t have done it, you know,” Vee called out after her, shifting forward in her cell. Amalia stopped, turning back with a frown.

“Hurt you, I mean,” Vee explained. She chewed her lip, as though nervous. “I was bluffing when I told them I would… I wouldn’t have actually hurt you if it came down to that. You… you know that, right?”

Amalia’s chest tightened.

“Vee,” she said in a quiet voice. Vee looked up at her, and Amalia held that beautiful gaze. She believed what she was saying. Believed she wouldn’t have taken it any further. Believed, with all her heart, that she would have never done anything to hurt Amalia.

Amalia sighed.

“You did hurt me, Vee,” she said.

The look of pain that flashed in Vivian’s eyes should have meant something.

But it didn’t.

This time, when Amalia left, she didn’t look back.