Within the Walls [NEW VERSION]

Chapter 7

My stomach lurches into my throat as my sister cowers in the corner of her cell, her entire body shaking. And yet, my own is frozen. My voice catches in my mouth, terror ripping it away.

"Get out," the prince snarls at Lyra.

"Why? Where are you going to take me?" she asks, her squeaky.

"Just get out before I have to force you." His shoulders tense and his fists clench.

"She wants to know where you are taking her," I bark.

The prince, Ruben, ignores me as I rattle the cell bars, firing a slew of curses. He slips into Lyra's cell, who cries out, putting her hands over her face, and scrunching her eyes shut, as if she might wake up from this nightmare. She struggles against his strength as he pulls out a pair of metal handcuffs and shoves her wrists behind her back.

"What are you doing with her?" My voice cracks as panic claws and thrashes in my guts and bile stings my tongue with its bitter vengeance. "Hey!"

He chews his lip and snaps his head at me. "The king has ordered her exile," he grumbles, refusing to look me in the eye. "He hasn't quite decided what to do with you yet."

A numbness spreads through my body as if I'm losing blood, the life draining from me with each beat of my thundering heart. My throat dries as tears dribble down my burning cheeks. Blisters rupture on my fingers as I slide to the floor, still gripping the bars. "Please don't," I croak. "She is all I have left."

Something wild and human from the snares of torment flashes across his face. His chest heaves. "I don't have a choice."

"Yes, you do." My voice takes on an unhinged, pitchy tone. Darkness threatens to cave into my ribs. "You have a choice to not hurt others. Please don't hurt my sister. Don't exile her."

I am begging, literally on my knees and weeping. But I do not care.

"Why must you punish her? I am the one who broke the law. Kill me. Not her."

"There are no other punishments," he murmurs as if he doesn't quite believe his own words.

"Bullshit. How can you so blindly be the king's little bitch? Are you not the prince? You can make your own choices." The world spins and screams around me as my pulse roars and my father's dying wish rises from the depths to greet me like an old, unearthed phantom. "Take me. Make me the king's slave. Let me become a Tranq." The words tumble from my mouth before my mind has the chance to catch them.

"Elle!" Lyra snaps. Splotches of red form on her cheeks and neck as she wrestles under the prince's death grip. She yanks herself free.

Ruben's face is stone, other than the war waging in his eyes. "You would become the king's slave to save your sister's life?"

"Yes," I snarl, dragging myself to my feet. "Wouldn't you for someone you love?"

He tilts his head, examining me. I can almost see the cogs turning in his head as he contemplates my offer. "I cannot promise it would work. The king and he does not take lightly to those who dare barter with him. He will punish me, too."

"Please."

Gods, this locked cell is driving me insane.

Ruben chews his lips, staring at Lyra and then at me. Heat creeps into his face and after an eternity, his shoulders slump forward. "Fine." He unlocks the handcuffs.

Lyra stumbles towards me, weeping. I reach out and grab her thin shoulders, pulling her into a hug. "What have you done, Elle?" she mutters, and my knees knock together. But she shoots the prince... Ruben... a glare formed from the storms of grief.