The Bastard Princess

80.

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-HER-

I could hear them demanding for me just outside the temple. All the priestesses around me were instantly anxious before they glanced at me with a combination of uncertainty and fear. Infected with the same emotions as them, my heart threatened to dig out of my chest.

I could hear Edara trying to talk to them outside while I searched for anything that I could use as a weapon to protect me. The way the commotion was slowly increasing outside, it was easily predictable that blood would be split tonight but whose?

Only time would answer that question.

"Arsinoe," Theto spoke behind me as I looked through some fruit baskets to search for the sharpest knife. For a moment, I was surprised to hear her voice because as far as I knew, she wasn't in the temple that evening then how come she was there all of a sudden?

I looked over my shoulder at the old woman. The look of distrust hung heavy on her face, and it unknowingly made my shoulders drop. I had let her down so many times. I felt that same loathing for myself wash upon me.

Just because of me, these people had to pay such a big price for peace.

"Theto, I..." I turned around to convince her even after knowing that it would be unfruitful. I blinked away the tears that were collecting in my eyes as I looked at the old woman before me. I wanted her to believe me so badly.

I wanted to tell her that I was innocent, that I didn't have anything to do with whatever was going on but the innate guilt had my lips sown with the very thread of self-loathing. I knew I didn't deserve her forgiveness.

"Runaway from here," She told me before she nodded towards the back door of the temple, "and find him,"

I didn't need to be told twice. As soon as she was done speaking, I fled for the sake of their peace and for the sake of the innocent lives who were demanding for my blood. I only stopped when I was surrounded by the darkness of the woods.

For a moment, I thought that I was safe but as those strange voices started to call for me again, I was reminded of the nightmare that had become my reality now.

I tried my best to ignore the voices. I trusted my senses and started to walk towards the house but I never reached there. I kept walking. I stopped once and went back but I found nothing. It didn't take me long to realize that I was lost in the dark woods.

My breaths were laboured and my forehead was covered with beads of cold sweat. My ears had started to ring as those voices grew louder and louder.

It felt as if they were rounding up on me. It felt like any moment they would come at me through the bushes. I was so overwhelmed by fear that for a moment, I froze. My mind had stopped processing while my soul called for Ares.

Just then, I heard a twig snap in the distance. I become alert instantly, clenching and unclenching my fists while trying to clear my head to concentrate on the present.

"Who's there?" I asked breathlessly while my chest rose and fell rapidly. I could hear my own heart hammering in my chest. Adrenaline gushed into my veins along with my blood, and my heart sped up even more. It slowly grew painful for me.

Suddenly, those voices shushed down until only the ringing in my ears was left- or so it appeared to me then. Meanwhile, my question remained hanging in the air, unanswered.

Slowly, I felt a presence before I started hearing footsteps approaching me. I panicked upon realizing that I was absolutely unarmed.

"Who's there?" I asked again before I saw two glowing silver eyes along with the trees. For a moment, I calmed down but there was something about Ares when he stepped out of the shadows that had all my alarms going off.