I sat on a velvet chair as I stared at the pale walls of my room. It felt as though I was seeing and yet my mind was in a far-off place. The world felt like a mere dream I would wake up from any moment. Though I knew that wasn't the case. Everything was cloudy like nothing around me was quite real.
I didn't know how long I sat in that chair, hours, days, maybe weeks. I'd come back to my room after the explosion, my eyes had somehow found the chair in the corner of the room that I'd seemed to pass by when everything wasn't scrambled. I'd sat down in it, relishing in the comfortableness. I hadn't left it since, only getting up to use the bathroom or get water. I hadn't gone to bed—only a few minute naps when I'd drift off during the day.
I hadn't left my room, there had been knocks and small muffled voices through the walls and yet I just didn't care. I was empty. My last dregs of will had been sipped away until only a small drop was left.
I was wasting away. And yet I couldn't bring myself to do anything.
My eyes drooped as I leaned my chin on my fist. The sun was out, shining through the windows, and yet I could have sworn it was near midnight. Low voices muffled through the halls nearby, a normalcy that was likely the servants scuffling through the halls.
But the voices didn't go away. They loitered in the hall getting closer to my room. A small ember of curiosity lit inside me, enough to drag me from my chair and stand for the first time in I didn't know how long.
My legs shook under me and I gripped the wall to keep myself from collapsing under my own weight. Once my legs had stabled themselves and I'd finally straightened up, I listened again.
Two males nearly yelled behind my door, growing louder by the second. I walked to my door. Placed an ear to the hardwood and tried to make out who it was; Tamlin and another.
A growl echoed through the wall and Tamlin spoke, "Get out." His voice was guttural. Warning.
The other voice was quiet as he spoke—too low to make out what he said or who it was.
"I'll say it one last time—"
Tamlin was interrupted and another growl was ripped from him. I furrowed my brows as I tried to gauge who it was. I lifted my left palm to my face looking at the cat-eye in the middle. Had it truly been that long?
Oh.
I reached for the doorknob uncertainly, twisting it and opening only a crack. The voices stopped as I opened the door all the way. There stood Tamlin and a smug Rhysand in his signature black suit. But as Rhysand turned towards me, the grin on his face faltered. His eyes grew near furious and yet his posture remained the same.
"Danika," his eyes scanned me on a near analyzing level, "Are you running low on food here?"
"What?" Tamlin asked in response, his expression near feral.
His violet eyes were cold, as though all warmth had drained from him in the seconds I'd come out into the hall. He extended a hand, "Let's go."
"She's not going anywhere with you," Tamlin exclaimed though I think we all knew it was half-hearted. He was being so loud I was surprised that no one had come running yet.
Rhysand brushed an invisible speck of dust from Tamlin's shoulder. A gesture that would have surely put me in the infirmary. Rhysand's brows furrowed and he turned to me again. I checked the walls of my mind on instinct, finding that my barriers had somehow fallen down. I snapped them up.
"Get out," Tamlin repeated again.
The High Lord of the Night stuffed his hands into his silk pocket, shrugging his shoulders, "You really should have your wards inspected. Cauldron knows what other sort of riffraff might stroll in here as easily as I did."
Rhysand frowned at me again, and I wondered the particular factor he'd found lacking. There seemed to be so many these days.
He extended his hand once more, but Tamlin stopped him almost gently, "You end her bargain, right here, right now, and I'll give you anything you want." I caught the cringe in the High Lord of Spring's eyes as the words escaped from him. I knew he regretted it the second he said it.
Rhysand just raised a brow, "I already have everything I want." He stepped around Tamlin, grabbing the hand and my side. Seconds later I was engulfed in darkness once more.
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A/N: babbbbbbyyyyy