I felt tears welling up in my eyes as I watched Hunter look at the gun exquisitely, his eyes flashing up to mine briefly as If he considered changing his mind.
But his mind was clearly battling with his heart and in seconds the brain won. He lifted up the seemingly heavy device and pointed at me, avoiding eye contact any way he could.
He shot a bullet. But the bullet didn't hit me, or anyone for that matter.
It was empty.
"Thank you, Hunter. You can go sit down now."
I looked at the queen, completely shocked. Hearing the cries of my friends die down completely as they too were perplexed.
"To be straight with you, Elodie. We can't kill you. We have to use you as a public display as what happens to people who rebel against the system. What we just did there was to show you how much power we have over you, how worthless you are. How little Hunter cares."
"And of course, we were successful." The king added. "Your death will be a lot more public than this, Elodie, don't you worry. Your friends can watch if you like, before we kill them too."
Remember that one time when I said how belittled I felt, how weak? I took it back. Because right there in the moment I was in I'd never felt so helpless, so weak.
They had so much power over me, I was just a pawn in their little chess game to hit checkmate. And I hated it.
"Guards, take them into cells. Separate cells." The queen spat, strutting behind the stage into a private room. Dragging Arya along with her.
***
After two hours It was dark, I only realized because the little barred window no longer had a glow that illuminated the room. I was plunged into complete darkness and ended up curling up in the corner.
I'd heard footsteps all night, guards checking up on us or the queen walking around the castle in the evenings. But the next set of footsteps sounded different, elegant and coming straight towards my cell.
"Elle." I heard somebody whisper.
I craned my head up to look through the bars and It was a girl with short black hair and soft blue eyes that gazed back up at me solemnly.
Arya.
"I'm so sorry, Elodie." She whispered. "I tried to stop them but they threatened they'd kill Kieran. They only care about you."
I nodded at her, too weak to say anything more.
"Listen to me, I can get you out. Right now. I snook the keys off my father while he was asleep. Presumed they wouldn't need to lock their precious little daughter up as she'd learnt her lesson. I know you don't trust me; I wouldn't trust me neither. But we can get everyone and go back out through the other exit I told you about now and get back to Bryony and Noah."
At that point, what else could they do to me? So, I agreed.
Arya unlocked my cell and winced as it creaked, holding a hand out to keep me steady. "We need to move quickly; the others are in cells next to each other on the other side of the castle. Unlocks with a different key."
"Do you have it?"
She nodded, smiling. "I've worn it as a necklace since I was little."
And then we were moving, taking strange turns and twisting through the corridors to avoid any sightings we saw of guards. She knew the castle better than she knew herself so it wasn't long before we stood in front of the gates to the other cells and she was fiddling with the chain around her neck to open the door.
"Kieran, Cara, Lucas. Don't say anything. Elodie is behind me, we have to go. I'm going to open up and you're all going to follow me through the south doorway. Takes us straight out behind the walls If we're quick."
As soon as Kieran's cell was unlocked, he burst out and pulled me into a hug, kissing the top of my head. I was quickly snatched out of his grasp by Cara and then Luke who made a show of kissing me, just to Kieran's despair.
"Stay behind me, the sun is starting to come up so we have to hurry."
Stepping lightly, hidden in a barricade of all my friends, we wandered around until we were stood in front of the door, watching out for guards as Arya fiddled with her necklace yet again to open the door.
She was successful, and light burst out through the door into a long narrow passage with what looked like safety at the end.
We were so confident we'd be okay that I could've cried.
But that hope was destroyed when heavy footsteps appeared just behind us.