"This way!" The girl whispers as she grabs my arm.
She takes me through many turns as we both end up in another room.
She shoves me into a small closet and shuts the door after she pushes herself inside with me.
We were both in there, out of breath, both out injured legs tired. The only difference was that she wasn't afraid, or wasn't allowed to be afraid, the duchess has most likely forced her to look after me.
"Are you so pathetic that you cannot care for yourself in a situation?"
I rolls my eyes as she proceeds to insult me.
"How much longer until we can leave? My leg is in pain."
"Lord have mercy. We're in here for the rest of the night." She laughs while ignoring the glares I give her.
I eventually drifted off into sleep.
Philip had his arms around me, squeezing me as hard as he could without crushing my bones. "You are so beautiful, I can't wait to marry you."
I let out a giggle before pecking his lips.
"I love you." I say.
"Do you?" He replies.
I raise a brow, confused at his words. "What's that meant to mean?" I ask him.
He says my name before his entire body turns into dust.
I reach over quickly trying to pick it all up.
"PHILIP! PHILIP, NO!" I yell out crying.
"Wake up!" I hear as someone nudges me.
"Ugh, what?" I open my eyes to see the girl in front of me.
"You were dreaming... it wasn't going well, was it?" She asks.
I look away as I accept the aching feeling in my chest, my heart was filled with burden.
Tears begin to escape my eyes, every part of my body craving the man I truly love, every part of my soul was aching for him
The girl stares at me as though I was an idiot, then takes a breath and puts her arms around me. "I know this must all be extremely overwhelming for you, but you have to admit that it'll be lovely to not worry about money.. or power."
"It- It's no-." I struggle to get the words out so I lay my head on her chest.
"You need to toughen up, weakness isn't accepted here. Do you know where weakness gets you? To the bottom, powerless, you'll be the one fearing all of you miserable, useless life."
My useless life, how could a life feel so useless? Only when you no longer have a home. Waking up everyday is more of a task than anything, what do I have to look forward to nowadays?
"It's daylight. We must get going."
But before either of us could push the door open, someone else does it for us letting both her and I fall out of it.
"You two were hiding?" Emily screams as she rubs her forehead.
"The empress thought you were dead, Castra! We must get you cleaned up, we have a funeral to attend." She says as she grabs my arm
Funeral? Who died...
As I walked through the hallway the entire castle looked as though nothing took place here last night.
"What happened last night?" I ask Emily.
"The creatures somehow got in." She said with a smirk.
"Why does that amuse you?" I ask.
My jaw drops as I realise who had let them in, "It was you!"
She places a hand around my mouth while pushing me against the wall, "It wasn't me, but you must keep your mouth shut! I'm doing this to get us somewhere. So far, my plan is going well, soon enough I'll have more power than the empress. Soon enough there won't be an empress!"
My heart stays at an increased rate, this woman was a psychopath.
"Now, go get ready."
I clean myself up and walk back into my bedroom.
"You took an awfully long time." I hear someone say.
I turn my head and meet the girl's eyes, "Why are you in my room?" I ask.
"Am I not allowed to be in your room?"
I shake my head as I drop the towel from my body, "Please, try to maintain yourself as I get dressed." I say.
She laughs and walks over the my bed, "There must be so much you want to say to me, ask me. Yet your mouth is sealed shut, why are you here? What do you intend on doing?"
"What do you mean?" I ask.
"Don't act innocent. I'm not an idiot, nobody would marry into this family, not for anything."
What did she mean by that, why would nobody marry into this family?
I place on my black cotton dress, covering me from my neck to my toes and the girl zips it up for me.
"You have to be careful around here." She says before walking out of the room
I walk down the stairs only to be greeted by the duchess, who seemed not at all affected by who had just passed.
"It's nice of you to join us today, dear." She says unamused of the time I took.
I give her a smile and follow her to the cart.
"Dear, before we head in. I must let you know, your wedding will be held soon, extremely soon."
I follow her into the cart.
"How soon? I've hardly spoken a few words to him. I don't even know your name yet, how on earth would I marry a man I know nothing about?" I complain
"Hena."
"Excuse me?" I ask.
"My name is Hena."
Her name sounded familiar, I know I had heard it before, yet I couldn't remember where.
"Don't ever question my decision again, or off your head will be."
Emily glares at me, I roll my eyes and look out of the window.
The rest of the ride there was quite, nobody spoke another word.
The funeral was gathered by a large amount of people, many of them were looking me up and down.
I follow the duchess to the casket only the see the man whom she had loved laying in there.