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WHEN I WAKE UP I AM starving. I would eat any old thing that was served to me, but I can smell something divine, something I’d be happy to eat: rabbit if I’m not mistaken. Then a thought occurs to me; what if Millard has laced the food with the death draught, to test it out, like his brother did.
His brother happily killed their father. Would Millard kill me?
At the moment, he assumes I’m on his side. He won’t kill me unless I displease him. And I please him. I rescued him when he was tied up and helpless and I chose to do that. I rescued Wolf and no one else could have done that. I have made a death draught and no one else could have done that, either. He won’t be displeased with me, but does he still need me?
It’s strange but the hold he has on me seems to be lessening, and I’m not sure why. Why now? When I have thrown away my chance of a life at the castle. When I have chosen him over Everleigh. Now I want something else?
I do not understand myself.
“Ginny.” Millard sounds pleased to see me awake and I smile at him. “Are you well?”
I’m not well; the foul mood the death draught put me in is still hanging around. I am questioning myself, my choices, what I need to do. I still feel that leaving both him and Everleigh is my only option. But I will need Millard and Wolf to be distracted to be able to make my getaway.
I managed to bring a few of my most special things from the castle when I went back to get the ingredients and the book for the death draught and they are tucked in my basket, ready to go, if I decide to leave.
My mind is almost made up.
The more I see of Millard and Wolf together – two overgrown teenagers, with no redeeming qualities, the more I am sure that leaving Millard and this corner of the Realm is the right thing to do.
I wish I could stay with Everleigh but if she finds out about my betrayal she won’t want me, and I couldn’t stand to keep it hidden from her when she is Queen. She needs faithful followers surrounding her, not me.
“Help us out, Ginata. Wolf and I have been discussing what we should do next, but much of it depends on my lovely sister and what she’s going to do. What’s her plan, Ginny? You’ve been at the castle, playing both sides. What will Everleigh do next?”
I don’t like the way he says that, playing both sides, but I don’t argue or contradict him. I keep my voice neutral, my expression the same. “She plans to be Queen. Now that you are out of the way.”
“But I’m still King. How can she?”
“Well, the prophecy says she will rule and she believes she will. With you no longer at the castle, she plans to take over. Usurp you, I suppose, although in her mind she is taking what is rightfully hers. The crown. The throne.”
“And you are to crown her?”
“I was, yes.”
“So, you would have betrayed me.”
“I would have done as I was bid. But I have made my allegiances known. I rescued you and I rescued Wolf. I will not be welcome in the castle any longer.”
I want to cry as I say the words. Why did I rescue him? Why did I rescue Wolf? What possessed me?
“So, she has no one to crown her?”
“I do not know for sure, but I would guess the teacher could do it.”
“The teacher?”
“Halfreda’s teacher. He is wise beyond what Halfreda was. I don’t know though.”
“So if Everleigh doesn’t need you anymore and...” He gives me a look that chills me, moves closer to me, his face inches from mine, and I am torn between wanting to shrink from him, and wanting to touch him. I almost miss what he says next. “...I don’t need you anymore...”
His face has darkened, the handsome pleasant features replaced with the maniacal monster I have seen many times before. I process what he just said and I feel sick. Is this the end for me? Before I can make my escape and after all that I have done for him, against my own heart, he will kill me? Like he killed Halfreda, like he killed Lanorie.
As I think it, I know it. Of course he will. Why wouldn’t he? I’m nothing to him. All that I was to him, I imagined. I was a player in his game.
I want to defend myself against his decision, give him reasons to keep me, to need me and then defeat makes me slump to the floor.
All my life could have been is over, it seems. I cannot fight back against these two. What could I do? If I make a move against either of them, they will kill me in a heartbeat. All that I imagined I was to Millard, all I imagined he was to me, were all in my own head.
My voice is small and sad when I speak to him, the hopelessness of my situation sinking fully in. “You will dispose of me?”
And my heart is dying. I love this horrid man but he wants to kill me. I would do anything, say anything, be anything for him, and I have. I have betrayed my own true sense and now he will kill me. I cry and reach my arms out for him, my fingers grasping at thin air.
“Come now, Ginata, where’s the fun in that? Does a cat catch a mouse and simply kill it?”
He leaves the words hanging, not expecting me to answer, but I know what the answer would be.
No, a cat doesn’t just kill a mouse. He plays with it first.