The headache from hell pounded against the confines of Ravyn’s skull. She groaned with the throbbing pain, rubbing her forehead as she sat up. She frowned at the sound of clinking metal with her movements, and her eyes found several lengths of chain tied to her wrists, ankles, and throat.

  She gasped. “This—!”

  “Good,” a voice said, catching her attention. She looked up to see a weathered woman standing behind several thick bars of black iron. Emberlynn. Her mother. “You’re awake.”

  Ravyn blinked. “You bitch!” She shot to her feet and ran, only for the chains to rein her back when her hands were inches away from the bars. “You’re going to pay for this! Don’t think I don’t know what you’ve done. The moment I get out of here—”

  “What is it, exactly, that you think you know?” She raised her brows. “Hm?”

  “You created that Defiled. You led innocents to their demise! It’s your fault Yanni’s friend is dead!”

  “Do you have proof?”

  Her lip twitched. “I saw what you wrote in those books.”

  “Curious. I do not recall penning the death of anyone. You are clearly delirious. Until you come to your senses, I will see that you are taken care of.” Emberlynn sighed and shook her head. “It seems my daughter’s rehabilitation proved inadequate.”

  Ravyn clenched her teeth so hard the enamel began to squeak. “You heartless, two-faced snake. Don’t think I won’t burn this whole fucking estate to the ground if I have to.”

  Emberlynn clicked her tongue. “To think that I had hoped that we might amend our differences in this turbulent time.” She bowed her head. “I prayed that you might see reason to inherit the estate. I thought that perhaps you would understand how important my positions in Zhuli and San Island are.”

  “We must have skipped the part where you sacrificed Zhuli’s people to a Defiled,” Ravyn growled.

  “No one will ever believe you.” There was a somber tone to her voice, as if she had done this a hundred times before. “It is your word against mine.”

  “So you admit it.” She exhaled in disbelief. Part of her had hoped that she was wrong. “Damn it, Mom, they trusted you! They trusted you!”

  Emberlynn took a step back. “If you had remained here and agreed to inherit the estate, this never would have happened.”

  “Don’t pin this on me! I didn’t ask for your estate! I asked to be left alone to make my own decisions, be my own person!” Ravyn snapped her wrists forward and snarled at the chains.

  “My dear sweet child.” Emberlynn’s tone grew wispy, carrying the hints of someone who was waxing nostalgic. She coughed into a rag and pocketed it. “I am…truly sorry it had to come to this, but it must be done.”

  Ravyn’s lip twitched. “Not a chance in hell am I letting you walk away.” She knew that her next move was unlikely to work, but she had to try. “[Fire Ball]!” As the Myana coursed through her veins to complete the Spell, it suddenly halted at her fingertips. The Myana tingled for a second or two, then expanded in her fingers, causing them to swell to nearly twice their size. She cried out in pain, gripping her wrist out of terror that her fingers might explode.

  The Myana reversed course in her veins in the form of lightning magic, paralyzing her to the spot and sending wave after wave of jolts through her body. She clenched her teeth and trembled beneath the attack, forcing herself to not scream. Not cry out. This bitch didn’t deserve either. She gasped for air when the attack came to an end, slumping to the floor while her heart pounded against her chest.

  “You will refrain from casting Spells while that collar is attached,” Emberlynn said slowly. “I care not to see my daughter in pain, but if it’s what I must do to keep her placated, then it is of small cost to me.”

  The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  “Y-y-you won’t get away with this.” Her teeth chattered, and it was suddenly much harder to move. The collar’s Enchantment was unlike anything she’d ever experienced before. “I-I’ll make s-sure of it.”

  “I already have. All I ask of you now is that you wait. Someone will come to free you once I have expired.”

  “S-so I’m s-supposed to jus…just wait until you’re dead?”

  Emberlynn blinked. “Yes.”

  Ravyn found a scrap of strength to sit up, her body still trembling from the collar’s Enchanted lightning magic. “I-I d-don’t understand. W-what are you doing?”

  Emberlynn brushed her thumb and pointer finger together. A gesture she made whenever she was contemplating something. “I wish to keep you out of harm’s way. If I release you now, Saoirse knows what you’ll do. That is a risk I cannot take. I can say no more.”

  “Trapping me in your fucking dungeon and s-shocking me? That’s your idea of protecting me?” She scoffed. “Great fucking job, Mom.” She clapped her hands. “Round of applause. Daughters everywhere w-wish they could be w-where I am right now!”

  Emberlynn narrowed her gaze. “You simple-minded kitten.” She approached the bars, looking down at her as if she’d never been more disappointed. “All you had to do was listen to me and take my place when I passed. You could have had everything. I prepared all of it, not just for the sake of our name, you ungrateful brat, but for you.” Her eyes welled. “It was always for you.”

  Ravyn growled. “Don’t try to manipulate me. I am not one of your pawns.”

  Emberlynn wiped her tears away with the back of her hand. “I have never manipulated you.”

  “Liar! You threw me into that school, pretended I had friends, pretended to like Yomi, demanded that I inherit your estate!” She growled. “Don’t think I haven’t seen what you’re really like. Where were you when I was in rehabilitation?”

  “They wouldn’t let me see you,” Emberlynn hissed. “Do you know how hard I worked to get you out of there? I threatened never to Enchant another item again, and you know what Queen Nehalennia did?” She paused. “She said she would mark us and all of Zhuli as traitors to the throne. That includes you. You would have been executed. Do you understand that?”

  Ravyn furrowed her brow. “...You’re lying. You’ve never loved me.”

  “Never loved you,” Emberlynn scoffed. “Let us make one thing exceptionally clear.” She gripped the bars. Her skin was so thin that even in the pitch of darkness her bones were visible. “You can hate me, curse my name, throw my corpse in the moat for all I care.” Her voice lowered. “But don’t you ever dare claim that I don’t love you.

  “I spent every day praying to Saoirse for your safe return. I sent missives to Queen Melasia every month, pleading that they send a contingency of [Crusader]s to locate my only daughter”—her voice cracked—“only to be met with silence. When Queen Nehalennia took the throne, she informed me that you were being rehabilitated for falling in love with San Island’s man. That is when I made my threat.”

  Ravyn fell silent.

  “The next time I penned the queen, she informed me that you had already left,” Emberlynn said. “So, I was once again wondering where my daughter was, whether she was warm or safe. Imagine my surprise when you show up at my front door like nothing happened.”

  No one could’ve helped her during those years. After rehabilitation, she was quick to disappear, and spent most of her evenings nursing several bottles of wine while she sobbed into Bally’s feathers about what could’ve been. It was then that Bally had started learning how to speak, and at his suggestion, she attempted to rebuild her friendship with Yomi.

  The amount of friction between them was palpable, but Yomi was willing to give their friendship another chance. As luck would have it, she was a member of the new man’s Party. A man named Cailu. Yomi spoke highly of her when she introduced her, and at first, things seemed like they were getting better. Her time in Cailu’s Party was short-lived.

  For a long time, she tried to come to terms with the fact that she wasn’t meant for a world like Nyarlea.

  “Nothing you’ve told me excuses you from this,” Ravyn said, gesturing to the chains around her wrists and ankles. “If you love me, then release me.”

  Emberlynn shook her head. “I am sorry. But it is because I love you that I cannot do that.”

  At the snap of her fingers, a woman appeared out of the shadows beside her. The stranger wore thin, form-fitting fabrics that folded across her chest, coupled with a short cloth that dangled between her legs. Fishnets covered her pale arms and legs, and her face was hidden behind a mask that depicted a fox. Her long black hair was tied into a ponytail behind her thin black ears, swaying at her approach. The tail she bore was lithe and silky, slithering as if it had a mind of its own.

  “Chi will feed and attend to you until your release,” Emberlynn said.

  “No!” Ravyn barked. “Release me!”

  “I will not repeat myself. You have a bed, water, and a toilet to relieve yourself.” She drew a deep breath, then slowly released it. “We shall speak more tomorrow evening.”

  Emberlynn started down the hallway while Chi took a seat on a stool against the wall. Chi crossed her arms and set one leg over the other.

  Given the company, Ravyn thought it would be hard to cry. It wasn’t. She didn’t stop crying until the sun rose.

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