I stared at him, my heartbeat thudding in the backs of my eyes, in my throat, in my head.
"Princess," he said with teeth gritted together. "I never thought you'd emerge from the forest."
"I'll turn Darkling," I managed. "I can do it. You can't hurt me then."
"It will take a few moments for you to shift form." The knife turned in his grip. "I'm prepared this time."
"Did you tell Elizabeth what happened before? When I turned?"
His brow furrowed. "No."
Since Elizabeth hadn't said anything to me about it, I figured he hadn't. "Why not?"
The expression on his ugly face was grim. He was so big that he blocked out my entire view of the Shadowlands behind him with his thick body. "Do you truly think I would tell her that I allowed you to defeat me so easily? She fears you enough as it is, but if she had any idea that you'd harnessed your Darkling powers…" He visibly shuddered. "She would destroy me."
My entire body was tense, and I found it hard to move or breathe. "She fears me? Why does she fear me?"
"Silence." He moved the knife and I managed to stagger back a step. Instead of coming at me with it, he tucked it into a sheath at his side and pulled something else out of his pocket. A white cloth. "You have to come back to the castle with me. Your aunt wishes to speak with you."
"She wants to kill me."
"If that was the case, I would have done it already."
I looked around the empty field. Not much chance of escape that I could see. The thought made me feel ill. "What did you do to Michael?"
His lips thinned. "The Shadow is proving to be more problematic than Elizabeth ever anticipated or she would have sent him away with the other servants.
He'll be taken care of in time."
He moved toward me. I stepped back and held up my hands. "Look, there has to be another way. Maybe you can help me. Aren't you sick of being told what to do? I know I was. You don't have to take orders from Elizabeth if you don't want to. That's no way to live. Maybe we can work together and figure out a way to-" But he wasn't open to negotiations. He closed the remaining distance between us so fast I couldn't even turn around. Before I had a chance to fight back or scream, he forcibly covered my mouth with the cloth, which smelled of strange chemicals, and a few seconds later darkness claimed me.
I woke with a sharp sob to find my face pressed against a smooth stone floor in a cold, dark room. It took me a moment to even sit up, and when I did, I felt around, trying to establish where I was and exactly how much trouble I was in.
I was somewhere in the castle.
And I was in a whole heap of trouble.
I touched my neck. My potion bottle was missing. Where had it gone? Did it slip off my neck when Elizabeth's thug was dragging me back to the castle?
Was it out in the field? Or had he taken it away from me to give to Elizabeth so she could force-feed it to me?
I was betting on the latter.
"Princess? Can you hear me?"
Michael? I drew my knees to my chest and stared blindly around at the darkness. Where are you?
"If you can hear me, then I must be close, but I don't know where they put us."
I felt a sudden wave of relief at hearing from him, even if it was only telepathically. You got away from that creep?
"I'd hoped he'd chase me, not you. I'm sorry about that. Did he hurt you?" He sounded upset by the idea of it.
Despite total hysteria and being scared to death, I'm still breathing. Michael, what is Elizabeth planning to do?
"I think she wants to wait for King Desmond to die and for the power to shift to you. Then she. . then she plans to kill you. You need to get out of here.
Why didn't you go through the gateway when you had the chance?" A fist of panic clutched at my throat. It disappeared. One moment it was there, the next it was gone.
"Elizabeth must have discovered how to control the gateways now that the king is losing his power."
I have to stop her, Michael. There has to be a way. I racked my brain. All of my earlier ideas seemed like huge long shots.
"You need to tell your father what she's done. About the poison. He needs to know."
But he's so weak now. What could he do that wouldn't hurt him even more?
"He might be able to open another gateway for you. He can still help you get home."
The room I was in was so cold I was shivering, though it wasn't just from cold-it was also from fear. I tried to calm myself down by thinking about Michael.
His first thought was to protect me, to help me get home. I appreciated that so much, but I knew it was too late now. Even if I was willing to just skip back home and forget all of this, I couldn't. The moment my father died, I'd be brought back here against my will and trapped inside the castle until Elizabeth killed me to take my power. There was no turning back now.
Where are you? I thought. I'll try to get out of here. I'll try to find you.
There was a pause, and then, "Princess, I have to go. I have to-" I waited with my eyes wide as saucers for him to say something else. But there was only silence. Michael?
There was no reply. Had Elizabeth found him?
I felt around on the cool floor until I came to a big wooden door. I got shakily to my feet, feeling for a handle, but there was none. I pushed against the door but it didn't budge. They'd locked me inside a dark room to deal with me later.
Slowly my eyes began to adjust to the lack of light until I could see. I was in a small unfurnished room. My shoes and purse were nowhere to be seen. I pushed on the door again, attempting to use my shoulder as leverage but it was impossible.
I sucked in a shaky breath and looked around. There had to be a way out of here. Michael was right. The only thing I could do now was to find my father and tell him about Elizabeth and pray that he had enough power left to stop her.
Out of the corner of my eye I saw a soft glowing light in the darkness and I looked down. It was the crystal of my bracelet, pulsing like a tiny flashlight almost out of batteries. I frowned and ran my fingers over it.
Elizabeth had told me that it was just a regular piece of jewelry. That dragons didn't exist. That would have meant it wasn't a dragon's tear as my father had originally told me.
But I figured I'd already established that Elizabeth was a big, fat liar.
What had my father said about the bracelet? That it could help focus my powers and make them more manageable?
Elizabeth had warned that using my powers would kill me, but it hadn't. And after what Rhys had told me about Darklings being dangerous and not having to hide from anyone, I had started to realize that it might have been just one more thing she'd lied to me about.
Of course she told me if I didn't drink the potion I'd die-that had been her plan. To scare me into drinking the potion.