ARDELLE'S POV:
The space would eventually become a tomb, my tomb.
I could feel it. As the hours passed by, their patience was running out. I was becoming of no use which ultimately meant death.
Tied as a display for all with blood coating me, my dress was torn, I was only in a petticoat and chemise, my head was hanging low.
Each blow to break my spirit only broke my body.
"Speak, bitch! Speak!"
My breathing was shallow, I couldn't scream, I was in too much pain. My body was a map of bruises, my spirit, a flickering candle.
The rebel leader tossed an iron rod aside, heaving, heavily disappointed when the one they thought was fragile refused to break.
"She's broken, she's useless, she is truly a burden." he slapped me hard, the sting was immediate, so were my tears but all I could do was to whimper.
"She won't talk. If the Pillar is coming, he can find her cold and lifeless." He scoffed until another one stepped up.
"But it would be a waste to let such a 'bride' go to the grave without one last bit of sport." He spoke, his eyes scanning, imagining the flesh beneath, tracing his knuckles on the side of my face.
He reached for my torn collar. I didn't- couldn't scream. I didn't have the strength to even resist.
I simply closed my eyes, my mind drifting to a memory of a red apple and a silver-eyed man who ate from where I did during the dinner at the fortress.
The same man who tied my laces, guarded my tent, who made me tea–I didn't want to think of any moment of sorrow. I wanted to take good moments with me.
"Look at her, how utterly desirable," He snickered, licking the dirt from my neck that felt entirely horrible.
I flinched, shutting my eyes tighter, only imagining myself on the horse with Lord Kaldric behind me because in that moment, I found myself the safest.
"Hmph. I don't care. I have a wife and daughter." The leader scoffed, already turned on his heels.
"She is of no use. Do whatever you want before you present her head."
He waved his hand dismissively, giving the dogs permission to savor their hunger as they groped me instantly.
"No…." I whimpered, my arms sore from being tied up, impotent to do anything.
But, before the leader could walk away or they continued defiling me before everyone, a deafening explosion came.
"What!? Who is it?!"
Soon followed by a heavy approaching from the opposite direction we came from.
The camp was circles with flames all around the space. They were trapped in the fire with the sound of horses, encircling them, asserting their dominance.
"INVASION!"
There were too many of them. Almost a hundred. Blinking to clear my vision, I lifted my head and saw knights in bright silver armors with dark green cloaks.
Southern Warriors.
Oh… It wasn't Kaldric.
A wave of soldiers in polished, emerald-green fabric flooded the space—the reinforcements My Lord mentioned, of the Southern Provinces.
"It's him! Run!"
"The King's Shadow!"
"The Earl Of Sernic is here! Run!"
'My Lord must know about his arrival. He wouldn't bother to even think about saving me. I was right after all.'
They moved with a surgical, merciless efficiency, clearing the camp in a blur of screams, eliminating them and capturing most of them to suck more information about the coup.
A shadow loomed over the rebel leader.
"You… I will kill–"
"I do not have moments nor words for fools."
Before he could draw his sword, the horse ran past and in a blink of an eye, a rope was around his neck, dragging him across the ground.
My body shivered violently at the gruesome sight where the Earl ruthlessly dragged his body until he lost consciousness and dismount.
A man a white armor with golden stripes, the forest-green cape draped majestically on his shoulder.
Upholding an undeniable grace and authority as he stepped through the dust, his cape billowing like a forest canopy.
With one swift, elegant stroke, Earl Emerson had chains around the leader's throat, dragging him across the ground, throwing him to his subordinate.
"Keep an eye on this dog."
"Yes Sir,"
He stepped over the corpses until he was before me, his intimidating form took my breaths away. I hadn't realised he was this powerful and lethal.
Before I could lower my gaze, he caught my face in his hand. He grinned, that familiar, roguish spark in his eyes returning.
"Aaaand," Emerson chuckled, his voice smooth as silk, "Two for me... and how many for Kaldric? Zero?"
I blinked, my mouth gaping when in such a dire situation, that was his first sentence to me. Before I could respond, he straightened his back.
"And yet you say you want that ruthless iron who is nowhere. You are a tragedy, Ardelle Amory."
I still had no idea how he knew my last name.
He was here. The man who had once offered me a life of ease, the man I had turned away to stay with the man of stone, and mocking me like always.
"You look terrible," Emerson murmured, his thumb brushing a bruise on my jaw, cutting th
"Perhaps next time you'll listen when I tell you that obsidian is far too heavy for someone as delicate as you."
"My… hands, My Lord…" I whispered, narrowing my eyes, infuriated deep down that he was making fun of me.
"Oh, right. I apologize." He cut the ties, allowing my body to fall but before I could greet the ground, he handed me.
Emerson had arrived with him that subdued the tension. He held me with a terrifyingly perfect tenderness, his voice low against my ear.
"I've got you," Emerson whispered, his gloved hand spread over my back, his lips against my ear but none of it felt discomforting.
My eyes were simply staring at the ground with disappointment.
"You're safe now... I am here for you, Ardelle. I won't let the cold touch you again."
I leaned into him, my strength entirely spent. My fingers clutched at his emerald cloak, a desperate reflex of a drowning soul reaching for a lifeline.
'He' was here, not my Lord. I had to accept this reality. But for once, just for once, if Lord Kaldric was here…'
For a moment, the silence of the cellar was absolute, until the heavy thud of boots and the roar of a possessed man shattered it, indicating my small prayer was listened to.
"ARDELLE!"
It sounded like a man who had watched his entire world collapse and was trying to scream it back into existence.
Lord Kaldric burst through the ruined forest and the fire on his horse, his condition messy unlike Emerson, he hadn't even wiped the blood from the attack.
Araleth a silver shadow at his heels. He looked wild—his hair windblown, his armor splattered with the gore of the trek, and his eyes... his silver eyes were wide with a frantic, agonizing search.
Then, he saw us.
"Ardelle…"
He froze. The momentum that had carried him through a blizzard and a rebel army came to a jarring, silent halt.
He saw me wrapped in Emerson's embrace, the Earl's cloak draped over my ruined dress like a shield he had failed to provide.
Lord Kaldric hesitated. The Obsidian Pillar looked tentative at that moment, his hand hovering in the air as if he feared his touch would only break what was left of me.
I looked at him through the haze of my pain, my heart stuttering.
The ice he had thrown at me in the courtyard felt a lifetime away. All I saw now was the man who came for me.
"You came, My Lord...?" I whispered, the words barely a breath, "For me?"
Lord Kaldric nodded desperately, his stoic mask shattered into a thousand pieces. He stepped forward, his hand trembling as he extended it toward me.
"Yes," his voice breaking under the weight of his guilt. "I have come for you, Ardelle. I am here."
The choice was instantaneous. My soul didn't care for the comfort of the Earl or the safety of the South. I let go of Emerson's silk and reached for the blood-stained leather and steel of my husband.
"Kaldric…!" I called out to him, my burning throat abruptly gained energy to scream.
Maybe that was what I wanted. To collide with him and tell him how terrified I was.
I tried to stand, to bridge the final gap between us, but my legs were nothing but numb. Before I could hit the cold stone, the world tilted.
Kaldric didn't just catch me; he charged, his knees hitting the dirt with a heavy thud as he gathered my broken body into his arms.
"I am here, Ardelle, I am here now," He pulled me against his breastplate, the metal cold, but the man beneath it radiating a terrifying, frantic heat.
"I… I was so scared, my Lord. I thought I would die. Where were you, you empty-headed knight!?" I yelled, my arms around his neck, my spirit broke and the cries burst.
I suddenly found myself weakened, as if I just wanted him to know how terrifying it was and how alone I was.
"You…" He paused breathlessly, whispering in my ear so no one could hear, "You fly too fast for a fairy without wings."
We looked at each other intensely. I saw the map of his regret in the lines around his eyes. I saw the Pillar finally bending, not for the King, not for the Law, but for me and it washed relief over me.
"For… me…"
I smiled, a small, tired thing that carried all the forgiveness I shouldn't have been able to give. Then, the darkness finally won.