Crown of Betrayal (The Siren Series Book 1) by Marie F. Crow

Author:Marie F. Crow [Crow, Marie F.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Kingston Publishing Company
Published: 2020-08-22T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter Fourteen

I didn’t sleep well last night. Even with the creature humming its soft lullaby, I could do nothing to ease the growing anxiety inside of me. I dreamt of my aunt as villain and heroine. I saw my mother crowned and broken. Other times, I dreamt of Rossi alone and lost in a cell below me. Always in between was Corander with a thick mystery wrapped around him and I am at a loss to understand any of his motives.

Kurt has lifted his imprisonment of me. He has kept my mother’s and aunt’s rooms barred from me with his expressed worry over what danger those rooms might present for my curiosity and sense of adventure. It’s his little way of reminding me everything that has befallen Rossi and I is of our own doing.

Their pictures have even been removed from the walls. It has left empty, large rectangular spaces where their frames once hung. Sitting in my family’s hall, I feel utterly alone with no one but the Empradars and their glares to keep me company.

“Still not happy?” one of the male Empradar guards calls to me.

I look to where he is standing, slightly behind me and try to place his face with a memory. I don’t know him, but by the tone in his voice, he seems to know me. He doesn’t sound too fond of me, either.

“What should bring me joy?” I ask him, echoing the same tone he had shared with me.

“You’re alive,” he offers, with a dripping contempt.

“If you consider this a life?” I mumble, turning my back to him.

“Is your heart still beating?” he asks me, as his anger takes over his contempt. “Do you still draw breath?”

I look to him again, trying to understand his hatred for me.

“That is more than many of our brothers and sisters can say after your aunt’s actions in the village,” he says, and his disdain is abundant.

“Maybe the Empradars should stop going against odds they can’t beat,” I hear my mouth say, and I turn around to quickly hide my shock.

I stand, turning as I hear the man rushing towards me. I fully expect to feel the lance he is aiming at me shoved through my body at any moment. I brace for it, unsure of what else to do. Closing my eyes, I wait for the pain, but it doesn’t come. Instead, I open my eyes to his screaming, wondering what has taken place.

The man is kneeling before me, clutching the hand that was holding the lance. I can see a thin dagger piercing his hand, and even with the hilt covered with the man’s blood, I know its owner.

Merkote stands at the entrance of the hall with his usual disinterest upon his face. Holding his hand out, the same dagger now reappears there and Merkote shakes it, flinging the dripping blood along the wall beside him. If he doesn’t notice what he has done or simply doesn’t care, his face never changes either way.

“I do believe you were placed there to protect the princess.

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