Emerald Rose by Emma Hamm

Author:Emma Hamm [Hamm, Emma]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2020-03-22T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 21

The silence was deeper in this part of the Hollows. Tomb-like, heart wrenching, and sad. Every part of Danielle screamed this was what death felt like.

No one knew where she was. No one cared. Her siblings were long forgotten, her mother wallowing in her own madness.

She stood for a long time, back pressed against the wall and heart in her throat. The thundering rhythm in the chest kept her mind occupied while she tried to still her thoughts.

She was no longer a princess.

Her kingdom was no longer a home.

The family she once had no longer regarded her as anything more than a shadow of a memory.

Eventually, feeling returned to her numb fingers. Her heart slowed its galloping pace to a mere shuffle. The shadows in front of her eyes moved, and she didn’t know if they were in her mind, or if someone was approaching her.

Then fingers reached out and stroked the soft swell of her cheek.

“Princess,” a voice rasped. Far deeper than any of the other Dread, like the rumble of the earth itself.

She blinked and forced her mind to focus on the present. The Dread standing before her was old. Both of his horns had fallen off long ago, perfect circles on the top of his head marking where they’d once been. One of his wings had been broken long ago and dragged behind him with every movement. The other was only the skeleton of a wing, its membrane long since worn away.

But his black eyes frightened her most of all. There were no whites, just darkness reflecting her pale face.

“Hello,” she whispered. Pressed against the wall, there was nowhere for her to run if this Dread decided it wanted to attack her. And though none of the Dread had given her any reason to assume they wanted to, she didn’t know this creature.

If her own family could betray her, then creatures she hardly knew could do the same.

The Dread raked its claws down her face. The touch was delicate, so careful to not break through her skin while still touching her. Feeling her forehead, eyes, nose, and mouth.

She’d experienced such a touch before, long ago when her father had taken her through the crowds of Hollow Hill. An elderly woman had reached out and brushed her fingers all over Danielle. Every part she could find.

She blew out a breath and relaxed. “You’re blind?”

The Dread grinned, wrinkles deepening until its face was nothing but folds. “Your observations are almost correct, princess. I can still see a bit.”

“I’m not a princess anymore.”

“You are here. Don’t let yourself believe that because one man says you aren’t something, everyone else believes the same.”

Honorable words for a creature made of stone. Danielle didn’t know how to respond. It knew of her, when she knew nothing of the Dread who lived this far underground.

So, instead of asking questions as she wished to, Danielle said, “I’m afraid I wished for a little time alone.”

“And people like us are rarely afforded such luxuries. You need to see something, princess.

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