Shadowborn Royals - G. Bailey Page 0,36
My pulse spikes at the sight of Luke in the doorway, his arms folded over his chest and his face wiped clean of emotion. When he looks at me, there’s a flicker of anger in his gaze at the sight of my distress, but he hides it when he looks at my mother.
“I’ve been ordered to take Izora back to her room. Gov’s orders.”
My mother’s thinly plucked eyebrows lift. “Her Highness is releasing my daughter?”
Luke shrugs at her, and I know in the past, my mother would’ve admonished his disrespect. Honestly, I don’t blame him. I lost all respect for my mother the moment she confessed that she worked for Eva. She’s just a pawn like all the other guards in this place. Gods, even we, the prisoners, are simply pawns now. But my mother? She’s not a pawn. She’s a snake, and I meant what I said. She’s not my mother anymore.
“Looks like it,” my warden answers calmly. “You can ask her yourself once she’s back from Vasili.”
My mother watches me strut past her with Ozy. “At least someone’s on my side,” I say to Luke, but I look over my shoulder at my mother. She’s too busy looking at the floor with beet-red cheeks to notice me. I turn back to my warden. “Let’s go. I really need a shower.”
Luke nods and motions for me to go first. This time, I don’t look back at my mother. My every footstep is heavy and laden with a hurt I never expected to feel at disowning my mother. I thought I’d be too hurt and angry at her to be filled with instant regret, but I had to do it. I had to let her go for what she did and is doing, in this place.
Just like I have to get the prisoners out of here.
Sometimes the prison itself is a Blood Trial.
I watch as a girl about my age falls to the floor, blood pouring from her stomach as the guards rush to stop the fight. I didn’t see the start of the altercation between the three girls, but I heard the noise as I came to get my lunch and I’ve been watching ever since. It’s hard to look away, their fighting style is so brutal. I don’t feel anything as I watch them try to kill each other, which would’ve horrified the old me.
The old me.
The girl who liked to get drunk at Shadowborn Academy on the weekends and hated magical lessons with elements, would have been horrified at this.
Now, it’s just a pebble in the ocean of the disturbing and bad shit I’ve seen.
Axel’s hand clamps hard on my waist, making sure I don’t get involved.The prison is filled to the brim with guards rushing in from every door, the alarms blasting so loudly in my ears that I miss whatever Axel asks me. My eyes stay on the girl as the life leaves her eyes, she goes still, blood spreading around her sparkling white wings.
Death is nothing here, and the thing is, under all the light magic and white wings, our souls are wrapped in shadows.
Nothing is going to change that.
We are shadowborns.
“Come on,” Axel tugs me away from the room and drags me into the training area where Scott and Luke are working out, and it’s far quieter in here. Figures everyone is watching the fight for some sick amusement in this place. I watch Scott and Luke practice against each other, almost wrestling on the floor at this point, Luke dodges a punch to the face like a pro. With a long kick, he throws Scott across the room. Scott slams into a padded mat on the floor with a groan.
“Nice move,” I say as I walk over and pull my hair up in a ponytail. “I wanna try. Come on.”
I wave a hand to instruct him over to me and he smirks in such a sexy way it nearly distracts me when he hits out, nearly knocking me over. I duck under his arm, grabbing his shoulder and pulling myself around his body. Climbing onto his back like a monkey in two moves, I hold my hands around his neck. He doesn’t resist as I hear Axel and Scott laughing.
“I win,” I say and he shocks me by flipping me over his shoulder, catching me mid-air and pulling me against his chest.
His lips descend on mine, kissing me sweetly for just a moment. “Did you?”
My smile is incredibly wide as the doors