Stealing Cinderella(73)
Lavinia screams like a demon spawn from hell as she wraps her icy fingers around my throat, choking off my air supply. On instinct, my hands come up to hers, trying to pull them away, but the strength she’s drawn from her rage feels superhuman.
When I fail to pry her fingers away, I fling my fist at her face again. But my body is already suffering from the lack of oxygen. I’m weak and sluggish, and panic is taking the place of rational thought when I try to crawl away from her. Her arms are locked around me like steel bars, caging me in. I kick and thrash and use everything in my power to fight back, but every passing second only seems to seal my fate.
I can’t breathe. She’s choking the life from me. Without air, I don’t have the strength to fend her off, but I still have my hands, and I know what matters to her most. Digging my nails into her forehead, I scrape them down her face, leaving trails of blood behind as she screams like she’s being murdered. Her hands fall away from my throat, and I gulp in air as she touches her face in horror.
There isn’t time to catch my breath. I’ve just damaged what’s most precious to her, and she’s not going to stop now until I’m dead. I scramble off her, crawling toward the lighter, but no sooner do I have my fingers wrapped around it than she comes for me again.
She shoves my face into the dirt and yanks me back by my hair, trying to pry the lighter from my grasp. I elbow her in the gut, and she grunts, doubling over on top of me. Throwing the lighter as far as I can from her reach, I turn to face her, and within seconds, we’re wrestling in the dirt again. Between the punches and slaps and head thrashing, my energy is waning. Whatever hope I may have had for walking out of here today is slowly dissipating. My entire body feels like jelly, and I can hardly control my limbs anymore.
When Lavinia rolls me onto my back again and wraps her hands around my throat once more, there’s only one thing I can think to do. As I struggle to hold on to my consciousness, I bring my hands to her face and dig my thumbs into her eyes with every ounce of strength I have left. She shrieks, and I nearly choke as she falls back, dragging her trembling hands to her bloody eyes.
“You fucking bitch!” she screams. “You’re going to die for this!”
I try to crawl away, but it’s too late. When she pins me on my back again, she presses her knees into my elbows and drags something from her pocket. A familiar blue bottle. She twists the lid off the oleander extract and tosses it aside as she tries to focus with her swollen eyes. I turn my head to the side, but my strength has abandoned me. I’m fading fast, and the only comfort I have as she wrenches my head back is that at least I’ve probably scarred her for life.
She tells me she’s won when she brings the bottle to my lips and forces it between my teeth. As the liquid pours over my tongue and gurgles in my throat, I’m left to wonder if she will still set me ablaze when she leaves. It’s the last fleeting conscious thought I have.
32
Thorsen
The beat of my heart echoes through the silence of the bedroom I shared with Ella, but now it just feels like a coffin. Cold, suffocating, and achingly empty.
It’s been two days since I’ve last seen her. When I came home to an empty house, it nearly fucking destroyed me. Within the hour, I had gathered every resource at my disposal. I had the royal guards scouring the streets of Oslo while I personally checked the airports and train stations even though it didn’t make sense. Ella doesn’t have any money. And now she doesn’t even have a phone since she left hers behind.
I flew to London that night anyway. But there were no passenger tickets with her name on them, and she never showed up at the sanctuary or the manor. Her friends haven’t heard from her either. Neither the guards nor my security has found anything useful. The last glimpse I have is her climbing into a rowboat to leave me behind.
They tell me she could be on the ferry, but even that doesn’t seem reasonable. She would need money for that too. I don’t know where she could be, and the longer I sit here wondering, the more destructive I become.
The halls are already littered with the evidence of my frustrations. Holes in the walls. Shattered picture frames. Lisbeth disappeared soon after I interrogated her and brought her to tears, and she hasn’t returned since.
Everyone is looking at me like I’ve gone insane, and I suppose I have. But what do they expect? She left me. And all that remains is her letter of lies.
Dr. Blom was quick to remind me that the way I deal with this challenge will pave the path for my future. I was quick to push him away with angry words and accusations that I suspect are at least somewhat true. In my gut, I know he must have helped Ella. She must have told him she wanted to escape me, and I think more than anything, that’s what cuts the deepest.
I’ve considered every possibility of what the future looks like from here, but no matter what lens I use, it seems impossibly grim. Without her by my side, I could only ever be the cold king everyone expects. Living a life of isolation with the ghost of her memory. Would I do what I always said I would? The dark ending my thoughts have insisted on for many years? No, I don’t think so. The forest that used to comfort me in my dreams seems cold and stark since I’ve known Ella’s warmth.
The only solution that makes sense is to take her back by force. I could make her love me again. But first, I have to find her. And I don’t know how to do that when every lead seems to fail me.