Heart Out | Celion
It hadn’t been easy evading her guards.
Since her return home, her mother had placed men on her almost every moment. The only peace she had was when she was tucked away in her own chambers, but even then they were only a call away: stationed on the other side of her door.
After trying everything she could to distract them, she’d finally resulted to escaping from her balcony. She’d tied her sheets into a rope and climbed down them (something she never would have considered doing before she’d met James).
From there she was able to go from the secret underground tunnels that connected Fain and Ravenwood Hall to the Imperial Palace until she’d reached the prisons.
It was dark and cold and wet.
“James?” She whispered, loud enough that he might hear, but still soft as to not to wake the sleeping guard. She passed cell after cell, examining the prisoners by the dim light of her torch as she went. The further down the line she went, the more she worried that he was not here at all: the more she worried that he was already dead.
She finally found him in one of the last cells. Relief washed over her when she saw that he was there, but it was quickly replaced with the knowledge that his days here were numbered.
“Are you alright?” She asked, softly, stepping as close to him as she could. She knew given the conditions alone it was a silly question, but she asked it anyway.
She wasn’t sure why she was there. She couldn’t help him. She’d tried, but nothing she’d done had made any difference in his situation. And now he was to die for it. She felt so helpless. She was angry with herself for having failed. She was angry with him for having started this mess.
“Why did you not listen to me?” She asked, forgetting herself already and raising her voice to him, “I told you to let me go! You should have listened! You never listen! You’re so stubborn and reckless and foolish!” She exhaled, “My mother .... she means to have your head for this. I’ve told her time and again that you never harmed me; that I was never in any danger. But she will not listen. Nothing I say will sway her.”
