FROM THE ASHES OF REVENGE

Chapter 1 Alicia’s Pov “Lady Emily, your tea is ready,” I said quietly, my eyes on the ground as I placed the tray gingerly on the table. I stepped back, my head still lowered but I looked at Emily from under my lashes. The way she smiled and then bit down on her lips. She took the cup in her hands, swirled it while staring at me, and downed it in one gulp. “You can take it out now.” She said, waving her hands in dismissal. I bowed and took the tray from her, stepping out to take it back to the kitchen when I heard a sudden thud. I looked back, my eyes widening at what I saw, Emily was on the ground, clutching her stomach and screaming in pain. My nose was filled with the scent of blood, I froze, my heart pounding as Emily’s screams pierced the air. Her body convulsed, and blood began to pool beneath her. I took a hesitant step forward, panic clawing at my chest. “M… My lady!” I stammered, but no words of comfort would come. Her wide, terrified eyes locked onto mine as if pleading for help, but I couldn’t move. My hands trembled, the tray slipping from my grasp and clattering to the floor. “What did you do?!” A sharp voice came from the doorway and that was it. How my whole world shattered. Just from serving tea. “No. Stop, please I'm begging you, I didn't do it. I didn't do it, you have to believe me.” I screamed as I was dragged by my hair, my face hitting the ground as they dragged me. It has been six days now. Six days since they threw me into this place that was meant for the worst kind of criminals. “You f*****g slut! You're still not telling the truth, right? This is your last chance, what did you use to poison the Luna and where did you get it? Who gave it to you!” I instantly clasped my hands together, lowering my head not to look at his eyes as I continued to beg, “I'm sorry. I didn't do that, I didn't poison her. Please believe me, please.” “You're still lying!” The man who had been torturing me since I got here kicked me in the chest. I heaved, my body curling into a circle. It hurt. It hurt so much. He kicked me again, this time at the back of my head. I wheezed, my eyes getting filled with black spots. “Someone! Hold her up and tie her once more to the pole!” He called out people, and three others, they each had smirks on their faces. They were enjoying what was being done to me. They raised me from the ground, my legs dangling. The first thing they had done to me when I got here was to break my legs, both my legs. Then they blinded me in one eye, using a hot knife. I had a scary scar that went along from one side of my face to another, a burn scar. They tied me up to the pole, the ropes digging into my skin. “Pl… Please… S… Stop.” My voice was cracking and my throat hurt. They had not given me any water for six days. One of the men laughed, bending down to meet my tear-streaked face. His fingers pressed hard under my chin, forcing me to look up, despite the raw pain spreading across my broken body. "Stop?" He mocked, his breath hot and sickeningly close, "Oh, now you want mercy? Funny, because Lady Emily didn’t get any, did she? She trusted you, and you betrayed her.” He squeezed harder, digging his nails into my skin until I could feel the sharp sting and it traveled across my face, except where my scar was as that place was numb to feeling. I could barely respond. My lips cracked as I tried to form the words, to somehow convince them that I was innocent. But I could only manage a hoarse, strangled sound that brought another cruel chuckle from the guard. On the third day, they paraded me around the clan house, naked, my bruised and battered body exposed for all to see. Suddenly, one of the other men lifted a bucket from the ground, tipping it slightly so I could see the contents. Murky, foul-smelling water filled it, with flecks of who knows what floating on the surface. My heart races at the sight of water after days of agonizing thirst, if I could just have a drink of that water. Please… The man holding the bucket smirked as if reading my mind, “Thirsty?" He tilted the bucket, letting a few drops trickle onto my parched lips, and for a moment, relief surged through me. But just as I opened my mouth to catch more, he pulled the bucket away, laughing cruelly. “Oh, no, not yet. You have to earn it, don’t you think?” The man with his fingers under my chin released me roughly, causing my head to slump forward. The others circled me, murmuring insults and accusations, and then, without warning, one of them lashed a whip across my back, slicing through my thin dress and tearing into my skin. A strangled scream tore from my throat, my whole body jerking against the ropes. “Confess!” One of them demanded, his voice a brutal snarl, “Just say the words, and this can end.” “I didn't do it!” I screamed as the whip came down again, burning across my body, “I didn't do it!” The whip came down again, and again until the pain blurred into an endless, throbbing ache that left me barely aware of where I was. And then, finally, the whipping stopped. I was dimly aware of rough hands untying the ropes, my body collapsing into a heap on the cold, hard ground. I couldn’t move; every nerve screamed in agony. “My Lord.” The voice greeted me deeply, feet shuffling, and right in front of me were black shoes, and the scent of someone I always dreamed of seeing filtered into my nose. “Lu… Cien.” “Alicia, how low you have fallen,” Lucien said, his tone tinged with disgust. “I… I didn't… Ack! Ack!” I coughed violently, blood splattering on the ground beside me, “I didn't do it. P… Please, be… believe me.” “Believe you? Alicia, even though I rejected you, I still let you stay in this pack to become Emily's maid. You were the one who made her tea and served it, and now you’re saying you had nothing to do with it?” Lucien’s voice was cold, filled with disdain as he towered over me. The sting from the whip paled in comparison to the pain his words caused. I looked up at him, my eyes brimming with tears, “I s… I swear… I didn't poison… her… Ack!” I coughed again. But he cut me off, his face contorted with disgust and rage, “You think I would believe the lies of a rejected omega? You’ve been jealous of Emily ever since I chose her instead of you, and now you’ve taken it too far.” His words struck me like daggers, each sentence slicing through any hope I had ever held for him. The man I once loved, the man I had given everything to, including my body and everything I had to offer, now looked at me as if I was nothing more than dirt beneath his boots. “I didn’t…” “Enough!” Lucien’s roar made me flinch, “You will be imprisoned for your crimes. Tomorrow, you will be beheaded for attempting to murder Luna and her unborn child.” The finality in his words hit me like a blow to the chest. Beheaded? I couldn’t breathe, the world spinning around me as the weight of my situation sunk in. This wasn’t happening. It couldn’t be happening. Not like this! I wanted to plead for mercy, to ask him to spare me. Banishment was even better than this, I didn't want to die. I really didn't want to die! I raised my hands slowly, trying to hold the hem of his clothes when I suddenly stopped. If I died… then all of this would be over… right? It would all be over. I was picked up again like a ragdoll and thrown into one of the cells where I lay motionlessly. How had everything gone so wrong? How had I gone from serving tea to facing death? I remembered the look in Lucien's eyes and I shivered, he had never looked at me in that way, even when he rejected me while I was still in his bed naked. When he announced that Emily was pregnant with his child right in front of me and when he asked her to be his Luna, right in front of me. He was cold, but now, he had hatred in his eyes. Hours passed, or maybe it was only minutes, my mind raced, trying to piece together what was happening but nothing made sense. I had no enemies, no reason to poison Emily, and yet here I was, framed for a crime I didn’t commit. Just as I was on the verge of breaking, the sound of footsteps echoed through the dungeon. I sat up, my heart racing, thinking it was Lucien, maybe he had changed his mind, maybe he had finally realized the truth. But it wasn’t Lucien, it was Emily. I almost did a double take, I thought she was bleeding and resting because of her miscarriage. What was she doing here?