Once, I Stole A Crown

Escape From Shadow Pack

Luca's parents approached us after Father's speech, each carrying a sleeping child.

"Congratulations, my son. Welcome to the family, Scissera. We are so pleased that you've found each other."

"Thank you, Elder Erik," I responded politely.

"Dear, would you like me to wake the little one so she can spend tonight with you and your mother?" Luca's mother asked.

"No!" I responded too quickly and had to correct myself. "No, thank you, Elder Mae. She's fought sleep so hard to enjoy the party, I don't think you could wake her if you tried." I laughed nervously. "Thank you so much for looking after her tonight."

She smiled and nodded. "Of course, dear. We'll just let her sleep then. I so look forward to getting to learn all about you in the morning."

I returned her smile. "I look forward to that as well."

The Elders left and carried Lily and Delilah off to bed, with Mother leading the way to the guest house.

"Goodnight, Scissera. I'll see you in the morning." Luca took my hand and kissed the back of it. "Until morning," he said.

A warmth spread through my body, and I found myself having to tighten my control over myself again.

"Come along, Scissera," Father said. "There's a lot to be done before you leave us."

There was no delaying the inevitable. Trying would only make it worse. I waved shyly to Luca and followed Father to the main house.

It was actual torture. There's no other word for it. There was no lesson, no punishment for wrongdoing, no lecture or threats. There were no words at all. I wasn't allowed to sit. I wasn't allowed to sleep, eat, or fall. It didn't hurt at first. It was only little snaps with a thin wooden cane. The wounds were inflicted with purpose and precision, meant to heal quickly on the outside, but leave a painful reminder under the surface.

Snap. Snap. Snap. Snap. Snap.

A fresh welt would appear on my arm, then my leg, then my back. It went on like that for hours until finally, the fresh welts split open, and my blood dripped all over the floor. His only goal was to hurt me. Only then was he satisfied.

I was half-dragged to my room through a secret stairway and hall disguised as a storage closet. My sister, Mia, and my cousins, Krista and Leah, were ordered to have me ready in three hours' time, healed, well-rested, and packed to leave. It was an impossible task, but they had no choice but to make it happen. Mother left medicine to treat the slow-healing gashes outside the bedroom door. She wouldn't even help the girls tend to me. Along with the medicine was a pot of strong coffee. I was allowed to sleep only an hour while the girls nursed my wounds for me.

When the hour was up, I soaked for about twenty minutes while the first cup of coffee made its way into my bloodstream. The caffeine did wonders for the soreness. My time at Shadow Pack was almost at an end, which greatly improved my mood but also my sense of urgency. I got dressed and drank a second cup while Mia braided my hair and my cousins packed my things.

I dabbed some makeup on what was left of the dark circles under my eyes. If I didn't return to Luca in pristine condition, my girls would be made to suffer for it. Finally packed and ready to leave my room for the last time, I turned to the girls who looked on with a painful mixture of relief and dread. I struggled to hold back tears.

"I promise to come back for you as soon as I can," I whispered.

"Congratulations on finding your mate, Scissy," Mia said sadly. "We hope to see you again soon."

I nodded and pulled them all close to me in a desperate last hug. "Keep an emergency bag hidden in the gardenia bushes, just in case," I said. "Stay together whenever you can and try to protect each other until I return."

I took one last look at the room I grew up in, and after another minute with my girls, I was ready to leave. They escorted me to the front of the house where Lily was already waiting with sleepy eyes. Luca held her hand on one side and Delilah's on the other as our things were being loaded into the same two carriages that the Brightling family arrived in. The sight of Luca and the girls made me melt. I had to hold my smile in though, and behave as Father would expect. There was still time for things to go horribly wrong. I didn't want to do anything that would set him off. All I could do was pray that we made it out of Shadow territory safely.

Lily and Delilah rode in the second carriage with Luca's father so that they could sprawl out across the seats and fall back asleep. Luca, Elder Mae, and I rode in the first carriage. Luca's mother sat across from us and struck up a conversation immediately. I suspect she also wanted to make sure we behaved ourselves.

The first hour of our journey was filled with stories of Luca's childhood and what a charming troublemaker he was. I couldn't help but laugh at stories of his antics. His childhood was a fairy tale compared to my own. After the second hour, we were nearing the edge of Shadow's territory while I struggled to recant safer stories of my own childhood. There weren't many. As my anxiety grew, the pleasant effects of the coffee began to wear off. I was practically holding my breath until both carriages finally crossed the border. We were well into neutral lands before I could let out a sigh of relief and relax in my seat.

The sudden movement had me gasping in pain as the fabric of my dress and the back of the seat moved across my back too roughly and tore a fresh wound in my barely-healed skin. With nothing left in my system to hold back the pain, I lost all control. Tears sprung from my eyes as Luca began to panic at my distress.

"Scissera!" Losing the tight grip on my emotions meant that, through our new bond, he could now feel my pain. All of it. In an effort to comfort me, he wrapped his arm around my waist. We both cried out at the contact as Elder Mae watched, horrified from the seat across from us. With all the beatings over the previous few days, I knew my back and ribs hadn't healed properly. I thought for sure that at any moment, I would suffocate under the pressure of my laced-up bodice. Luca was in a panic thinking he'd done something wrong but I couldn't say anything to reassure him. At that moment, I was just trying desperately to breathe.

I looked desperately at the woman across from me as I gasped for air and struggled through the pain trying to reach around to my back. She knew just what to do.

She pulled me gently to the floor of the carriage and untied the restricting lace. What she saw on my exposed back clearly horrified her, but the rush of oxygen in my lungs made me lightheaded. Luca was shouting, and his mother was in a panic. I felt the carriage stop, and everything else became background noise as my vision darkened, and my world tipped on its side.