Captive

Chapter Twenty One

Eb entered into the room, where I was sitting aimlessly, staring out the window. If it hadn’t been barred I would have tried to jump. But I couldn’t even get the window open. When the door had opened, my eyes moved quickly, tensing when I saw him.

“Oh Sage,” He said, a coy smile appearing, “You’ve lost your fire, love. What’s the matter now? I miss when you had some fight in you.” He had made his way to where I was sitting on the bed. I leaned away from him, but his long fingers brushed away a piece of hair, revealing the royal mark beneath my ear.

It was to say I wasn’t fighting him as usual. I didn’t yell at him, let alone did I say anything to him when I saw him. And for a few days, he had left me completely alone. So I didn’t know why he was here. I didn’t ask though. And not even giving him a harsh glare, I just turned away from him.

“Such a pity. You were always so much fun. Zaleck ruined you.” I didn’t want to hear his name. I didn’t want to think about him. I had avoided his words from the other day. I knew they were all lies again. But Eb saw me wince, pull back at his name as his fingers slid down my cheek. I leaned away from him, but it was no help. His fingers traveled down my neck, landing on my shoulders, gripping into it.

It wasn’t worth fighting anymore. I didn’t want to deal with the pain of it. A breath slipped through my lips, a solid hiss of air. I still didn’t look at Eb though, not when he cleared his throat.

“Come on, he never loved you. You should have known better.” His fingers squeezed my shoulder, “And it is too bad you are with the other kingdom. We could have ruled together. We still can, Sage. We could rule our kingdoms together, you and I, get rid of your father.”

I let out a growl, my eyes flickering to his, “I’ll never rule with you. You are a cruel leader and people are scared of you.”

“Ah, but the power, when people are scared you have no problems.” He said, his other hand reaching for my shoulder, holding me square.

“You have problems, Eb. You always will when your people cower beneath you. Dane will never end up like Trittan.” I breathed out, his eyes challenging mine.

“You could just try it Sage. Look at all that bent up emotion you have. It is so powerful. You could get back at Zaleck.”

I scoffed, clearly loyalty was nothing to Eb if he was using Zaleck to get me to consider. But it wasn’t going to work. Zaleck could live his life with Eb, merciless. And I was trying not to care. I bit back a snide comment, my eyes moving away once more.

“You’ve really lost your touch. What a shame. With that spark, we could have had everything under control as the rulers.” He said, his fingers squeezing my shoulders again.

“You don’t even know your people.” I snapped, shrugging him off of me. I stood up quickly, moving away from him.

“And there she is.” I heard him call after me. I stopped my eyes moving straight to a spot on the wall.

“You don’t know anything about me.” I said, throwing him a look over my shoulder.

“I know enough.” I rolled my eyes at his comment. “It’s time that we start moving, Sage. In a few days, your father will be arriving.”

“What do you mean?” I said, turning to face him.

“We’re going to go somewhere different. Everyone would know you are here.”  He said as his arms crossing as he glared down at me.

“Where?” I asked quickly. I wasn’t sure what he wanted, where we were going.

“You’ll see.” He stepped closer and I adjusted, moving back. “Come on.” He said, still moving towards me. I glared at him as he grabbed by elbow tightly, steering me out of the room. I didn’t struggle though as he led me down the halls to the stairs.