Prisoner of Chaos (Redemption Book #4)

Prologue

This book's copyright belongs to SilverReins. No part of this book and its story may be copied or retold in any form. First of all, if you haven't read the other books in the Redemption Series, this book won't make much sense. Second, those of you who have read my other books leading up to this one, thank you so much! I really appreciate all of my fans who have helped me get this far in my writing! Enjoy this final installment as we follow Kyla and Rift to a conclusion of the Redemption Arc.

"Are you going to be alright, Kyla?" Lila asks me, hovering over me like a mother bird as I retch painfully into a bucket Lila had ordered one of the Erlund Express servers to get for me.

"Y-yes," I say, wiping my mouth and clutching my stomach.

"I'll be fine." I don't go on about how devastatingly heartbroken I am or how I'm experiencing something I've never had the honor of experiencing in my life until now: Vomiting is torture and I now realize how privileged my Curse has kept me until now.

You don't understand how incredible a blessing you are born with is until you have it taken away.

"Maybe it was that cow's head," Lila offers me, wrinkling her nose at the thought. She's referring to the food they served us once we arrived on the Skywave. "That would make anyone sick. I can't believe people in Erlund eat that crap."

"Perhaps you're right," I say, rising up from the bucket.

Being a Cursed, food gone bad has never been a worry of mine. My body can eat a carcasses infested with maggots and I won't suffer a hiccup.

However, it's horrible to think of the other possibility.

That I'm pregnant with Rift's child.

"We're almost to the castle," Lila says, gazing out the window of the train that leads from the Skywave of Erlund to the royal castle in Erlund's capitol of Arnest. She opens the window of the train to blow away the smell of puke, and a rush of cold air blows in.

I shiver. "It's so cold here." I inhale the air, the iciness prickling the insides of my nostrils.

Lila shuts the window to cut out the cold, and nods at me. "The sylphs cannot live here." She pauses and regards my miserable expression "You know, you can always change your mind," she says, patting my shoulder with her pretty purple-feathered crest flattening over her scalp in sympathy. "You don't have to run away from everything in Underland, Princess Kyla."

"There is nothing left for me there, Lila," I say, "Rift is gone forever and my life is in ruins. My parents have left for Earth. Helle is carrying the next heir to the throne for my brother. And this--this is the only thing that makes sense for me. The only noble thing left for me to do. My brother is doing his part marrying Annette and I'm doing my part marrying Wes." I sigh. "The scales are balanced now. Chaos is kept at bay."

"There is such a thing as inner turmoil, and you, Kyla, are filled with it," Lila says pointedly, "Chaos does not just exist in conflict with others, it exists in conflict with ourselves. I don't want to see you suffer anymore than you already have."

"You won't have to," I murmur, understanding the truth in her words and yet refusing to allow myself the grace of receiving it.

I blame myself. I must make it right.

"They're assigning me a new maidservant as being a sylph you are unable to live in a cold climate."

"That's not what I mean, Kyla," Lila says with a roll of her eyes at me, "I care about you, dear girl, and it pangs me to see you so sad. For Elias' sake, you should reconsider this whole thing for yourself."

"It's too late to turn back, it would not be diplomatic. Besides, my heart is broken, Lila," I tell her, "I don't think I'll ever be happy again. I don't think the Cursed are meant to live happy lives."

You could find happiness, my sweet, if you only came back to me.

I startle. The voice in my head. It sounded like Rift.

No, Rift is gone.

This is the Dark Lord, haunting me even in Erlund.