Lisa groaned. “You are really instilling confidence in my choices as a mother you know?”

“Oh lighten up, Lisa, you’re a great mom. What other mother would let their daughter walk through a mirror following a Royal elf to go after a King, once the greatest assassin ever, to kill another King who desires to rule the world and save her best friend, all while trying to keep from being slaughtered like little sheep?”

Chapter 17

I can’t breathe. I feel like I’m drowning and no matter how I try I can’t get enough air. Someone is calling my name. I ask who it is and the voice says she’s my soul. I tell her that I don’t want a soul. A soul makes you feel and I don’t want to feel. I don’t want to hurt, I don’t want to remember. Remember what? My name. The voice is saying my name but I am no longer Cassie. I am Cassandra, and I want to forget.

Cassie threw the brush across the room and Flora had to duck in order to keep from being hit in the head. It had been that way since Cassie woke up. She had become violent, screaming and throwing things.

“Cassandra calm down, everything is going to be,”

“DO NOT TELL ME IT IS FINE!” Cassie bellowed. “IT WILL NOT BE FINE UNTIL YOU BRING ME MY DRINK.”

Flora cringed under the hateful stare that came through those empty eyes. This was not the girl who had been brought here weeks ago. That girl had kindness in her. The one that stood before Flora now was only the leftover shell.

“Your betrothed has ordered that you not be given anything,” Flora explained for the tenth time.

“If he wants to basically marry me then he had better give me Rapture or I will claw his eyes out.”

Flora grimaced. “Well, at least you’re honest,” she muttered.

Flora realized it was the final straw when Cassie broke the mirror and then held a shard of the glass to her throat.

“I swear I will slit my own throat where I stand, Flora.”

“Cassie,” Flora spoke softly, attempting to calm the wild animal inside the girl. “You don’t want to die, not for a drug.”

“And what do I have to live for if not for a drug, Flora?” Tears welled up in her eyes and her hand slipped. The mirror shard cut her skin and Cassie felt the warm blood flow onto her skin. It wasn’t a bad cut, but it hurt, and Cassie reveled in that pain. It was pain that she had caused. She could control it, unlike the pain that struck her when the Rapture had worn off, the pain she could not control and didn’t understand.

Flora rushed into the bathroom and brought out a towel. She pressed it to the cut , all the while clucking her tongue and chastising Cassie.

“Please,” Cassie whispered as the she-elf cleaned her wound. Flora let out a tired breath and slowly pulled out a small bottle from her dress pocket. Cassie recognized the color immediately and snatched the bottle away from her. She unscrewed the lid and guzzled the liquid. Her eyes closed and she felt the warmth of the drug seep into her. She let out a breath and took in another. In and out, in and out, finally she could breathe.

The rest of the morning went smoothly with Flora fluttering around dressing Cassie, fixing her hair, talking about stuff that Cassie didn’t care about and thus ignored. As soon as Cassie would begin to get agitated Flora would produce another little bottle of Rapture, Cassie would down it, and all would be well again.

Night came and Cassie noticed that it was Flora who was becoming agitated.

“Flora, what’s wrong?” Cassie asked and for a moment the sweet girl who had come to Flora, was back.

She walked over to Cassie and took her hand. “You are to enter into a Union.”

Cassie shrugged. “What’s the big deal about that?”

Flora once again became agitated as she waved her hands in the air, gesturing wildly as she spoke. “What’s the big deal? Cassandra you are to be Bound to an elf, a warrior, one you don’t know and who isn’t Triktapic.”

“At least he’s handsome,” Cassie pointed out. “I could be marrying an ogre, so see, you just have to look at the bright side.”

Flora threw her hands in the air. “Did you not hear me? Triktapic, your love, he’s not who you will be crawling into bed with tonight.”

Cassie groaned. “You just had to go there didn’t you? Well for your information I know all about what happens between a man and wife so feel free to keep that little speech to yourself.”

Flora watched Cassie closely and then it hit her. “You don’t remember him do you?”

Cassie shook her head. “Remember who?”

“Trik, the King’s assassin.”

Cassie’s eyes narrowed as she thought. She felt something pushing inside her and heard the whisper of her name again. Her soul.

“Damn why won’t she just give up?” Cassie growled. “I don’t want to remember; I don’t want to feel. Leave me alone.”

“Who are you talking to?” Flora asked anxiously.

Cassie’s head snapped around to look at the elf. “No one and I don’t know who this Trik guy is, and what is up with that name? Seriously, they call him Trik?”

Flora stood in shock at Triktapic’s Chosen. She knew of the connection between two Chosen. Her parents had been soul mates and her mother had often told her about the bond between the souls, that it was almost a separate part of them. Cassie was talking about her soul.

“Cassie what is your soul saying to you?”

Cassie shook her head. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”