CHAPTER 34
1021 Words
"What nonsense are you talking about?" he demanded. "Why would His Royal Highness go to the cells?"
Caleb shook his head frantically. "I don't know Alpha. The moment he got out of the car, he asked about the prison cells location."
The more Caleb spoke, the uglier Alpha Victor's expression became.
"He headed straight for the prison cell. I tried to stop him and explain that we need to recieve him probably at the pack house first, but.." Caleb hung his head in shame. "...His highness ignored me."
Luke's frown deepened as he listened. It was one thing for a prince to visit at this hour, but why would he go to the prison cell instead of being treated like a God in the pack house?
The prison cells beneath the silver mane pack house barely a handful of people. Most of the cells were empty throughout the year. At present, there was only one prisoner..
The realisation struck him like a bolt of lightning and his eyes went wide. "Ivy."
Her name slipped out before he could stop himself. The moment it did, Luna Doris' face paled and Alpha Victor froze.
None of them spoke, but they were all thinking the same thing.
There was only one person Prince Kael could possibly be visiting. The only one in the entire silver mane pack who had the chance to make his acquaintance.
And she was currently locked beneath their feet.
In the darkness of the cell, Ivy drifted in and out of sleep.
The thin mattress beneath her felt harder than stone. Every time she shifted, a new ache surfaced somewhere in her body.
Bruises she hadn't noticed during the fight now made themselves known one by one, forcing her to curl up before stretching out again in search of a comfortable position that didn't exist.
Eventually, she rolled onto her back and stared at the ceiling. A frown appeared on her forehead. Something was wrong.
Ivy was no stranger to exhaustion. She had survived three years in the capital running on scraps of sleep, empty stomachs, and sheer stubbornness.
There had been winters when she spent nights shivering in freezing corridors and still managed to drag herself through the next day.
Yet she had never felt like this.
Her limbs felt unbearably heavy. Even lifting a finger seemed to require effort. Her eyelids kept drooping despite her attempts to stay awake, as though some invisible weight was pulling them shut.
Every sensation seemed to be amplified and numb at the same time. A strange unease crept into her chest.
"This is the way...."
The distant voice startled her. Ivy's eyes snapped open. The words were distorted, reaching her ears in broken pieces.
"...careful on the... stairs..."
For a moment, Ivy thought she had imagined it.
She closed her eyes briefly, then forced herself awake again. Her ears strained against the stillness of the prison.
A few seconds later, the voice returned.
"...nobody here..."
The fragmented words drifted through the darkness like echoes carried by the ceasless currents of the sea.
Ivy remained motionless. Her back was pressed tight against the stiff mattress, stubborn beyond her means.
At some point, her sense had started to betray her.
Perhaps it was the isolation. Perhaps it was exhaustion. Or perhaps spending too much time alone inside a silent, windowless cell had finally started affecting her mind. The line between her imagination and reality felt unusually thin.
Who could possibly be here at this hour?
The question surfaced briefly through a hazy fog before dissolving quickly.
A bitter smile tugged at Ivy's cracked lips. Maybe this had been Alpha Victor's plan all along.
Lock her away, leave her alone long enough for her mind to unravel, then cast her out of Silver Mane with a clean conscience. It would certainly be easier than revealing the cracks in his family to the entire pack.
He'd rather dispose her off and make an excuse than dry his dirty laundry for the world to see.
Growing up, Ivy recieved more love than peers her age. That love, whether real of fake, had veiled over the fact that Alpha Victor was internally heartless.
Even now, as she was being exposed to his true nature, the truth was somewhat difficult to swallow.
"...not the best condition..."
"...be here soon..."
The broken voices drifted closer, crashing against her thoughts like relentless waves. Each fragmented word seemed to echo inside her skull, squeezing tighter and tighter until even breathing felt difficult.
Ivy curled into herself on the narrow mattress. Her knees pressed against her chest while her forehead rested on them, as though making herself smaller could somehow lessen the pressure building behind her eyes. The pounding in her temples had become unbearable.
To distract herself, she sank her teeth into her lower lip.
Pain exploded across her mouth. The sharp sting cut through the haze for a brief moment, giving her something tangible to focus on. She welcomed it. Anything was better than the helpless exhaustion spreading beneath her skin.
A metallic taste flooded her tongue. Blood.
The scent mixed with the damp odour of the cell until she could no longer tell where one ended and the other began. Cold stone. Rust. Blood. Loneliness.
At the back of her mind, Ivy found herself wondering whether madness had a smell. If it did, perhaps it smelled exactly like this.
The mattress groaned softly as she rolled onto her side and faced the wall. Darkness stretched endlessly before her, swallowing every corner of the tiny cell. Staring at it for too long felt like staring into an abyss.
For a fleeting moment, a dangerous thought surfaced. Would smashing her head against the wall make the voices leave her alone? If she slammed it hard enough, would the world go quiet again?
The thought had barely settled when a sharp jingle cut through the darkness.
The unmistakable sound of keys.
The sound was so sudden and distinct that Ivy froze. The approaching footsteps stopped outside her cell, and the distant voice that had haunted her thoughts finally reached her clearly.
"Miss Reed?"
- Writer
