Page 74 of Scourged
“I want to be strong again. I want tofeelstrong again.”
Ciana nodded, a single, brisk movement. “Okay. We can do that. Where should we start?”
That had Mariah pausing. She glanced down at her hands resting in her lap. In doing so, she glimpsed her hair, the matted layers nearly reaching her hip. She lifted her head to look back at Ciana.
“A haircut. I need a haircut.”
“Oh, thank theGoddess, I was worried you’d never admit that.” Ciana pushed to her feet, reaching a hand down to Mariah.
Mariah took it. She was inches taller than her friend, but in that moment, Ciana felt like the unmovable force, the unstoppable object. Mariah was simply floating in her orbit.
Her friend gripped both her hands tightly.
“Youwillbe strong again. Youwillheal. And youwilltake your vengeance. But you don’t have to do any of those things right now. Right now, you can focus on what youcancontrol. And that just so happens to be a haircut.”
Tears fell freely down Mariah’s cheeks, and she didn’t bother stopping them. Ciana only smiled, before pulling her gently from the kitchen, back into Mariah’s bedroom, and into the bathroom. She pulled out the vanity seat, tapping the back.
“Sit.”
Mariah sat.
From somewhere—a drawer, maybe—Ciana withdrew a hairbrush and a pair of slender shears, the kind reserved for hair. Mariah twisted in her chair.
“Have you ever done this before?”
“What, given my best friend and queen a haircut after her nine-week imprisonment in the dungeon of a villainous, power-hungry lord? Surprisingly, no.”
Mariah blinked, unamused. Ciana grinned.
“Calm down. Yes, I’ve given people haircuts before. Girls are expected to know all things about beauty and caring for a household, remember?” Her words were thick with bitter memories. Ciana gestured at the mirror. “Now, turn back around and let me work my magic.”
At the beginning, Ciana tried to comb out as many of the matts as she could. Tried to salvage as much of the once-beautiful ebony curtain that had dripped down Mariah’s back like streaks of painted night.
It soon became apparent, though, that it couldn’t be saved. So Ciana took a steely gulp and made the first cut, just above where the matts began.
Mariah watched on, mute and emotionless, as her hair fell to the ground.
When Ciana was done, Mariah’s hair brushed her collarbones, just barely past her shoulders. She felt naked and exposed … but she also felt new. Yet another metamorphosis, another transformation.
She was lighter. Cleaner. Less like herself, but more like someone she wanted to become.
Hair would only get in the way of her vengeance.
Chapter 30
Queen Ryenne Shawth, tenth Queen of Onita, felt so very, very old.
She could feel the age in her bones, in her skin, in her veins. In the tissues and sinews holding her body together. Each one was weakening, stretching thin, slowly losing a piece of life with each strenuous beat of her heart.
She ambled down the hallway, one side of her body leaning heavily on her cane, the other leaning on Kalen. But he, too, was old, the many centuries of their lives racing up to them with a ferocity that terrified her.
Her entire Armature had grown as old as her, frail and tired and ready for the peace that awaited them. However, besides Cedoric, she hadn’t lost any others; their life forces were still tied to hers, and they were bound to the earth until the last of her tasks were complete. When it would finally be time for the Goddess to welcome them home.
Ryenne’s breath rattled in her lungs as she ascended the wide stairs, cane clicking on the marble.
The wound in her heart left by Cedoric’s death was still raw, but she took comfort knowing that soon, she would join him again. That Priam would soon usher them into the afterlife, tojoin the stars sparkling in the sky as the world held its bated breath at what her successor would do next.
They reached the landing at the top of the stairs, and Ryenne’s heart squeezed as they turned down the familiar hallway leading to the queen’s chambers. She’d been kept informed by members of Mariah’s court about what had happened—what they’d learned, who’d taken her. Where she’d been found.