Page 32 of First Light
“It wasn’t me.” Her heart shattered. “You didn’t loveme.”
“I did. Ido.”
She shook her head over and over again, wrenching her arms away from him. “You never loved me. It was her. You loved her so much that you…Oh God.”
She wanted to fall. She wanted to curl up in a ball and fade into nothing, but that would leave her at the mercy of Lachlan and Duncan, the two people in the world who knew what a fool she’d been.
“No!” Lachlan shouted. “Carys, that’s what I’m telling you.” His beautiful eyes pleaded with her. “Please, you have to believe me. I love you. My love for Seren?—”
“Best not bring up that name at the moment, Brother,” Duncan muttered.
“Shut up!” Lachlan’s face turned red and he rounded on his brother. “This is your fault!”
“My fault?”
He’s not real.He’s not real. None of this is real.
Carys saw a half-open curtain at the end of the corridor and she ran.
She threwup the hood that had covered her face—to hide her resemblance to her twin, she understood that now—and searched for the first door she could find. The castle was a labyrinth, the blue-lit sconces flickering eerie shadows as she ran down one hall and then another.
Carys was searching for anything that looked like daylight or whatever version of it existed in this place. She had no identification, no escort, but she was hoping the guards would be less concerned about those leaving the castle than those entering.
She had to get away. If she could find her way back to the main road, she might be able to find Duncan’s cottage. She wanted her own clothes. She wanted to get back to the creepy forest— Okay, she didn’t want to go back to the fairy murder forest, but she wanted to get home more than anything. Or at least back to Scotland.
Duncan was right. She’d been stupid to come here, foolish to want to see Lachlan. She should have walked away the moment the grumpy Scotsman asked if she believed in fairy tales.
None of the magic of this place could soothe the pain that was tearing at her chest and making her eyes well with angry, heartbroken tears.
She turned right, then left, trying to find a way out of the castle maze.
“Carys!” She heard Lachlan’s voice echoing somewhere in the castle. Or maybe it was Duncan’s. Impossible to tell; even their voices sounded the same. She took another right.
“Carys?”
None of it was real.
What were you thinking?Every nasty doubt she’d pushed away and tried to overcome at the beginning of her relationship with Lachlan reared its head and whispered in her mind.
He’s too good for you.
Who would love a depressed academic with boring taste in books?
You’re a burden, with your sad orphan eyes.
She ducked to the side as what looked like a group of cooks walked down a hallway. Carys darted past them, desperately searching for a door, turning down a narrow corridor when she heard voices that sounded like those in the courtyard earlier.
Handsome princes don’t want damaged goods.
Behind her, she heard voices starting to rise, and someone shouted her name in a voice she didn’t recognize.
“Carys!”
“Seren?”
Seren.
Lachlan’s wife. The sister she would never know, the sister who had loved Lachlan best, the proud princess dressed in red velvet with a dragon on her shoulder. How could she compete withthat?