Page 148 of Soulmateless
"Ignatia, is it?" Amorette says, sitting tall on her throne in a pale pink dress. The throne she sits on is cushioned with a matching shade, and is framed with swirls. The walls are all white in a room so big it echoes each noise, with a pastel carpet rolled out from the door to the throne. I don't know if they took me to the more official throne room because last I knew, they were still rebuilding.
She looks down, with her husband standing straight and tall beside her. "Escaped princess of Somnia?"
"Yes…" I mutter, not bothering to face her. The guards shove me to my knees. "That’s me."
"The dreamscreecher that decided to manipulate my son.”
"I can assure you I did nothing to manipulate your son," I mutter, though I know it will fall on deaf ears.
"Tell me, Ignatia. What were your intentions with my son?"
"To love him."
"Tell me the truth!"
"It is the truth!" I look up to her with my eyes tense. "He wanted to help me when I was homeless, and I accepted. We fell in love on the way and now that's all I want."
"We both know it isn't the truth," Amorette taps her foot in a slow rhythm. Now I see where Amias got that habit from.
I groan. "Yes, because you are too brainwashed by these lies to see the truth."
"I am seeing the truth!" Her nose wrinkles. “The truth is that dreamscreechers were created to destroy my people. You were made to spite my mother and our bloodline." She stands and strolls over gracefully, but it somehow makes her look so much more intimidating. "And I see it now. You were manipulating my son so you could perhaps kill him? Kill me? Destroy the kingdom?"
"You really think I'd risk my life to save your son, just to destroy this stupid kingdom? The truth is that the Amara kingdom is the most brainwashed kingdom around. You refuse to open up your eyes and see beyond the lies you have been told. You just blindly follow the words of the Gift of Love."
She towers over me, standing so close I have to strain my neck up to her. "My mother doesn’t brainwash her people. She does not lie."
"Well, it's either that, or she just fails to understand the truth herself. Amias knows the truth, and once he found the truth, he saw the goodness in dreamscreechers. He started off just like you, thinking that dreamscreechers are heartless creatures that don't deserve to live. But then he opened his eyes. He saw the facts.”
"So you're the reason he didn't wish the dreamscreechers to be killed?"
"Yes." I bare my teeth. "I’m proud. I’m proud I was able to make your son see the truth. I am proud that I found love in him while all of these Amarians hated him. I’m happy that I kissed him. That I marked him. That he had enjoyed it. That he loved me more than your eyes would be able to see because you refuse to see the truth!"
She scoffs. “How dare you insult me and my intelligence!”
“What are you gonna do? Kill me?" I shrug. "You are already sending me to my death in three days. I don't give two fucks about how you think. Especially when my innocent people are being ridiculed for existing!”
"What happens to any dreamscreecher is their own fault."
My eyes tingle and my teeth ache to bite her. That is an insult to Kaius’ death. To Clarissa's. To my father's. "You really don't know shit, Amorette." A literal cat-like hiss comes from my mouth, my teeth growing and my nails sharpening. "You don't even have an inkling of knowledge of how my people are.”
"I don't care for your insults, dreamscreecher," she says finally, with the chilling calm of a silent predator in a forest, even silencing the singing birds in her wake. "Lock her up again. We will get answers later."
The guards force me to stand on my feet. I know my straining eyes are shining purple as I walk away. They push me out and it's hard to look over my shoulders so easily.
So much for the kingdom of love.
Chapter 51
Amias
“Amias, is everything okay?”
I don't bother and hang the phone up on Glaide. I finally was able to make it to my own lake house. I have kept myself in here, figuring out how to help Ignatia. I've been reading books, reading articles, reading everything, wearing the same sweat shorts and tee shirt I wore in bed.
The house looks like that of a mad man, with countless articles and books thrown about, printed so Ignatia could use the information I find, and well, that's true that I'm a mad man. I'm not giving up on Ignatia so easily, even if I can't have her.
She will live if I can help it.
