"Where are my parents?" I screamed at my captors, struggling against my bound hands, furious that they now held my dagger. I cursed myself for being so stupid that they had managed to trick me. The rope rubbed against my wrists, biting into the soft flesh angrily.

Milo smiled at me, an ugly smile that raised the hair on the back of my neck. "Your father still fights our forces at the gate, you will be pleased to know. He was quite frantic to get to the castle to fight for you and your mother. King Faolin lives on; no matter, he was not of concern to us."

A cold sense of dread filled me as I stared at Milo, terror racing through her. "And my mother?"

Farrar chuckled quietly and I shrank back in fear. "We have your mother," reassured Milo. "Would you like to see her?"

"Take me to her now," I growled, the sound bursting from me loud and deathly. For the first time in my life, I wanted nothing more than to see my mother.

"Manners, Princess," Milo smiled tightly, gazing around the Great Hall with a look of great satisfaction on his face.

I spat in his face in response. "What did you do to my mother?"

"Her and I had some… unfinished business," he replied, calmly wiping the spit from his face and tightening my ropes so that they tore into my skin. "I will take you to her."

They led me through the castle to the East Wing, slowly taking me through a maze of hallways. The familiar stone walkways did nothing to soothe my nerves; the sense of eerie abandonment in the castle put me on edge. Had they killed everyone who had come for the Ball?

My thoughts turned to my parents once more. So my father was still alive – the thought filled me with hope. But what of Aladrice? The way Milo had promised to take me to my mother had filled me with a sense of suspicion and dread that weighed heavily on my heart. If they had hurt my mother, killed her before I had a chance to apologize to her or had a chance to finally understand her actions… the thought left me numb with fright.

Farrar stopped, finally, at a large oak door that I had seen many times in my life. The door to my mother's chambers, heavy and reassuring. That door had been closed to me many times in her life, and I now realized that it was her own fault. Had I been kinder to my mother… perhaps the door would have been opened more to me. Slowly, achingly, Farrar opened the door wide enough to thrust me through so that I could see what was inside.

A scream ripped from the depths of my soul as my eyes fell upon what rested just inside the room.

A/N: Just a snippet of the story… if people like, I'll post the full chapter. Please read and review!