Chapter 518: I can’t believe...

ANABEL.

The heavy iron heels of my boots slammed hard against the damp stone steps, the sound echoing through the cold, subterranean darkness like a rhythm of war.

My chest was heaving, my heart hammering against my ribs, but for the first time all night, I wasn’t shaking with fear or guilt. My veins were filled with liquid fire, a hot, blinding rage that burned away every drop of tears left in my eyes.

I reached the bottom of the cellar stairs and marched straight down the narrow, torch-lit corridor toward the deepest cellblock.

The two reserve guards stationed at the heavy iron gate snapped to attention, their eyes widening as they took in my mud-stained clothes, my messy hair, and the deadly, unhinged fury written across my face.

"Lady Anabel!" the lead guard stammered, raising a hand. "You shouldn’t be down here. Alpha Noah and Alpha Aidan ordered—"

"Open the cell door," I snapped, my voice dropping into an icy, razor-sharp command that startled them both.

The second guard hesitated, glancing nervously at the heavy iron bars. "Lady Anabel, Prince Vincent is double-bound in spell-forged iron, but he’s still dangerous. Alpha Noah is preparing the courtyard for the public—"

"I said open the cell door!" I yelled, stepping right into his face, my eyes flashing with a dangerous, golden light. "Unlock the door right now, and lock me in there with him!"

"My lady, we can’t lock you inside with a prisoner—"

"Do it!" I roared, my Alpha lineage flaring so hot the air between us vibrated. "Do it before I take the keys off your corpses!"

The guards flinched, exchanging a terrified, pale look. Knowing better than to fight a noble Alpha operating on pure, unadulterated grief, the lead guard pulled a heavy ring of iron keys from his belt with trembling fingers. He slid the largest key into the ancient lock, turning it with a loud, heavy CLANK.

He pulled the heavy door open just wide enough for me to slip through.

"I’m locking it behind you, my lady," the guard whispered nervously. "Please... be careful."

The iron door slammed shut behind me, and the heavy bolt slid back into place with a sharp, final lock.

The cell was small, cold, and smelled of damp earth and dried blood. Chained to the far stone wall, his wrists held high above his head by heavy iron shackles, was Vincent. His dark velvet tunic was torn, dirt-caked, and stained crimson, but as he heard the lock turn and looked up, a sickening, arrogant smirk slowly spread across his bloody lips.

"Well, well, well..." Vincent rasped out, his voice smooth, dripping with dark, dark amusement as he pulled uselessly against his chains. "Look what the wind blew into my cell. Did you miss me that bad, Anabel? You couldn’t even wait for me to get out of these chains before coming down to see me?"

A knot tightened in my throat, my eyes moistening against my will as a fresh, painful heat stung behind my eyelids.

I didn’t say a single word. I took three fast, aggressive steps across the straw-covered floor, pulled my arm back, and slapped him across the face with every ounce of physical strength in my body.

CRACK!

The sharp sound rang off the damp stone walls. Vincent’s head whipped violently to the side, a fresh trail of bright crimson spilling from the corner of his lip onto his jaw.

He slowly turned his head back to face me, wiping the blood with his tongue, his dark eyes burning with a wild, dangerous glint.

"Why did you do it?!" I sobbed out, my voice cracking, tears finally brimming over my lashes as I stared at him in pure agony. "Why did you kill my brother, Vincent?! Why Adrein?!"

Vincent just looked at me, his face utterly devoid of remorse, and casually shrugged his heavy shoulders against the iron chains.

"Your brother was an idiot, Anabel," Vincent said flippantly, his tone so relaxed it made my stomach turn into a violent knot. "He tried to play the noble hero, jumping in front of a volley meant for someone else. It has nothing to do with me. He chose to die."

"He was protecting his family!" I shrieked, the raw, unbearable pain tearing out of my lungs.

I raised my hand and slapped him again, harder this time, the blow cracking across his cheek so violently it tore my own knuckles open.

"You monster!" I cried, tears blinding my vision as I grabbed the lapels of his torn tunic, shaking him with everything I had. "You killed him! You destroyed my family!"

Before I could pull my hand back to strike him a third time, Vincent moved with terrifying, sudden speed.

Despite the heavy iron chains binding his wrists to the wall above, he used the slack in the metal to snap his arms downward. His large, bruised hands shot forward, wrapping firmly around my waist, his fingers digging deep into my hips with a rough, possessive grip that yanked me violently against his hard chest.

"Vincent—let go of me!" I gasped out, my breath catching in my throat as my hands pushed frantically against his shoulders. "Get off me!"

He didn’t listen. He yanked me even closer until there was zero space left between us, tilting his head down and slamming his mouth over mine in a harsh, ravenous, hungry kiss.

My brain completely short-circuited. "No!" I muffled against his lips, my hands slamming against his chest, trying desperately to push his heavy frame away. I tried to turn my head, tried to bite down, tried to fight the suffocating weight of his mouth on mine.

But then, in a terrifying, horrifying fraction of a second, something inside me completely snapped.

The overwhelming trauma of the night, the paralyzing grief for Adrein, the exhausting guilt of my own desertion, and the raw, electric adrenaline surging through my veins tangled into a chaotic, messy storm. My hands stopped shoving his shoulders. My fingers twitched, grabbing tightly onto the torn fabric of his tunic instead.

I found myself kissing him back.

I parted my lips, meeting his hungry, desperate intensity with a wild, frantic heat of my own, my mind spinning into an absolute, dizzying void as the kiss deepened, rough and suffocating in the dark cell.

’What is wrong with me?!’ a voice screamed from the deepest, horrified corner of my soul.

Panic and absolute disgust exploded inside my chest. How could I be doing this? How could my body, my emotions, my traitorous heart betray me like this? How could I be kissing the very man who had ordered the strike, the monster who had murdered my brother and left his blood on our floorboards?

I was kissing Adrein’s killer, and the sheer terror of what I was doing froze the blood solid in my veins.