The Bloody Crown

Thea

—–

I woke up with a hellish headache, as if an invisible force was squeezing my temples, wanting to crush them, my eyes barely opened and blinked and watered from the bright light. The bed was soft, the airy blankets smelled delicious with something unobtrusive, like a forest after a rain – fresh and delicious. But stop… Gradually, coming to full consciousness, it began to dawn on me that I didn recognize my surroundings. The carved texture of the bed is not made of wood, but of iron, forged, cold to the touch. I appreciated it right away when I accidentally touched it in an attempt to get out of a cozy cocoon. The room itself was a little gloomy, dark walls and ceilings, even darker curtains, which were now open and let in blinding sunlight, a huge bed by all standards, a pair of ottomans, a solid table and a huge full-length mirror, there are not so many things, but they all look obviously very expensive. A cursory inspection indicated that the room belonged to a man and now I was really nervous. Was I caught and sent to my future husband, the Marquis of Stonberg? Or did he pick me up himself? I remembered the strong hands squeezing me just before I passed out. This can be happening! I clutched my hair with my hands, massaging the scalp with my nails and pulling strands-an old habit when Im nervous.

”Its wonderful that you
e awake now, Princess! – a sharp loud voice made me jump on the spot and look around nervously.

The door to the bathroom was open, and in front of her stood unknown a half-naked from above man, with a towel draped over his broad, muscular shoulders, who drove me into a blush with his shamelessness. I squealed at the audacious sight and covered my eyes with my hands. But for myself, I immediately noticed that it was clearly not the Marquis, to my great happiness. And yet, it did not fit into my head at all that I, an unmarried girl, would wake up in an unfamiliar place, in someone elses bedroom, yes, in a mens bedroom with a half-naked owner in addition. Its such a shame. I would have been if I felt remorse, but now I felt nothing but relief.

I tried to recall yesterday, my thoughtless, spontaneous decision, the moment of jumping and falling, but exactly the absence of hitting the ground and strong hands, his hands? It is impossible to catch a man who jumped from the third floor with his bare hands. This is simply impossible, unless the person himself is suicidal.

– Who are you? Did you save me? And how did you do it? And why? Where am I and can I leave? – my thoughts were ahead of my words, but I asked them all at once anyway. I needed answers and I needed to adjust my future action plan.

”Tsk, girl, not so fast. Too many questions in one minute are produced by your cute little mouth. Lets start with the last one. No, you can leave.

I glared maliciously at this man, and I was already beginning to dislike him. Although, admittedly, he was very impressively gifted outwardly and his eyes were such a deep dark red shade. Do people have such eyes? And then it dawned on me that I once heard about some experiments of magicians on people and animals, they tried to bring out a new kind of super-strong man, giving him the animal qualities of endurance and aggressiveness in battle. It was starting to scare.

– Are you an beast? – the voice treacherously betrayed the fear that was growing rapidly in me. And my mouth betrayed my obnoxious character, as my stepmother put it, not at all suitable for a well-bred young lady.

His laughter rumbled around the room so loudly that I cringed all over, it was uncomfortable and afraid, because the laughter was clearly crazy, his whole aura prompted me to run away from him as far as possible.

– What? Are you afraid Ill eat you? – his eyes sparkled with madness, and his mocking smile was more like a grin.

My heart was overreacting and couldn cope with everything I had to go through lately. I started to slowly back away towards the door, keeping my eyes on the predator in front of me, but to my surprise, he did not move. And I took advantage of this to quickly rush back and run away from the room. Where am I running to and why? I don know myself, its just how my instincts were telling me at the moment. For my luck, this time the door was not locked, and I easily overcame this barrier and ran on, picking up my dress on the go. I also didn hear any footsteps behind me. Is it really that simple? But didn he say he wouldn let me leave? What does it all mean? Maybe it was worth waiting for an explanation from him, maybe hes not a bad person? But his look scared me and did not inspire confidence and calmness at all.

I turned into the corridor for the umpteenth time until I found myself on the street. It was a huge yard, covered with greenery and trees, the neatly trimmed grass crunched pleasantly underfoot. Despite all the beauty surrounding this castle, there was something strange about it. It was clearly past noon, the sun was at its zenith, but there was not a soul around, where were all the servants? Even if the owner did not rush after me, then at least the guards should have. Somethings not right here. There were wide domed gates ahead, all covered with either ivy or vine, and without wasting a second of time, I headed in their direction. Ill walk to the nearest village, and then Ill ask someone for help. Thats what I thought at that moment. But that man had plans that were different from mine. Оr is it all about this place??

As soon as I stepped out of the gate, the vine off the columns and began to creep along the ground, intertwining with each other in thick, rigid plant bundles.

”Magic, ” – I guessed right away.

Meanwhile, the plants intertwined more and more, forming a kind of walls around me – a hedge. The walls were growing up at such a speed that very soon I couldn even see the sun. I had already walked a decent distance and when I turned around, I didn see the entrance gate. There are only vegetable walls around. I was in a maze.

Well, if thats the case, fine, Ill get out of here anyway. No matter what it costs me. But first you need to understand in which direction to move. Ive been in mazes before, it was in those rare moments when I attended soirees or tea parties. And in some estates there were these very labyrinths. As entertainment, everyone was offered to test their strength and find a way out. But thanks to the fact that I loved books and read a lot, I knew that everyone has their own algorithm. As a rule, it was necessary to stick to one direction. Thats exactly how I decided to act.

At first I turned exclusively to the right, but every time I ran into a dead end. Then I went to the left and the result is the same. The creator must have laid down a different approach to its passage. But which one? Of course, I can wander here for hours, but I need to get out of here faster, so I decided to climb up the fence to at least a little bit decide which way to move. I felt a thick, strong branch with my hand and reached up for it, stepping with my feet into the tangled green thickets. Moving my arms, I climbed higher, but at some point I felt the vinewinding around my ankles one by one.

In a panic, I began to squirm as if in a frying pan, trying to throw it off, but the plant only squeezed my legs harder, almost biting into the skin with small prickly needles. I felt that the stockings were already torn and became wet, looking down, it turned out that they were covered with my own blood, and the vine was already winding the knee area. Not so much, but still unpleasant and hurts unpleasantly. What kind of a fool am I? After all, it was worth realizing right away that the plant lives its own life and it was not worth climbing on it.

Emotions began to put pressure on me again, maybe I feel too sorry for myself, but my eyes still tingled from unshed tears. My vision blurred a little, and I rubbed my eyes with my left hand, with my right, continuing to hold on to the branch. But at that moment, the vine from above weakened and I, waving my arms, flew backwards upside down.