Cassia found herself laying in bed trying to rest before the sun rose on her sacred day, she just couldn't get tonight's events to leave her mind.
Every time she shut her eyes, she saw the stable again. The man reaching for her, the pin in her hand, and the blood that came after. She lifted her hand toward the faint light coming through the window, noticing a thin line of dried blood still stuck near her nail. "Great…" she whispered, rubbing at it with her thumb. "Exactly what every bride needs."
A bell rang somewhere in the palace before she had time to feel sorry for herself.
Then another followed.
Cassia slowly sat up, her body still aching from the night before. "No… absolutely not. I just laid down," she muttered, looking toward the door as footsteps hurried past outside. The palace was already alive, servants rushing from one end to the other like the wedding could fall apart if someone breathed wrong.
The door opened without warning.
