Read Online Before the Dawn by Kristal Lim - Free Book Online Page A

felt provided her with
the speed she needed to practically fly down the corridor.
    "Aline!" She heard someone shout her name,
and she almost cried in thankfulness when she saw Trevor making his
way towards her from the other end of the corridor. He was here. He
could help her. "Where were you?" he wondered. "I couldn't find you
and I just kept running and running down this place." She noted
that he seemed sharper than everything else in this place, more in
focus, more real. His eyes also didn’t have the glazed cast that
she was sure hers had possessed earlier.
    She reached him just as she heard the Prince
command them to stop. She didn't even bother to glance back. She
grabbed Trevor's arm and pulled him after her. "Come on! We have to
get away from here!" The fear she felt must have transmitted itself
to him because he didn't waste any time by asking her to explain
herself. He just ran by her side. They soon spied the small door
that led to the ballroom and they burst through it in relief. They
were almost safe. Aline began to call for her friends, but no sound
came out of her mouth when she saw the scene that awaited her in
the ballroom.
    The music had stopped playing and the dancers
were still. Those who belonged to the castle, the Prince's
subjects, were arrayed in positions where they could easily
surround her and Trevor, while keeping her friends within easy
reach should they require hostages. Her friends and the other
townspeople, meanwhile, were standing completely limp and
motionless with blank eyes, like puppets waiting for their strings
to be pulled. Then, weaving through the eerily silent throng on
light feet, Raven slowly approached them with a twisted little
smile on his perfect face.
    "Your Highness," he said to Aline in his
smooth voice, "must you leave?"
    "You stay away from me!" she told him as
fiercely as she could. Trevor didn't say a word, but he stepped in
front of her protectively.
    Raven looked amused by this display. "Ah,
yes. The soldier is here, too, of course. But I doubt you would
receive any help from a meddlesome witch this time."
    Aline had no idea what he was talking about
and she didn't really care to figure it out at the moment. "Just
let us go," she demanded. "And release everyone I know."
    He shook his head. "I am afraid I cannot do
that. The enchantment has been invoked. It has to take its
course."
    "What are you talking about?" Trevor
asked.
    Raven's smile grew smug. "You puzzled it out
before. Let's see if you can do it again."
    "Rosamund." The Prince stepped out of Raven's
shadow. The coldness she had seen in his face earlier was gone and
he now looked conciliatory. "Please let us discuss this. We do not
have to fight."
    "Says the guy who almost brainwashed me," she
snapped. The harshness of her tone made him flinch. "Yeah, but
you're right," she went on after a beat. "We don't have to fight.
Just let us all go and we'll forget about all this."
    "I would give you anything you ask for,
except for that." He actually looked sorry about it. "I can't ever
let you go. I've tried, but I cannot." He took a step towards her,
and his subjects moved closer, too. They all started to approach
Aline and Trevor and circle them in. Aline knew that if the two of
them would let the Prince and his people get any nearer, she and
Trevor wouldn't be able to leave the ballroom. The only possible
means of escape was to jump out of the nearby balcony, and that
wasn't really an option. "Please, Rosamund," the Prince went on
speaking. "I already lost you once. But we have found each other
again after I have waited and searched for you for so long. So,
please. Stay."
    Trevor then reached for Aline’s hand and gave
it a squeeze. She looked at him. The glance he threw her way was
significant and, even without words, she understood what he meant.
There really was only one choice left to them.
    She met the Prince's beseeching eyes with a
defiant glare. "I am not Rosamund," she said.
    Then Trevor tightened his grip