Fated Eclipse: The Illegitimate Princess And Her Alpha Suitors

Chapter 236: Fevered Collapse

Lyria’s POV

I kept walking.

I did not know where I was going, but I did not care. My feet moved of their own accord, carrying me away from the pavilion, away from Baron Redwick, away from the table with its delicate sandwiches and its steaming tea and its careful, damning questions.

Away from everything.

My legs hurt. The cuts on the soles of my feet screamed with every step, the bandages beneath my slippers soaked through with blood I could feel but could not see. The wounds on my back ached with a dull, persistent throb that seemed to echo through my bones. My head pounded. My throat was dry. My eyes stung with tears I refused to shed.

I was tired of everything. Tired of everyone. Tired of the endless, grinding performance of being a princess when I had never been taught how to be one. Tired of the Queen’s cold smiles and the King’s wandering gaze and Jacinta’s open hatred. Tired of the maids who watched me with disdain and the suitors who asked questions I could not answer and the weight of secrets I had never asked to carry.

Tired of pretending.

I did not care that my maids were running after me. I did not care that Diana was calling for me, did not care about Sally’s worried gasp, did not care about Theresa’s sharp commands. The sounds of the garden faded into a muffled blur, as though I were underwater, as though the world had retreated behind a wall of glass.

My vision blurred at the edges. The path before me wavered, the trees and hedges and flower beds swimming together into a wash of green and gold. My legs felt heavy, as though someone had tied weights to my ankles. My chest was tight, my breath coming in short, sharp bursts that did not seem to fill my lungs.

I was clammy. My skin was cold and hot at once, slick with sweat beneath my gown, shivering despite the warmth of the morning sun.

I stumbled, and then I collided with someone.

Strong hands caught me before I could fall. Arms wrapped around me, steadying me, holding me upright when my legs threatened to give way. The world tilted again, and I grasped at the fabric of a coat, my fingers curling into the cloth as though it were the only thing keeping me tethered to the earth.

”Princess?”

The voice was distant, muffled, as though coming from the other end of a long tunnel. I blinked, trying to clear my vision, trying to focus on the face before me.

It was blurred. A smear of colour and shadow that was difficult to resolve into features.

I shook my head, trying to clear my thoughts, trying to make sense of what was happening.

And then I noticed pale green eyes, narrowed in a frown, gazing down at me with an intensity that cut through the fog in my mind.

Duke Valenridge, yes, it was him.

”Are you alright?” he asked me, but he did not wait for an answer.

He picked me up, and then I was cradled against his chest, my head resting against him, my ear pressed to the steady rhythm of his heartbeat. It was strong and sure, a counterpoint to the frantic racing of my own.

I closed my eyes, and then I heard voices. They were muffled, but I could at least make out what they were saying.

”Your Grace, this is not appropriate,” Diana said. ”You cannot simply—”

”Appropriate?” Duke Valenridge asked coldly. ”Do you even know what that word means?”

Diana faltered, her mouth ajar.

”Who even are you?” the Duke asked her.

”I am Her Highness’s maid,” Diana said.

”Really?”

He turned then, his body shifting beneath me, and his gaze moved across the other maids.

”And you?” he asked. ”Are you her maids as well?”

Sally and Theresa murmured their assent, their voices small.

Duke Valenridge chuckled darkly.

”If you are truly the Princess’s maids,” he said, ”then perhaps you ought to do your job. How is it that none of you noticed she was sick? That she is burning up with fever?”

Baron Redwick’s voice joined the fray, breathless and strained.

”She is sick?”

Duke Valenridge simply shook his head, refusing to answer.

And I was shocked too. I had no idea I was sick. Perhaps that was why everything seemed so blurry and why my limbs felt heavy.

”Show me to her chambers,” Duke Valenridge said to the maids. ”And fetch a physician.”

The maids turned to each other, refusing to move.

”Did I stutter?” he asked, his voice low with a threatening edge that seemed to rumble through me. ”Or have you something lodged in your ears? I am quite certain I spoke clearly.”

They swallowed, and then Diana bowed and ran.

Sally and Theresa began walking, leading the way toward my chambers. Baron Redwick followed, his voice drifting behind us.

”I had no idea she was sick,” he said. ”She did not look her usual self, but I did not realise it was so serious.”

I groaned.

The pain in my head spiked then, and I pressed my face against Duke Valenridge’s coat, seeking the cool fabric against my burning skin.

”Is there any way you could move faster?” the Duke asked the maids. ”Or perhaps simply point me in the right direction so I could go myself?”

They shared a look.

Then they began to walk faster.

The corridors blurred past me, familiar and strange all at once.

When we reached my chambers, Sally and Theresa opened the door wide.

Duke Valenridge stepped in, with Baron Redwick following close behind.

Perhaps it was the comfort of my own chambers, or perhaps it was something else. I could not quite name it, and I was not certain.

The world went dark then, and I gave in to the exhaustion that called to me. But I would find out later that perhaps it was more than that.