The Rejected True Heiress (Liora and Callum) novel Chapter 445

I set the glass down on the table before I dropped it or shattered it. My hands were shaking too hard to trust my own motor functions.

Bianca was still talking, something about her plans for the future, about alliances and trade agreements and all the things a proper heir should care about. But I couldn’t hear her anymore. The words blurred together into meaningless noise.

All I knew was that I needed to get out of here.

I turned and started walking toward the doors. No one stopped me. No one even looked at me. They were all too busy watching Bianca, clapping and cheering like she’d already won them all over.

I pushed through the doors and stumbled into the corridor. The cool air hit my face, and I sucked in a breath, pressing one hand against the wall to steady myself.

My chest felt tight. Too tight. Like my heart might burst.

I couldn’t breathe.

No. I could breathe. I just needed to focus. In and out. In… and out.

I leaned against the wall, closing my eyes.

I was nothing now. No title, no inheritance, no future.

At least, that was what Bianca wanted me to be.

I straightened, opening my eyes. Marcus. He’d said something was wrong at the academy. He’d sounded worried.

I reached out through the mindlink again. “Marcus?”

This time, the response was immediate. But it wasn’t his voice that I felt.

It was pain. Sharp, searing pain that shot through my skull like a knife. I gasped, stumbling back against the wall, and pressed my hands to my temples.

“Marcus!” I tried again, but all I got back was more pain. And beneath it, something else. Panic. Fear.

He was in trouble.

I pushed off the wall and started running. I didn’t know where I was going, just that I needed to find him. I needed to get out of this palace and get to the academy before it was too late.

I rounded a corner and nearly collided with someone. I looked up, ready to shove past them, and froze.

“Going somewhere?” a voice called out.

We both stopped.

Belinda stepped out from the shadows near the door like she had materialized from them. She was still smiling that uncanny smile, but this time, there was nothing warm about it. It looked an awful lot like that cold, empty smile Bianca had given me earlier.

Or rather like…

That woman I saw that day with Bianca in the wedding dress shop. Bianca’s mother.

Before I could put a finger on the resemblance, Belinda moved forward, blocking our exit.

“The King asked me to keep an eye on you,” she said, her eyes flicking between us. “He suspected you might try something like this.”

I glared at her. “Get out of our way.”

“I’m afraid I can’t do that, Princess.” She cocked her head to one side. “Or should I say, former princess?”