Magnus stood in the doorway and looked at Willow with an expression that made her want to disappear into the walls.
He opened his mouth like he was going to say something but then he closed it again and just walked past her down the hallway without a word.
Willow stood there for a moment, trying to figure out what to do. Her arm was throbbing and her eyes were still wet from crying.
She needed to get the tea into Dorian's hands before it got cold. She wiped her face with the back of her hand and took a shaky breath before she knocked on the door.
"Come in," Dorian's voice came from inside and it sounded annoyed like he was interrupted from something important.
She pushed the door open and limped into the study. The pain in her ribs made each step difficult and she had to move slowly so that the tea would not spill.
When he looked up from his desk and saw her, his expression changed from annoyed to something she could not quite read.
For just a second, something flashed across his face that looked like surprise but it was gone so fast that she might have imagined it.
Then his face hardened and his eyes went cold. She realized that he was looking at her like she was something unpleasant that had tracked dirt into his room.
His gaze moved down from her face to her arm which was swollen and bruised and she saw his jaw clench.
But instead of asking if she was hurt, he just turned away from her and looked back down at his papers like she was beneath his notice.
"Drop the tea on the desk," He said and his voice was flat and empty like she was nobody worth speaking to with any kind of warmth.
Willow walked forward on shaky legs and set the cup and saucer down on the wooden surface. Her hand was still shaking and the cup clinked against the saucer, making a sound that seemed too loud in the quiet room.
"Now leave," Dorian said without looking up at her.
Willow turned to go but as she did, he looked up at her and she saw the disdain in his eyes deepen when he noticed that she was limping.
He watched her struggle to walk toward the door and he said nothing. He just watched like he was disgusted by the sight of her and could not wait for her to be gone.
She closed the door behind her and stood in the hallway trying to breathe through the pain and the hurt.
This was it. This was all she would ever be to him and she could not do it anymore. She could not keep trying to be something he did not want. She could not keep hoping that somehow things would change.
The words she had overheard kept running through her mind over and over again like a song she could not get out of her head.
Weakling. Useless. Not fit to be Luna. Those words were carved into her chest and they were bleeding out the last bit of hope she had been holding onto.
That night, Willow gathered the few things she had in the small room that had been given to her.
She had two changes of clothes that were worn and thin from use and a piece of bread that she had saved from dinner.
She did not have much and she knew that was going to make it hard to survive on her own, but staying here was worse than any hardship she might face out there.
She rolled the clothes up into a bundle and tied them with a piece of string that she had found.
She sat on the edge of the narrow bed and looked around the room that had been her home for however long she had been here.
It was not much, but it was better than being outside and she was terrified of what was waiting for her out there in the world.
But she was more terrified of staying and watching Dorian look at her the way he had looked at her in his study.
She was more terrified of hearing him say more things about how she was not good enough, not strong enough and not worthy of being anything to him.
So she stood up and grabbed her bundle, She told herself that whatever was out there could not be worse than this.
She waited until the castle was quiet and most of the people were asleep. The halls were dark and empty when she crept through them trying to be as silent as possible.
Her arm still hurt and her ribs were sore from where the other slaves had hurt her, but she was moving on pure desperation now and the pain did not seem to matter as much as it had before.
Every step felt like it took forever and she kept thinking that someone was going to catch her and drag her back to her room.
She did not know what they would do to her for trying to escape. But no one came and she made it further and further through the palace until she thought maybe she actually had a chance of getting out of this place.
She made it down to the main level and toward the back of the palace where she thought an exit might be.
There was a door that led out to the gardens and beyond that she thought there might be a way out of the grounds.
She had never been outside the palace walls and she did not know what was out there but it had to be better than staying here and watching the man she felt connected to look at her with nothing but disgust.
Willow pushed open the door and stepped out into the cool night air. The moon was bright and it cast long shadows across the garden.
She moved quickly toward the fence that surrounded the property. She could see the gate in the distance and she thought maybe she could make it there and slip through before anyone noticed she was gone.
The grass was damp under her bare feet and it made her shiver as she walked. She did not have shoes and she had not thought about that before she left but there was no going back now.
Her heart was pounding in her chest and every sound made her think that someone had discovered her missing and had come after her.
She moved past the rose bushes and the stone benches that were scattered throughout the garden.
The palace loomed behind her like a dark shadow and she tried not to look back at it even though she wanted to. She tried not to think about what Dorian would do when he found out that she was gone.
The gate was getting closer and she could see the metal bars and the lock that kept it closed. She did not know if she would be able to open it or if there was another way out but she had to try.
She could not stay here. She could not go back to being a slave and being treated like she was nothing.
Willow was almost to the gate when a hand grabbed her arm and pulled her back. Willow tried to scream, but another hand covered her mouth and she was spun around to face whoever had caught her.
It was Dorian and his face was darker than she had ever seen it before. His eyes were blazing with an anger that was so intense, that it made her entire body go cold.
She realized that she had made a terrible mistake in trying to leave. She had been so focused on escaping that she had not thought about what would happen if he caught her.
He looked down at her with an intensity that was almost impossible to bear and his grip on her arm was firm and unyielding. She could feel him trembling like he was barely holding on to his control and she knew that whatever was about to happen was not going to be good for her.
"What are you doing out here?" He demanded, his voice was low and dangerous like a predator that had cornered its prey.
Willow could not speak because his hand was still over her mouth and her mind was racing trying to figure out what to say to him.
She was caught. There was no escape now and she had no idea what he was going to do with her.
He removed his hand from her mouth but kept his grip on her arm tight enough that she could not pull away.
She looked up at him and saw that his jaw was clenched so tight that she thought it might break. His eyes searched her face like he was trying to figure out something.
"I asked you a question," There was something in his voice that she could not identify. It was not just anger.
It was something deeper and more complicated than that and it scared her more than the anger did.
Willow opened her mouth to answer him but before she could say anything, she heard voices coming from the palace.
People were calling out to each other and she realized that they had discovered she was missing and they were coming to look for her.
Dorian heard them too and he pulled her closer to him and away from the gate.
She thought maybe he was going to take her back inside but instead he started moving away from the palace and toward the darker part of the garden where the shadows were deeper and thicker.
"Do not make a sound," He whispered in her ear and his voice was so quiet that she almost did not hear him.
Willow did not understand what was happening or what he was planning to do but she knew that she did not have a choice in the matter.
She was completely under his control and whatever was about to happen would happen whether she wanted it to or not.