Stone Prison
CHAPTER NINE

I stood before a vast hole dug into the earth. Cold wind tugged at my hair. My tattered gown still had Phillip's blood crusted to the bodice. My mother was right about everyone, except Phillip, which made what I'd done even worse. When the guards came and captured me in Phillip's room, I was instantly damned. There was no trial, since there was no question that I was a witch. But there was one thing that terrified them most of all. And they hesitated to kill me until they learned where it went. Where was the prince's missing heart? They asked me over and over again.
I stared at the hole in the ground blankly. I recalled the fuzzy state of the nightmare that started at midnight. Phillip had just said he loved me. That he accepted me and my vile blood.
But when I awoke, he was dead. His heart was carved from his chest, and the only other person who was still breathing was me.
They peeled me from his cold lifeless body, as I cried. Phillip may have accepted me, but it didn't stop what I was... what I was capable of.
I found out later, after it was too late, that the evening a witch becomes of age, she will feed off her lover's heart, much like a black widow spider devours her mate. When the clock chimed twelve, in the dark of night, I became something else. I was a dark creature that needed that boy's heart to live. My mother knew this. She tried to make it less painful for me. I didn't understand. I didn't know what I was or what I was capable of.
A large man with a large gut hollered at me one last time, Where is the crown prince's heart! This is your last chance.
I did not answer, as I could not. I didn't know where his heart went. When my haze of bloodlust lifted, his heart was gone, evaporated into thin air like all our hopes and dreams.
The large man screamed again, demanding that I tell him.
When I did not answer for the third time, he shoved me. My hands were bound behind my back as I fell into the pit they'd dug out for me. I fell on my back and was unable to get up. This would be my final resting place. This is where I would die, slowly, horrifically as my mother had warned.
Every member of the court stood around the pit. The king and queen glared down at me. The king threw the first massive stone. The boulder fell into the pit, and crushed my leg. I let out a scream. The queen threw the next. The rock hit my head and rolled next to my face. A ribbon of blood ran down my cheek.
One by one, the rocks fell from above, crushing me. I felt every last one as the hole was filled in slowly with stones. The weight of the rocks should have killed me, but I didn't die. I remained quiet. No doubt they all thought I was dead. But I was a witch a real witch. And no stones could crush me. Not with the power that flowed through my veins.
As dirt fell from above, I heard the gravediggers speak as they filled in the tomb. So, where do you think she put the heart?
Sand and rock fell from above, surrounding me. Soon there would be no air. I could not survive if I remained where I was. I could shatter the stones on top of me, and crawl out of the deep grave, but I didn't want to. Part of me died the night I destroyed my beloved.
The memories turned rancid in my mind, as I recalled exactly where the prince's heart was. That horrific night, before the clock chimed one, I remember feeling the serene sticky warmth of his beating heart slide between my lips. It slid down my throat, warming me as it went. His blood gave me the power I needed. Swallowing his heart hole, allowed it to continue to feed me and grant me power. I'd consumed the heart of the prince.
Blood is power, and the heart consumed of one much loved is the most powerful thing of all. After all, what is love if you keep your heart?