The Forgotten Princess Rose
Chapter 197

Chapter 197: Chapter 197

Kiara sat in silence, waiting for the moment someone would remember and come to her. It was all that she could do since there wasn’t a window she could get out of to run away.

She knew there were guards outside who wouldn’t hesitate to kill her because of Zayne’s order so she was not stupid to approach them. There was the option of seducing them since it worked well for others but she could not bring herself to stoop so low.

There was a difference between her and other women in Kiara’s eyes.

Kiara bit her nails, for the first time in her life worried about what would come of her. She could have counted on one of her brothers to do something to cause an uprising to get back the palace but they were dead and she had helped with one of the deaths.

"I should have left," Kiara muttered, regretting she had not joined her mother out of the palace.

Her scheme backfired with her mother now safe while she was trapped in the filthy room awaiting the moment Zayne would kill her.

"Ha," Kiara laughed, still in disbelief that a man like Zayne fell for a simple woman. "She has the two of them like fools."

Kiara stopped laughing when the door opened. There was finally light in the room again. She stood up, expecting it to be Zayne but her useless maid greeted her. "Why did they send you?" She sat back down. "You are not my maid anymore."

Quinn entered with the tray of food she was tasked to bring the princess. She did not want to be here, knowing the princess’s wrath awaited her. "I was told to bring you food because you would be comfortable with me-"

"I would be comfortable with you? The maid who failed to close the door to let me escape?" Kiara questioned, angered once more by how useless Quinn was. "I should have let him kill you the night of the festival."

Quinn placed the food down. She had hoped that the princess wouldn’t be so cruel with the king and princes deaths, but she was wrong. "You already made the offer for him to kill me. It was your guard that stopped it. I am foolish as you say," she admitted.

Why had she cared for the princess in this moment when the princess was so quick to come up with a plan that would kill her?

"That is the smartest thing someone has said today. If only others would admit how foolish they are. I am here held captive because you didn’t follow my order. Why didn’t you? All this time you wanted me to die?" Kiara asked, suspicious of Quinn.

"Yes," Quinn answered, turning to face Kiara. "I was hoping you would die before your brothers."

Kiara wasn’t the kind of royal Quinn wanted to serve. The kind of royal she would have been willing to give up her life for.

Kiara thought Quinn was playing a dangerous game. "Regardless of my father and brothers deaths, you cannot speak to me as you like. I am still the princess of this kingdom. The only fit heir-"

Quinn surprised herself and Kiara by raising her hand to slap Kiara. "I have had enough of you using me and playing with my life as if it isn’t worth something. I was a loyal subject eager to serve you but from the moment I was named your maid, you found ways to dangle my life before the hands of death."

Quinn couldn’t take any more of this and she wouldn’t be able to stand by while another maid endured this abuse.

Kiara slowly came over the shock of being struck by a maid. Never once had her parents struck her and though she didn’t have a good relationship with her brothers, they had never hit her. "You," Kiara raised her hand to strike Quinn back.

Quinn reached for the princess’s hand to stop her, causing the two to struggle.

"I will not be used by you anymore," Quinn declared.

She was presented with a surprising chance by the general to get her revenge and unfortunately for Kiara, Quinn took it. Her dislike of the princess had grown too much for her to want to save Kiara now.

Kiara winced at the pain in her wrist. "Let go of me. I am the princess."

The two pushing against each other was short-lived as the chair Kiara sat on rocked back, causing the two to go down.

Quinn pinned Kiara down on the cold floor. "You have always been good with your words but not when it comes to fighting with your hands. I am stronger because I had to do all your dirty work. I did things that made me hate myself."

Kiara turned her face to the right to avoid Quinn’s tears starting to drip down onto her. This was pathetic.

"You have used me to lead the other maids to bully the women who made the mistake of speaking to Alexander. To trap other maids with men because they insulted you. I don’t like what I have done for you and that I couldn’t say anything to help anyone because I feared you," Quinn shared, angry with herself as she was with Kiara.

"I could have died at the festival over your jealousy and you almost got me killed again. The kingdom would be better off without you. I am doing it a favour," Quinn said, eyeing the knife on the tray.

There was a dagger under one of the plates but she couldn’t reach it now.

Quinn didn’t know why the general was giving her this chance to get revenge for how the princess treated her. She was positive he would try to kill her for what she did at the festival. It could be that he was going to pin the princess’s death on her but Quinn didn’t mind it.

Quinn let go of Kiara and reached for the knife.

Kiara used this chance to push Quinn off of her. She grabbed a handful of Quinn’s hair and yanked on it to pull her back. Quinn had caught her off guard before but that wouldn’t happen twice. "I will kill you," she said, plotting to get rid of Quinn once and for all.

When Quinn had been caught at the festival, Kiara should have killed her there so she wouldn’t be seeing her now.

"You little ungrateful- You!" Kiara gasped, her eyes wide with shock.

Kiara looked down at Quinn’s hand pushing against her side. Something sharp, hidden by Quinn’s hand stabbed her.

Quinn wiggled the knife, trying to pull it out of Kiara’s side to use it again. "I won’t let you get out and ruin this kingdom. I owe him," she said, thinking about Alexander.

Quinn knew that if Kiara got out of the palace she would go straight to Alexander. Alexander had saved Quinn from Kiara many times so she felt indebted to free him.

Kiara pushed Quinn away from her but even with Quinn’s attempts to remove the knife, it did not budge. Before Quinn could harm her again, Kiara got up to run toward the door. Zayne had placed her here as a punishment, not to kill her.

"Guards!" Kiara called after opening the door. "She stabbed me. Take her away and bring a doctor."

Zayne’s soldiers aimed their swords at Kiara following the order given that if she stepped out of the room they were to kill her.

"You imbeciles," Kiara insulted the group. She leaned on the wall as the pain in her side became unbearable. She touched the knife which was still stuck in her side.

"Imbeciles?" Zayne repeated, stepping forward to make his presence known. He inspected the growing bloody mess on Kiara’s dress. "That was all she did? If you move around too much, you’ll help kill herself."

"You sent her to kill me," Kiara realised, understanding why Quinn was so bold. "You couldn’t be a man to do it yourself instead of using a maid? I am the princess of this kingdom! I will not die at the hands of a useless maid. Kill me."

Kiara couldn’t accept such shame that would follow her name after death when a maid killed her. A useless foolish maid should not be the one to kill her? She was too great for her story to have that kind of ending.

"I could kill you but it is more satisfying for her after how you treated her," Zayne said, watching as Quinn snuck up behind Kiara with the dagger he offered her.

He had noticed the disappointment from Quinn when he kept Kiara alive before. Remembering that gave him the idea to send Kiara off with a death she would hate. Her siblings died at the hands of the man who conquered the kingdom while she would die at the hands of a maid.

Quinn positioned the dagger and with all the anger she held back for the last years, she stabbed Kiara in the side of her neck so the princess couldn’t speak. It took away a talent Kiara used to secretly control everyone in the palace.