“You go on,” the older woman said to the younger one. “I’ll take care of this.” The younger servant scurried away. “Who are you and what do you want?” She looked me up and down like she was trying to decide if she should raise the alarm or not.
“I need to see the king.” My voice wavered.
“Does he know you’re here?” She squinted, eying me up and down again.
I cleared my throat. “My name is Kaia. He will want to see me immediately.”
“The Kriger?” She gasped. I nodded. “This way.” She set the tray down and led me along several hallways, up a flight of stairs, and to a large door where two soldats stood guard on either side.
The servant quickly explained who I was. One of the soldats knocked on the door. When Morlet’s voice rang out, the soldat announced my presence. A moment later, the door swung open. Morlet, donning his usual black cape and hood that concealed his face, waved his arm, indicating for me to enter.
Trembling, I stepped inside his bedchamber, the door closing with a loud bang behind me.
“This is quite unexpected,” Morlet purred. “The last time we spoke, you were not very civil to me.” He folded his arms as he stood before his large four-post bed, the curtains drawn back. A small fire in the hearth warmed the room.
At a loss for words, I shifted my weight from foot to foot, chewing my bottom lip. The enormity of what I’d done, and was about to do, started to sink in.
He pushed his hood back, revealing his dark, handsome face. “I certainly hope you’re not here for your… friend.” He grinned, amusement sparkling in his eyes.
I tried to look surprised, as if the thought hadn’t occurred to me. However, heat raged through my body as anger filled me. If he hurt Anders, I’d kill him. Morlet raised his eyebrows as if sensing my thoughts. Trying to remain calm, I walked further into the room. “I’m not here for him. I’m here for you.” I forced a smile on my face.
He chuckled. “Oh, Kaia. You are rather amusing.” Turning, he unclasped his cape and tossed it over the chair. “I’m busy, so why don’t you tell me why you’re really here?”
“I… uh…” I stammered, not sure how to go about this.
“You need your weapon and you want that pathetic assassin,” Morlet snarled. “Well, you’re not getting either one.” His eyes darkened, no trace of softness to them.
There was no way I could seduce this man. Damaris had suggested I be honest with Morlet. It was worth a try. “There’s another part to the curse.”
Morlet went over to the serving table and poured himself a glass of red wine. “Of course there is,” he said softly. “Sometimes, I wonder if it will ever truly end, or if I’m meant to wander this world endlessly.” He took a sip and faced me. “Well, let’s hear it. Tell me what other hoops we need to jump through in order to right the wrongs of the past.”
“I must have a child.” My words echoed in the room.
He spit out his drink. “What?” he asked, his eyes bulging on his face.
“In order for the curse to end, I must bear a child.”
“Is that why you agreed to marry my brother?” He set his glass down. “You intend to give yourself to a man you don’t love because of this curse?” He folded his arms. “Why my brother?”
My heart felt as if it would burst out of my chest. “It’s you.” We both stood there, not moving. I shouldn’t have come here. I wasn’t ready for this.
“Me?” Morlet asked, his voice hoarse. I nodded. He ran his hand over his face. For the first time ever, he looked tired. “Why?”
The softness of his voice gave me the courage to answer. “Linnea was my great-great grandmother.” I took a tentative step back, away from him, not sure how he would react. Would he become angry? Or would the news crush him? I wanted to reach out and comfort him—he was as much a victim in this twisted game as I was.
He stood straighter, his eyes narrowing. “So you came here to what? Give yourself to me?” Fury etched his face. “You thought I’d jump at the chance to be with you?”
“No. I mean, yes. Well,” I stammered, “I know you want to end the curse as much as I do.”
He bent over, laughing. “You can’t be serious! You plan to bed me, and then kill me?”
The door flew open. Norill casually strode into the room as if she’d been in there hundreds of times before. As if it was her bedchamber. When she saw me standing next to Morlet’s bed, the veins beneath her black eyes darkened and began throbbing. “What is she doing here?”
I hurled myself toward the door. It slammed shut, the force making my hair flutter. Morlet raised his hand in the air, and the door shimmered blue as he cast a spell to seal me inside. Trepidation filled me.
“Kaia is trying to bargain with me,” he said.
“Ah.” Norill smiled, turning to face me. “You want the human I stole.”
My fingers twitched at the mention of Anders. However, I didn’t want to antagonize her and end up unconscious or dead. I needed to sleep with Morlet, which meant I needed to tread carefully.
“What? No nasty, clever retort? You’re no fun.” Norill sauntered over to Morlet, draping her arms around his shoulders. The thin, navy-blue dress she wore was form fitting and rather short, revealing her voluptuous and well-endowed body. “I shall have to seek my entertainment elsewhere.” She nibbled on Morlet’s ear.
Shock rolled through me, and I took a step back, hitting the nightstand. Norill chuckled and moved her lips to Morlet’s neck. He smiled, closing his eyes and tilting his head back as if inviting her to taste him. I was going to be sick. Her hands slid over his chest and to his back, where she pulled him even closer to her.
“If you want to seduce a man,” Norill purred, “you need to have something to entice him with. I’m guessing you don’t know the first thing about the art of seduction. I’ve had many men and could show you a thing or two. However, I don’t like you. But if you want to watch me in action, take a seat.”
My hands shook. Balling them into fists, I willed myself to remain calm and collected. How could Morlet welcome her advances? Why did I feel betrayed? It didn’t make any sense. Everything was going horribly wrong.
A faint pulse came from somewhere nearby, making the hair on the back of my neck stand up. I relaxed and sent my power out of my body, out of this room, and down the hallway, searching for the source of the pull. As my power neared it, an image of my bo staff flashed in my mind. It was lying on a large mahogany desk in a nearby room. I gasped and lost my concentration, my power returning to me.
The need to be reunited with my weapon overwhelmed me. Morlet had no interest in sleeping with me—not with Norill hanging all over him. If I could get to my weapon, I could fight my way out of here. Or, I could find Anders and rescue him. Either way, I had to get out of this room. The door was encased in a spell, the window at least one story off the ground, and there were no other visible exits.
Gathering my power into a ball, I threw it toward the door, hoping to sever the spell. Blue light flared, but the door remained intact. Without my bo staff, I didn’t have enough power.
“Stupid child!” Norill sneered.
I wanted my weapon so badly I could barely think. I grabbed the blanket off Morlet’s bed, hoping it would be enough to cushion my fall. I ran for the window. Putting the blanket in front of my face, I prepared to break the glass and jump.
“No!” Morlet screamed.
My body jerked to a halt, imprisoned in a blue dome. I dropped the blanket and pounded on the glass-like walls. How did he use his magic on me? I had the medallion. But when I reached up to touch it, it wasn’t there. Frantically looking around, I spotted it on the ground near Morlet’s bed. Norill followed my line of sight. My heart sank as she reached down, plucking it off the ground.
“This will come in handy,” she said, examining it. “Too bad the clasp is broken. It must have gotten caught on the blanket when you tried to make your great escape.”
Without my weapon or the med
allion, I was vulnerable and at Morlet’s mercy. Coming to the castle had been a colossal mistake.
If I used my power, would it ricochet off the walls and strike me? Morlet raised his hand, and I flinched. Blue light glowed over the window as he cast another spell. Once in place, he waved his hand, and the dome surrounding me disappeared. My chest heaved up and down. What was he going to do to me? I was trapped in this room with no escape.
“Can I have her?” Norill asked, a wicked smile on her face.
“No. I’m going to put her in the dungeon and send word to my dear brother that she is here. If he wants to see her alive again, he must come with the Krigers.”
I knew Vidar would attempt to rescue me; however, I doubted he would risk the Krigers unless he thought the twelve of us could face Morlet and win. Most likely, he would come on his own, and Morlet would kill him. There had to be a way to escape or prevent Vidar from coming.
“What about the assassin?” Norill asked.
Please don’t kill him, I silently begged. There was only so much I could do, and rescuing him right now seemed impossible.
Morlet went over to the door, removing the spell. “You may have him to play with a bit longer.” He opened the door and stepped into the hallway, speaking with the soldats posted there.
Norill chuckled, her eyes gleaming. “Good. The assassin certainly is quite amusing. Especially when I—”
Unable to control my rage, I charged for her, wrapping my arms around her waist and knocking her over. We hit the ground, and she rolled on top of me.
“I am sick and tired of you humans thinking you’re so fierce and noble!” Norill struck my temple. Stars flashed across my vision. She jumped off me and slammed her fist on my chest. I gasped for breath, crawling away from her.
Norill nimbly sprung to her feet, smiling. I forced myself to stand and darted toward her, punching her in the nose. Blue blood dripped off her chin and onto the floor. I spun and kicked, intending to knock her down. Instead, she hooked her arm around my ankle and punched my knee, shattering it.
Screaming, I collapsed to the ground as white, hot pain pierced through me.
Morlet came back into the room. “What are you doing?” he demanded. “I gave you the assassin to play with. Not her!” His face turned red.
“Kaia attacked me,” Norill shrieked. “I defended myself!” She spit blue blood on the ground and wiped her chin off, using her arm. “Why do you even care?” she asked him.
My vision blurred. Agony gripped me. I couldn’t stand, let alone crawl away.
“Make sure you don’t kill her. If she dies, we can’t end the curse.”
“I know,” Norill snarled, walking around to the other side of me.
Unable to defend myself, I harnessed my power, but I couldn’t focus enough to do anything with it.
“So, darling, you won’t mind if I do this.” She kicked my stomach.
Searing pain penetrated through me. Blackness hovered at the edges of my mind.
“Do you care, Morlet?” she purred. “Do you have feelings for this human?”
His face hardened. “No,” he snapped. “As long as she doesn’t die, do whatever you want with her. When you’re done, throw her in the warded dungeon cell.”
He turned and stomped out of the room, leaving me alone with the evil witch. How could he do that? “Please,” I yelled, trying to call Morlet back, but my voice came out as an unintelligible croak.
Norill bent down, taking hold of my hair and pulling me up so I faced her. “There are powerful forces at work here,” she sneered. My entire body violently shook. I no longer felt my leg. “You think you’re a warrior because you’re a Kriger and can fight. You don’t know the meaning of the word. You’re a mere human who shouldn’t even be here. My kind may be bound by a treaty, but that is changing. The world is changing. Heks will rule again. And you will die.” She slammed my head on the ground, and blackness engulfed me.
✧
I woke up lying on the floor of the dungeon, my leg aching with excruciating pain. Closing my eyes, I tried calling on my power to heal my shattered knee. Nothing responded—I was empty, just as I’d been at my great-aunt Lise’s house on the other side of the mountain. I recalled Morlet saying something about putting me in a warded cell. Frustration took root.
Very slowly, I pushed myself to a sitting position, stifling a scream. Tears streamed down my face. I lifted my tunic to see the damage. My torso was puffy, the skin black and blue. Nausea swelled in me. Grinding my teeth together, I used my arms to position my body against one of the walls. I took several shallow breaths, trying to work through the pain. I observed my cell, trying to take my mind off my body.
Three of the walls were constructed from stones, the fourth one from metal bars. This wasn’t the same place the Krigers had been kept. The tiny eight-by-eight foot area had a bucket for my bodily waste, but no straw mattress to soften the damp stone floor upon which I sat. A chill seeped into me.
The stench of unwashed bodies and fecal matter made my stomach heave. Someone moaned nearby. My head pounded, and I feared I’d pass out again. A sharp pain radiated up my leg, making me cry out. Reaching down, I grabbed the edge of my pants and tore the fabric along the seam, opening it to expose my smashed knee. I gasped—it was grotesquely swollen to twice its normal size, and the skin had an odd hue of red to it.
Terror seized me. I started sobbing, which made my ribs hurt even worse. Morlet hadn’t slept with me, and I was stuck in the dungeon, unable to escape since I couldn’t walk or access my power.
“I’m so sorry, Anders,” I mumbled. “I’ve failed you and everyone else. Nelebek is doomed because of me.” I reached up to clutch the medallion, but it wasn’t there—Norill had taken that from me too.
A soldat approached. “All ye prisoners are going to burn,” he crooned as he strolled by my cell with his sword clinging against the metal bars.
✧
“Kaia,” Morlet whispered in my ear.
I opened my eyes and found myself sitting next to the king on a stone bench in a courtyard surrounded by the castle walls. Dead trees and bushes lined the pathways, making it bleak.
“What are we doing here?” I asked. My leg throbbed with pain, and I hunched forward, my torso tender. Did he plan to heal me? I stifled my anger. Just because we shared a connection and he could heal me, it didn’t make it okay for him to let Norill hurt me.
Morlet pointed to the center of the courtyard to the remains of a crumbling fountain. A large pile of wood was situated atop the fallen stones. Blue light shot out of the end of his fingertips, striking the wood and setting it on fire.
“Isn’t it beautiful?” he asked. Although his cape was on, the fabric of his hood rested at his hairline, allowing me to see his face.
“It is,” I replied, my head becoming foggy. I wasn’t looking into his eyes, so he couldn’t be using his magic on me. What was going on? He made no move to heal me.
“Aren’t you curious about what happened to your father?” Morlet folded his arms, his focus on the fire about twenty feet in front of us.
Heat from the flames drifted toward me, and I started sweating. “He died in the tunnels. I saw it happen.”
“No,” Morlet said. “His body.”
After my father plunged the knife into his heart, Anders and I narrowly escaped the ambush via a tunnel. I used my power to collapse the tunnel behind us so the soldats couldn’t pursue us.
“When I found my mother and father dead,” Morlet said, “I buried them behind the castle in a small cemetery where the previous kings and queens are buried. There are headstones with their names carved into them. If I want, I can visit them.” He glanced at me.
“Why are you telling me this?” Most people in the capital were burned. We couldn’t afford the luxury of a proper burial. The image of my father’s lifeless body being tossed with dozens of others and set aflame flashed in my mind. I bit my lip to prevent myself from crying or punching Morlet.
&
nbsp; “I had your father’s body removed from the tunnels.”
My hands clenched into fists. If he did something horrible—like feed Papa’s body to the ulvs in the forest—I’d strangle him right now.
“I had him buried,” he revealed.
I blinked several times. Buried? That was a great honor. Proper. “Why did you do that?” The fire surged higher, and I wiped the sweat off my brow. That was no ordinary fire since it began with Heks magic.
“I know what it’s like to lose a parent. At least I have a place to go when I need to visit them.”
“Where did you bury Papa?” I whispered, clasping my hands together on my lap.
“Near the lake. I placed a marker there. No one knows.”
Tears fell down my cheeks. That was an act of kindness, respect. I wanted to hug Morlet. “Do you visit your parents’ graves often?” I asked, wiping the tears from my cheeks.
“Not anymore.”
“Why did you do something so nice for me?”
“Because it was the right thing to do. Because I care for you more than I should.” Morlet chuckled, shaking his head. “When I started this fire, I infused a truth spell into it. I didn’t realize it would work on me too.” He took my hand, holding it tightly, as if it were a lifeline. “Lately, I’ve had moments of complete clarity where the dark magic isn’t consuming my heart and mind. In those brief times, I remember what it was like before.”
When he was Espen. “Is there a way to save you?” If there was a chance, no matter how small, I had to take it.
He shook his head. “Even if there was, I wouldn’t want to. I’ve done too much. I couldn’t stand to live with that knowledge.”
I held onto his hand, not wanting to let go, wishing I could keep Espen with me. “Why the truth fire?” I asked.
“I need to know how you truly feel about me. Do you hate me?”
“Sometimes,” I admitted. When he hurt others and was cruel, I despised him. But, there was also good in him, and that part of him drew me in. My feelings for Morlet were complicated.
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