Carefully, I stepped down three steps and strained to listen. It didn’t help much, so I climbed down to the halfway mark and crouched down low. The top of a guard’s head came into view, the black collar of his uniform just visible.
‘More wine!’ somebody barked from below. The voice was hard, and mean. Just to hear it made my body shiver with disgust as I recalled the time Damir’d held me captive in his putrid-smelling underworld lair.
With my heart banging like a drum, I waited for the guard to react, to order Damir to shut up, or threaten him with a few jabs of his dagger. But, strangely enough, he moved out of view, and the sound of liquid being poured followed.
‘Nothing but the best, sir.’
I bit my lip to stop from gasping out loud.
Sir?
I waited. Perhaps the guard had given Damir bad wine. Prison guards were normally cruel like that. He was probably mocking his prisoner.
‘Shut up and turn around,’ commanded Damir. ‘No, better yet, go get my sister. Tell her I’m ready.’
Wolf howls and laughter erupted.
The young guard said, ‘Yes, sir,’ before his head disappeared.
Laughter erupted from down below. A piece of bread and a carrot went flying through the air.
Footsteps travelled up the stairs, towards me.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
AFTER A MOMENT of paralysis, I leapt to my feet and up the stairs.
My breath came out in short, hard rasps as I raced around the bend, across the corridor, and then straight into the door. With shaking fingers, I inserted the key into the lock, but it fell to the ground, causing a loud ping.
‘Who’s there?’ the treasonous guard called out, his shadow growing as it approached the bend.
Snatching the key from the ground, I shoved it back in the lock, twisted it, and turned the handle before bolting through and slamming the door behind me.
The guard’s footsteps quickened.
I waited for the pounding and the shouting but, for whatever reason, his footsteps stalled, retreated and then faded away altogether.
After hanging the key on the hook and catching my breath for a minute, I crossed to the other side and placed my palms against the wall and stepped back into the secret passageway, where I finally felt safe.
Sweat trickled down my back and my forehead was damp, so I wiped my arm across my face to clean myself up a bit as I rested my back against the wall.
Damir had said, ‘I’m ready.’
Ready for…what exactly? Dessert? Escape? Murder?
Marko was going to hate hearing what I had to say; he might even hate me for it, but he had to know that Sylvia was meeting with Damir behind his back.
When I burst back into Marko’s room, he was seated at the dining table, bent over a pile of documents before him. Instead of leaping to his feet and accusing me of trespassing or getting excited about me being able to open the door, he just raised his head and stared at me, his blue eyes wide.
The door whooshed shut behind me.
‘I can open your secret door,’ I said, half smiling with nerves, as he stood.
‘I know.’ He rubbed the back of his neck and laughed, and added, in a tired voice, ‘I don’t know whether to shake you or kiss you.’
‘I think I’d much prefer the kiss,’ I said, as I took hesitant steps towards him.
He just kept staring at me.
‘I’d half hoped you would be able to open it, but I also hoped you wouldn’t.’
‘Why is that?’
He closed the distance between us, grabbed my hand, and tugged me into his arms. ‘Because now I have to worry that you’ll one day open the door to the dungeons and get yourself killed.’
Confession time. I winced.
‘Um, don’t get angry or anything, but I’ve already been.’
He shrugged me away from him. ‘What do you mean? Just now?’
I nodded. ‘And I overheard a conversation between Damir and one of your guards.’ When he started to protest I raised a hand. ‘You need to hear this. You’re in serious danger, Marko. They’re planning something—Sylvia and Damir.’
Marko stared at me, his eyes never leaving mine. ‘What exactly are they planning?’
For once he was listening. Maybe it was the door-of-trust theory of his father’s.
‘Sylvia is communicating with Damir, and he is being treated like a king in the dungeons. I could only just see the guard, and he was running around getting wine for Damir and calling him sir!’
‘I don’t starve my prisoners,’ Marko said, but his voice was quieter and his eyes had changed from steel to a dark pool of unsettled waters.
‘No. Marko, this was different. The men in the dungeons were laughing at the guard, your guard.’
Marko cleared his throat. ‘Go on.’ He moved his gaze to the floor. I felt bad for hurting him, but I had to spill it all out.
‘Then Damir asked the guard to send for Sylvia. They must be on speaking terms. He said to tell Sylvia that he was ready.’
Marko was silent for a long time, his breathing becoming more and more laboured and his cheeks flushing darker by the second.
‘Go to your room, Miranda.’
‘What?’ My cheeks flushed with the humiliation of being spoken to like a child.
He rubbed his forehead and shook his head, his eyes soft and pleading.
‘I meant, please go to your room—for safety reasons.’
I backed away towards the door to my room.
‘So you’re going to do something about it? You’ll investigate Sylvia’s involvement?’
He sighed, looking miserable, and nodded.
As I slowly closed the door between us, my heart nearly cracked to see Marko standing in the same position, staring at the ground, still in shock. And it suddenly occurred to me that, with this new knowledge about Sylvia’s involvement with Damir, he was in more danger than ever.
‘Please, be careful, Marko.’
He didn’t respond. He was too lost in the dark place that was his sister’s betrayal.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
BACK IN MY room, I was too jumpy from nerves to sleep, so I paced the floor for hours, trying to exorcise the horrible visions of Marko getting hurt from my head, and wishing that he and Lauren were with me in my room, where I could reach out and touch them and know that they were safe. Finally, exhaustion knocked me for six and I fell asleep on the bed, fully clothed.
Hours later, Jilly shook my shoulder, announced it was morning and handed me a cream envelope.
‘I’m to lock your doors when I leave. I’ve left you plenty of food and I’ll be back each morning and evening to see to you until this is all over.’
I tore the envelope open after she left the room.
Miranda,
Sylvia is being held for questioning. You were right to be suspicious, and for this I thank you. I’m sorry, too, for not believing you at first. I’ll never forgive myself and I dare not ask it of you, though I wish it.
We are questioning each staff member and every single guard until we are confident of their allegiance. This may take several days.
Do NOT leave your room. Remember what happened when I last gave this warning. Lauren is safe.
Yours,
Marko
After reading the letter several times, I tucked it beneath my pillow and rested my head on Marko’s words, wondering if they were his last to me. I wished now that I’d confessed that he was the main reason why I’d returned to Marin—not just to see if Sylvia was plotting against him. That I had returned to be with him again.
If I couldn’t tell him, I’d show him how much he meant to me—by following his advice to the letter, and staying put in my room, even though the idea of being locked in for days made me want to climb walls and dig tunnels.
As the hours passed, I switched between begging the stationed guard outside my door, through the keyhole, for answers and pigging out on the food Jilly had brought.
The adjoining door was also locked, and every time I put my ear to it, to listen out for Marko, there was no movement or sound.
Three torturously long days later Marko came into my room. The grey shadows under his eyes and the stubble darkening his jaw told me he hadn’t slept the entire time.
I’d been drying my hair in the bathroom at the time and quickly tossed the towel to the floor and ran into the room.
‘Thank God you’re okay,’ I said, wanting to throw my arms around him. But I just couldn’t. He looked so beaten and broken, and stiff, like he didn’t want to be touched.
‘Sylvia wasn’t helping Damir with an escape. She was using him.’
‘What do you mean?’ I asked, flicking a wet curl off my face.
Marko scratched his jaw and raised his brows. ‘For science. Sylvia lied about my grandfather’s book. You were right. There is only one copy.’ He yawned and rubbed his face. ‘She gave it to Damir, on the condition he help her to find a cure for infertility.’ Marko shrugged. ‘My brother’s always been smart, like my grandfather. But only technical, scientific smart—he’s never possessed emotional intelligence.’
‘But you said the fertility problems were to do with the lack of moon cycle.’
‘True. But I’ve always wondered how Kraja’s civilisation survived down here for so long without a moon. There’s something missing now that was here then. But I can’t work out what it is.’
‘So did they come up with anything?’ As I said this, my mind flashed to the doorless room in the secret passageway, the one with the hand-drawn pictures on the wall of the Kraja statue holding a large crystal moon in her hands, exactly like the one in the castle ballroom.
Marko shook his head. ‘Damir wanted to perform some of his own experiments first, so he struck a bargain with my sister to allow him access to our grandfather’s room for several hours a day.’ He snorted and shook his head. ‘My brother wanted to perform an operation that our grandfather had attempted on our grandmother.’ Marko cleared his throat. ‘The very operation that killed her.’
I didn’t need him to tell me what that operation entailed. I’d seen it in Frano Tollin’s book.
‘That’s sick—and awful.’ I stepped forward and rested a hand on Marko’s arm, but he moved away.
‘You’re not going to like what you hear next, Miranda.’
‘What do you mean? Has something happened to Lauren?’ I headed towards the door. ‘Oh my God, I have to see her.’
‘It’s not Lauren. She’s safe. You’ll see her in a minute.’
I sighed with relief and rested my back against the door. ‘Then what is it?’
‘Damir hasn’t attempted the operation yet; but he has a volunteer. It’s Anne.’
Anne? Now her weird behaviour made sense.
‘I saw her, when I was near the dungeons. She looked horrible and she was talking about being in love…’ I groaned and raked a hand through my wet, knotted hair. ‘That’s why she volunteered. She’s in love with him.’
Marko sighed. ‘Yes, Miranda, and people do strange things when they are in love.’ He looked at me pointedly, his chest rising and falling, his tired eyes piercing mine.
My heart stuttered beneath his intense gaze. Luckily the door was behind me or I would have buckled. ‘So is Sylvia in—’
‘The dungeons? No.’ He eyed the floor. ‘My sister has dreamed of having her own child for as long as I can remember. Do you really think I can punish her for that?’
‘But she let Anne be a science experiment and she allowed Damir to roam the castle! How dangerous is that?’ My entire body shivered at the idea of violent and demented Damir lurking the darkened corridors of the castle. Perhaps the man with the beard and hat who’d glared at me in the city had been Damir, in disguise. He could easily have returned to the dungeons via one of the castle’s underground tunnels before the guards had checked on him.
‘She’s loyal to me, Miranda, and that is all that matters.’
‘What about the guards?’
‘They’ve been dealt with. Several guards and other staff members have been stood down and banished from the castle. We’ve lost a lot of men and women. I’m going to have to recruit new guards over the next couple of days, and it won’t be an easy task; so, please, stop questioning my decisions. I am the king, Miranda, remember that.’ He rubbed his face. ‘And I’m tired. I need to sleep.’
I flinched at his raised voice.
‘Why don’t you ask Sylvia to open your secret door? Wouldn’t that solve the trust issue? Then you’ll know if you can truly trust her or not.’
‘Stop it, Miranda!’ He stepped closer, his breath hard and fast. ‘My mother died the moment I was born, and Sylvia cared for me.’ Unshed tears shone in his eyes, making him appear vulnerable instead of angry. ‘I won’t test the only mother I’ve ever known.’ He rested his arms on either side of my head. ‘Why can’t you understand that I love her? Why can’t you trust my judgement, just this once?’
My pulse throbbed in my ears. He bent his head and rested his chin on my forehead before moving down to graze his lips there.
I inhaled his woodsy, briny scent and closed my eyes. ‘Because I care for you, a lot, and I’m worried something bad will happen.’
He made a sound in his throat and trailed his lips down the side of my face.
‘But you said yourself, you didn’t come for me; you came to save Marin.’
My hands found his waist and slid up his shirt, his skin hot to touch and his muscles hard. This was my moment to confess the truth.
‘That’s not entirely true,’ I said, turning my face slightly, so that my lips were only an inch away from his mouth.
His breath tickled my cheek. ‘Then what is the truth?’ he said, his voice gravelly.
‘That I thought about you every day of the past year,’ I whispered.
Marko drew away for a moment to stare at my face, before he bent down to press his lips against mine.
His mouth was hot and hungry and I kissed him back, just as eagerly. Our teeth bumped and our tongues entwined as I yanked on the ends of Marko’s shirt and drew him closer. He groaned against my mouth—the sound sending a bolt of white-hot electricity through my veins—and his hands found their way into my damp hair, his fingers stroking the back of my neck.
‘I’ve wanted to do this the moment I saw you again on that beach,’ he murmured into my ear. ‘It’s been torture to sleep in the next room…so close but unable to touch you.’
I groaned softly and ran my hands up and down the cording muscles of his back, pressing him against me until I could feel every hard inch of his body against mine.
‘Sleep here, tonight, with me,’ I whispered in his ear as he rained kisses down my neck.
Marko paused, his breath hot and heavy against my skin, before he groaned and drew away.
‘Sylvia’s birthday is tonight. We have to attend,’ he said, between pants of breath. ‘It’s important that the people of Marin see that the Tollins are still united. And that trust has been restored.’
My head, which was still wrapped up in the kiss, suddenly started to hurt. After taking nearly a minute to digest his words, I sighed.
‘I’ll never be the best of friends with Sylvia, you do realise that? Standing by and allowing Anne to become a sacrifice for science, like a lab rat, is something I can’t forgive.’
Marko’s pained expression returned and, after seeing him so blissful during our kiss, I couldn’t stand it.
‘Fine, I’ll go.’
I’d never truly understood it when I saw married couples groan about their in-laws on TV; but now I did. With Marko came Sylvia. It was a fact I had to get used to. The world down here was different to the mainland. Marko couldn’t just move to another state if he wanted to escape his family. He was a king, with all the responsibilities that come with the role.
I had to ask myself if I wanted to share my life with someone who was forever tied to the people and the city of Marin. And to
his sister, who was more like a mother to him, which…made her my potential mother-in-law.
I shuddered at the thought.
Marko locked eyes with me and reached out to coil one of my wet curls around his index finger.
‘Jilly will bring some outfits for you. You choose and I’ll dress to match.’
Oh, masquerade ball, right.
‘I’ll pick you up at 7 pm,’ he said, before disappearing into his room.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
I TWISTED AND turned in front of the full-length mirror one last time. Marko was due any second and I wanted to make sure everything was perfect. My tight-fitting golden dress glimmered in the crystal light, and the cream Jilly had rubbed into my arms, neck and back sparkled as if I was made of gold. I held my mask over my face, shiny gold with a light fur trim around the edges, and posed, with one hand raised into a claw.
‘You make an awesome lioness,’ said Marko, who’d managed to enter my room without me knowing. I spun around. Luckily for the mask, he couldn’t see me blush.
‘Since when do kings of underwater civilisations use the word awesome?’
‘Jordon’s sister, Henrietta,’ Marko said, with a laugh in his voice. ‘Whenever I ask her how she is, she almost always answers with awesome. It has stuck, unfortunately.’
He cleared his throat and allowed his eyes to rove from my face down to my toes and slowly, very slowly, back up.
‘You look beautiful, Miranda.’
‘So do you.’ My heart fluttered like butterfly wings against my ribs.
He drew his own golden mask over his eyes. It left his strong jaw and full lips exposed, emphasising them. He was breathtaking. Like a living version of Oscar Wilde’s The Happy Prince, except with jet-black hair. It was hard not to stare at his lips and recall our passionate kiss from earlier. A kiss I wanted to repeat right now.
‘Shall we?’ Marko extended an arm and I slipped my gloved hand through it.
‘Will Lauren be coming?’ I asked. ‘I tried to see her before I got dressed but she wasn’t in her room.’
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