I listened, confused at how twisted everything had become. “You broke my heart,” I confessed in whisper.
“Yes, I imagine that’s true. I also broke the heart you restored in me when you moved into this awful place. I loathe myself for all I did to you.”
“Good,” Reyn rasped. “You’ll remember that pain and wear it around your neck every day for the rest of your shortened life. Remember that you almost murdered the Lost Daughter of Avalon.”
There was one more thing I wanted to know, but felt stupid asking him in front of the guys. I moved back to the cage, knelt down and whispered, “Was Demi a lie, too?”
Rigby mulled over my words, his hand cupping his side as he choked on his pain. “At first, yes. He was sent to you with no choice in the matter, instructed to make you comfortable. Eventually he was supposed to seduce you into telling him if you still had your Compass ability.” Rigby held my gaze. “After the second day, he came to me and confessed that he couldn’t do it. That I had to find you a new soumettre, because he wouldn’t turn you in if he found out.”
I closed my eyes and nodded, grateful I could make peace with that uncertainty. “Thank you. Even if you’re lying, I needed to hear that.”
“It’s not a lie. Morgan made him stay your soumettre because she saw you had feelings for him. Abusing Demi to make you comply is a trigger she enjoys pulling. But do not doubt that Demi adored you. He drew sketches of your face and wrote you poems while you slept. He kept them tucked inside the books he would read to you. He always hoped you would find them, but I’m guessing you never went snooping through his book.”
My voice was small when I finally spoke. “He wrote me poems?”
“I put his book away in my things so no one would find it. It’s in the servants’ quarters, in a box marked ‘Storage’. If you live through this somehow, it’s yours.”
“Thank you.” I moved my hand into the cage to brush my fingers against Rigby’s crimson knuckles, but he jerked them away.
“No,” Rigby snapped, his rebuke firm. “I don’t deserve kindness from you. Do not forgive me. This cage is a just punishment, as is the knife in my side.”
“You won’t get any arguments from me.” Draper crossed his arms over his chest with a stalwart expression on his face.
There was never really a great time for me to switch realities and flip to seeing through Kerdik’s eyes, but in front of an outsider was really not the best timing. The dungeon faded from my view, and I called with a quaky note in my voice for Draper, who moved me away from Rigby’s cage. His arms were around me, offering comfort while I tried not to panic.
Thousands and thousands of people called for my head. No. Not my head, but Kerdik’s. He was cuffed to the balcony, on all fours and seething. He willed his magic to return to him, so he could destroy Province 1 in a fit of fiery rage. Blood dripped down his forehead, but it only fueled his fury.
I screamed as the whip cracked down hard across my back – not my back, I tried to remind myself, but Kerdik’s. The wounds weren’t real, but the pain surely was. I felt Draper trying to soothe me, his hand over my mouth so I didn’t alert more soldiers.
Kerdik’s head turned to the side and I saw Brìghde, passed out on the floor of the balcony. She was a bloody mess of limbs, her mossy dress dripping with cherry-colored gore. Though I knew Kerdik despised her for his curse, there was a camaraderie that rose up in his throat at the sight of his equal so utterly thrashed.
His chin was jerked up by a rough hand, so the crowd could get a better look at the all-powerful being so defeated. They shouted for his demise, blaming him for every single problem Avalon had ever been through.
“Give me the lost magic, and I’ll set you free,” Morgan called out from behind him. She didn’t sound out of breath at all, so I’m guessing she was having one of her soldiers deliver the beatings.
Kerdik spat over his shoulder in her direction. “That’s the thing about mortals. You can whip me until the day you die, but I’ll never crack. I’ll outlive you, break free and bury you as you lived – alone and dissatisfied.” Then he turned to the crowd and shouted, “All of you!”
Morgan shrieked for another beating to be administered. I winced, though Kerdik did not. I could hear him chanting in his mind that it was just pain, and pain was temporary. He did not have hopes of being rescued, but only of enduring until Morgan gave up.
Twenty lashes of the whip made me choke into Draper’s hand with untold agony. My own bloody tears plagued my eyes, but my psychic vision was still intact. I could hear Draper freaking out, but something distracted me when the lashings stopped. It was that sixth sense that tingled my spine when Bastien was in the room. I could feel him nearby, only he wasn’t in the dungeon.
Bastien the Bold was somewhere on the balcony.
16
Lane’s Assault and Kerdik’s Protection
Bastien’s invisibility cloak made him impossible to get a visual on, but when the guard whipping Kerdik dropped dead, I knew it was my guy who had shown up to save the day. There were three soldiers on the balcony that I could see, and now two of them were panting through their last breaths as they collapsed at their queen’s feet.
Morgan shrieked and ordered for more soldiers.
But I knew they wouldn’t come, because I knew Bastien. He would start by cutting off the backup plan, and then move in for the kill – setting his trap before striking. He was patient like that, and just psychotic enough to attempt a government coup in front of an entire province.
Kerdik glanced over his shoulder in confusion as the third soldier hit the ground. Morgan snatched up the fallen whip to arm herself, inviting her attacker with a sneer. “If it’s me you came for, let my people see you fall when you try to kill me. Show your face!”
I called for Lane to get back when she stepped out from Bastien’s cloak, making it look like she was the one who vanquished the soldiers alone. She had a knife clutched in her weak hand, but a fire in her eyes that made me rally. “Here I am, Morgan. You throw me into your dungeon to rot? Well, you’ll have to try a lot harder than that.”
Lane didn’t bother with a long monologue – the roar of the crowd had grown so deafening, her words couldn’t be heard anyway. Instead she lunged, plunging her knife as hard as she could, but missing her mark. Morgan had been feasting while Lane had been trapped in a cage. The knife stabbed Morgan’s shoulder, which was a definite point for our team, but as far as victories went, we were miles from our goal.
My stomach roiled when Morgan drew back the whip and brought it down across Lane’s face. My best friend in the world belted out a scream I could’ve gone my whole life never hearing. She stumbled back and fell next to Kerdik, holding her bloody face instead of her knife. Though Kerdik’s wrists were still cuffed to the balcony, his leg reached out and drew Lane toward him, cocooning her under the tent of his body to shield her from further harm. My heart clenched in my chest at the kindness and utter selflessness Kerdik exhibited for my Lane. “Aim your whip at me, you witch!” Kerdik bellowed.
“What a fine idea.” She cracked Kerdik across the shoulder. “Tell me where the lost magic is!”
Kerdik’s chest heaved, but instead of looking downward, he tilted his chin to the sky. Frustration filled him when he studied the cloud of green and silver that congregated above the balcony. It was a feathery, translucent mass that hovered above them just out of reach. “When I retrieve my magic, you will feel the sting of this whip until your sister puts you out of your misery!” I could feel him straining against his cuffs, trying to reach the cloud that was about seven feet above Morgan’s head.
Morgan looked up as well, the same frustration at not being able to grab onto Brìghde’s and Kerdik’s elusive power tugging at her features. Then she lashed out in anger and whipped Kerdik again, while he shielded Lane with his body.
It was then I knew we would soon be on the losing side. Bastien was there, but he couldn’t hurt Morgan without his magic falling out. He
wasn’t qualified to deliver the final blow, and though Lane was, she was incapacitated enough not to be able to finish the job.
I yanked myself out of Kerdik’s head, though my tears had clouded my vision too much to see the dim dungeon. “Water! Draper, I can’t see!”
My sweet brother didn’t have water, so instead he used the shirt Bastien had loaned him, mopping up my face until I could see his furrowed eyebrows again. The story tumbled out of me as I gripped my knife and stood. “I’m going, or we’re all toast. Lane’s about to die, Draper. I saw it with my own two eyes – or Kerdik’s eyes anyways. I’m the backup plan, and Plan A is out the window.”
Draper stood with his chest puffed. “Then I’m going with you.”
“If you leave, Reyn will get discovered by any of the soldiers who come down here to check. There’s nothing you can do as far as taking Morgan down, anyway. It’s me or Lane, and Lane’s down for the count.”
Draper made to protest, but I didn’t leave room for an argument. I ignored Rigby’s cries of fear and ran for the door, shutting it tight behind me. With my knife clutched firmly in my hand, I glided up the steps, letting my gut lead me to my mothers.
17
A Little Girl and Her Mother
Hearing the crowd through Kerdik’s ears was nothing compared to the real thing. I could barely hear myself think as Morgan kicked at Kerdik while he was chanting words of encouragement to Lane. I stood in the room that had five dead soldiers littering the floor, courtesy of Bastien. At this point, it might as well have been flower petals he’d scattered on the floor to welcome me – so sweet was his protective nature for my family.
I stood in the divide between the empty room and the balcony, letting the wind hit my face and erase the dank stank of the dungeon. Though I was invisible, I knew Bastien could see me since we were both wearing our cloaks. I ducked behind a portion of the wall, hoping Bastien wouldn’t see me and give away my location.
My eyes were drawn to Kerdik’s back as I peered around the edge of the doorway. His skin was more red than green. “No!” I whispered, gaping at the damage I wanted to turn away from. Of all the things I wished for Kerdik, a life far from all of this was top of the list.
I watched Bastien creep around the perimeter of the balcony. When he used his knife to break Kerdik’s bindings, only I understood why Kerdik vanished from view. Screeches of fear from below permeated the evening air when their victim du jour disappeared before their very eyes. Kerdik reappeared a handful of seconds later, uncuffed and furious.
“I can boost you up there!” I heard Bastien yell to Kerdik from my left. He had to shout to be barely heard above the crowd.
Morgan’s smile was forced through the pain of her stab wound. “Is that Bastien the Bold? How I would love to get a piece of an Untouchable’s magic.”
Bastien was moving from his place so Morgan didn’t provoke him to attack her. If she could make his magic topple out, it would be hers for the taking. I inched closer, knowing I had one shot to get this right.
Images of what I must’ve looked like as a baby flooded my mind. The sketch Kerdik had drawn of my parents, smiling hopefully out at the world with me in their arms, was stuck in my brain. It juxtaposed in irreconcilable ways when compared against the woman who was taunting my fiancé with a whip in her fist. Though I knew this was the job, I didn’t want it. I’d run from Draper to claim the spot of second in line to get the task done, but now that I was here, my hands trembled with inexperience. The vulnerability I felt in my mother’s presence made me feel like a child.
Bastien was trying to keep Kerdik from falling over, and didn’t see me move onto the balcony with my knife at the ready. Another step forward, and I was only two feet behind my mother.
“Too green,” she jeered, motioning to Kerdik’s bare chest when he reappeared and leaned on the balcony as Bastien tended to Lane. “I like you much better covered in red.”
That was all it took to remind me that I wasn’t a scared child, but a woman on a mission. When Morgan’s wrist swung back in preparation for a hearty blow against my barely upright guy, I snatched at the whip and yanked it out of her hand. “That’s enough!” I yelled, kicking her knees out from behind and tugging on her hair so she toppled backwards and cracked her head on the stone. “Bastien, boost Kerdik up!”
“I told you to stay put!” Bastien shouted at me as his head whipped around to scowl in my direction. He ultimately obeyed, moving the unsteady Kerdik over to the wall for leverage.
Morgan vanished from the crowd as I climbed atop her supine body, making us both invisible. She gasped as she took in my focused face and the knife in my hand. “Wait!”
“Your adventure ends tonight. I’m done waiting for you to love me!” I yelled, and then plunged the knife down into her chest. I closed my eyes against her screams that I knew my brain would never forget. There was part of my soul that I hadn’t known still believed in Santa Claus. A small part of my childlike self hoped that there were fairies who could fly, and mothers who loved their daughters for no good reason. That precious part of my psyche splintered off and withered as my mother’s screech finally died on her lips. My right hand started stinging, but I paid it no mind.
I felt something leave me, and guessed that what little magic I had was floating around me somewhere. I didn’t care; all that mattered was that no one would whip the people I loved ever again. My hands slipped on the knife I left stuck in my mother’s breast, and though I knew there would be tears aplenty in the future, I didn’t shed a single one as I reached out and closed her stunned eyes.
My right hand started itching, and then the discomfort grew until it felt like my ring finger was on fire. I looked down, and beneath the shock I was in at murdering my own mother, my aquamarine stone fogged over with a black cloudiness that confused me. “What the…” I shook my hand as if that would do something, but the burning sensation coursed through my body, making me tingle with an ominous darkness that didn’t belong in nature, or in me.
18
The Darkness I Didn’t Mean to Do
I heard Bastien’s oofs as he lifted Kerdik up so they could snatch at his magic. The sun was setting, giving them no help at all to light the way.
Lane crawled over to me, feeling around until she touched the hem of my cape, inviting herself into my haze of confusion. She gasped at Morgan, who was finally and completely dead. Lane’s face was dripping with blood from a deep gouge that went from the right side of her forehead all the way across her nose, and onto the left corner of her chin.
“She hurt you!” I choked out, knowing I couldn’t lose it now.
“Shh,” Lane cooed. “She’ll never hurt us again.”
“I killed my mother,” I confessed, though that much was painfully obvious. “They’re all going to know that I killed my mother.”
After all the horrors she’d been through, Lane only worried about me. She threw her arms around my shoulders and pried me off of Morgan’s body. “So help me, this will not be your adventure! You are meant for more than this life!” Rage made her arms shake as she kissed my forehead. “Wait over here, baby. I’ll take care of it. No one will ever know if you stay invisible.” Then she grabbed Morgan’s ankle and dragged her over to the edge of the balcony, standing to address the people who had called for more and more blood.
The jeers fell away in the twilight, and a crack of fear rippled through the crowd as Bastien gave up on helping Kerdik, and moved over to help Lane heft up Morgan’s body, balancing it on the railing overlooking the entire province. Then he stepped back so the whole land could see Lane – fierce in all her glory as blood dripped down her face.
Lane’s voice was strong, though the rest of her was faltering. “Province 1 is no more! I killed your queen, which means this land is mine! All of you belong to me now, but I don’t want a single one of you! Province 10 is closed to you and your families. Fend for yourselves, which is what you left the other provinces to do! Morgan’s jewels belong to m
e now, and I’m giving them back to Master Kerdik, who you mocked! See how well he favors you now! You begged for his pain? Now you can beg for his mercy!” When cries of horror and anguish wove through the crowd, Lane shouted, “You put your hope in one woman, not in Avalon, and here she is. You wanted her? Well, you can have her!” Lane tore the rings off her sister’s fingers and pushed her off the balcony, eliciting a mass scream from the crowd as Morgan le Fae fell into the moat four stories below. “Morgan le Fae was your greatest adventure, and now she is over.”
I was in utter shock and horror, but that was soon replaced by the pain of my finger lighting itself on fire. Like, actual fire. I shouted for Bastien to help me.
He swore at the sight only the two of us could see. “How did you do that?”
“I don’t know!” I smothered the small flame in my shirt, biting my lip through a scream of pain at the burned skin being roughed up. “I have to get this thing off me!”
But it was too late for that. Kerdik shouted, “No!” as a black and purple fog shot out of my ring and thrust itself out into the air, aiming for the crowd, who was scattering from Lane’s wrath. “The lost magic is spilling out!”
The black and purple began to dissipate from the cloudy mass, forming into raindrops that trickled down on the people, making them scream as if the black rain burned their skin. Some fell on their faces and tore at their clothes, howling in agony at the sky.
“Bastien, help me! I need my magic now!” Kerdik cried as he stumbled toward me, reaching in the air for my body, which he couldn’t see.
Bastien dove into the backroom and hefted out a chair, grabbing Kerdik by the arm and lifting him up as he climbed atop the seat. The extra two feet were all Kerdik needed to finally be able to jump up and reclaim what was rightfully his. He cried out with ecstasy that mingled with anguish as his immeasurable powers reentered his body. He stood straight as his body began to repair itself, like a doll being sewn back together.
Stubborn Girl Page 9
