Tainted Crown

by Jenn Vakey

  “But he also hasn’t gotten better,” I said, looking back to face him. I already knew the answer, but part of me was still hoping he would dispute it.

  He shook his head.

  “Someone has to know something.” I could hear the pleading in my voice. I couldn’t even care. I would get on my knees and beg every single person in this city if it meant finding a way to bring him back. I would do anything.

  “There might be one thing, but it’s a long shot,” Gryffin said, walking in through the still open door. His eyes moved to Rhydian, that sorrow only building before he blinked it away and met my eye. “It’s just a myth, really. It could be nothing at all.”

  “Tell me,” I demanded. “I’ll do anything to fix this. Please.”

  Gryffin sighed and nodded. “We’ve always been told that the original Tainted died out long ago. Apparently, a team was sent out about fifty years ago to search for any other cities like ours. They didn’t find one. Only one member of the team came back, and he was half out of his mind from an animal bite. In his ramblings, he spoke of a city of Tainted. Not like us, but the originals. People with far more control over their abilities than any of us have ever had. No one was ever able to confirm if it was real or simply a hallucination.”

  My own encounter with an animal bite filled my thoughts. The snox that had bitten me my first day out of Eden. I had seen things, too. I’d seen people fighting, soldiers and Tainted. None of it had been real.

  But none of that mattered. Not if there was even the slightest chance that he had actually found something.

  “Where is it?” I asked. “I’m going.”

  Gryffin shook his head. “You can’t just go off in search of a city that might not even be there. You know how dangerous it is. If we’re going to do this, I‘ll gather a team.”

  I sat up straighter, turning so that I was facing him directly. I must have looked as furious as I felt, because Lamont muttered something about giving us a minute and left, closing the door behind him.

  “I can’t sit here and let him die,” I said firmly. “You can’t ask me to do that. Besides, there can’t be many people in this city more experienced than I am when it comes to dealing with things outside of the wall. Most of the ones that are have been imprisoned.”

  Gryffin gritted his teeth. He wanted to argue, but after a moment, he simply nodded.

  “I’ll get you all of the information we have,” he said calmly. “But you can’t go alone. Married or not, you are a member of my family. My brother was willing to give his life to keep you safe. I won’t let you throw that away.”

  I didn’t even consider arguing with him on the matter. I might not want to pull anyone else into something that would undoubtedly be dangerous, but Rhydian was too important.

  I turned without responding and looked down at his sleeping face. Oh, he was going to hate this. If we were lucky, maybe the anger would be enough to make him pull himself back from the cliff he was hanging onto.

  Not caring that we weren’t alone, I leaned down and pressed my lips to his. I closed my eyes and pictured myself pulling energy from myself and pushing it into him through that connection. Making him take it back.

  It didn’t work.

  Tears filled my eyes when I sat back up. I blinked them away and turned as I heard the door open again. Lamont must have realized we weren’t about to come to blows over this.

  But it wasn’t Lamont.

  “Oh, sorry,” Maizie said, stopping just inside the door as she looked between the two of us. “I didn’t know anyone was in here. I was just coming to check on him.”

  Her gaze dropped to the still form of Rhydian, her expression softening with affection.

  Gryffin ignored her completely, continuing like we hadn’t been interrupted. “I’m having supplies pulled together to send to Alkwin. I’ll have travel rations added to it. Just let me know how many people you expect to go with you. I don’t want you to take supplies from Alkwin if it can be avoided. I promise to take care of him until you return. I already have a Healer staying full time, and I’ll issue you a Haller to keep you updated.”

  Maizie’s gaze had been shifting between us as he spoke. Trying to understand what she was hearing. She probably caught more of it than I had. I’d been too focused on her being here at all.

  “I’ll be here to watch over him too,” she said, giving a kind smile. “You don’t need to worry.”

  So many things were running through my head as I slipped from the bed and stood. Confusion, anger. The desire to throw her out of Rhydian’s bedroom, which she shouldn’t be in at all.

  My feet moved a little quicker with every step I took toward them. I could see Gryffin watching me, but my eyes stayed locked on Maizie. The girl that had done nothing but cause problem since she showed back up. Rhydian’s friend.

  Maizie looked confused, taking a small step back just before I reached her. I didn’t slow, didn’t stop to thing. Didn’t say a word before I drew my fist back and punched her square in the face.

  She screeched and threw her hands up, both to grasp at herself and to try to bat me away. My hand found her throat, squeezing as I threw myself at her. Knocking us both to the floor until I was seated on her stomach. Pinning her to the ground.

  "Leeya!" Griffin yelled.

  I could feel his hands on me, but they weren't enough to stop me from driving my fist into her face again.

  Maizie yelled and tried to push me off. Her nails cut into my cheek, and I could feel her trying to shift in an attempt to use the same self-defense move Rhydian had taught me. I wasn't going to let that happen.

  "Are you mad because I kicked you to get you away from Rhydian?" she shrieked. "Because I'm not sorry. You were killing him. It's your fault he's like this."

  "Lying bitch!" I yelled back, relishing the feel of pain when my knuckles connected with her cheek bone again. It was the only thing that could keep me from feeling the pain her words brought. Because it was true.

  It was my fault.

  "Leeya, stop," Gryffin ordered. He gripped my arms and pulled back. "That's enough!"

  Maizie tried to use the distraction to hit me in return, but I dodged just in time for the blow to simply graze the side of my head. Catching her wrist, I pushed all of my weight forward to keep Gryffin from unseating me and pinned it to the ground. My other hand still wrapped around her throat.

  "Get her off me," she gasped, still struggling.

  "She lied about how she got here," I said through gritted teeth.

  There was so much hate and anger coursing through me that I almost missed the look that passed through her eyes. Confusion, with a hint of concern.

  It took Gryffin a moment to register what I had said. As he did, I felt the weight of him trying to move me stop. He was still holding me by my arms, but he was no longer trying to pull me back.

  "What are you talking about, Leeya?"

  "She told him she was out for a walk and they grabbed her," I said, my eyes fixed on hers. I had been fading at that point, but I could still hear everything. I still knew. "She lied."

  "No, I didn't," she said.

  Her words only fueled my anger. I used my hold to pull her up just enough to slam her head back down. "Lie!"

  There was a commotion as the door flew open again. I could see bodies moving toward me from the corner of my eye. The black told me they were Sentry. They might be the good guys now, but they were in for a fight. I wasn't letting go of her until I had my answers.

  "Hold," Gryffin ordered, his hands leaving me as he stood.

  I thought for a moment he was telling them to hold me, but no one did. No one touched me at all.

  "Sir?" someone asked. At the same time, I heard a familiar voice. Lamont. "Leeya?"

  I couldn't explain it to them. My world already felt like it was crumbling around me. I needed answers to this. I needed to understand.

  "How did you know we were coming to Eden?"

  Maizie's face was red from exertion as she
shook her head, eyes searching the faces around us for help. She wasn't going to get it. "I didn't."

  Truth.

  "What are you doing here? You weren't captured. What were you doing with Dex?"

  "Get her off of me!" she cried. Her face fell, a look of sheer terror filling her expression. It made her look innocent, like a victim. But it was an act. I knew it was. "She's unstable. Can't you see she's dangerous?"

  A couple of the Sentry shifted, but no one made a move to stop me.

  "Answer the question," Gryffin said instead.

  Tears leaked from the corners of her eyes, but she complied. "They captured me!"

  "Lie!" With the word, I could feel energy pulsing through me. Moving through my hand as I pulled it from her. Just enough to let her know what was to come if I didn't like what she said. To show her what it felt like when Dex had it done to me.

  "King!" she gasped when I ended the drain. Her eyes were wide, real panic clearly visible now. I wanted to smirk, because it made the earlier act so much more apparent. "You can't let her do this!"

  An uncomfortable tension surrounded me, and I knew the Sentry were thinking the same. This was exactly what I had been insisting we didn't do in Eden. I was giving them a reason to fear us. To see Tainted as dangerous.

  But this was my family.

  Rhydian was too important.

  "Maybe I should explain," Gryffin said, an air of command to his words that wasn't there during friendly conversation. The voice of a king. "Leeya has the siren ability to detect when people are lying."

  "I can confirm that," Lamont said.

  "As can I," another voice added. "The prince told me that himself."

  I followed the voice to its source. Amidst the group of the Sentry stood none other than Kavon Trombly. Maybe it was the surprise of seeing a Sentry who was showing nothing short of support, or maybe it was the mention of Rhydian, but my thoughts started to clear some. Focus settling in.

  I nodded my thanks, then turned back to Maizie. To my utter pleasure, I found a look of resignation buried in the look of disdain she was giving me.

  "Let's try this again," I said, calmer now. "Why are you in Eden?"

  She looked like she was trying to find a way around this before finally giving up.

  "Getting information," she spat out.

  Information?

  "About what?"

  She grunted, trying to loosen my hold. That wasn't happening. "The only thing I care about is keeping Rhydian safe."

  Truth.

  "That doesn't explain why you were here," Lamont stated. "Why you were with the council and Dex."

  "Were you working with Dex?"

  I had expected panic, maybe denial. What I hadn't expected was the sneer she gave me. Or her response. "Were you?"

  Panic shot through me. She couldn't have known the truth about how I ended up in Eden. There were only four people who did, as far as I knew. Unless…

  My mind raced at the possibility. I knew she had wanted Rhydian to come back years ago and take the throne from his father. I had considered briefly that she wanted power. The thought had even crossed my mind as the world faded last night that she had come here to try to get on Dex's good side to become his queen. Could it have been more? Even as arrogant as he was, I couldn’t see him telling her something like that while they were locked in the meeting room.

  "Were you really captured by Sentry three years ago?"

  "Yes."

  That was the truth.

  "Did you give them information about Alkwin?"

  Maizie scoffed. "You know as well as I do that the wards remove the location of Alkwin when you're outside of them."

  They did, but that didn't answer my question. She couldn't have given them a location. There also hadn't been talk of a change in the Sentry activity that I had heard of. Nothing that would suggest they had important information. I racked my brain, thinking over what she could have possibly told them that would cause her to evade answering like that.

  Then it hit me.

  "You told them Rhydian was alive."

  The words left my lips on an exhale. I knew he had trusted her. The thought that she could have done such a thing made me hurt for him. I didn't want to believe it.

  But it was the only thing that made sense. Adler had known he was in Alkwin. It could have been a coincidence that he'd learned the truth. He could have seen a picture and recognized him. But what were the chances that he had done something in Eden that would have caused Sentry to search through footage? Surely there would have been talk in the city if anything had happened, even if it was only gossip.

  I had never heard anything.

  "I would never betray Rhydian like that," she countered quickly.

  I growled, draining her briefly again. "Lie! That's how Adler knew to target him. Were you working with him? Have you been working with Dex?"

  "You're crazy," she hissed, trying to buck me off of her. "I'm here to find out information about who really was betraying Rhydian. Adler's spy in Alkwin. They talked about it, you know. In the facility. You wouldn't know anything about that, would you?"

  She wasn't lying. At least not about knowing. And it was more than just knowing something was going on. She knew who. She knew about me. Dex really must have told her last night. Even with all of the thoughts I now had about her actions and motives, I still couldn’t see her keeping that from Rhydian if she had really known.

  But that also didn't mean she was being honest.

  "Have you been working with Dex?" I demanded. I was running out of time. Rhydian was unconscious, so there wouldn't be any way of stopping it if they decided to take her at her word and detain me. Lamont only knew some of the details. Not enough to completely clear me. I needed answers from her before it was too late. "Answer me."

  "No. But you have."

  Her lie burned through me. It was only my abilities that made it evident, though. Looking at her, I wouldn't have been able to know that she was lying. And that was all the others had to go on.

  "She's lying," I said, my voice shaking. "She's been working with Dex. At least in some capacity."

  The girl growled at me before turning her focus to Gryffin. "She might be able to tell when people are lying, but that doesn't mean she can't lie about the results. She was working with Adler to kill Rhydian. Dex said so himself. She would have killed him last night had I not stopped her. It's probably part of their plan to hurt me too since we’re so close. Since I knew the truth."

  I couldn't look at Gryffin. I couldn't look at any of them. I guess I could count myself lucky that I hadn't been pulled off of her yet. It was probably only their surprise that was delaying them now.

  And if they arrested me, I wouldn't be able to find a way to save him. I could truly lose him forever.

  Tears rolled down my cheeks. I didn't know how, but deep down, I knew this was her fault. I just didn't know how I was supposed to prove it now.

  "Rhydian is my everything." My voice trembled as I spoke not only to her, but to everyone around. I needed them to understand. To believe in me. "He knows who I am. He knows I would give my own life for him."

  Her condescending sneer made me harden again. The way she was looking at me, like I was delusional, made me want to punch her again. I might have was I not certain that would be the final straw before Gryffin had the Sentry step in.

  "My fiancé is near death right now because of Dex and the council. You're going to tell me what part you had to play in that."

  Well, that knocked her arrogance away. It might be childish to rub it in like that, but I wanted her to hurt. I wanted to be the one to hurt her.

  "Your fiancé?" she scoffed. "You're even crazier than I thought. Don’t think I didn’t see the crush you had on him. Your attempts to manipulate him. I thought Joury was bad, but she never went out of her way to keep us apart like you did. Now this?"

  I didn't bother answering. She could call me crazy all she wanted. Gryffin knew the truth. So did Lamont.
I was sure half of the people who had taken the palace with us knew.

  "Have you been in contact with Dex or his people since going back to Alkwin?"

  She didn't answer. Not even after I drained her some more.

  "Were you a part of the attack on Alkwin?"

  Still no answer. She kept that disappointed look on her face, apparently set on her new plan just to convince everyone I was crazy.