I fell to my knees on the cold marble tile. By now they were purple and bloodied—fresh wounds reopening so new stains mixed with old—so many times had I dropped and scrapped and begged for my brother’s reprieve.
“I’m truly sorry, Ryiah.” Blayne looked down at me from his throne, and his expression was full of regret. “I can’t let his crimes go unpunished. Not unless Derrick can give us the answers we need.”
“P-please.” Darren was holding me as I cried, tears flooding the floor with pieces of my heart mixed up in between. “I’ll do anything.”
“You have until dawn tomorrow.” Blayne looked away. “Too many lives are at stake. I want to spare him, Ryiah, I do. You have shown nothing but loyalty to our Crown…” His voice grew sharp. “But your brother put everyone in this kingdom at risk. Crown law dictates a traitor die after the first night, and I have given him three. More than my father would have ever done.”
A part of me was shattering out on that floor. Darren and Paige helped me back to the dungeons where I fell apart, screams and sobs as I begged my little brother who lay dying to talk.
Eventually, I was taken away. Where I was put back in my chamber with Darren sitting outside the door, his back to the panel as he spoke quietly to me inside.
As the hours drew to a close, his voice grew hoarse. “I’m sorry, Ryiah.” Then I heard the soft pad of his boots as he retreated to his own.
*****
I tossed and turned but I was never asleep. A thousand ideas crossed my mind as I fought reason for heart, and heart for reason. Every minute I considered bursting through that door to confess. I told myself I would tell Blayne everything and he would spare my brother.
But then Derrick’s words came rushing back:
“Would you give up your life in the palace?”
I would.
“Would you give up your prince?”
I would love Darren from afar, in my cell, until the day I died. I could give up his love for me for my brother’s life. It would kill me to do it, but it wasn’t even a question.
“Would you willingly sacrifice Ian? And Ray? And all those lives in the north?”
To sentence hundreds of people to death…
“And you and I, we are one and the same.”
He knew I couldn’t do it. Derrick knew. I could give up everything for myself, but I couldn’t give up the others.
So many times the idea of breaking him out had come to mind. It was as often as my breath… But even if I somehow found a way to do it, all I could think about was the Caltothian king and my brother’s lists. A part of me knew if he escaped King Horrace and the rebels would have everything they needed to start a war.
Hundreds, thousands of lives would be lost.
So much more than just my brother.
I couldn’t do it.
****
Three hours past the midnight hour alarm tolls rocked the palace walls.
I shoved past the blankets with a start. Every part of me knew what this was. I didn’t bother to think or change or even breathe.
I knew what to do.
I could hear Darren through the thin walls of our rooms utter a muffled curse, and then the loud thump as he left his bed to go put on boots.
The rebels were here.
I didn’t bother to change out of my shift or copy the prince. I had only seconds before Darren would reach the hall, and I had to get there first.
I had to get to Derrick first.
I took off at a run. Slip-sliding with my feet against the icy marble I tore past the corner—no guards in sight. I could hear the panicked shouts heading toward the palace barracks.
We were under attack.
As I got closer, I found two sets of guards crumbled and bleeding from their heads.
I was going to stop my brother, and it had to be me.
When I reached the end of the corridor I found Jacob half-carrying my brother out of his cell, one of the dead guard’s keys dangling from a chain at his hip.
The Ferren’s Keep solider regarded me with a sneer. “Come to stop us,” he challenged. “I always told Derrick you were never to be trusted.”
My hand shook as I held it out in front of my chest.
“You are his sister, but you chose the Crown.” The boy took another step, and my brother’s head lolled against his friend’s chest. My heart skipped a beat as Derrick sucked in a raggedy breath.
“If you don’t let us go, you sentence him to die.” Jacob was only a couple steps away. His eyes were glittering with malice and hate. “Is that what you want, swine?”
“N-no!” I stuttered the words as my hand shook violently.
“He loves you, you know.” Jacob’s words lashed out like a knife. “He kept telling Nyx she was wrong. He pled for the others to tell you every night you were out there practicing your blasted magic for the Candidacy.”
You’ve got to stop them, Ryiah. Do it. Do it now before he talks you out of it—
“Kill him.” Jacob shoved Derrick forward so that he was directly in front of my trembling hand. My brother’s face was streaked in blood and swelling with cuts. His body was nothing but red, and he was struggling just to breathe.
Derrick’s blue eyes met mine and I saw defeat.
“At least then it will be at the hand of his sister,” Jacob said. “Instead of an executioner.”
I knew I had to do it. All those lives. The war. I had to.