“They’ve locked her in the dungeon.” Raith gestured to Scarlett. “I honestly underestimated Cade’s momma’s boy syndrome.”
Scarlett still hadn’t spoken. Everything was spinning out of control, faster and faster with each passing moment. All she wanted was her own bed and her old life. No fae. No battles. No powers.
“Are you okay?” Jaser came to Scarlett and placed his hands on her shoulders. “They’re doing this to mess with you. The battle is in in a few days. Don’t let them ruin you now.”
Scarlett blinked. The world around her came into focus. Jaser peered down at her with chocolate eyes. “Why do you care? I’m just a stupid human. What do I matter to a fae like you?”
“Throwing a pity party isn’t going to save you,” Jaser said. “And not all fae think so little of you humans, which, by the way, you aren’t one-hundred-percent. I’ve been to the mortal realm a few times and from what I saw, humans can be kind, generous, and loving. Sure, most fae put themselves on a pedestal and look down upon mortals, but that’s not me.”
Scarlett gulped back tears. Everything was so overwhelming, but she felt the sincerity behind Jaser’s words and it made her want to cry. The emotional roller coaster she’d been riding had come crashing down, throwing Scarlett against the pavement of her new reality.
“Now, we have a battle to prepare for.” Jaser tossed Scarlett a staff and Raith daggers. “You two can practice against each other.”
Scarlett put all her anger into practice. Raith would always find a way to give the killing blow, but the more they practiced, the longer Scarlett could hold her own. Finally, Raith said it was time to head back to her cell, otherwise the guards would find her and drag her back.
Jaser nodded, his stare full of sympathy. On the way to the dungeon, Raith pulled Scarlett into a dark room. Raith waved his hands and the curtains flung open. Another flick and the door shut. Next to the window sat a cherry wood grand piano—the same shade as Scarlett’s mother’s casket.
“I wanted to apologize,” Raith said to Scarlett’s left, her eyes fixated on the piano. “I wanted to do as you asked and take your memories. I just…couldn’t.”
She looked to him. “Thank you.”
“I’m sorry?” Confusion filled his features.
“I’m glad you didn’t erase them.” She looked back to the piano. A thick layer of dust covered it, but the beautiful tone of the wood still shined in sunlight. “It was wrong of me to ask you.”
“Do you play?”
“Play what?”
Raith tilted his head to the piano. “You’ve barely glanced at anything else since we came in here.”
Scarlett nodded. “I haven’t touched a piano since she died.”
“It was my mother’s. This was her special room. She’d play for hours, looking out to the forest in between songs,” Raith said. “Would you like to play?”
Scarlett’s fingers shook, but she walked toward it. She brushed the dust off of the bench and sat down. She knew she might never make it home. Her fingers hovered over the keys. She ignored the dust as she pressed down a chord.
Her fingers took control of her mind as they moved to Chopin’s Waltz in B Minor. She remembered her mother’s smile as she’d listen to her learn it. When the song was through, Scarlett folded her hands in her lap.
“You miss her, too.” Scarlett’s gaze met Raith’s. “I can feel it.”
“It’s why I couldn’t take your memories. I couldn’t imagine if I forgot my mother. I couldn’t take yours from you.”
Raith joined Scarlett on the bench.
“I thought I’d never be able to handle them, but when I realized they could have been gone forever, I knew I needed them. Memories are all I have left of her.”
Scarlett had thought she was only part of the game, but sitting here next to Raith, the connection between them vibrated.
“I’m also sorry…about what happened next.” Raith stared at the floor. “I mean, it was great, but you were vulnerable.”
“I knew what I was doing.” Scarlett bumped her hip against his. “You seemed to know what you were doing, too.”
He grinned. “You weren’t too bad yourself.”
Before Scarlett could ask where they stood now, the three guards who stole her from her bed barged into the room.
“Time’s up,” one barked.
Anger poured from Raith.
“It’s fine,” Scarlett said. “I’ll be okay.”
She hoped.
The next days were all the same. Scarlett was stuck in the cold room until it was time to train. A servant would bring her three meals a day, all some gross mush that Scarlett could barely get down. The night before the battle, Raith brought her an actual meal of turkey, potatoes, and fruit. It tasted divine—almost as if she were a prisoner on death row given her last meal.
They hadn’t had a chance to finish their conversation. Every moment together went toward training. If they didn’t live past the battle, their feelings for each other didn’t matter.
After Scarlett finished dinner, she got into her bed. As she drifted to sleep, she heard Kassandra.
“My, my, don’t you look comfortable.” Kassandra’s tone was pure ice.
“What do you want?” Scarlett asked. The time for pleasantries with the queen was over.
“Now is that any way to treat a visitor?” With a wave of her hand, Kassandra unlocked the cell and stepped inside. “Stand up.”
When Scarlett didn’t listen, she felt her mind explode. Pain shot through her brain. Visions of her friend Natalie being stabbed plagued her. Blood oozed from Natalie’s wound as her eyes became lifeless.
Then it all stopped and Scarlett’s vision returned to the cell. “How did you do that?”
“It’s my gift.”
Like Cade could enter dreams and Raith could see and take memories? Kassandra could make people see things?
Pain shot through Scarlett’s head again. Instead of seeing something in her mind, her sister Ashleigh appeared in front of her, right there in the cell.
“Scarlett,” Ashleigh said. “Help me.”
“No!” Scarlett yelled. “Leave her alone.”
“Please.” Ashleigh’s eyes doubled in size. She coughed. Blood dripped out of her mouth and onto the stone floor.
“Stop it!” Scarlett screamed. She tried to go to her sister, but her body was paralyzed.
Ashleigh held her stomach and vomited up more blood.
No, this couldn’t be happening. Scarlett tried to look away, but her eyes were glued to the vision of her sister in front of her.
It wasn’t real, Scarlett told herself. It couldn’t be. Ashleigh had appeared out of nowhere. It was just a hallucination. Even knowing this didn’t make it easier to watch.
A slice appeared across Ashleigh’s throat and she dropped to the ground.
Another spasm attacked Scarlett’s mind—like a migraine but a million times worse. Scarlett pressed her fingers into her temples, but it didn’t help. The pain seemed to last hours before the cell appeared in front of her again.
“My son deserves to be king. If you do anything to stop him, well, think of this as an appetizer to what I’ll do to you. Next time, it won’t be an illusion of your sister I kill.”
Kassandra turned and left the cell, locking the door behind her.
Scarlett curled into ball on the hard stone floor and cried herself to sleep.
Chapter Thirty
Scarlett was still in the fetal position when Raith woke her the next morning. He lifted her and set her on her feet.
“What happened?” he asked as he held her upright.
Scarlett shook her head as she relived the hallucinations. They had seemed so real. And although they weren’t, she knew Kassandra was beyond capable of making good on her threat. Cade knew where Scarlett lived, where Ashleigh would be when she wasn’t at school.
“It’s okay, don’t tell me. Let’s get you to your room.” Raith held Scarlett by the waist and evanesced them to her room.
Could Scarlett get a message to her sister, telling her never to go home? Even if she could, there was no way Ashleigh would listen to it. Why would she? Scarlett never listened to her mom’s concerns about the voices in her head.