But I recognized that scent. I stilled, and then I swung my fist.
“You’ll have to do better than that, wildcat.”
How dare he? “Don’t fucking touch me.”
“I’m sorry, Prisca.” His voice was grim. “Would you believe me if I told you I tried?”
“No.”
I was fighting him, rage burning through me as I hit and clawed. I made contact, and he cursed, catching my hands in his.
“Let go,” he growled. “Just fucking let go.”
I bowed my head.
Lorian pulled me close. I lashed out at him again, and he ignored it, his arms tightening around me. I sobbed, great big gulping sobs that choked me until I could barely breathe. Lorian was silent, but one of his hands gently stroked my back.
This place was worse than I could have ever imagined.
Lorian began humming, his hand still slowly stroking my back. I kept crying.
Eventually, I wore myself out. Sniffling, I wiped my face on his shirt.
He let that go.
The song was a tune I’d never heard before. Something strange and different. I finally lifted my head to find him gazing at the ceiling. His eyes met mine, and they blazed with barely suppressed wrath as he peeled me off him as if I were a kitten, his hand on the back of my neck. A tiny white line had appeared on his cheek. He was clenching his jaw. Lorian wasn’t unaffected at all. He was just as furious as I was.
“I tried,” he said. “The king’s spies learned that I had asked about the woman who’d tripped near the queen, and they reported back to him. If anything, I hastened her death.”
Fresh tears flooded my eyes, and Lorian sighed. “I’d tell you not to blame yourself, but both of us know it wouldn’t help. If you want to blame anyone, blame me.”
A group of women walked past the door, laughing and gossiping. How could they act like nothing had happened when an innocent woman had lost her life?
Because she was corrupt. Just like me.
“Why are you really here, Lorian?”
His face closed off. In a swift movement, he clutched me to him once more so he could stand, dragging me to my feet. “Because the king took everything from my family. And now I’m going to take everything from him.”
CHAPTER NINETEEN
I didn’t see Lorian at all for the next two days. The queen insisted on taking her meals in her chambers, and I was still staying quiet in an attempt to learn everything I could.
I became very good at slipping around the castle unseen. I’d learned just why the servants’ halls were so important. Not only did they allow them to be mostly unseen…
But they also allowed them to spy.
Tiny holes had been carved into various parts of the hall. Small enough that most wouldn’t notice. No one mentioned it, but I’d spotted a maid leaning against a door just yesterday. She’d cast me an unconcerned look when I strolled past.
Each night, we visited Asinia. And each night, she looked worse. Tonight, the dungeon seemed even colder than it had been. I was sitting next to Asinia, who was still mostly unconscious. Tibris’s expression was grim.
“What is it?”
The corners of his eyes tightened. “She needs medicine. I can keep healing the worst of it, but each time I go back, she’s just as bad. If we don’t get her help, she’ll be dead within days.”
I felt the blood drain from my face. I’d already let one person die. The thought of Wila’s screams would haunt me for the rest of my life. Pushing Asinia’s hair off her head, I leaned down.
“I won’t let that happen,” I whispered in her ear. “I promise.”
In the cage next to us, Demos watched quietly. Since we’d been bringing him food and he was no longer eating the slop contaminated with fae iron, he seemed more alert. Tibris had been slowly healing his wound each night.
“There must be healers in this castle,” I said. “For the king. Tell me what you need, and I’ll find it.”
Tibris described a blue liquid that would likely be in a small jar. It would help Asinia fight off the sickness and allow her body to rest and recover.
“I’ll find it.” I no longer cared what I would need to do to get what we needed. This was war. And so far, we were losing.
“I need to work on her some more,” Tibris murmured. He was already ashen, but I nodded, stepping out of the cage.
I drifted from cage to cage, taking in the slumped forms in each. Most of the prisoners could do little more than blink at me. But there were some who hadn’t been here as long. While they were weakened, they could still communicate. And they told me their stories in voices hoarse from disuse.
Many of the tales were similar, and yet all were heartbreaking.
A man named Dashiel told me of the day his brother Thayer had used his magic.
The power of nightmares.
At just eleven winters, Thayer had been suppressing his power his whole life. But when the king’s assessor appeared in the village with no warning, Thayer had erupted.
Half of the village had turned crazed.
The assessor had been traveling with a shield-guard, who’d raised a magical buffer around him.
“He didn’t mean to do it,” Dashiel said, his eyes wet as he slumped against the bars of his cage. “He was just scared. I should have taught him. But I was terrified someone would learn of what we were doing. Instead, I got him killed.”
My own eyes burned at the hopelessness on his face. “It wasn’t your fault.”
Dashiel just shook his head and continued talking in that low, grief-stricken voice. Like most of us hybrids, Thayer had been actively fighting his power. So he didn’t know how to tamp down his power once he started using it. Half of his village was turned into little more than ghosts, unable to work.
“When…when he saw what he had done to our family, our friends… I couldn’t get to him. I couldn’t get to my brother. He took the knife on his belt and slit his own throat.”
Tears streamed down my cheeks, and I crouched in front of his cell. “We’re going to make them pay.”
Dashiel’s breath hitched, his pale blue eyes finding mine. “It was a better end for him than any he would have had at the king’s hand. Sabium doesn’t just burn those of us with the most helpful powers, you know. Some of us, he puts to work.”
I shivered at the thought of being used to hunt the king’s enemies.
“He used Thayer as an example of what happened to villages that hid the corrupt. His guards went from village to village, town to town, with the story of how Thayer had turned half of his village mad. But they made it sound like he meant to do it. Like my gentle brother lashed out because he could.”
“The king’s assessor who came to your village… Did he have a scar on the side of his neck?”
Dashiel nodded. “You know him?”
“He’s here at the castle now.”
Dashiel went still, and some of the life returned to those pale eyes. Life and vengeance. “I want him dead.”
“Then stop eating the food they give you. I’ll try to bring more down in the next day or two.”
He was quiet for a long moment. “I do this, and you’ll help me kill the assessor?”