Her Cinder Throne (Completed)

Chapter 48

Meegan's breath was shaky in the darkness. "He gave me the prisoner and told me to keep going while he ran off in the opposite direction. I have no idea where he went, and I want to punch his face for leaving me to sneak out on my own."

Cole clenched her fists. "This may surprise you, Meegan, but I have no idea what you are talking about. Tanwyn treated me like a weapon, nothing more. You don't tell your sword all your schemes and plans."

"He used the ball and your attempted assassination as a distraction to sneak into the dungeons," Meegan said. "I don't know why, but he said there was a very important prisoner in there."

Cole's froze, her body going cold. "He used me... as a distraction?"

"Yes," Meegan spit out. "I'm sure you thought you were the most important piece of this plan, but there's other people with more of a part to play than you."

Heat rose in Cole's face. She had been nothing more than smoke to shield Tanwyn's real plan? He had sown her a pretty tale of bravery and cunning, an assassin to take down King Thijs. Yet, she didn't even know if she was ever supposed to even escape from the ballroom. Maybe she had been meant to die and take all the blame with her when the king discovered a missing prisoner.

"If I wasn't meant to be able to kill the prince, than what was the real plan?" Cole asked, trying to keep the burning embarrassment from her voice.

"You were meant to kill the prince, and Tanwyn is not going to be happy that you failed at even that," Meegan said. "If he's dead, it's easier for the Eldritch to fight Thijs. He can't have a replacement heir fast enough to keep the country stable."

"Are you fae?" Cole asked, unable to see the girl who had been so competent in cleaning up Bastian's messes as one of those legendary creatures.

"Of course not," Meegan scoffed. "I merely see Tanwyn as the better bet when it comes to freedom."

"Then what are we supposed to do now? Tanwyn isn't here and we've got the entire palace looking for us," Cole said.

"We're going to wait a while longer," Meegan said, determination in her voice. "If Tanwyn had any chance at all of surviving, he will be here."

It wasn't the ideal situation, but Cole knew she would have to use the time she had to rest. She collapsed into herself, letting her breathing even out and her eyes close as she tried to think of any possible way out of the palace if Tanwyn didn't return. Her brain felt like it was melting in her skull and she just wished that she could disappear into the shadows and not exist for at least a few minutes. But that wasn't an option. She had to face the circumstances and be prepared to run when the time came.

She was just letting the muscles in her shoulders finally relax when she heard a rustling somewhere behind her. Her eyes flew open even though she could see nothing underneath the building.

"Meegan?" she whispered.

"What?" Meegan's voice came from her side, nowhere near where the rustling was. Cole spun around, facing the noise. Now she heard rasping breathing, hitched and uneven, like that of a monster from stories meant to frighten children. Cole's mind raced with images of sharp teeth and long claws.

"There's something in here with us," Cole said, gripping the handle of her dagger and brandishing it into the darkness.

Meegan sighed. "Of course there is, you idiot. I already told you that Tanwyn gave me the prisoner to get to safety. She can't run, so I put her here while I went to look for him."

"A prisoner?" Cole asked, and for the first time she actually focused on what Meegan had told her. "Tanwyn took a prisoner out from the dungeons?"

"Yes. I already told you this."

Cole ignored her, instead lurching forward and groping in the darkness until her hand hit the flesh of someone's arm. It was impossibly thin and felt rough with grime, but Cole didn't care at all. She had been covered in worse down in the mines. She ran her hand up the arm to the face, where she felt tangled hair and a face that was drawn and thin. Her fingers traced the features and tears began to build in her eyes as she did. Her whole body shook as she felt the person hidden in the darkness in front of her.

"M-mother?" she gasped out, unable to stop the sobs that ripped up through her throat in an outpouring of every day she had spent alone and scared. "Mother, it's me, Cole," she yelled, whining as if she was a child who was overtired and scared.

"Cole?" a frail voice asked. "My... baby?"

"Yes, yes, it's me," Cole nodded, laughing and crying at the same time and not knowing at all what emotions she should be feeling because they were all bursting to come out of her at once.

Everything that had happened until this moment turned to nothing. All the lies, danger, anger, it dissolved as she felt her mother's face and knew that for the first time in far too long, she had a family.

"Oh, Mama," she said, pulling her mother close and resting her head on her shoulder. "I thought you were dead."

No answer came, and her mother remained stiff in her arms. It was if Cole was hugging a stranger who had enough pity for the strange emotional girl to not push her away, but did not want to return the affection. Cole pulled back, resting her hand once again against her mother's face to try and feel what expression was on her face. Was she smiling, sad? No, her lips were not curved and her cheeks did not rise. Her face was blank and vacant.

"What's the matter?" Cole asked, rubbing the tears from her face. "Are you all right?"

Meegan spoke from the darkness behind her. "She's not well," she said. "As in, her mind isn't all there. Tanwyn said she has moments where she speaks normally, but much of the time she stares at nothing. I never heard her say a peep until you spoke to her."

Cole pulled back but still held her mother's hand. Something began to burn in her stomach, roiling and burning like hot oil. Her hands shook and she suddenly wanted to jump up right then and there and charge back into the castle to demand to know where King Thijs was. She didn't care how many guards he had or if he was thousands of miles away, she would travel them all to destroy him like he had tried to destroy her mother. He had taken her mother away and then, even when Cole had gotten her back, he had managed to take her away yet again.

Meegan cleared her throat. "The prisoner is your mother?"

"Yes. She was taken when I was a child," Cole whispered.

"Why does Tanwyn want your mother? What use is she to him?"

"I don't know," Cole replied, and it was the truth. What value could her mother possibly hold for a faerie? She was just the wife of an ordinary man, a mother of an ordinary girl. Why was it that not only King Thijs, but also Tanwyn, wanted her mother so badly? What had she done to end up in the royal dungeons and be rescued by a faerie with magic and assassinations?

Cole sighed. "We'll have to ask Tanwyn when he gets back."