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For each day that dragged by, Audrey grew increasingly restless. She started to pace, trying to stop the mad frenzy that was threatening to sweep over and take over her mind and body. Sometimes she just wanted to sit down and laugh at her life until she choked on her own laughter, unable to breathe anymore.
She knew her treatment was better than others. She had a screen around her privy and they had dragged a bedframe and mattress down on the first day, covered in soft blankets so she didn't have to sleep on the stone blocks that the other prisoners did.
"This is the king's mercy?" she demanded of the two men who had brought it down, but they just walked out without looking at her. "Tell him to come down and face me himself!"
In her frustration, she had kicked and torn at the mattress and slept on the bare bedframe every day since.
Sometimes she heard the faint yelling of the other prisoners, mostly prisoners of war, calling out to each other, and even the screams of people being interrogated on the torture rack further down the dungeons. Their cries were full of agony and Audrey curled up whenever she heard them, pressing her hands to her ears against the tortured, haunting sounds.
She saw Jasper walking past her cell to get to the torture room every day, blood often smeared across the knife he carried, and always shrank away. He noticed her staring on the third day and smirked at her as he walked past.
She sat in silence, trying to keep hold of her thoughts.
I will not go mad, I will not go mad, I will not go mad.
"I want to see Malena," Audrey said to the guard on duty outside.
He didn't make any sign of having heard, his face remaining impassive.
She turned away and played with her thumbs until she heard a scratch as a plate of food was slid under the cell door. She glanced over to see that, like usual, they hadn't given her a knife. When she kicked it over, the guard simply looked away.
When did my life get so messed up?
A few hours later, she woke from a nap to the sound of footsteps, some whispered words, and someone unlocking the door.
"Audrey." Ethelind stood over her, her face emotionless.
"Ethelind," Audrey replied. She reached for her metal chalice and threw it at Ethelind's head. Ethelind nimbly dodged, letting it hit the wall behind her.
"His Majesty King Landon wants to see you," Ethelind said as if nothing had happened, offering Audrey her hand.
Audrey didn't take it and stood by herself.
I will not let myself be weak or naïve. I am Audrey, daughter of King Lucian. The sole heir to the throne. My family is dead, but I won't end up like them. I won't die. I will live and have my vengeance, she told herself. The same words she had repeated in her mind ever since she had been put in the cell.
"Come on," Ethelind said, gesturing for Audrey to follow her.
"Dungeon duty now?" Audrey asked, unable to resist the urge to prod at her pride. "What happened to being the king's adviser? Does Landon have no respect for you?" She smiled coldly. "How low you've fallen."
She was satisfied when she saw a flash of anger in Ethelind's expression.
"Come on," she repeated stiffly.
Audrey obliged, following Ethelind out past the other prisoners, some pressed against their bars to watch her. She rubbed her eyes as they left the dungeons, squinting against the bright light outside. The dungeons were located at the end of a long corridor with stone walls covered in silk tapestries and portraits, windows and busts set at regular intervals between them. They walked in silence, passing the noisy clamour and heat of the kitchens, and turned into the Main Hall where the grand staircase loomed to their left, illuminated by the stained glass above.
She heard murmurs as she walked past, people moving to the side as she came through after Ethelind.
She spotted one person in the crowd watching her almost sadly with his green eyes, shaking his head. Tyrek. She opened her mouth, wanting to tell him how she should have escaped earlier, but he just turned and walked off.
"Keep moving," Ethelind said as she slowed down.
Audrey stopped walking in answer. Ethelind paused.
The murmurs stopped.
"Keep moving," Ethelind repeated.
"I don't take orders from you," Audrey said. She didn't want to admit that she was too tired to go on.
"What's going on here?" a voice asked, and they turned to see Jax assessing them with narrowed eyes.
"The king wants to see her," Ethelind explained.
"I can take her," Jax said.
"No," Ethelind said stubbornly. "The king instructed me to take her to him."
"Not anymore. The king received a letter he wants you to see. He has ordered you to go to your chambers to read it. He had a servant leave it on your desk," Jax said.
Ethelind gave one last look at Audrey before spinning around and marching down the corridors towards the Western tower, her cloak billowing behind her.
Jax's eyes fixed on Audrey, and he pointed his sword at her.
"Get moving," he ordered.
Audrey didn't do anything.
Jax sighed. "I will either drag you there or you can walk there yourself."
She walked at an even pace at first before she saw the emptiness of her surroundings and couldn't handle it anymore. She broke into a run, overtaking Jax and running for the Eastern Tower, heading through an archway into a cylindrical room with a stained-glass dome resting overhead, spraying them with dancing colours. A spiral staircase with an intricately carved banister ascended towards it, twisting around a pillar. She clung to the banister as she rushed up to the single door that the staircase stopped at, made of heavy mahogany with a brass knocker shaped like a wolf. Two men of the King's Guard waited outside, their spears pointed up and their eyes staring ahead.
Audrey threw herself against the door, the two guards on either side exchanging a look but not stopping her as she fumbled with the heavy brass bolt.
Jax watched her humiliate herself for a moment before walking forwards and opening the door for her. She walked in and, forcing herself to exhale, entered the foyer. The room was sparsely decorated, but a pair of double doors leading to the right of Audrey's vision blocked off an extravagant bedroom. Although the design was austere, it was subtly powerful, with deliberate precision. It didn't need an excess of furniture or decorations when the interior was purposeful in its own simplistic way. The armchairs were velvety and a violent purple, the hearth guarded by snarling wolves, and the desk and chair were high, giving it an appearance of menace and power.
"He's in there." Jax nodded to the double doors. "I will be outside."
Her hand reached up and stayed there as Jax watched, saying nothing. Audrey wouldn't admit she was scared, so she knocked before walking in, shutting the door behind her.
The room was cold, and she shivered as she stepped in. Hunter lay asleep on the windowsill, his tail curled around his body, and the room was full of bookshelves with a large map covering the south side of the wall. Some smaller sketches of maps lay across the desk, drawn in Landon's own hand. They were quite good, she realised as she looked closer.
"Soon you are going to be publicly accused as a suspect for killing my father. You are going to deny it, and then will not intervene with the guard we choose to accuse."
She turned to him. He was sitting horizontally on a sofa, his legs stretched out before him and his head resting on his right hand, a glass of wine in his left. He was slowly turning it, letting the red liquid swirl around, creating a whirlpool.
"Then the guard would be hung," Audrey said.
"Do I care? Do you care?"
"You killed him." Audrey forced the words out of her, although she was doubting them more.
"Did I really?" Landon just seemed amused by her accusation. "Then where's your proof?"
"I don't need proof. The fact you're going to lie about it says enough."
Landon shrugged. "Do you really think that I would kill my father? Truthfully, I just need the case cleared up."
"Don't you want to know who really did it?"
"Life will continue either way. The food tasters have been replaced and people questioned, but no answers yielded."
Audrey's eyes moved to a lute propped against a chest in the corner of his room. The question was at the tip of the tongue, but she couldn't say it, she wouldn't...
"Can you play it?" It slipped out, a complete change of subject.
She registered the surprise on his face, then saw it change to unease. "What?"
"The lute." Her cheeks turned pink.
"Yes." Landon's gaze moved over to the instrument, then back to her. He seemed to want to say something else, but he didn't.
Everyone feels emotion. If he is broken, then fix him, Lachlan had said to her.
"What do you want?"
"Depends on what you mean."
"I am talking about what you want to achieve from all this. Do you really think you can rule?"
Landon paused, then gestured at the armchair opposite the sofa. "Sit."
Audrey sat, watching him stand and come back with a wooden chess board which he set on the low table between them.
"Black or white?" Landon asked.
"That has nothing to do with what I asked."
Landon was silent.
"White," Audrey decided. White moves first.
With quick and slender fingers Landon set up the board, the black pieces on his side and the white on hers. Once he was done, Audrey leaned forward and moved her queen's pawn. Landon moved his knight in response. Audrey could feel her heart pounding, as if the game were more important than it was. She had always won against Thomas and had learnt her tricks from watching Lucian, who always defeated her.
Landon moved his other knight. Audrey moved her knight and bishop before she castled on the king's side. After a few more moves were exchanged, Landon castled on his queen's side, a move Audrey rarely saw in the opposition, but she didn't let it throw her off.
"How do you know how to play?" Audrey asked, hoping to distract him while he looked down at the board, contemplating his next move. His fingers lingered above a bishop and Audrey could almost see the reasoning going on behind his mind, the moves he was considering as he pondered every option. Then he moved his knight to help gain control over the centre. Audrey had space to take his undefended knight with her bishop but realised it was a trap too late. He took her bishop with his queen, threatening one of her knights and taking more central control.
"Aldric introduced it to me." Landon's response was curt, his eyes not meeting hers. Audrey didn't flinch at the name, but it stung inside.
"Thomas introduced it to me." Audrey paused. "Then Lucian." She moved her knight back. "All three of them are dead."
"Misfortune falls upon us all."
"Yet some of us are luckier." At that Landon looked up, but Audrey couldn't read his expression, so she looked back down at the board, seeing what piece he had moved. She realised she was in a bad position. His pieces had control over the centre of the board and were forcing hers back.
Checkmate in six moves, she thought, and knew that he could see it too.
"I resign," Audrey said, scanning the board for anything she could do.
"I thought you might." Landon sat back. "You are dismissed."
She stood, watching him carefully.
"What happened?" She couldn't help asking.
He looked down at the chessboard. "What do you mean?"
She gathered up all the nerve she had, trying to think of the right words to reach the person inside of him.
"To you. I sometimes see it in your face. Something destroyed you."
Landon froze before he stood, putting a hand near the sword sheathed at his side. "Get out." His tone was sharp.
"I want to understand." There was a tremor in her voice. "Who are you?"
A part of her wanted to push aside that tangle of dark knots inside him, to break through that mystery and darkness where no one else could.
But she wasn't a heroine in one of those books. This was a different world, and she was not a gracious, forgiving princess.
"You can't help me. No one can anymore," he breathed, his voice uneven.
She took a breath, trying to pull herself together. She didn't know what he was playing at.
"But I can help you. You can be my queen. You don't have to be afraid." His hand was cold against her warm cheek, and a finger gently trailed across her cheekbone, his tone reassuring and gentle. "We can make history. A Shadowhart and an Everwood." He moved his hand away and his voice dropped to a conspiratorial whisper, tempting to her ears and heart. "I won't let anyone touch you. The game is only over when you lose the queen."
She reminded herself of the boy who put a knife in a woman's throat without flinching. Who didn't flinch when he spoke of his brother's death. Who held his father's head in his arms as he choked to death without shedding a tear, then mercilessly ordered her thrown into the dungeons.
Who had looked at her with pure disgust the first time he had laid his eyes upon her.
A boy who was now looking at her as if she were the most beautiful thing she had ever seen.
It would be so easy to give in, even for nothing more than sweet lies.
No. He's a manipulator, and he's trying to get into your head to use you, she told herself, letting aversion take over. He only wants you for your status. The second you kneel before him, the North will bow to him too. That's what he needs.
She looked into his eyes and focused, thinking of the permanent darkness and resentment swirling behind the shield of crystal green, brown, and gold. The scar on his cheek, the weapon sheathed at his side.
It didn't matter if he had killed his father or not. Landon Shadowhart would destroy her if she let him.
"You're manipulating me." She took a step back. "Just like you do to everyone else."
His eyes froze to ice. "You don't think highly of me, do you?"
"No. I don't know what you are."
He turned away. "You're becoming different, too. Don't pretend that you aren't."
"But I'm not becoming you."
Silence. His fingers tapped the pommel of his sword in a steady pattern, his face hidden from her view.
"I used to be a lot like you," he muttered. "Isn't that strange? Maybe this is what losing people does to us. They become a part of us, and then their deaths kill that part of us."
"You should kill me."
"No. I'm not going to kill you." He turned back to face her, his lips twisting into a taunting smile. "You'll be my creation, Audrey."
She bristled. "You're lying to yourself now."
"But a killer is always a monster," he mocked, quoting her own words. "Isn't that what you told me, right after you killed Lachlan? We're both fucking messes, that's what you said."
The rage was rising in her, but she was helpless. She couldn't attack him while he had a weapon. Plus, Hunter had woken up and was quietly watching her, waiting for an opportunity to pounce. Her hands clenched into fists, but she stood still.
"Am I now betrothed to you?" she asked weakly.
"I need to keep my grip on power. And you have enemies here, Audrey." He shrugged. "They want to kill you, but I can protect you."
"I can protect myself," she snapped.
"Can you?"
"I am not fighting Ulysses." She raised her chin. "He is my cousin."
"So is Ethelind. You know Ulysses doesn't care for you at all; in his correspondence, he only asked after Lachlan and Malena. They all abandoned you, Audrey." He gave her an amused smile. "You're a person who still pretends honour exists, but it doesn't. Stop clinging to something that isn't there. Don't stand there and claim that I'm on the wrong side, that I'm the evil one, when Ulysses used a truce to kill Aldric. None of us are good, Audrey, and if you pretend to be, it will kill you in the end." He nodded to the door. "You are dismissed."
Audrey left the room as quickly as she could while keeping her dignity, feeling her heart pounding in her chest and her hands shaking slightly, unsure of what had just happened.
She was hardly aware when Jax took her arm and escorted her out, that time back to her chambers.
Landon is really difficult to write sometimes dfkljsahfkh
Love you all,
Shelly xx