Iron hands gripped my arms, threatening to cut off my blood supply. My heartbeat thrummed in my ears, and I struggled to breathe. The guards hauled me upright, their faces revealing no hint of kindness.
"Take her to the dungeons." King Erik's voice was riddled with disgust, but I could detect no concern for the well-being of his son.
"Wait!" I cried as they moved to drag me away. "I don't understand." I struggled against their grip.
Flames lit in the king's eyes. The strength of his blow caught me off guard. Stars danced in my vision, and the taste of blood filled my mouth. If not for the support of the soldiers at my sides, I would have fallen.
"How dare you?" He fisted a handful of my hair, hauling my head up to meet his gaze. "You're nothing more than a street-side whore, and you dared to try to seduce my son. Did you think I was ignorant of your ploy? If you've killed my son, believe me, I'll make you beg for death before I give it to you."
My heart stopped. Killed—killed his son? He thought I—my brain went blank. How could he imagine such a thing? Fear overcame any confusion I'd had. If he believed I was behind whatever had happened to Aidan, there was nothing I could say that would convince him otherwise. I would be executed without trial.
"Get her out of my sight, and have no mercy." King Erik spat disgustedly. "I don't imagine I need to teach you how to properly welcome someone who threatens your monarch."
Unable to stop myself, I called out desperately: "Wait!"
The guards paid no attention to my call, however. Without even pausing to see the king's reaction, they practically carried me through the doors. My mouth was a dry desert, and my memory of the route they took was nothing more than a blur. I didn't know what the punishment was for making an attempt on a royal's life, but I knew that I was about to find out. They wouldn't care if I were innocent or not. I had no voice or position to do anything about my situation.
The smell hit me before I realized where we were, and I became aware of my surroundings again. It was cold. The light was dim and artificial. We were below ground: the dungeons.
"There should be an empty cell on the east corridor." One of the guards said, his voice abnormally loud in the dark.
"We'll be stringing her up first." The other guard's voice was gravelly.
"Won't his majesty want a public interrogation?" The first man said.
"That doesn't mean we can't have a bit of fun with her first." The gravelly voice was sadistic.
I shrank at the humor in his tone. Any last hope I'd been holding onto for a bit of mercy or kindness from one of them was extinguished.
The first man snickered a little. "It'll make it easier if we get a confession out of her early."
A grunt of agreement followed, and before I knew what was happening, they'd dragged my limp body into a wide, well-lit room. They dropped me onto the floor, and the overwhelming scent of rotting human flesh and blood violently invaded my senses. I struggled not to vomit.
A pair of shackles was roughly clasped around my wrists, and a clattering, clanking sound filled my ears. I cried out involuntarily as my arms were jerked above my head. The chains went taught, and I clambered onto my feet to avoid the brutal pain. The pulling didn't stop, however, until my feet were dangling just above the ground.
My breath whistled through my lungs, and I struggled not to cry. Terror was my only friendly companion in the eerie light. I knew intimately the extent of Madame and Adella's treatment. They wanted to hurt me, but they wouldn't hurt me enough to kill me. Here, I had the instinctive feeling that I would plea for death before my wishes were granted.
One of the men drew a steel rod off the wall. It was the same sort that had been used on Kotaro, and the image of his battered frame flashed through my brain. He had suffered and borne the pain with nothing more than grunts. There would be no one to stop my beating, though.
"Going easy on her, I see?" The guard with the gravelly voice said.
"She's small. It won't take much to get her talking." The other man shrugged, running a finger down the length of the rod. "How long do you think it'll be before she tells everything she knows?"
"I bet a pint I can get it in under five swings." His chuckle sent tremors down my spine.
The other man laughed and handed over the rod. "You're on. I didn't particularly want to do anything strenuous today anyway."
The big man gripped the steel rod, a devilish smile on his face. I wanted to tell them that their bet was for nothing, because I had nothing to confess, but my voice wouldn't come. They wouldn't have listened to me, either.
"I'm going to enjoy this." The big man chuckled, winding up to strike.
I shut my eyes tightly, trying to prepare myself. Nothing could have readied me for the strength of the blow. Involuntarily, I cried out in pain as I felt the steel meet my back. My eyes snapped open, and I gasped for air. The guard had moved right in front of me, and his gleeful eyes caught mine as he prepared to strike again.
There was no warning buzz this time to warn me. One moment, there was terrible pain and a sense of impending doom as the guard smiled at me, and then, I was gone.
I felt all the air leave my lungs as I spiraled into the eerily familiar vision world. The well-lit expanse of the interrogation room disappeared into a dim, musty room. It was colder, too, if that was possible.
A big man was standing in front of me, his shadow casting an eerie shape on the wall. He was looking down at a crumpled shape on the other side of the room. As my eyesight adjusted, I recognized the shape to be a small, human figure.
"Get up, boy." The big man's voice filled the small room, and I jumped.
The figure stirred and crawled out of the corner. In the dim light, I could see that his legs were bloodied and bruised—beaten so brutally he couldn't stand. The boy's face came into the light, and I gasped. Young as he was, I could clearly recognize Kotaro's eyes looking up at the speaker. As familiar as his face was, however, the image he made was entirely foreign to me. His emotions were plainly written across his face. There was no mask, no wall in place.
"I'm not sorry." He said through gritted teeth. His voice was raw with emotion. He had changed so much.
Without a word, the big man struck him full across the face. I sucked in a breath as Kotaro's entire body jerked with the force of the blow. Lifting his head again, Kotaro looked his attacker right in the eyes, blood dribbling from his lips. There were tears in his eyes.
"You are nothing more than a piece of useless garbage. I should have left you to die as the murderer you are." The big man's voice was vaguely familiar.
Kotaro ducked his head. I had never seen him so submissive...except. Bile flooded my throat. The "big" man was King Erik. Apparently, his brutality toward his son had started long ago.
"I've saved your life. What do you say, boy?" King Erik's voice was flooded with contempt.
"Thank you." Kotaro's voice was so small, and my heart broke at the sight of him.
"Good boy." King Erik snorted. "Get him up and feed him. I have use for him."
Another shadowed figure pulled Kotaro upright. He couldn't stand properly, but he tried. and I watched the struggle not to wince pass over his features. How many times had I suffered that same war within myself? I felt tears well within my eyes at the sight of him. Alongside the sadness a fierce protectiveness blossomed. King Erik was nothing more than a monster disguised as a man. He'd beaten Kotaro down since the very beginning.
King Erik reached forward and jabbed Kotaro's shoulder, causing the boy to pitch backwards painfully. "Don't try to be strong in front of me, boy. You are nothing. The sooner you learn that, the better your life will be. It would have been better if you had died."
Logically knowing I could do nothing, I reached out to stop him as he drew back a foot to drive into Kotaro's ribs. A bright flash of light blinded me, and I felt as if I were bodily pulled away. I cried out, trying to stop myself, but my voice was swallowed into a spiraling void. I wanted to stay there, to be with that battered, broken boy. I couldn't do anything to help him, but I knew what it was like to feel alone, and for such a young child, I didn't want him to experience the same.
"You're just going to stand there and not do anything, aren't you?" The voice jerked me to a stop.
This time, I was in a bright, sunlit room. Big, open windows let in a fresh breeze. Ayan was lounging lazily on top of a table in the center of the room, cleaning his nails with a dagger.
"I know you're loyal, but do you have to do every single blasted thing he wants without questions?" He heaved a sigh.
Movement from the corner of my eye drew my attention as Kotaro noiselessly crossed the room toward the windows. As he passed Ayan, he raised a single brow in mute response.
"Okay, okay, I get it, but marriage? And to the lady witch herself?" Ayan pulled a face. "I'd sooner let the executioner have his way with me than be chained to her for the rest of my days."
"He still sees me as a threat." Kotaro said. "Marrying into Lady Mallory's family means political death. There's no hope to gain power from it."
Ayan cursed, raking a hand through his hair. "He's selling you to the devil to make sure you can't get to the throne. Can't he see that's not what you want?"
"Apparently, I haven't done enough." Kotaro said.
"What more could he possibly want?" Ayan growled. "Maybe you should just do what he's afraid of."
Kotaro sighed, his chest seeming to cave in on itself. His midnight black hair had been nearly done but was now tousled from his hands raking through it. He looked tired—no, exhausted.
"Don't be ridiculous." He banded his arms across his chest and leaned against the window frame.
"We'd all stand behind you." Ayan pushed himself up onto an elbow, his tone deathly serious. "If you so much as made a single move, half the court would—"
"Ayan." Kotaro looked at his friend, his tone suggesting the conversation had already taken place many times.
"How can you not even show one bit of human selfish ambition?" Ayan seemed almost exasperated. "You could have it all! It could be you on that throne instead of standing behind it like a submissive hound."
"I don't want it." Kotaro's voice was flat and emotionless.
"But—" Ayan started.
Without another word, Kotaro hooked a leg over the windowsill and fairly threw himself out.
"Crazy bastard." Ayan muttered. "You couldn't just say you were done with the conversation?" He flopped back on the table and looked me directly in the eye, his brows drawing together as if he could see me.
I was taken aback, but before I could respond, the familiar buzzing began again with violent force. I barely had time to draw a breath as I was pulled away.
The bright sunlight disappeared. Pain overwhelmed my senses, and I groaned.
"His majesty will have fun with this one. She barely made a sound." The gravelly voice was loud in my ears.
Unable to stop myself, a cry escaped my lips as a hand gripped my side, sending shocks of pain through my body.
"At least she's still alive." The other man said. "I thought we might have gone too far."
"What does it matter? It's not as if the king will let her live anyway." The gravelly voice chuckled.
My feet trailed uselessly across the ground as they dragged me. I tried to open my eyes to see what was happening, but I couldn't see anything. The world was dark and cold, and I felt nothing but intense pain. How long had I been gone?
A loud scraping noise echoed through my mind. The guards slung me carelessly onto the floor. Waves of pain crashed through my body, and I cried out. The guards' chuckles were followed by the sound of their receding footsteps. The grating sound resounded again, ending in the crash of a door being shut.
Silence. Terrifying, all-encompassing silences reigned. I pulled myself half upright, feeling around in the darkness for any clue as to where I was. My fingers closed around the cold steel of a bar. I was locked in a cell.
A soft, rustling sound met my ears, and I jerked my head toward the sound, ignoring the pain it caused me. Terror conquered me, and I began to shiver uncontrollably. Blood oozed out of my broken flesh, and my throat felt as though it were constricting upon itself. I coughed, and the answering pain broke down the last of my courage. Tears flooded out of my eyes as I began to sob.
I was alone. Again. Una could do nothing to help me in face of the king's accusations, and Aidan was quite possibly dead. Madame would simply wash her hands of my existence. In fact, it wouldn't surprise me if she made some foolish claim that I was the cause of the prince's death.
Once my tears started, I couldn't seem to stop them. I didn't have the energy to wipe them away, either, so they flowed from my unseeing eyes down the length of my neck until they disappeared into the fold of my gown. My fear and pain conquered me until I was close to hysteria. There was no way out for me except death.
Regret blossomed within me, adding to my tears. I would never get to read my father's last goodbye. I'd been so foolish to wait, and now, my chance was gone. The letter itself had probably disappeared, and I would never see it again.
The shuffling sound of footsteps met my ears, and my sobs cut off in a choke. Were the men back to beat me again? Or could it be something worse?
"Who's there?" The words came unbidden to my lips. My voice was so small.
No answer.
"Please, who's there?" My heartbeat thundered in my ears, and I went rigid, listening for any further clue.
A soft footfall just outside my prison bars made me jerk backwards. Ignoring the pain, I tried to push further away from whoever was there. My tears began to flow again. My doom had arrived.
"Sh. Stop moving. You're hurting yourself more." I stopped at the sound of the voice. It was vaguely familiar, and I dug through the recesses of my memory to find the owner.
"Who are you?" I said, my voice barely above a whisper as I tried to hold back my tears.
"Did you forget crying doesn't change anything?" The memories flooded back as the scent of sage collided with my nostrils.
The man in the dark that had hidden me from those noblemen. It seemed like a lifetime ago now. I'd almost completely forgotten about his existence. I relaxed slightly, but I couldn't stop my trembling.
"Why are you here?" I asked.
There was a heavy sigh in the darkness. "I have a favor to return." His voice was quiet and soothing.
"Are you going to help those men?" I whispered.
"No, they won't harm you again." He said. "I came to see what was done. I'm sorry I'm so late."
A tear seeped down my cheek, and I blinked my unseeing eyes quickly to keep the rest at bay. I was no longer alone.
"The king will publicly interrogate you soon." He said softly. "You should prepare yourself. I'm trying to figure out a way around it, but if I fail, you need to be ready to face worse than a simple beating."
The soft sound of retreating footsteps met my ears. My hysteria returned in full force, and I pushed myself across the dungeon floor. Pain was nothing in the face of being left alone.
"Wait!" The word came out a strangled wail. "Don't go!"
I shoved my hand between the prison bars as though I could stop him. Like a person possessed, I flailed my arm wildly about, trying to find him. If I could just get him to stay for a moment longer...
There was nothing. He was gone. I was all alone again.
"Please." I whimpered, my arm stilling.
The darkness surrounded me like a hungry predator, and I felt the warmth of tears in my eyes. He'd told me to prepare myself for something worse than this, but I couldn't imagine what could possibly be worse. I was alone, in pain, blind, and chilled to the bone. There was nothing left for me. I wilted where I lay.
As my hand dropped, it came in contact with something sturdy. Fingers closed over mine, and the warmth of human flesh filled me with something akin to hope.
Whoever he was, he didn't speak a word. He just held my hand as though he'd never let go. In the reigning darkness, his presence was more than enough. Sleep overcame me. Uncomfortable and cold as I was, with him beside me, I felt safe.
—————————————————————————
Aaaannd he's back! Who is this strange guy? Any theories? I'm really excited for the next few chapters. You have no idea what we're about to get into, man! XD
Guys, I just finished midterms, and I have the rest of the weekend off. Are you ready for a bajillion updates?!?!?! I'm so excited!! I haven't had this much time to free write in what seems like forever, so let me just say: prepare your souls!!!!