A Court Bright and Broken (Age of Fae #1)

43. Promise Me

Stellon

I paced the length of my room, where I’d been locked, under guard.

Armed soldiers stood outside the door, inside the hidden passageway, and even on my balcony as well as on the ground below it.

My father had ordered that I remain incarcerated here until the wedding ceremony.

Just thinking of his smug face and victorious tone had me ripping the remaining drapes from the windows and tearing the last intact pillow in half.

Feathers puffed up into the air then fell gently to the floor where they joined the innards of the other pillows and the down-stuffed bed covering.

Some warrior I am, battling bed linens.

I felt so impotent. I had failed to keep my promise to protect Raewyn. Now she was back in the dungeon and destined for a life as a concubine.

Apparently she would be allowed to live.

For some reason, when Pharis had betrayed me, he’d left out mention of Raewyn’s involvement with the Earthwife and her plot to assassinate us.

Perhaps, like our father, he’d wanted to keep a little something in his pocket to blackmail me with for the rest of our lives.

I punched the bedroom wall that kept me trapped, breaking a hole in the plaster as well as a few bones in my hand. The pain was nothing compared to the way I felt inside.

It killed me that I could do nothing to punish the evil Earthwife for causing this mess—and even worse, nothing to protect the woman I loved.

Exhausted and defeated, I sank to the floor. The resulting breeze lifted a few of the feathers, causing them to whirl in a taunting dance around me.

I closed my eyes and pictured Raewyn in the dark dungeon, cold and afraid for her life. Grief poured over my heart, as thick and black as tar.

A brief rap at my bedroom door caused me to lift my head.

It opened, and none other than Pharis the traitor stepped inside. He had the gall to appear concerned.

“I came as soon as I heard,” he said, rushing over to me.

Then he looked around at the carnage of my room. “What the shaded stars happened in here? Did one of Mareth’s wild animals invade your suite?”

Clambering to my feet, I took a swing at him, meaning to punch him in the jaw. He ducked out of the way, leaving my fist to connect with nothing but air.

“What was that for?” he shouted.

I tried again, attempting to fell him with a right hook, and failing as he dived to the side.

Pharis had always been quicker than me, and it didn’t help that I hadn’t slept in more than a day. I felt almost drunk with exhaustion, staggering from the momentum of the swing I’d failed to land.

My brother stepped close and grabbed one of my wrists, moving quickly behind me and pinning my arm behind my back. I was effectively immobilized and spitting mad.

“You traitor. You absolute bastard,” I hissed through teeth locked in a grimace.

“What’s gotten into you?” he asked. “Why are you insulting me and trying to take my head off? I came to check on you. I heard Father’s soldiers caught you in the stables with Raewyn.”

I let out a bitter laugh. “You heard , did you? I’m not an idiot. You’re the one who told him, you turncoat.”

Pharis relaxed his hold on me just a bit—not enough to allow me to turn around and fight him again.

“It wasn’t me,” he said over my shoulder.

When I responded with an incredulous, “Ha,” he repeated the lie.

“It wasn’t. I made you a promise, Stellon, and I kept it. I don’t know how he found out about her.”

I swear to you, brother, on our dear mother’s name… I told no one.

The mind-to-mind vow stilled me.

How did he find out then? I asked.

I don’t know. After I left here last night I went right to my chambers. I didn’t even see anyone. Even if I had, I never would have told Father. You know I’d never betray you like that.

Feeling the fight drain out of my body, Pharis let me go.

I turned to face him, seeing the same sincerity in his eyes I’d heard in his mental voice.

“What am I going to do?” I asked. “I promised her I’d keep her safe.”

“Where is she now?” he asked.

“In the dungeon. After the wedding, he’s planning to install her in my new retinue–or his own.”

“The wedding? What wedding?”

“Mine.” I let out a tired breath. “To Lady Glenna of House Lalor.”

Pushing my hands into my hair, I began pacing again.

“It was all for nothing. Me asking you to use the matchmaker’s glamour, meeting Raewyn at the ball, keeping her hidden here…”

In a morose tone, I continued. “Falling in love with her. His Majesty King Pontus is still getting exactly what he wanted at the start of the Assemblage. For me to marry Glenna and cement his alliance with her father.”

I threw my hands out to the sides.

“Nothing’s changed—except for poor Raewyn, who’ll be kept captive her entire life,” I said. “That is, as long as he never finds out about the assassination plot—which he probably will. Obviously you’re not the only one who knows about her.”

I clenched my hands so hard the nails pierced the skin, and my broken hand screamed in pain.

“She’ll be right there within his reach when that deadly secret finally does reach his ears, in danger of losing her head every day, every moment. It’s all my fault,” I moaned.

“How is it your fault?” Pharis asked.

“She was asking me to help her get home from the moment I took her out of the dungeon,” I said. “I kept telling her it was too dangerous, but I could have done what I tried to do last night, used the secret passageways and snuck her out during the night. The truth is I didn’t want to let her go and used the danger of discovery as an excuse to keep her around.”

“You don’t know it would have worked any better then,” Pharis said. “Her ankle was sprained, right?”

“Yes, but I could still have made it work—if I’d wanted to. Now I’ve doomed her.”

Dropping my head, I rubbed my achy eyes and tried to keep the impending tears from leaking out in front of my brother.

“The last place she needs to be is here in Father’s crosshairs, as his bargaining chip,” I said. “But I’ve lost my chance to set her free.”

“You really do love her, don’t you?” he asked.

I bobbed my head up and down, unable to speak.

There was a long pause before Pharis spoke again.

“I can do it.”

My head popped back up. “Do what?”

“Free her. I can get her out of the dungeon and back to her village,” he said. “If that’s not far enough away, I’ll take her somewhere else. Somewhere Father will never find her—in case the assassin story does get out.”

A flicker of hope stirred in my heart. “You’d do that?”

“Of course. It’s what you want, isn’t it? Her freedom, her safety,” my brother said.

“More than anything. But how?”

“Simple,” he said. “I’ll borrow whatever glamour I need to extract her from the dungeon and then ride her out of here on Dargan. He can carry the two of us for days if needs be.”

“No one will ever suspect me of having sympathy for a human,” he added in a droll tone.

“What if you’re caught?” I asked, filled with a strange mixture of fresh hope for Raewyn and worry for Pharis.

“I won’t be,” he said. “No one cares what I do around here. One of the actual advantages of being the second son is that no one’s watching my every move.”

I’d always loved my younger brother, but never quite so much as in this moment. My eyes stung with unshed tears.

“Thank you.”

I put my hands on his shoulders and met his gaze straight on. “From the bottom of my heart, thank you. I don’t know how I’ll ever repay you. You’re going to have to act fast, though. They’ll be coming to get her tomorrow after the wedding.”

“Then I’ll do it tonight,” he said with a smile. “Don’t worry, brother, this will work. I’ll keep her safe.”

He was almost to the door when something occurred to me.

“Pharis?”

My brother turned back, his hand on the door knob.

“Yes?”

“Father’s not going to be happy when he discovers she’s gone. He planned to use her as leverage to keep me in line. I wouldn’t put it past him to use his royal truth-finder to interrogate me about where she might be.”

“Yeah, you’re right. I can see him doing that. So…” Pharis said, waiting for the rest.

It almost choked me to say it, but I had to.

“If I don’t know her location, I won’t be able to reveal it—even under torture. So when you get back… you can’t tell me where she is.”

I would never see Raewyn again, but at least I’d know she was safe.

Pharis looked surprised. “Are you sure?”

“I’m sure. You can’t tell anyone where she is—ever,” I said. “Not even me. Not even if I beg. Promise me.”

After a long moment, during which he held my pleading gaze, Pharis nodded in agreement and made a vow mind-to-mind.

I promise… I will never tell.

Thank you for reading A Kingdom Bright and Broken . I hope you loved it!