Chapter 22
Chapter Twenty-Two
BELLAMY
“ A toast!” Jerome said.
The pixies held up their crystal glasses of dark wine.
Wesley took a sip from his glass. “Yes, a toast!”
The wine had loosened him up considerably. While everyone else had been drinking, I’d been pouring mine into the potted plant next to me.
They hadn’t lied about the view. The jungle spread out down below, and from here we could see the sprawling canopies of palm trees, rubber trees, ipe trees with their beautiful pale blossoms. The ocean water lapped against the black-sand shores, everything so peaceful and calm. From up here, you wouldn’t even know of the shadows lurking under the canopies, of the powerful objects littering the jungle, waiting to be used. I wondered where my brothers were right now, what they were doing. Hopefully they’d found a nice pond to rest.
“Are you going to give an actual toast?” Wesley snapped at Jerome, who had been waxing on about how delicious the wine was.
“Ah, yes.” Jerome rose higher in the air. “Right.”
Driscoll, Leoni, and I raised our glasses dutifully.
“A toast to new beginnings.”
Wesley wrinkled his nose. “What new beginning? How drunk are you?”
“Very,” Jerome slurred, pinching the end of his mustache. “But maybe this is the start of guests and parties and finally repopulating this court and the castle.”
“You are drunker than I realized.” Wesley rolled his eyes. “That’s never going to happen. Not unless Master Kairoth finally gets all those—” He yelped, clapping a hand over his mouth.
Leoni gasped. “The sunset!” She stood. “Let’s take our wine over there. I want to hear about these different places in the shadow court. Where do most of the pixies live?”
Wesley was already flying over to the side terrace, Jerome following him while trying to carry his large glass of wine.
Leoni shot a look back at me, widening her eyes meaningfully. Now would be my chance. The pixies were drunk and distracted, and like she’d said, the sun was setting. Kairoth would be awake soon.
When all their backs were turned, I snuck away and toward the door that led into a tower.
It didn’t take long to navigate my way down the tower and toward the curtained off part of the castle. I stopped in front of the curtain, not sure what I’d find when I drew it aside. I reached out a shaky hand and pushed it open, then stepped inside to complete darkness. I felt my way along the wall, hard, rough stone meeting my hands. I made my way along the dark corridor slowly.
It was quiet, so quiet I could hear my own heart beating, my slow breaths. This wasn’t going to work. If I couldn’t see anything, this entire plan would be for no reason. I should’ve come more prepared, but I didn’t dare go back to find a candle or lantern. Not when I might run into a suspicious pixie. I had no idea how many of them were working in this castle.
And we wouldn’t be able to trick Jerome and Wesley like this a second time. I couldn’t waste this opportunity, so I forged on in complete darkness, not even sure what I was looking for. What could Kairoth be hiding in this part of the castle?
The weapons, maybe? I couldn’t believe he’d be that much of a fool. Surely he’d keep the weapons in a more secure location that wasn’t just curtained off.
My foot hit air, and down I went, tumbling over stairs that banged against my back, my head, my legs. I couldn’t stop myself, falling fast and hard until I finally landed at the bottom and caught myself with my hands. I held back a cry, sucking in a sharp breath at the pain. It reverberated up my arms, and I clenched my teeth, squeezing my eyes shut and waiting for the waves of fire lighting my hands to pass. I took a few slow, steady breaths, the pain finally subsiding enough that I could notice other things.
Must and mold filled the air. I must’ve fallen down into a dungeon of some sort. That was what it smelled like. Not clean and fresh like the other parts of the castle. But old. Uncared for. Like no one came down here.
So what was Kairoth hiding?
I swallowed, taking deep breaths in and out to calm my hammering heart and my throbbing hands.
“Who goes there?” a raspy voice called out in the dark.
I stiffened.
The voice was feminine, and it sounded tired, alone. Frightened. I immediately felt a protectiveness over this person, though I didn’t know why.
“I know someone is there,” the voice said again.
It was too dark. She wouldn’t be able to see me, and I couldn’t see her. But maybe I could still make it clear she was right, that someone was here.
“Is it you?” Her voice turned dark. “You haven’t come to see me in ages. So if you’re here, it must be because you need something. Or maybe you’re feeling guilty over what you did to me? How you betrayed me? How you betrayed all of us?”
I stiffened. Kairoth... betrayal. Could she be a shadow elemental? Someone who survived after he killed everyone else? Maybe he took her shadow and trapped her, but why would he do that? Why not just kill her? I bit the inside of my cheek, unable to make sense of any of this.
“You know I will find a way out eventually. And once I do, you’re going to pay for this. You will pay for all of this.”
My hands found the bars, and I winced.
Cold hands wrapped around mine, and I jumped back, startled by the contact.
“You’re not him,” the voice said. “So who are you?”
I wished so badly I could say something. Instead I swallowed and waited. Not being able to speak had taught me that many times all I had to do was stay silent. People loved to tell me things, to reveal things. They tended to view me as something like a box, where they could tuck away all their secrets, desires, fears.
“Okay, fine,” the voice said. “You’re clearly not going to tell me who you are or why you’re down here. Are you another prisoner who’s escaped?”
I stayed quiet, and she made a frustrated grunt.
“You know, I’ve been trapped here a very long time. It’s enough to make a person go mad. Maybe that was the whole point. To make me go crazy and forget what he did to me. That he betrayed me.” She scoffed. “But I could never forget. Not him or the others who crossed me. If only I could see you, see your face. See something other than the dark.”
That could be possible if I brought a lantern down here, but I wasn’t sure I wanted her to see me. I almost liked the secrecy of this. If I kept visiting her, kept making my presence known, maybe she’d start to trust me, reveal who she was and why she was down here, and then, I could make a decision about freeing her. After all, if she was an enemy of Kairoth’s, that could make her an ally of mine.
“Will you come back?” she asked suddenly, and I jumped. “It’s so nice to have someone to talk to, even if you won’t talk back. Just knowing you’re on the other side of these bars gives me some comfort.”
Chains rattled as she shifted, and I realized she wasn’t just trapped behind bars. She was likely chained to the wall. As punishment or because she was so dangerous that she had to be further restrained?
I retreated toward the stairs I’d fallen down, already knowing that I would be back, and when I was, I would get some answers.