Chapter 57
CHAPTER FIFTY-SEVEN
MORGANA
N o. No, he was lying. This was another lie. Another way to earn my obedience, since he’d lost my trust.
That didn’t stop me from blacking out. I remembered walking with him, mumbling about the Umbran Guard, but the rest was a blur. As if I’d fainted but walked all on my own. My head pounded, but the stinging in my wrists and aching of my bones had subsided. I clutched at the scratchy sheets over me, thin gauze covering both my wrists. I turned my head and felt the air suck out of my lungs.
Thena was sitting next to me, her head aimed at the ground and leg bouncing wildly. She was dressed in fighting leathers, her hair pulled into a braid. I tried to say her name, but it came out no louder than a whisper. When her eyes jumped to me, she started crying and spewing so many words at me that I didn’t understand.
“… we thought you were dead…”
I closed my eyes and groaned, covering my eyes as the sunlight tormented me.
“… Isaac almost ran off, set on going into Vespera to find you?—”
“He did not,” I hissed into my hands. “Please, Thena. Please tell me Isaac did not go into bloody Vespera.”
“I didn’t,” a soft voice came from the far corner. I slowly dragged my hands off my face and saw him standing in the corner near the entrance, flasks of water in hand with this frown cut into his face. He walked over and knelt. “Drink,” he said quietly before pressing the waterskin to my lips. Wincing, I tried to push it away, but he held it there and spoke with a certain firmness I wasn’t accustomed to hearing from him. “Drink the water, Morgana. It’s not poisoned.”
So I did, and it wasn’t.
“Morgana, is that truly the crown prince?” Thena said much quieter than her prior statements. I almost choked on the water before turning my head to her. Suddenly, the headache was a welcome distraction. “This hysterical man walks up with you, but you’re just… gone. When I collect his information after you’re taken away, he claims he’s a Sinclair?” When I nodded, she whistled and pulled her face into her hands. “Why in the hells are you with the fucking prince of Verdantis?”
“If I tell you, it’d send me—or, you, rather—into shock. So you’ll have to live with a half-truth.” I pressed my palms into the mattress to sit up and rest against the iron bed frame. “He promised me answers.”
This wretched mattress was the size of a transportable cot, with the metal stability of a stationary bed. It was just as uncomfortable as it sounded.
“Dear gods, Morgana. Well. Did you get your answers?”
I stared at her for a long while before shaking my head. “Not yet. Not entirely.”
Isaac stood and all but tossed the flask onto a table. He took the other, which I suspected was not full of water, and chugged it until he winced. “Why didn’t you tell me about this earlier?” he said with a hoarse voice, latching the lid and setting it down. “You know, Thena had to tell me about everything you were running off to do all these years. We both thought you’d stumbled into a trap and got yourself killed. Maybe you even decided to go into Vespera yourself in search of your brother.”
“Well, I did run into a trap,” I muttered and picked at the fuzz on the blanket. “It just… unfortunately left me alive.” I bounced my attention between them. “Say, enough about this. How did we end up here?”
They both gave each other a look before shrugging. Thena was the one to break the uncertain quiet. “The prince walked into the base with his arm around you, keeping you upright. He said you kept mumbling about the Umbran Guard. So he went to the closest place he knew the Guard was. I sent word for Isaac as soon as I confirmed you were here.”
I closed my eyes and pulled my hands back over my face. Thena stood slowly, walking over to me and resting a hand on my shoulder. “We’ll let—” she paused, almost laughing. “We’ll let the prince know you’re awake, Morg.”
Isaac moved to the foot of my iron cot and kicked one of the legs to capture my attention. I merely peeked at him through my fingers. “I know Thena is all fury and disappointment right now, but I’m really glad you’re alive.”
My heart shattered into a million pieces, Aster’s earlier words swirling around my head. I nodded slowly.
I was alive—but for how long?
After all, I was the prince’s cure.
Apparently that meant death. A sacrifice.
“I’m really glad to be here too,” I managed to whisper. They both smiled sadly before turning and walking out of the tent. My lip quivered, and I thought about throwing my legs over the edge of the bed to run, but the second I shifted to move in that direction, the world spun.
I was at the mercy of Prince Aster, the monster in a man’s skin.