The Beasts We Bury (The Broken Citadel #1)

19. Prospective Seconde Mancella Amaryllis Cliff

19

P ROSPECTIVE S ECONDE M ANCELLA A MARYLLIS C LIFF

|2 DAYS UNTIL THE ASSURANCE|

As I look into the blue eyes I thought I’d never see again, it feels like looking into the sky itself. Like I’ve been living in a cave and someone just cut an opening in the ceiling. Like I’m a child again, and I still believe that people will take care of me. That things will be all right. That everything isn’t entirely on my shoulders.

I haven’t felt like that in so long. Not in about…

“Eight years,” I say wonderingly. “It’s been eight years .”

“Did you miss me?” he asks, with an all-too-familiar smirk.

I falter because that expression reminds me of so much. Summer days and silly pranks and spinning stories and sneaking out. Simpler times. Easier friendship.

But… how dare he whip that smirk out now.

I extract myself from his arms, as the last eight years crash back in between us.

“Quick question,” I snip, crossing my arms. “You ever heard of a letter? A few lines to let me know that you’re safe? A quick, ‘Dear Mancella, I’m not dead. Hope you’re well. Sincerely, Alect’?”

“Wait,” Silver interrupts. “Alect? You mean he’s your…?”

“Cousin, yes,” I say distractedly.

He’s grown about a foot, gained the muscles and stature of adulthood, and he’s got a harder jaw and sharper cheekbones, but he’s Alect. He looks so much like my uncle in every way. It’s like stepping back in time.

But then Silver’s confusion registers and I turn toward him, blinking. “Wait, you didn’t know? Who did you think he was?”

Silver ducks his head, looking nervous, and I’m suddenly struck by the whole absurdity of Alect being here , in Silver’s house, and not at all surprised to see me. Silver and his friends don’t seem surprised to see him, either. They know one another… and yet they didn’t know who he was to me.

“What exactly is going on here?” I ask. And then a thought occurs to me. “Oh! Are you in the secret organization, too?” That would explain everything.

But instead of nodding, Silver flinches, and Alect steps past him smoothly, putting one arm around my shoulder.

“We have time for all your questions,” he says. “Why don’t you have a seat?”

Under the gentle prodding of his hands, I sink into one of the rickety, mismatched chairs that flank the round table in the center of the room. I push aside a half-sliced apple with a dagger sticking out of it and prop my elbows on the wood, looking at Alect grimly as he takes the seat across from me.

“All my questions, huh?” I ask. “I’ve got a few.”

“You always did,” he says fondly.

My lips turn down and I fiddle with the bracelet on my wrist, still unfamiliar with its weight. Alect is smiling at me, like no time has passed, but time has passed. So much has happened.

One thing in particular.

“Alect,” I start, voice low. “My father has… told me some things since you left. I have to know if they’re true. Did you…” I swallow. “Did you really try to kill him? All those years ago?” Even I can hear the pleading in my voice. I’m sure everyone in the room can feel how badly I want him to reassure me that it never happened, as I’ve spent so many years insisting that it didn’t. But now that the moment is here, I feel more fear than confidence in his response.

Alect doesn’t look away, but he does tilt his head, regarding me carefully.

“Yes,” he says. “I did.”

My arms drop to the table in shock, both at the admission and at how easily he said it. The bracelet makes a hard thunk against the wood and it bites into my skin on impact.

“ Why? ” I ask. “How could you do that?” The Alect I knew, at least the one I thought I knew, would talk about better worlds. Kindness. Justice. All these years, I haven’t been able to reconcile that person with the act of murder. It just doesn’t make sense .

“Have you imagined yet what your life would be like if I had succeeded?” he asks, tone delicate.

I rear back, stunned to silence. His lips twist self-deprecatingly and he continues. “Your father is cruel. You know it as well as I do. Better, I’m sure. I entered the Broken Citadel and came back to kill him because I didn’t want to see what would happen to the realm under his rule.” He makes a sweeping gesture at the slums around us, shattered glass trees looming in the windows. “Can you blame me?”

“Murder is wrong,” I say stubbornly. “Bloodshed leads only to more bloodshed.”

“If I had succeeded, there would be no slums. There would be no Academy. You wouldn’t have had to enter the Broken Citadel at eight years old. Or Mara at ten. And we wouldn’t be on the brink of war when we’re only barely beginning to recover from the last one. Can you really say it’s better how it is?”

“I…” I try to protest, but my words trail off. I’m shocked at what he’s saying, but even more shocked that it makes a cold kind of sense.

“You’re starting to see,” he says. “Why don’t you hear me out?”

“Hear you out?” I ask. “About what?”

Beside me, Silver tenses, gripping the back of my chair. I hadn’t even realized he was next to me until the sudden movement drew my attention. The other two are flanking him, their whole focus fixed on me and Alect. Rooftop looks anxious. Vie looks impatient. And Silver looks like he’s going to be sick, his face pallid and his expression drawn.

“What exactly is going on here?” I repeat.

Alect folds his hands on the table in front of him, and I brace myself. “Your father is not a good man,” he reiterates.

I raise my eyes to his but don’t deny it.

“He’s not a good ruler, either,” Alect continues. “He doesn’t understand relationships. Take this problem with the Grassland Realm. Instead of trying to sort it out, he immediately goes on the attack. He’s training you for war because that’s the only thing he understands. But I… I understand a lot more.”

“Oh, yes?” I ask, folding my hands primly in a mimicry of his. “And what exactly do you understand? The contents of a pile of dusty textbooks?”

My own words surprise me. I’ve never talked to Alect like this before. But he’s never talked to me like this before either, and what he’s saying is scaring me.

I realize suddenly that my body is rigid, and that Silver is just as tightly wound behind me, clutching my chair so hard that it creaks.

Alect stands, then begins to pace the room while he talks, his rich fabrics swishing and ornamentation clinking as he moves. “Textbooks? No. I’ve moved so far beyond them. I’ve spent most of the last decade traveling from realm to realm, learning about each one. Just like we used to talk about. Remember? Understanding cultures, studying language and religion, even uncovering secrets. What I understand is people, and how they work. I don’t just mean the ruling class, I mean the common people as well. I’ve worn many faces. I know how to negotiate a treaty, but I also know what basic needs our citizens are going without. I could make the world better. Create the one we used to imagine.”

I bite my lip and stop tracking his movements with my eyes, choosing instead to look at my lap. I can’t deny that what he’s describing sounds better than what we have. But there’s an undercurrent to his words that I recognize. That I can’t stand hearing.

Ambition.

“Oh, Alect,” I say. “You still want the throne. Even now.”

“I’ve never stopped pursuing it. On the contrary, everything I hear about your father’s rule has only strengthened my resolve.”

I swallow, digesting that. “That’s all well and good, but what, exactly, is your plan?” I ask quietly, even as a sinking suspicion stirs in my gut.

He stops, turning to face me. “Ideally, I’d like for us to work together.”

I shake my head. “Be specific,” I demand. “Work together to do what? And how ?”

He regards me with careful eyes. “It’s time to correct the failure of so many years ago. It’s time for Prime Merod’s reign to end.”

My stomach drops as I clench my fists. “Kill him, you mean,” I sneer. He may have fancier words for his reasons, but in the end it’s all the same.

“I’ve already disposed of a tyrant once, Mancella. In the Grasslands Realm. And it’s working beautifully. Sangua was a scourge, and she’s gone now. I’ve been working with her successor, Azele, and you should see the improvements we’ve made to the realm. You will see; I’ll show you!”

“Hold on,” I say. “I thought Sangua ended her own life. Didn’t they find her with all her blood outside of her body?”

“A fast-acting poison. As soon as she detected it, she tried to expel all the blood that was tainted. But within seconds, it was all tainted. So…” He makes a vague hand gesture, as though the explosive removal of a body’s worth of blood was merely idle chitchat.

I’m shaking. Violently. This is not the Alect I know. What’s happened to him? How could he have become the man in front of me, talking about murder with such a clinical lack of remorse? “You… you killed her!” I accuse.

“And in so doing, I saved and improved many lives,” he tells me.

I dig my nails into the table. “You sound just like him. The man—the tyrant—who you’re trying to destroy? You sound just like him .” Tears sting at my eyes. “More importantly, you’re not saying the rest of it. If Father died before naming an heir, it wouldn’t be you who took power. It would be the closest living relative to the last Prime who possesses magic. It would be me.”

“It would be Mara, if we’re getting legalistic,” he tells me patiently. “Or did you not know?”

My anger breaks off momentarily, replaced by confusion. His expression is serious, but his words don’t make sense. I shake my head. “No, Mara doesn’t have magic. It never manifested.”

“Of course it did. Who do you think made that bracelet on your wrist?”

I don’t realize I’m still shaking my head until he finishes speaking, and then I jolt to a stop. My mind goes blank, rebelling against this information. My hands shake, making the bracelet rattle against the table, and I hold up my wrist, regarding the contraption anew.

Could it be true? Why didn’t she tell me? How does Alect know when I don’t? And if she really does have magic… why did she use it to make a tool for Father to use me?

I spin the bracelet around to the keyhole, and when I do, I suddenly remember the stacks of locks and bracelets in Mara’s room. The hoop and fastener in front of me look very similar. Similar even to the latch on Father’s study, the one that’s been there for years .

I’m finding it hard to breathe.

Is everyone in my life lying to me?

“I—that doesn’t matter right now,” I say, shoving the bracelet into my lap so I don’t have to look at it anymore. “Except that it means you’re actually third in line. So… what’s your plan? Are you going to kill Mara, too? Kill me? Kill everyone between you and power?”

“I have no desire to kill you,” he says, voice quieting. “You are not the poison your father is. You could be something much better. If you agree to work with me, I will gladly give you the throne. All I ask is that you name me your Seconde at the Assurance in a couple days. That way I can support and advise you with the knowledge I’ve gained, the same way I’ve been supporting Azele. As I said, I’d like us to work together . Like we used to.”

“Right,” I say. “Just as soon as I murder my own father. And… sister, too?” I notice he didn’t say he had no desire to kill Mara. I can’t remember whether they got along as kids, but surely she never did anything to him to warrant death. Has he really grown so heartless?

The smile he gives me is detached. “I don’t need you to do that. It’s already taken care of.”

My blood turns cold. Even Silver and his friends seem startled at the revelation. One of them, I’m not sure which, inhales sharply behind me.

“What does that mean?” I demand. “What are you saying?”

He shifts, his feet apart and his arms folded behind his back, a stance that’s almost militaristic.

“You don’t need to concern yourself with the particulars,” he tells me. “Suffice it to say that you will be Prime soon. The question is whether you’re willing to work with me when you are.”

“What did you do, Alect?” I press, voice dead calm.

“I’ll tell you everything,” he promises. “Once I have your agreement that you’ll work with me. That we’ll make decisions about your new reign together.”

But I’m already shaking my head again, sharply. “I’m not giving you my word,” I say. “Not like this. Not without all the information, and definitely not with a threat to my family underscoring our accord. Tell me what you did .” The last few words are almost a scream. I realize I’m trembling, and I don’t know if it’s still in anger or because I’m afraid. He sounds so sure.

“You’re certain?” There’s a discordant note of regret in his tone, and his arms drop to his sides. “That you don’t want to work together?”

I sit up straight and make my voice as firm as possible. “I’ve missed you,” I tell him. “So much. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve wished that you would appear with a plan to fix everything. But I’m not a child anymore. I can think for myself. I can see clearly. And if this is the plan? If this is how you’re conducting yourself? Then I’m absolutely positive, yes,” I spit.

He blows out a long sigh, running one hand down his face. He looks tired, suddenly. Like he aged another year in the last five minutes.

“Pity,” he says.

Then his body suddenly breaks into two.

For a split second there are identical copies of Alect, one peeling off the other like a coat.

But then, no, they’re not completely identical. The sad, tired look on the original Alect’s face intensifies, the bags under his eyes seeming to darken and his frown becoming more pronounced.

The new Alect is leering at me with sick delight.

Right up until he evaporates into mist.

Someone gasps.

My mind races.

Then the second version of him materializes in front of me, sword held aloft.

Acting on instinct, I dive to the side, and his sword comes down through the space I just occupied, cleaving the chair in two. The other occupants of the room exclaim or take a step back as the two halves of the chair clatter to the ground. My heart pounds in my ears.

“Hold on!” Silver bursts out. He makes to rush forward, but Vie digs her nails into his arm, restraining him. “You said you wouldn’t hurt her!” he snarls as he wrenches Vie off.

“I said I had no desire to,” the original Alect sighs. “And I don’t. But… I will, if I have to.” He turns back to me. “If you won’t cooperate, then unfortunately you’re in the way, old friend. I can’t exactly have you running back home with my plans. It would have been nice to rule together, but I’m perfectly capable of doing it… on my own.” He sounds confident until his voice falters on the last few words.

The clone notices it, too. “If you’re going to be a baby about this, then get out,” he sneers over his shoulder. “I can take it from here. In fact, it’s better if I do. After all, if it weren’t for you, I would have handled her father years ago. Don’t mess this up for us again.”

I take a step back, suddenly dizzy, as the room seems to lurch beneath my feet. This is too much at once. I can’t even follow it all. I just know that I need to get out of here. Now.

Out of the corner of my eye, I see Silver having a furious whispered conversation with the others. I make a move to dash past them, but Copy Alect’s sword comes crashing down in front of me and I barely skip back in time.

“I didn’t say you could leave,” he growls.

“It’s not too late to agree,” the original Alect pleads behind him. “I really don’t want you to die.”

“Well, I don’t hear you calling off your creepy doppelg?nger,” I say.

As if to prove my point, the monster swings again, and I duck the blade before scurrying backward into a corner. Then I straighten shakily, leaning against the wall for support as my stomach clenches with what I’m about to do.

“I don’t want to kill you, either,” I say. “Not at all … But I will defend myself if I have to.”

With bitter resolution, I locate my bear and my jaguar within me, feel their readiness to attack, and thrust them outward.

But when I try to push them past the boundary of my skin, it feels like they slam into a wall, and I flinch away from the feeling. The familiar, unnatural feeling.

Oh no.

I forgot about the bracelet.

I yank on it, scraping it against my arm, even to the point of peeling my skin.

The Alect in front of me chuckles darkly. “So it does work. Thanks for your help, Silver.”

My hand freezes. Then the full impact of Silver’s involvement in this hits me and I sag against the wall as though it were a physical blow.

Silver helped? He helped… cripple me so that I might be more easily killed?

Now that I’m looking, I realize that the sword Alect is holding is familiar, too. It’s the one I stole. That I handed over to Silver along with all my darkest childhood stories. Did he ever even care about them, or was he only seeking to disarm me, literally and figuratively? Did he know as he took the weapon from me that my cousin would soon try to end my life with it? Has it hurt anyone else between then and now?

I look at Silver, eyes burning. He changed back into his regular clothes before we left the boat, but they’re slightly damp still, and he has a small leaf plastered to his cheek from the ivy that coated the room we shared last night. His hair is even more tousled than usual, probably from the way we tangled together in the blankets. He’s in every way the boy I thought I knew.

Except that his expression is blank, as it has been a few times before, and I finally recognize that look for what it is. Silver is shutting me out. He betrayed me, and I’m not even worth his explanations. Why should he explain anyway? He brought me here to die .

Pathetic, useless tears prick my eyes. I hate him. I hate all of them. I hate everyone .

I feel a hardness come over me, as if I’m putting on my armor, and I let it settle onto my skin. I refuse to show him how much he’s hurt me.

Instead, I clench my fist and smile coldly, turning back to Alect. “If you think my animals are my only weapon, then you have vastly underestimated me. I killed each and every one with my bare hands. I’m certain I can handle you.”

I lunge, but he bursts away again and I’m left swiping at empty air. Alect’s eyes get colder for a second, but then the coldness leaves again, like a wind just passing through. I spin wildly and get away from the wall, not sure where his copy will materialize next.

I was right to move. He coalesces in the space I just occupied, sword raised. When he sees I’m not there, his eyes flick around and his blade changes direction mid-strike, arcing back toward me. I fling myself into the table, and once again the sword barely misses me, only half a breath from my skin.

“ Stop it!” Silver cries.

But I shut him out. I can’t look at him, can’t think about him right now, or I’ll crumble. I need to stay angry, stay vicious, keep fighting.

I come out clawing, just as ferocious as any of my animals. I know vital points, I know my body, I know a thousand ways to hurt. I can win this.

But Alect is slippery. I throw punches, but they never land on anything solid; he merely dissipates from the air right before my fist enters it. He gets a couple hits in just by forming next to me, swinging his sword and immediately fragmenting away. But the stinging cuts only spur me on harder, only bring my magic roaring to the surface. I move faster and he increases his speed in kind until I feel like a whirlwind casting blows in every direction as I am pummeled in return.

Every time I miss, my magic burns through my veins, demanding contact. Demanding pain . My fury whips through me in a heady oblivion, and for once I embrace it. It hurts so much less than being a tool. I’m sick of being the one in pain. I want someone else to suffer. For the first time in my life, I know what it is to want blood.

I think even Alect is surprised. He manages to fend off my attacks fairly well, but I start to anticipate, start to predict where he might show up next, and soon I’m landing more hits than I’m missing.

I manage to slam my palm into his throat, hard enough to knock him back a few steps. He crashes into the wall, toppling a bookshelf and all its contents across the wooden boards. His body bursts into mist again and I make another guess, but this time I’m wrong, striking at nothing. Alect takes form across the room, next to his original body. Both of them are looking at me with the same inscrutable expression.

And then suddenly there’s a hand on my wrist. Silver.

I jerk back, but he holds firm.

“I’m trying to help,” he growls, pulling at my bracelet.

“Why would you—”

“ Silver!” both Alects cry, the harshness of one voice mingling with the pleading tone of the other.

“The deal is off if you remove that bracelet,” the sneering Alect snarls.

But Silver’s already picking away at it.

I shake my head, not understanding, when the second Alect disappears again.

The bracelet falls away, and I pull Silver to the left.

Alect guessed that I’d move right and he appears there, slashing.

Wolf, jaguar, cougar, and bear burst out of me, and he glowers, but I school my emotions and hold them back. My creatures crouch, growling, ready to spring, feeding off my sudden wariness.

As the Alect in front of me tightens his grip on the sword, I turn toward the Alect I know, the one crouched in the corner, lips drawn into a thin line.

“You’re outmatched,” I say shakily. “But I’ll let you go if you just tell me what’s happening to my father and my sister. Please! Are they still alive? How long do I have?”

He straightens, fiddling with the strap of his bag. His mouth twists up like he can’t decide on something, but then his expression clears, as he seems to come to a decision.

He slips the bag off his shoulder and drops it on the ground.

“ Don’t —” the other Alect spits.

“If you read the letters, maybe you’ll understand,” he says, jutting his chin at the satchel, which has fallen open to reveal a stack of letters and some sealed bottles. “Maybe you’ll still side with me and we won’t have to do this. In the meantime, we’ll call this battle a draw. I guarantee you safety tonight if you don’t leave this house. Read through the letters, think about what I’ve said, and we’ll talk in the morning. All right?”

He extends a hand, but I make no move to take it.

The other Alect scoffs but still lowers his sword.

“Goodbye, Mancella,” the original Alect says. “It… was nice to see you again. Even knowing how it turned out.”

And this time it’s the kind Alect who disintegrates into mist.

I look at the other one, but his sneer doesn’t seem any softer.

“I’ll respect that offer,” he says. “Even if I do think it’s overly sentimental. But if you step one foot out of this room, I cannot guarantee your safety. Understand?” He looks at the satchel, then scoffs again and looks back to me. “Same deal if you open the bottles. Leave them alone if you know what’s good for you.”

Then he bursts into mist as well. But where did they go if not into each other?

I run to the window in time to see a man bundled up in rags stand and start to hobble off. When he reaches the point where the trees get thicker, he, too, disappears.

A cold sweat runs down my spine. How many pieces can Alect split himself into?

I push back from the window, shaking my head.

It doesn’t matter. None of this matters.

He wants me to sit quietly by while he enacts his plan? Wants me to understand? Wants me to wait for the morning without intervening in whatever happens during the night?

Not a chance .

I am done being a tool in the plans of someone else.

So without any further thought, without even a glance in the satchel’s direction, I fling myself out the door, throw myself down the tree, and start running.

It might be too late, I know that, but he kept using words like “soon” and “will be.” Which means they weren’t dead when he got here. They might not be dead now. So if he refuses to tell me how soon “soon” is, then I’m not wasting my time riffling through some gaudy bag for answers.

I need to get to the castle and find out for myself.