25. Vesper
“On the floor,” the king commanded. “Both of you.”
He was quite comfortable in his large bed, pillows piled up on all sides. Two young humans were on either side of him, naked and leaning into him, while his vampire handmaiden stood by the bed.
A sight I hadn’t expected to see and made me work hard to control the disgust on my face.
His room was much different from the princess’s and was the length of about three put together. Princess Aurelia’s was that of a perfectly pampered princess. Consistently clean with pretty carpeting and white, fluffy bedding.
The king’s was drowned in gold and black. The chandelier above us was dimmed, but even in the darkness, the gold shimmered. The walls and curtains were mainly black, except for the real gold accents. Large windows flanked us, connecting the two other rooms to his.
There were even more feeders just beyond them, but the most overwhelming thing was the number of guards. Vampire guards. All their bright-red eyes digging into mine.
The room itself looked like a dream, but the aura was sticky and it made me feel like something was crawling up my back. It didn’t help that he was forcing us to wait in silence as he finished feeling up his maidens for the night.
Melia was the first to kneel on the ground and placed her head on it so fast, I was afraid she might knock herself out because of it.
Since the plan first popped into my head, I knew I was walking on thin ice. Knew that there was only one thing standing between me and certain death.
But even if I could pull it off like I imagined, there would be no guarantee I would leave with my life.
Or Aurelia’s with hers.
There was no going back after this. I had gone completely rogue for the princess. And for what?
But I wanted nothing in return. Truly. The only thing that was pushing me to do something so reckless was the image of a hopeless and crying Aurelia. Seeing her like that would be forever burned into my mind, and just knowing the awful things the prince and his father planned…I found it hard to just watch as it happened.
I cast my gaze to the handmaiden beside me. She didn’t dare look up, but I could still hear her pleas echoing in my mind as I dragged her down the hallway with my sword at her throat.
Please don’t! They’ll kill us both!
You don’t know what those two are capable of!
It didn’t hold the same guilt as when I put my weapon to Aurelia’s throat. She was even pleading and crying, but none of it fazed me. I didn’t care about her. Didn’t care about her screams.
There was something much bigger at stake. Something I cared far more about. For the first time, I knew how to use the tools my father had beaten into me over the years.
The entire time I searched for the handmaiden, my mind was focused on one thing and one thing only—the hopelessness in Aurelia’s eyes when I found her in the garden.
So maybe I haven’t changed that radically after all. Maybe I just found my driving force.
I slowly lowered myself to the ground, my knees digging into the cold marble floor. The plush red carpet was a mere foot away, taunting me.
“You’re lucky I’m not making you slit your own throat for coming to me with such an idiotic claim,” he said with a scoff. “You do realize this will get you killed?”
Yeah, too fucking well, I thought bitterly. It was a half-baked plan.
In all honesty, I had never been good at the strategic part of my job. It’s why I relied on the information provided to me. It’s why I failed so catastrophically at killing Aurelia.
But even so, my mind was clear.
I couldn’t kill the king, but I could do the next best thing.
“That’s why I brought one of the traitors. I saw it with my own two eyes and was waiting until I could grab her for you, so there would be no doubt as to what I am saying,” I told him, motioning to the shaking handmaiden. It was a lie, but I needed to use everything in my arsenal to get the king to believe me. Not only that, but I needed to play to his weakness. I needed to get him angry. Get him so angry he would think of nothing else other than getting back at those who wronged him. “Everything I said is true, all you need to do is ask her?—”
“And why should I believe you?” the king asked, his voice bouncing off the walls.
My knees ached against the floor as I braced my body for violence. The beating of my heart the only thing keeping me steady.
Not for the first time since I entered the palace, fear had its ice-cold claws around my heart.
This is a stupid, stupid, fucking decision.
This could kill me. One slipup, and I would be dead at his feet before Aurelia even knew.
But if it works…she and I will be far away from each other, and she won’t have to marry that demon.
There wasn’t just one demon she had to save herself from. I had a duty. The prophecy. There was no telling what my father would do to me when I got back.
But it was better than having to kill her. It was heartbreaking to see her in that room as she fell to the floor in her darkened room, but it was the thing I needed.
I couldn’t kill Aurelia, but I could kill for her.
“Because I may be risking my life,” I said, keeping my eyes trained to the floor. “But you’re risking your entire family. Everything you built. He was never here to abide by the terms you and his father set. The entire time, he was using it to scheme. If you let this continue, it will be the end of all your hard work.”
I took the chance to look up at him as he pulled the females closer. They both let out giggles and rubbed up against him, their hands wandering his chest before going lower.
He let out a laugh. The warmness of it startled me.
“And you?” he asked. “What will you get out of this?”
Freedom was the wrong word. It felt cheap and coated my tongue with bitterness.
The truth was, I got nothing out of this. When I was sent back to my family, there was no telling what my punishment for breaking the prophecy would be.
But for Aurelia…I would risk it all.
I had watched her destroy herself over the time I had been her guard. I thought the magic poisoning was the worst that could happen, but no. It was the steady deterioration of the light in her eyes.
And she had fully given into her fate. But not me.
I hated the prophecies. Hated the witches who thought they could scam people with them. Worst of all, I despised the people who followed fate blindly. Not once trying to change it.
But I wouldn’t hold it against the princess. She was cornered, never having seen a way out for the entirety of her existence.
I could forge this path for her, but I wouldn’t be able to see her through it.
Maybe if I had just taken her up on murdering him, she would have it easier.
“I want to be discharged from Prince Icas’s service,” I said. “I want to be sent home. That is all.”
He leaned forward, his eyes searching my face.
“You just brought to light one of the greatest betrayals this kingdom has ever seen…and you want to go home? No riches? A position in my ranks?”
Never. If I truly had my way, I would want nothing to do with the Castle family. But the damage had already been done since the first time my prophecy was uttered.
“It’s as simple as that, sir,” I replied, keeping my expression ice cold.
Believe me. Please. I didn’t know who I was sending a prayer out to, but I hoped even just one god was listening.
A smirk spread across his face.
“And you, handmaiden?” he asked, his gaze falling on her. “What do you have to say about this? Have you been helping the prince steal people right from under my nose?”
I turned to Melia as well. Hesitantly, she lifted her gaze to him.
“Don’t look at me,” he spat, all warmth leaving his voice. “If it’s true, you’re a traitor. I don’t want you to even look at me.”
She quickly looked back down, her shaky breathing filling the room.
“Your Majesty, I would n-never attempt to harm the family?—”
His fist slammed down on his side table, and the sound, along with a pained squeal from the woman at his side, echoed throughout the room.
“Don’t try to placate me,” he growled. I looked up just in time to catch him getting out of his bed and crossing the room to stand over Melia.
I thanked whatever god was listening that he was wearing loose pajama pants.
His hand shot down to her hair, and he yanked her face up.
Jesus. I didn’t want to see him hurt her, but it was even harder to look away when I knew that she had played a part in Aurelia’s possible demise.
I hated her almost as much as the prince.
“She may never have meant you harm,” I said. “But she listened to the traitor. She did his dirty work. All under your nose. They tried to play you for a fool.”
“No one plays me for a fool,” he spat. The girls on the bed huddled together, obviously knowing far too well how easily the king could turn.
I was grateful he didn’t direct his anger at me.
“At the gala as well,” I continued. “He was going around, trying to get people on his side. To leave you. In broad daylight, where anyone could hear.”
I wasn’t sure it was true, but after Aurelia told me what the prince’s plan was, her reaction at the gala made much more sense. So did his.
What hadn’t made sense was why the prince was so close to her stepsister.
Until I remembered Cedar’s words: The prince isn’t capable of killing the princess. It’s closer than that.
But even if my suspicions were correct, the king wouldn’t believe his own wife and stepdaughter were in on it.
So the only choice was to pin it all on Prince Icas.
“Shut your mouth,” he ordered me, then turned back to Melia. “Tell me the truth, and maybe I’ll spare your life.”
Melia’s eyes filled with tears and sobs spilled from her lips.
“He’s taken more than fifty of them already, my king,” she said through quivering lips. “They’re just waiting for the wedding to conclude before the mass exodus. What she said is true.”
The king searched her face, that disgusting smirk showing up again. Like a light switch, his anger was gone, and in its place was a monster that liked to play with its food.
“And he asked you to help, and you used my name to do it?” he asked.
She shook her head.
“Aurelia’s,” she corrected. “And her mother’s.”
The smirk dropped, and all the playfulness in his eyes disappeared. One moment, Melia was being held in the air by her hair, and in the next, she had her neck snapped and was tossed to the floor like garbage.
The king looked over her with a boiling anger that made even my heart stop.
“Lock her up,” he said to the guards stationed around the room. His reddened eyes dug into mine, the threat clear. “I have some things to verify before we let her run loose.”
The human guard ran the electric shock stick against the bars of my damp cell with a menacing look on his face.
The damp smell of the cellar still itched my nose, no matter how many hours had passed. The coldness of the stone underneath me felt much harsher than whatever we had in the guards’ quarters.
It was another floor down, with no sunlight, and the distinct scent of mildew filled the air.
The cell itself was about as large as the room Cedar and I shared, with a bed made of metal, no mattress, and a rusted toilet I didn’t dare use.
I gave the guard a look as he waited for my reaction.
What did he expect? For me to jump? For me to cower?
He was a human, just like I was. If anything, I was above him because of my position at Aurelia’s side. Maybe he knew that. Maybe that’s why he had that smug fucking expression on his face as he looked down at me and flicked the button on the weapon once more.
Someone usually at the bottom of the barrel in this family suddenly found himself with a bit too much power.
The grinding of my teeth was beginning to cause my jaw to ache. My nails dug into my palms. All the annoyance from the meeting with the king and now being forced to suffer this was too much for me.
How many times has he passed by?
How many times has he said something offensive under his breath, knowing very well that I can hear him?
Unluckily for him, hours of sitting on the cold rock put me in a little bit of a mood, and that was my final straw. I stood up, rolling my shoulders and tilting my head from side to side. My tight muscles were yelling at me to get up and move around.
“Can I help you?” I asked him.
“Just checking on my favorite prisoner,” he said with a taunting grin. “I heard the princess got tired of you and sent you down here. What happened?”
I strolled to the bars, holding his gaze. He really thinks he’s getting somewhere with this.
There were a mere few feet between us. So close, I could smell the alcohol on his breath.
“Do you always drink on the job?” I asked, tilting my head. “I bet your head guard will have something to say about it when I tell him.”
He shook his head and let out a laugh before leaning forward and dropping his voice to a whisper. “You’re never getting out of here. You came here thinking you’re hot shit, but look at you now. Do you even remember what you did to me?”
I raised my brow at him. “I don’t even know you,” I admitted.
His entire expression changed. The playful smirk dropped and was replaced with a sneer.
“The prince’s palace,” he said. “You and I were set to spar. You’re the reason I was pushed to the lower ranks and am now stuck in this hellhole.”
I racked my memory trying to remember his face, but the time at the prince’s palace was such a blur. All I did there was attempt to move up as high as I could in the ranks before being given to the princess.
I huffed. “You must have sucked pretty hard to be that unmemorable.”
He let out a growl and pushed his hand through the bars, the sharp sound of electricity drowning out everything else. I maneuvered to the side, the current zapping me on the bicep.
I let out a groan and took a step back. The human guard looked awfully fucking pleased with himself.
“But now I’m the one in charge?—”
I lunged at the bars, my arm slipping past them and grabbing the collar of his shirt, and I used my body weight to slam him against the metal. He let out a pained moan as his face was forced against the dirty bars. There was nothing for him to grab on to, and his arms flailed.
I used my free hand to grab the offending stick and threw it far inside my cell.
“You have anything else to do other than annoy me?” I growled and twisted the collar of his shirt, cutting off his air supply. Then, I remembered an image of him under me as I flipped him in front of the head guards at the prince’s palace. “I do remember you. You didn’t even last a second. Even behind these bars, I can make you regret everything you just did and beg for your mother to come save you. Shall we find out just how much I can do with these bars between us?”
His mouth flopped open and closed like a washed-up fish. The fear was finally starting to show in his eyes, and he was realizing just how much he had fucked up.
It felt good.
I used to hate my job. Hated that I was good at it. Hated that I made people suffer. But people like him? I wanted to watch it all.
“Just kill him, why don’t you?” a familiar, grating voice called from down the darkened hallway.
I could. It was very tempting. But the intruder reminded me just how short my leash was and just how easily the king could kill me if he so chose to.
My eyes drifted to the intruder.
With bright red hair casting an orange shine due to the oil lamps that lit the dungeon’s hallways, she took up most of the hallway, and her presence was almost hypnotic with the way my eyes were all but forced to look at her.
Cedar. The fucking witch who proved to be a pain in the ass. There was something about her that alarmed me. She knew too much. Even before Aurelia told me about what the prince and her stepfamily were doing, she seemed to know it all.
But how?
She said she wasn’t a seer…Had one sent her here? Princess Aurelia was never my job. So who was? Witches worked in covens. Had other people had the vision? And just how much had they seen?
All this time, I had been focusing on Aurelia…but maybe I should have been focusing on her.
She had her hands in her pockets and walked at an alarmingly calm pace, her eyes traveling around the dungeon, and that little smirk on her face told me just how much she was enjoying the show I was putting on.
I didn’t let the guard go until he finally passed out from lack of oxygen. I didn’t need his interference. Not when I had so much to question the witch about. His body fell to the ground in a heap.
“Keep showing up in places like this, and I may just think your mission here is me,” I said, leaning against the bars. “You some kind of snake?”
The smile she gave me had a shiver run up my spine. I hated how much her green eyes seemed to see through me.
Maybe she does.
“Turning down my offer to save your skin?” she asked as she got to the bars, her hand slipping through them and brushing across my neck. “Or did you forget my magic is temporary?”
I jerked away from her. Panic and fear shooting through me.
“They’ll smell you,” I hissed.
She merely smiled at me. As if the knowledge of me working with a witch wouldn’t be the death of me.
“Roll around on the ground a little, rub your own spit on it—whatever it is, I don’t care, it’s not my life.”
I narrowed my eyes at her. Obviously.
“Why are you here, then?” I asked, eyeing her warily. The real question was—how did she know I was here? I never even went back to my room. I could have been anywhere. “Why does it matter to you if I’m killed?”
She shrugged. “I said I’d help you, so I’m here. Isn’t that enough?”
I merely raised a brow at her. “Maybe a better question is how you found me. You choose one to answer.”
She rolled her eyes. “Do you really think you have the power here? You’re behind bars and waiting on the king’s mercy, which we both know he’s severely lacking.”
I stayed silent, letting the pause fill the space between us. I wasn’t joking, and she seemed to get that after a few long moments.
“You’re my roommate,” she said with a sigh. Her eyes cast back to the sleeping guard before looking back at me. The dim light illuminated her freckles, and for the second time, I realized there was a pattern to them. “If they find out about you, it will only bring trouble to me—trouble that I can’t afford.”
I looked at her for a hard moment. She didn’t seem to be lying, but that sure as hell wasn’t the entire truth.
As mysterious as she seemed to be, she didn’t seem slimy. Not like the prince. And she was the one to warn me about the princess’s life-threatening attack.
But was it life-threatening? A little voice said in the back of my mind. What if she was making it all up just to keep you under control?
She had seemingly been showing up out of nowhere, but always at the perfect time. The coincidences were piling up, and alarm bells were ringing at full volume in my head.
But I had trusted her once, and it wasn’t like I was in any situation to refuse her help. She was right. The guard was, too. I was behind bars and at the mercy of a cruel king who could decide to kill me at a moment’s notice.
I settled closer to her outstretched hand, letting her cold fingertips brush against my skin.
“Perfect,” she all but purred, a feline smile spreading across her face.
This time, when her hand came into contact with my neck, it was like a sharp zap of energy. Even stronger than before, and the aftereffects left a tingle that ran from head to toe.
She did something different. Panic and anger rushed through me. Before I could stop myself, my hands were gripping the bars, and I was baring my teeth at her.
“What the fuck?—”
Footsteps sounded from down the hall. Hard-booted feet. A sign of guards.
“Gotta go,” she said with a wink and, right before my eyes, disappeared in a puff of black smoke.
This time, I truly did recoil. I had never seen a witch do something like that. Never. Nor had I ever realized they could manipulate their bodies like that.
But there was an even more pressing matter. The smell of magic wasn’t just on me. It was filling the air all around me. Even my dull human senses could smell a hint of the burning, plant-like smell.
Shit. Shit. Shit.
I scrambled to hide farther back in my cell, picking up the electric weapon I had thrown there, and I found a good space to kneel down in.
All my muscles tensed, ready for a fight I couldn’t win.
“What the hell is this?” A loud voice boomed as the group came across the unconscious guard. And then, to my utter relief, two human guards showed themselves right outside my cell. It was the way their skin gleamed in the dim light. The way their uniforms fit them.
Fuck Cedar and her mind games. She must have known that they were human, that would have been the only reason why she would have chanced doing what she did.
I waved the weapon at them.
“Sorry,” I said with a smile. “He just got a little annoying.”
One of them let out a string of curses and put his hands on his hips. I almost expected him to start stomping his feet with how childish he was acting. This is their head guard?
“Move her! Obviously, she’s gotten too comfortable for a prisoner.”
“Waiting to be proven right actu?—”
I was cut off by the now-conscious guard coughing fit. It only earned me another glare, but at least I would be leaving the magic-coated cell.