Chapter 6
Chapter Six
No.
The word formed on my lips but it refused to fall. I stared at Tywin until my eyes burned. Tears pricked, stuck, as useless as my protests.
He snapped his fingers and Cosmo handed him a quill, the large plume snowy-white and curling at the tip.
Tywin dipped the point into the air, a cruel jab, and when he touched it to the paper, his signature spawned from the point with a flourish. The deed was done without him having to actually sign.
What a bastard.
What a terrible, prejudiced prick.
My stomach dropped and the guard holding my elbow laughed like this was what I deserved for existing. Like justice was finally prevailing because I’d dared to draw breath in the same room as the rest of these pure-blood assholes.
Cosmo said the words and each one landed like bombs detonating in my chest. “Let it be known that on this day the traitor known as Octavia Alderidge has been sentenced to death by execution by the will of the Elder Council and King Tywin Thornwood of Faerie.”
“It is in the best interest of this city, kingdom, and world to dispose of your kind,” Tywin reminded me. There wasn’t a scrap of kindness written on his features. “You are the scourge of this land.”
Yes, he’d said so already. But I was also the person who loved his son, who would go to the ends of the earth to take care of my family and my friends. I glanced at Mike, but he didn’t move.
Tywin rolled the scroll and handed it off to Cosmo. “A good deed was done today.”
The premier took the scroll to the Elder Council and it disappeared into the sleeves of one of their robes. They were all the same. They were faceless and nameless and somehow had the power to pick and choose who existed and who did not.
Hysterical laughter bubbled up and out. I’d thought the blood curse was going to drop me, but it turned out it was the king. My dislike of him—immediately upon meeting—had been correct.
Movement fluttered at the periphery of my vision. I pivoted so fast vertigo speared through my chest and head.
Then my friends stood at once, a wave lifting out of a quiet ocean. Melia, Wilson, Nora, even Mike. They rose to their feet along with two other robed people sitting on the Elder Council.
Melia held her hands out in front of her, arms arrow straight, and on her outstretched palms the Augundae Imperium hummed—a magical artifact designed to siphon power from anyone and store it for the wielder to use.
It wasn’t large, perhaps the size of a Rubik’s cube, an amalgam of metals woven into an intricate and complex pattern. The last time I’d seen it, the last time anyone saw it, was the Battle of EverRose.
Three hundred years ago.
Magic sparked from the object and each individual piece of metal glowed. The inside of it lit up like a bonfire. Power rushed between my friend’s hands like lightning, forming a visible web that encompassed the entire room.
An arcane pulse throbbed through the strands of the web. The air crackled with energy yet Melia stood at the center of the maelstrom with her arms outstretched, strong, unyielding. I reched for her, stumbled, my spine knocking the armor of the guard behind me.
King Tywin was on his feet in an instant. “Stop her!”
But it was too late. The magic was too powerful. The rest of the Elder Council and the king’s men slowed, sucked dry of their own power. Their movements turned sluggish until the web snapped tight around them, catching them in the crossfire of magic.
The Imperium stored the power for the use of the person wielding it. Only this time, Melia wasn’t in sole possession of so much magic.
Each of my loved ones shared it.
All of them.
The web that also connected my friends dispersed the power between them and they strengthened it through the room. Another beat, and the guards all dropped, slumping to the ground. Even the king and Cosmo were susceptible.
I caught the looks of astonishment on their faces as they fell, bereft of their power. The soldiers holding me dropped as well, slumping to the floor and not getting up again.
“Tavi, it’s okay now. We’ve got you.”
Mike’s scent reached me first, the cuffs clattering away.
Gentle fingers brushed the hair out of my eyes. Then he bent and tossed me over his shoulder in a fireman carry.
Mike was himself again, on every level. He’d been…what, playing some kind of part? Tywin hadn’t stolen his free will after all?
“Let’s go!” he called to the others. “We’ve got to get out now.”
“About damn time.” One of the masked and cloaked figures on the Elder Council hustled into the aisleway between chair rows, quickly shedding the robe. “This thing was giving me a rash.”
Coral. My cousin was here. And so was Bronwen, the other masquerading council member.
Mike led the group out of the council room.
Melia stashed the Imperium into the satchel at her side.
Through the castle they raced until their footsteps suddenly broke off in different directions.
Mike’s sprint jostled me and I couldn’t see them clearly.
Couldn’t make out who went where before they scattered.
Is this part of their plan?
“The dungeons.” My throat constricted. “Poppy. They must have taken her back down.”
By some miracle, Mike heard me.
“Are you out of your mind? Absolutely not.” He grunted out the reprimand and picked up the pace, threading through the corridors toward one of the rear doors. That path would belch us out toward the great lawn rather than the front of the castle and the very public city street.
“I can’t leave her, Mike. Not after what she’s done for me.”
My words fell like autumn leaves, crisp and atrophied, before the wind stole them away.
“We committed high treason, Tavi. We have to run.”
“She’s your grandmother. Please, Mike. Please.”
The dungeons were a terrible place. And if we left her behind, would Poppy bear the brunt of responsibility for everything we’d done today? Face the king’s fury when he recovered to find us gone? Tywin would have only a single place to channel that fury—Poppy.
Mike stopped at the wall and I pushed against him, squirming until he set me on my feet.
“I’m not leaving the castle without Poppy,” I said adamantly.
His chest heaved and his jaw ground back and forth as he stared at me. His eyes were a darker shade of green than before and small flecks of gold sparkled around the irises.
“You’re wasting time, Tavi.”
“Please.”
He had committed high treason. For me. But Poppy had done so much for us. Leaving her behind wasn’t only wrong. We needed her.
“She’s your grandmother,” I insisted again. Like I somehow had to make him understand that this wasn’t just a passing whim or fancy.
“And she’s not part of the plan,” he threw back.
The sharpness of his tone helped clear a bit of the murk from my head. I stared at him.
“Sorry, Tavi.” Mike shoved a hand through his hair and sighed. “Damn it. If we get caught, then I am going to blame it entirely on you this time.” His threat fell flat and I managed a small smile in thanks.
He reached for my hand and tugged me along, but even the smallest pull lurched me off balance and I fell against him.
Cursing, Mike swept an arm around my shoulders and took the bulk of my weight.
We raced, as quickly as I physically could race, toward the small door set into an alcove in the hallway.
The entrance to the dungeon was hidden by magic runes set into grooves among the decorations, innocuous and blending with the rest of the stone unless you knew exactly where to look.
He reached the doorway first and pulled it open. The first glimpse of darkness had my stomach churning and fear curdling everything left behind.
I can’t go back there.
But with Mike holding my hand, with a fae light bursting to life and hovering in the air above his opposite palm, I followed him down the dark stairway.
The air was cloying the deeper we went. His light guided us. The stairway abruptly ended and I landed hard enough on the flat stone to clack my teeth.
We continued on until even the glow of the fae ball was absorbed by the gloom. He seemed to know exactly what direction to take when the tunnels spanned off in opposite directions.
There were no voices, no cries. Were there other prisoners here? And if there were, had this place sucked out their souls the way it threatened to suck mine whenever they tossed me into a cell?
We rounded a final corner, and two guards shifted abruptly toward us, their eyes rounded in surprise. Mike tossed the fae light at them.
Their surprise at seeing the crown prince worked much better than the light. He knows what he’s doing. I had to trust him.
He loves you.
Mike snapped his fingers and another light ball danced between the two men. With a flick of his hand, the ball bounced off the helmet of the guard on the right and knocked him right out. He fell backward. Then the light splashed over the face of the second guard, temporarily blinding him.
Mike’s powers burned brighter and the fae light ball knocked the second guard unconscious too before settling on the fallen man’s chest.
He’d taken them both out with ease.
Beyond, Poppy swam into view. Her white fingers curled around the cell bars. I was right. They had brought Poppy upstairs only to torment her with a taste of fresh air before consigning her to the dungeon again.
Mike stalked forward and rooted around the guard’s belt for the keys. Then he straightened and held the key ring up to the light.
He slid the key into the cell’s lock. A twist, and the door swung open. Poppy stumbled forward before righting herself and holding out her wrists.
She shook the cuffs and the chains jangled together. “If you please.”
Mike fumbled until he found the correct key. This one was much smaller than the one for the cell door but more powerful, in a way, because the second the cuffs dropped, Poppy’s witch magic filled the dungeon.
She gestured me forward. “Ass over here, Tavi.”
I was slow to oblige but she locked her fingers around mine and tugged.