Chapter 20
Vad
My pulse thundered in my ears, syncing with the pounding on the other side of the wall. Heat crawled beneath my skin, the instinct to fight clawing its way to the surface even when there was nothing left to strike but stone.
Think.
There had to be a way out. There always was. The air thickened, smelling sour with smoke, sweat, and the sharp, metallic tang of fear.
“Open the door, Vad,” Colm said, his tone muffled yet smug.
Calla Lily giggled, the sound high and manic. “It was so thoughtful of you to have that second door installed. Very helpful.”
The lock clicked, and I jammed the key back in and twisted it hard. Click. The door was locked again. I kept my hand there twisted in place, not wanting to chance them unlocking it and coming through the door. “My key overrides the mechanism. I can do this all day.”
“As can I,” Colm sang back, amusement dripping from his voice. “It’s not as if you can go anywhere. Might as well surrender now and save yourself from a slow death.”
Four rubber tubes wriggled under the bottom of the door. My stomach dropped, knowing that they were the ones for poisonous gas. I stepped on them to block anything from getting in, but I knew it wouldn’t stop everything if he released the gas.
“I’ve heard being unable to breathe is a big problem.” Calla Lilly snorted.
Veralt slammed his shoulder into the stone wall at the far end of the tunnel. A frustrated roar tore from him. “Trapped like rats,” he growled, breath labored. “I can’t punch through this.”
He backed up and rammed his shoulder into the stone again, but the wall didn’t even flinch. Dust fell in a lazy waterfall.
Thalen held the lamp higher, his sharp eyes scanning the walls.
“There’s got to be a seam or… something.
Come on, these places were built with fail-safes.
” He paused, then dug into his pack and pulled out a knife with a thick, reinforced spine.
“I’ll try wedging it under the edge. If I can loosen the seam, maybe Veralt can lift it. ”
The metal scraped stone as he worked. Veralt stepped in beside him, gripping the edge with both hands and straining. His arms bulged, veins standing out beneath sweat-slick skin, but the door didn’t move.
“This place was built to survive a siege,” I muttered.
Briar’s cinnamon-and-smoke scent cut through the choking tension and anchored me.
She stood at the center of the tunnel, palm pressed flat against the sealed door.
Her knuckles were white, her whole body trembling just slightly, like a wire stretched too tight.
Her eyes locked on mine. What are we going to do?
Her voice was so distant in my thoughts now that she might as well have been on the other side of the door and on the far side of the room. We’ll figure something out. I told her, forcing confidence I didn’t feel.
I kept the key in the lock to keep Colm from deploying the locking mechanism again, but my thoughts were in turmoil.
Behind the wall, Colm’s voice rang out again.
“Oh, this is going to be so incredibly satisfying.” His tone was soft, almost reverent.
“To know that I’ll have the privilege of slaying the father, the mother, the son, and the mate.
Maybe even your sister, too, if we find her before the shadow beasts do. ”
A stillness fell over me. It wasn’t calm or fear. It was something colder. “What did you just say?” My wings flared wide, slamming the stone walls on either side of the narrow corridor. Heat exploded down my spine like a lightning strike, and every muscle in my body went taut.
“You were involved in my father’s death,” I said through clenched teeth. “But my mother’s too?”
A strangled breath escaped Briar. “He’s trying to torment you. Don’t believe anything he says.”
On the other side of the wall, Calla Lily giggled. Colm’s voice sounded elated as he said, “I’m fairly certain your ears still work, Vad. Yes, I killed your mother and father. Now I’m going to kill you, Briar, and Elara too.”
“You bastard!” Briar lunged toward the wall, striking it with her palm.
“What did my mother have to do with this?” The rage inside me had turned glacial. “You were planning this for that long? Since before my father’s death?”
“Of course we were planning before your father's death.” Colm scoffed. “You think revolutions happen overnight? It takes years. Decades. Your mother got in the way and influenced your father to do the same. Idealists are always the first to bleed.”
Briar’s eyes were wide with shock. “Vad, think about it. Why would he be telling you this now?”
She was right. It had to be a stall tactic…which meant he probably had guards coming to the other side of the stone door. “Fecking void! We have to find a way out of here,” I whispered, hoping that Colm couldn't hear.
“We’re working as hard as we can,” Thalen murmured as he chipped away at the stone next to Veralt.
If Colm was willing to talk, I would let him. Mother’s death had never made sense to me. “My father never employed you. You were never a part of this court.”
A thin, delighted laugh rasped through the wood. “I trained interrogators and performed demonstrations to remind rulers what happens when they grow soft. Your mother called my methods ‘barbaric’ and said they produced false confessions.” He scoffed, a brittle sound crackling with hatred.
“I swear,” I snarled, voice low and shaking, “when we get out of this, I will tear him apart with my bare hands, with or without magic.” And I would enjoy every second. The metal of the key warmed under my touch as I kept it turned.
Colm continued, not seeming to have heard me. “One opinion from a beloved queen, and suddenly other kingdoms found it fashionable to agree. Rulers who once welcomed me began shutting their doors. The Aureline saw me as a liability, and I had to claw my way back to relevance.”
He struck his fist against the stone. “So I adapted. Because, unlike your mother, I understood the truth. Fear is the strongest weapon a crown can wield, but she made them believe they didn’t need weapons.
That they could be good and still be obeyed.
Self-righteous little saint. Thanks to her, I nearly lost everything. ”
My head jerked back. He was worse than I’d ever expected. He truly had planned this for decades.
Briar scurried to the other door and began hacking at it with her sword.
“It took years to regain footing. Years of reminding the weak that the world does not spare them just because they wish it to. But your parents doomed themselves. They were too beloved and too foolish. That kind of legacy had to be broken. Permanently. And now I see it in you.”
The dull thuds of Veralt, Thalen, and Briar smashing stone sounded like a battle cry. I searched for anything they might have overlooked that we could use to get out.
“Yes.” Colm exhaled. “It took planning, but your precious mother offered me the perfect opportunity. The Crimson Wanderer, that rare comet she adored. She took you to that little overlook near the Umbral Range, so trusting and happy to make a memory with her sweet boy while your father was away.” He laughed softly.
“She had wards, guards, and spells, but none of them protected her.”
Briar moved back to my side and threaded her fingers through mine. “Don’t listen to him. He’s trying to get inside your head. It's what he does, and he enjoys it.”
I leaned into her instinctively, but his words pulled me in. I remembered the smells of pine needles and damp moss, and the crackle of distant thunder. A chill of mist coiled around us, and Mother laughed.
“I couldn’t decide which of you I wanted to kill first. But killing you both would have been too…sudden. There is so much more power in grief than there is in death.”
Something inside me twisted.
“Then you wandered off to find those button mushrooms for your sister. Such a sweet gesture that cost you dearly. Was it your idea, or hers?”
I didn’t move. “Mine.” It had been my idea.
Elara had wanted to come with us, but she had been ill.
It was the first time she’d shown symptoms of the illness that had devastated her, though we hadn’t known that yet.
Mother had promised to do something special with just her later, and when I’d seen the mushrooms, I’d wanted to bring some to her.
Briar sucked in a breath beside me, as if my pain had bled through the rift between us. She placed her hands on both sides of my face and said, “Do not react. Don’t let him get inside your head like that.” She glanced back at Thalen and Veralt.
“I gave her a choice. Herself, or you. And she chose by sending you away. You were old enough to notice something was wrong. Old enough not to obey her without question. You loved her, didn’t you?” Colm’s voice softened mockingly. “So why didn’t you save her?”
The thrust landed with surgical cruelty.
“How did you miss it, little prince? Why did you not care enough to stay?”
The metallic taste of blood filled my mouth, and my breaths shortened. I focused on Briar’s presence and touch, but I couldn’t kick out the words. “There were no outsiders.” That was the part that never made sense to me, but everyone had insisted it was true.
“Well, I can’t tell you all my secrets. I just want you to know that her death was your fault. Just like Briar’s and Elara’s will be.”
He paused, letting the silence dig in.
“She died so much faster than I intended. The venom on that blade was supposed to cause a slow, painful death. But it was satisfying to kill your father with the same blade and a perfected version of that venom. I’ll plunge it into your heart as well.
If I’m feeling merciful, I’ll make it swift.
We both know you’re out of options, but I’m going to give you the same choice I gave your mother, Vad. ”
Briar shook her head and tugged on my arm. “Don’t listen to him, Vad. He’s trying to make you give up.”