Chapter 5
Chapter Five
Chew Chew Chew Chew
MAGNOLIA
“Iexpect you to finish your plate, Magnolia.”
I was dining with Dahes a few days later, waiting for him to tell me about my next hunt. I’d been on edge, expecting him to enter my room at any point, which made sleep near impossible no matter how hard I tried.
All I could do was wait and wait, while I tried not to let my mind conjure multiple scenarios of what this next hunt would be.
He had dismissed me to my room shortly after the sentries dragged the triplets and Kip out of the throne room, and despite knowing it might have been my only time to rest, I couldn’t.
But that was days ago, and whatever fragmented sleep I got was consumed by nightmares.
I was pretty sure I was delirious at this point. I needed sleep.
And behind the pure exhaustion, I couldn’t stop thinking about what Dahes wanted to do. He was trying to kill Elion, to take back the dragons, to rule over everything.
Then the sentries were at my door, which only meant one thing—Dahes called me for dinner, and I was finally going to find out what he wanted from this hunt.
I stirred the food on my plate with my fork. I couldn’t stomach eating. This time my plate was garnished with something soft. Every time I tried to eat it, I kept envisioning my fingers wrapping around Kip’s—
Breathe. One. Two. Three. Four. Exhale.
Don’t think. It’s just food.
Chew. Chew. Chew. Chew.
Dahes smiled as I forced myself to swallow. His eyes tracked every movement as he silently watched me take another bite. His mask sat on the table beside his goblet, increasing the intensity of his raw gaze as it burned into me.
“This is going to be the longest hunt I’m ever sending you on.”
Chew. Chew. Chew. Chew.
Wait for instructions, even if you’re dying to ask a million questions.
“You won’t be bringing a body back this time,” he murmured after taking a sip from his goblet.
My eyes snapped to his. I’d only ever brought back bodies—some dead, some alive, some about to be dead—but regardless of the state they were in, I only hunted people.
“Instead, I need intel. I’m sending you to Viven to learn everything you can about Hael. ”
The piece of—whatever my food was—just fell out of my mouth and back onto my plate.
“I’m going to Viven?” I asked, unable to stop the question from rolling off my tongue. I had to tamper down my excitement, push it to the far back of my mind. The thought of going there…
“Yes.”
I waited, even though it was killing me.
“Summer Solstice is a few weeks away,” he said after a long pause. “We have from now until then to figure out how to get Hael to fight with us.”
“What do you need me to do?” If he expected me to overpower the leader of the drakins, there was no way I was going to survive.
Even though Dahes trained me himself, I couldn’t go up against a dragon and its rider.
I knew my limits. No one went up against a dragon and won—especially not against their leader.
Dahes eyed me for a moment, his gaze narrowing on my mouth. “You’ll go undercover and figure out everything you can about him. Everyone has a weakness, something they’d do anything for. You’re going to find his.”
I swallowed, then tried to suck down the realization that that’s exactly what happened to me. Masin was my weakness and Dahes knew it.
“How am I supposed to infiltrate the drakin grounds without anyone noticing?” I asked, having no idea how he expected me to find out anything about Hael.
“You won’t. You’ll be going to King Elion’s castle.”
He took a sip from his goblet as I waited for him to continue, my mind conjuring every catastrophic scenario of this going horribly wrong.
“Time works in our favor,” he drawled after an exaggerated pause, and I swore it was just to test my patience.
“The Vargothi is about to start. It’ll be the only time Hael is guaranteed to be at Elion’s castle.
” He grinned at me, really grinned, and I realized it might have been the only time I’d ever seen his raw smile. “You’re going to attend, little ghost.”
I’d completely forgotten about my dinner.
Shock was coursing through me. I was staying in Viven for a week, if not more, and I’d get to see the dragon tournament.
The Vargothi was a week-long tournament that ended with the Drakin Initiation.
I knew it was coming up—the tournament occurred every century as a way to replenish King Elion’s drakins—but I had no idea it was happening so soon.
Being trapped inside Dahes’ castle made it easy to lose track of time, especially when all my days were the same endless cycle stuck on repeat.
I started eating again, only because Dahes was staring at my forgotten plate. I knew him well enough that he’d only entertain dinner with me for as long as I was eating, and I needed to know more.
“Isn’t the tournament invitation only?” I asked after I swallowed my next bite of food. Then, I started slowly cutting into the next piece.
“Yes.”
I looked up at him. “How am I going to get an invite?”
“I’m going to set up a trap. King Elion informed me that a drakin rider will be doing another criminal drop off at the Senith Border in two days. You’re going to be a damsel that needs saving.”
I tried to mask my emotion, to hide my fear at whatever his idea of being a damsel meant. “How will that get me an invite to the tournament?” I asked, carefully.
“You’ll tell the drakin rider that you escaped Moriann and that I sent one of my beasts to hunt you. Elion will be intrigued enough to bring you into his palace. Anything that’s mine he covets.”
“So I’m going to tell him I’m your—”
“You’re not going to tell him you’re my anything,” his voice was chilling as he cut me off. “He cannot know you’re my slave, Magnolia. You have a… reputation here.”
I had no idea what he meant by that. In the past seven years I hadn’t talked to anyone except for Dahes.
And in the short times I’d been permitted to speak during these dinners, I barely spoke at all.
I was pretty sure that no one ever saw me except for him and his sentries, and there was only one person on the streets who knew me from before, and Masin probably thought I was dead by now…
“You will tell Elion you’re a Moriann civilian that escaped. He can know you’re a Wielder, and that you were born into Moriann by outcast poverty, not exile, but nothing more. Tell him you decided to try fleeing when your Token manifested.”
I sucked in a breath, trying not to think about my Token and how it manifested.
“With your ability,” Dahes continued, “it’ll be a believable enough reason to climb the cliffs.”
I chewed the piece of food in my mouth, trying to carefully think of how to phrase my next question. “I understand how that might get me into his castle for a meeting. I don’t understand how it’s enough to get me to stay for the tournament.”
“Elion has a weakness for pretty things,” he crooned as he stared at me. “It’s why I let you keep both your eyes the other night.” I froze, memories of the throne room came crashing back to me. Kip’s screams, the blood, the texture—
It wasn’t the first time I let my emotions slip and Dahes read into them. It also wasn’t the first time he’d forced me to do the very thing I was dreading because of it.
This week, ripping someone’s eye out, wasn’t the worst thing I’d done. Not even close.
I had killed before—multiple times. And the faces of the lives I took haunted me as soon as I closed my eyes at night. It was worse knowing they were below the castle now, waiting for me.
The first time he forced me to take a life, I didn’t eat for a week. It wasn’t until he threatened me with killing more that I learned to suck it up and force the food down.
I wasn’t numb to it, but I tried to be. I had to be or it’d drown me.
But who was I kidding? I was already drowning, just in frozen, dead air instead of water. Being Dahes’ slave was slowly killing me, slowly taking oxygen from my lungs, slowly draining me of my will to live.
And if I didn’t die from Dahes or from his hunts, the countless souls I killed would finish the job for him.
Someday.
Dahes was watching me, and I knew he was probably reading my thoughts. I forced another bite into my mouth and focused on chewing, waiting for him to speak again.
Chew. Chew. Chew. Chew.
“Magnolia,” Dahes said, forcing my gaze to his.
“Elion will try to use you to find out information about my kingdom. No one has ever left Moriann before, and he’ll be intrigued enough to keep you.
” He was silent for a moment, the only sound was the drumming of his fingers against the table, and I knew there was something he wasn’t telling me, some other pertinent information he was purposely leaving out.
Everyone knew the two kings had a past. They had an entire war revolving around their history, but whatever peace they agreed on to end it, wasn’t enough to keep things civil.
I could glimpse that much from the triplets chanting.
From what I could tell, the only times they interacted now were to exchange criminal drop offs.
His gaze bore into me. “Under no circumstances is he allowed to touch you. You are mine.”
I nodded. Besides hunting, I hadn’t felt the touch of another person in seven years. Hadn’t held a conversation with one. Hadn’t seen one beyond hunting them and bringing them to Dahes.
I ate two more bites of food before he spoke again. “The Sands will block our…” he paused, letting the silence fester, “communication.”
I went deathly still, waiting for him to say more. I knew the Sands blocked magic, but I didn’t think it would stop our deal, that Dahes wouldn’t be inside my head while I was over there. I tried to hide my excitement, to not outwardly react even though, internally, I was screaming.
“Just because it blocks my access to your mind, does not mean I don’t still own you. You will come back to me after the hunt.” His compulsion ran through me.
“I will have someone drop off a map of Viven to you in your room,” he said. “Memorize it. I marked a spot where a thatcher will pick you up when it’s time to come back to me.”
“How will I know…” I swallowed, then tried again. “If we can’t communicate, how will I know when—”
“I will go to the Islands of Perinth when I want to communicate with you. It’s not blocked by the Sands and will let me have access to your mind again. When I want you, you’ll know.”
I nodded once, then focused on what was left on my plate without moving to eat it. I could feel Dahes watching me, studying me. The islands used to be the third kingdom in Hilithia before they were ultimately destroyed at the end of the war, left to slowly sink into the ocean.
“Magnolia.” I looked up. His voice had gone stone cold. “This is important to me. Fuck this up and you’ll regret it.”
I nodded. I already knew that.
“Go back to your room,” he said, dismissing me. “Memorize the map and get some rest. Your hunt starts in the morning.”