Chapter 13
Chapter
Thirteen
Selene
You’re almost there! Almost free of her.
I rush into the room, part my lips, but where is my breath?
Breathing feels too hard an act to do.
I stumble further into the living room, where I usually eat my breakfast. It’s large and grand, littered with chairs and couches, a fireplace, and a game table—a stupid place where I am meant to entertain nobles’ wives.
I never have.
I’m not fake as fuck.
You want to gossip over tea and crumpets? Find someone else to bother.
I train in all my spare time. I would not let my skills falter now that a crown was placed upon my head. It’s then that the real beasts emerge.
I press my palm against my ribs, giving my lungs more support. “I know why you didn’t tell me all the details, Everett,” I whisper. His words were always veiled and protected. Should he overshare, the future could shift. His gift of foresight was more affliction than blessing.
The closing of the door constricts the air trapped in my lungs. I gasp, struggling to catch my next breath. Titus steps closer but remains unaware of how to slay my inner beast.
“I’m fine,” I rasp. A faint pink hue lines the walls as the silencing spell activates. All the royal rooms have them. I turn toward the wall.
I can’t look at Titus. Not yet.
“If a torturous state is your definition of fine, we should reexamine it.” The warmth in his voice thaws some of the frigid walls years of abuse have sculpted. “Are you okay?” he presses.
My breath quivers; my fragile reflection mocks me in the polished black stone wall I cling to. I hate these walls and the obsidian that makes them rise too high.
“Queen Selene?” Titus’s steps are hesitant. He knows I’m a viper that will strike.
How could Everett do this?
My eyes seal shut. I refuse to cry in front of Titus again. I press my forehead to the cold stone, trying to allow the chill to calm me.
“Is it always like that?” Titus asks. How can such a gravelly tone feel smooth?
“What?” My warm breath heats my face.
“Your morning conversations,” he answers.
Another step. Titus is at my side. I feel his eyes trying to dig between my forehead and the wall, to separate us.
“I’ll need to start drinking coffee. One that is spiked in order to keep up with that,” he jokes.
The corner of my lip twitches. I refuse my lips the smile they want to give him.
“We’re surrounded by the seeds we sow, Titus.” It’s too late to speak to Sable with caring words. She never absorbed the meaning of love. All she knows is manipulation, hate, and treachery. Thus, my lone means of speaking with her is to reciprocate her decay.
The only reason I fight to keep the line of communication open with Sable is because Everett demanded I do.
The past.
“I can’t stand her!” I rush towards Everett and bury my face in his chest. The scar on my stomach is still healing from where Sable stabbed me.
Everett’s arm wraps around me. “You must try. Don’t shut her out.” His hand rubs small circles on my back.
“Talking to her only feeds her evil soul.” My tears don’t stop. I cry only in front of my brother. Father would punish me; Sable would mock me.
I hate this castle. My life. I’m a caged bird, forced to entertain with my voice—in the future, it will be with my body.
I can stretch my wings but never fly.
“The only way to understand Sable’s soul is to keep peeling it back. The moment you ignore her is the moment you become deaf. You can’t allow that to happen. Sable has a vision she wants to fulfill.”
“Me dead?” I sniffle.
“No.” Everett guides me back so he can look me in the eye. “She wants everyone to be brought to their knees, Selene. Everyone. She wants what she has been denied. Power. I need you to stay close to her.”
I rub away the tears. “She’d never let me in.” And I don’t want her to.
“We keep our enemies closer than our loved ones. They are always on our minds and within our sight. Make sure you remain her enemy. Let me know what Sable is doing, where she goes, and who she visits.”
“That’s easy.“ I pull my shoulders back. “Sable spends all her free time in the library. I’ve always been better with a sword; Sable can’t stand it, so she flees to her books.”
“Knowledge can be a deadlier enemy than one with a sword at your neck, sister. And do not forget that Sable’s magic is more feared than yours. Not many wish to fight death.”
I pout. Everett’s right. Father loves Sable’s death magic.
Everett stands taller. “The most successful hunter doesn’t chase their prey. They observe. They notice the details. They spot the telltale clues. They know where to go, when to strike, and how to get to the finish line first, Selene.”
He wipes the tears off my cheeks. “What section of the library has Sable been visiting?” His chest leans closer. His face is graver and sculpted; the demands of adulthood are carving out his youth.
“The catacombs. She…”
“She what?” he presses.
I’d rather not discuss this with my brother. I look down at his boots. “She sleeps with others there.”
“Who?”
“Who is she sleeping with?” I cringe. “This month, it happens to be a visiting mage.”
“A mage.” His gulp is deep and loud. “What kingdom is this mage from?”
“He has no kingdom. He’s devoted himself to The Great Library of Ishmor.” Ishmor is an island where the history of our world is housed in the greatest library; some say the gods helped build it.
“Every soul claims a kingdom, Selene; sometimes that kingdom is known, other times it’s a selfish dream of a crown they wish to hold, but make no mistake, none of us are so noble to walk these lands without a thirst for acceptance.
Even those who toil in Ishmor labor towards a cause. They all report to someone.”
“You think this mage is reporting back to someone?”
“Yes.”
“Who?” I question. Who in Ishmor wants to know what my sister is doing?
Everett arches a brow. “Turn the tables, Selene. The mage is working for Sable.”
“Sable?” I repeat. “Sable has no power to command a spy.”
“That is where you are wrong, my dearest sister. Those we overlook hide for a reason; they pull the strings. Sable is skilled at creating lies. Do you know what lies cover up, Selene?” He tips my chin up.
“Terrible, awful truths.” He cups my cheek.
“Now I know where she is getting her knowledge. Don’t worry. I’ll handle it.”
Everett leaves without telling me more. I know he’s trying to protect me by keeping me in the dark, but it’s in the dark that monsters lurk.
That old memory blankets my skin like a dress that is too tight.
One week later, the catacombs caught fire.
My father didn’t know I saw my brother sneaking down there.
Just before smoke poured from the staircase, Everett departed with some tomes and scrolls.
The aged parchment appeared fragile, ready to tear if unwound.
What books did he collect?
What was in those scrolls?
Why did I never press?
That’s why you trusted me, Everett. I didn’t push. I waited until you confessed.
I regret that now.
“Why do you take all the blame? Sable is at fault, too,” Titus questions.
“What?” I blink. I forgot where I was. My gilded cage surrounds us.
Art hides the evil within the black walls.
A gentle wind from my balcony cools my forehead.
I peer outside as I turn my head. The floor is haunted by shadows from the skeleton tower Galen made me.
The air smells too much like flowers here.
I miss Solaria. The dense, humid, salty notes of the forest that framed the mountain range we call The Cradle of Darkness.
The aroma always roused me from sleep. The Cradle’s secrets made my nightmares seem like pleasant dreams.
“Why do you not fault Sable? Her tongue is just as wicked.”
“We’re twins. The same.”
“Same?” Titus scoffs. “Coins share the same mold, but look closely and you’ll spot the difference. Pressure shapes us in ways the surface doesn’t show. You and Sable might’ve been cast in the same fire, but you are not identical images of one another.”
I can see why Everett liked him. My brother would have voiced the same thing.
“I saw two very different people,” Titus continues.
“Both terribly pained and hurt, but their purpose differs.” He turns, pressing his back against the wall, standing side by side with me like we’re old friends.
“I still don’t know if I picked the right twin.
Are you the best of both evils, Selene?”
He’s trying to open me up.
“Best?” I snort. “We’re cruel, grotesque, and ugly. That’s what surviving has done to us, Titus.” I study his square jaw, strong eyes, and broad shoulders. Why hasn’t it deformed you?
“Sometimes thick skin is just hiding scars, not a monster,” he retorts.
I lift my head off the wall. He’s relaxed, leaning against it, but his shoulders are hunched.
I know the weight he feels. Everett knew how to pile it on.
His eyes? They look as tired as I feel. “Is that what you want to see? My scars?” I tilt my chin up to get a better view of him.
“You tell me. Am I brave enough?”
“No.” Turning, I mimic his pose, then I allow myself to sink along the wall till my ass hits the stone floor.
He looks shocked to see his queen sitting in such a state. He waits until I nod, then he joins me. He’s uncomfortable at first, then he forces himself to sit still. “Tell me how I can be,” he gently presses.
I want to curl my legs in, hug them to my chest as a layer of protection. Instead, I kick them out. “Why would you want to? I tried to kill you last night.”
“Because I need you to help me.” He raises one knee, forming a small wall between us.
He perches his elbow on it. “But I don’t think you will until you can trust me.
Trust is a river that flows both ways. I need your help, but I won’t take it unless I can trust you.
I’m desperate, not delusional. I will not trade the knowledge Everett confessed to me for peace of mind. ”
“You put my brother first. Why not your own life? You live. Everett is dead. Debts don’t need to be paid.” My voice dips, as do Titus’s eyes.
“When Everett died, my life was altered. I’m not the same.” Apprehension seeps through his plea. “I need your help because I am trying to survive.”
“Why is it so important to see the next sunrise, Titus. Convince me. This land is cruel. Why should we beg to remain a part of a garden that only grows toxic fruit? I hear the after is a better place. Tell me why I should not seek my destiny this very moment.”
“You’ve forgotten how to dream of the future could be,” Titus murmurs. “You’re stuck in the nightmare of the present.”
“I didn’t forget. I was never allowed to dream,” I gulp.
“We must fight for the sunrise, not for ourselves but for those we love…” He tips his head back, searching the ceiling for answers.
“You love someone?”
“Yes.”
My stomach clenches so hard it pulls my lips into a frown. Deep inside my heart, there is a sharp sting.
It’s ridiculous. He killed my brother.
But… there is something odd happening, a feeling I push away. I fear that acknowledging it might yield more harm than good.
“She’s lucky,” I retort dryly.
“He,” Titus replies. “It’s not what you think.”
“Aww, a sibling.” I press my hand to my stomach. Titus loves his brother, as I did mine. I’d never wish the grief I felt over losing Everett on anyone. Now, I have to keep Titus and his brother both safe.
“I shouldn’t have told you that.”
“Why did you?”
“I’d rather you know than Sable.”
“Good. You are smart.”
He starts to smile. It’s handsome, masculine, and firm, not devious like Galen’s.
“Is he here in the castle?” I ask.
Titus nods.
“Get him out; send him away before dusk falls upon the land. Sable doesn’t kill, Titus; she picks apart her prey.
Slowly. She learns every detail; some they don’t even notice.
She uses that to torture them. She was doing that to Everett before he died.
Everett never wanted to fight. He was using the war as a cover. ”
“A cover for what?”
“Something I considered a pathway to madness.” I bite my lip.
Why am I telling him this?
“Everett was searching for a location,” I confess. The scrolls Everett smuggled out were used in a time when we didn’t etch our maps with magic but with paper and ink. “Everett and Sable were playing a game; racing to find the same thing,” I admit in a hushed tone.
The question is, who started it? Did Sable find something that made Everett react, or vice versa?
Who threw the first stone?
“What location?” Titus’s face lightens.
If I told you what my brother was searching for, you’d think me insane.
I turn toward him and lick my lips. “First, tell me what my brother told you. Tell me everything.”