27. Scotlind
TWENTY-SEVEN
SCOTLIND
Darkness engulfed me. A bag was thrown over my head, but I knew I was being dragged through the castle. I just didn’t know which part of it they were taking me to.
“Send word to the King,” Athler ordered. “Tell him we have an urgent matter, and he’ll want to return immediately.” The only response was fading footsteps. I couldn’t tell what scared me more—seeing the Lux King in person or Athler using his ability again.
My elbows slammed against the floor as I was thrown into a room. A click sounded, then brightness flooded my vision. Brown eyes burned into me as the bag over my head was removed.
“Scotlind…” The words came out more like a question, and for a brief moment, a look of shock ran across Kole’s face before it was gone.
“Chain her to the floor,” Arcane said. His voice was so much lighter than Athler’s, less grating.
Kole nodded as he pulled the chains around my wrists. Using his free hand, he lifted a rug to reveal a circular hook embedded into the floor. He dragged my shackles down, connecting them to the hook, and I realized I was in the King’s personal chambers. It was the same room he ordered Tezya and I to come to before the meeting with Tennebris. I remembered the rug—noticing the bump under it even then—and the large mantle across from it where he stood as he assessed us.
Disgust filled me, making me want to vomit all over again. The King had a permanent place for a prisoner in the middle of his room…
I pulled at the lock, but it wouldn’t budge. I kept trying and trying as realization of what I did finally caught up to me—
“If you keep fighting, I’ll chain your ankles and neck down too.” Athler let out an amused chuckle, before turning to Kole. “Compel her. The Alluse we used in the vapor was Vir so abilities will work on her.”
Kole straightened, his voice taut. “What do you want the compulsion to be?”
“I want information. I want to know where she’s been and what they’ve been up to. Once the King comes back we’ll hook her up in the monitor room.” Athler turned his glare toward Arcane. “And she better reveal everything about your siblings’ whereabouts since you couldn’t manage to capture any of them, not even the stupid brute who was half dead.”
Arcane didn’t reply.
Relief flooded me for a brief moment. Everyone escaped and was safe. But the feeling was washed away as quick as it came before the terror set in. The camp. They couldn’t find out about the camp. Once I was in the monitor room, I’d be forced to reveal everything that had happened since we escaped. The King would know the truth about Tezya. He would find out the rebellion was still very much alive and ready to fight against him. I prayed Tezya and Dravenburg would be able to evacuate everyone to the new location before that happened, but I would still ruin our only advantage in this war. I would be forced to reveal our hand, forced to tell the King everything about the prophecy and about Tezya. And if that happened, he’d make it his mission to kill him first.
I backed away from Kole as his fingers gripped my chin, and horror sank its teeth into me. I watched the golden spirals appear on his hand.
No, no, no.
“Where have you been hiding?”
His voice was musical, the same familiar octave I remembered, but it felt different. I could tell he was using his ability, but I wasn’t compelled to answer him. I said nothing, the shock was all consuming for a heartbeat. Then another.
He compelled me again, but the urge to obey didn’t come. I had no idea how or why his compulsion wasn’t working, but I wasn’t going to waste it.
I’d forced myself to obey, to pretend. If I could lead them astray… If I could manage to keep everything about Tezya and the camp a secret, we could still win. “We were staying close to Tezya’s condo in the mortal territory.”
“Who’s with you?” Athler stated the question to Kole, who repeated it with compulsion.
“Sie, Kallon, Dovelyn, and Tezya,” I replied automatically. I only told them what they already saw. They’d seen Sie and the princess, and I knew it wouldn’t be believable if I said Tezya wasn’t with us. They also had to assume we had Kallon since she’d been missing, and her portals were the only feasible way we were coming and going.
Kole froze for a moment, and I was worried I gave something away. “You left here with Peter. If Sie’s with you, there’s no way he would have abandoned him.”
Crap. Crap. Crap.
I willed myself to stay calm, to think rationally, but my heart was jackhammering in my chest. “Peter didn’t make it,” I lied, half choking on the words. The sorrow that filled my voice wasn’t hard to fake. Thinking back to the state Tezya and I found him in, it wouldn’t be hard to believe he was dead.
“What were you doing in Lux?” Kole repeated Athler’s question as he stared at me. I held my breath, praying my face wasn’t giving anything away.
“We came back for Brock,” I answered. Simple truths, nothing to condemn Brighta’s goals.
“What are Dovelyn and Tezya planning?”
“Nothing.”
Athler’s eyes narrowed. “She’s lying. Tezya and Dovelyn possess too much ambition and pride to sit back and do nothing.”
“They just wanted to get away from you and the King,” I spat back. “Seeing how cruel you are to them, I’m sure you won’t find it that hard to imagine why.”
Athler smiled at me, his thin lips cracking as he stepped forward, bending down at the waist until his eyes were level with mine. I stiffened as his fingers traced over my upper thigh, the same spot Tezya was forced to stab.
Kole kept my chains pulled taut so I couldn’t pull away. I could barely lift my hands off the floor. “What you saw that day,” Athler breathed as his long fingernails dug into my flesh, “was nothing. The punishment we gave to Tezya was child’s play. So trust me when I say the boy has lived through a century of my lessons and one little dagger in the thigh isn’t enough to make him crawl to the mortals and hide. He knows how to live in pain. In fact, I recall a marvelous memory when Tezya almost had his face cut in half from one of my lessons. Do you remember that, Arcane?”
Arcane’s fists tightened at his sides, but he replied with a simple, “Yes.” Knowing Athler was the reason Tezya had his scar made me want to rip through my chains and claw his throat out.
Athler chuckled. “So I’ll ask you one more time, what are they planning? ”
“I’m telling you the truth. They aren’t planning anything. They just wanted to get away from you. ” My breathing hitched as Athler inhaled, and I flinched.
“If they aren’t planning anything, why would they bother rescuing Sie? I don’t believe the princes were ever friendly toward one another. In fact, I might even go as far to say they hate each other.”
I didn’t answer. I didn’t know how.
“And while you’re stewing over your answer, let me tell you Dovelyn was spotted in the prison the day he escaped, so if you try to claim she had nothing to do with it, I’ll know.”
An unsettling silence filled the room. Athler withdrew his fingernails from my thigh and proceeded to smear the lingering blood over my skin. Without looking down, I could feel the four letters he was tracing onto me.
L
I
A
R
“She’s not lying,” Arcane said. “She was compelled to answer. If she says my siblings aren’t planning anything, then they aren’t.”
“Make her prove it.” Athler turned to Kole. He rose and took a few steps back, allowing Kole the freedom and creativity to test me. I waited to see what he’d do.
Kole looked from Athler to me, before compelling, “Stop breathing.”
I held my breath, willing my pulse to steady and my chest to still.
My lungs started to become heavy. A slow, growing agony flowing through them, making me feel like I was catching on fire from the inside out .
A minute passed, and the burning wasn’t stopping. It was morphing, becoming unbearable. I told myself over and over I was fine. I could do this. For Tezya, for Brighta, I could do this, even if it felt exactly like being drowned in that bath again. Even as I saw Kole’s two brown eyes, the only difference now was he wasn’t laughing. He was staring right at me, like he could see through it all, like he knew something I didn’t.
But my body begged for me to inhale—to take a breath. My mind screamed that I was going to die to prove a point. Darkness started to seep into my vision, and I had to fight to not pass out… or give in.
The suffering grew—intensified to a point I couldn’t handle. It was worse than anything I’d ever felt before. My skin was peeling off my body. Every bone felt like it was being crushed slowly. My mind felt like it was being stabbed over and over again…
I started writhing on the floor. I knew my face was turning purple, my lungs felt charred. It was a black void, expanding and all consuming, ready to swallow me whole until there was nothing left. Was this what it felt like to die? I always knew whenever the time came, it’d be painful, but I wasn’t prepared for this kind of torment. I couldn’t take it anymore.
I screamed.
“She’s not compelled,” Athler said, his voice grating, and I realized the pure agony was coming from him. “I changed her pheromones. Regardless of how much pain I caused her, she should have been forced to suffer in silence.”
Arcane and Kole turned to look at me, but Athler was staring directly at the eldest prince. “What kind of Alluse did you use? Are you sure it was Vir and not complete?”
“Yes, I’m sure. The vapor worked. Maybe something is wrong with the compulsion user,” Arcane drawled. “You were able to manipulate her pheromones just now, were you not? That is proof the Alluse worked perfectly. ”
Athler slapped Kole across the face. He staggered backward, tripping over me. “I ordered you to compel her.”
Kole glared up at him. “I did compel her.” He stood, straightening his jacket. “And you’re not allowed to touch me. I’m here on a work visa by my king.”
“If you’re on a work visa and you can’t properly work, then you’ll be disposed of however I deem fit. The visa is only valid if you can perform.”
Kole’s jaw ticked. “If you didn’t inject yourselves with Sui Alluse, I’d compel you for proof. I have no idea why it’s not working, but it’s not my powers.”
“Go fetch a servant,” Athler ordered. Kole was silent for a moment. His chest puffed before he finally stormed out of the room.
“You better be right about the King wanting her.” Athler turned to Arcane. “I don’t want a word about Sie or Dovelyn being here. If he finds out they got away, he’ll have our heads.”
“You mean your head,” Arcane clarified, his voice calm. “I’m the heir, which is nothing but a fancy title while the King still breathes. I hold no power yet. But you’re his second, and that means when the King is gone, you’re the one in charge.”
I stared up at the eldest prince. I hadn’t had many interactions with him beyond the week he was ordered to sample my blood, and even then he was straightforward, quiet, and to the point. He never hurt me, never took more than he needed, and I couldn’t help but wonder what game he was playing now.
Was he happy to make the trade? Did he let his sister go on purpose? I had no idea the kind of relationship the three siblings had—only that Tezya had said none of them were spared from the King’s punishments growing up. Was Arcane secretly trying to protect Dovelyn from that?
Arcane was supposed to make a mass compulsion serum. Did he do the opposite? Did he create a vapor serum that blocked compulsion instead? Was he the reason I wasn’t being compelled right now?
Athler took a possessive step toward the eldest prince. “Then I’ll have your head before he has mine, and I promise you it won’t be pretty. If you say a word, you’ll regret it.”
Kole pushed the door back open, cutting the tension as he dragged a servant into the room.
He was shaking with sweat pooling under his arms and a large zero on his wrist that matched mine. His eyes widened, his expression pleading and begging me to help him.
“Compel him,” Athler ordered.
Kole’s body flared again in golden spirals. “Stand up.” The servant stood on shaking legs. “Sit back down.” The servant sat. “Stand.” He rose again. “Hop on one foot.”
“See,” Kole said, turning to face the other two males in the room. “It isn’t me. I can use my compulsion just fine.”
“Anyone can follow simple commands,” Athler replied, seeming bored. “That isn’t very convincing.”
“What do you want him to do then?”
Athler smiled, handing Kole a dagger. “I want you to compel him to do something I know he’d never willingly do. Have him slit his throat.”
The boy staggered backward, tripping over my chains. His aqua eyes found mine again. “Please, no. I swear I didn’t do anything. I was just cleaning the dishes as I was told. Please, don’t kill me.”
“Stop this,” I begged as Kole took a step toward him. His brown gaze slid to mine. He looked like he was going to protest. He turned the handle over in his hand, stalling, waiting for Athler to take the order back. “Please,” I said to Kole. The boy staggered behind me, his fingers pressing into my shoulders, nearly breaking my clavicles as his nails dug into my skin. I felt warm liquid seep into my clothes from behind me the second before the smell of urine filled the air. He started sobbing .
“Unless you want to speak willingly,” Athler deadpanned. “Tell us what we want to know.”
I didn’t say anything. I couldn’t. There were thousands of lives at the camp. How many women, children, and men would they kill if I gave them the information they wanted? I looked up and found Arcane staring down at me. He was still, so unmoving, and I remembered he knew about the camp too. He was in love with Wells. Arcane knew everything Athler wanted to know, and yet he didn’t say anything either. He didn’t want me to tell him.
“Then we need proof that Kole’s compulsion is working. Do it,” Athler ordered.
Kole grabbed the boy by his arms, yanking him off of me. “Stop fighting.” His body stilled. The only indication he was scared was the wet spot on his pants and the tears running down his cheeks. “Take the blade.” His hand reached for the knife.
“Please, don’t—” I cried.
“Slit your throat.” Kole didn’t look away as the boy obeyed. Gurgling noises filled the room for one second, two, three—then it was over. He collapsed on the ground next to me with a thud.
“Leave the boy there.” Athler grinned down at me. “I have a feeling there will be more to follow until she learns to behave.” He turned to Kole. “Watch over her until the King arrives.”
Kole stared at the dead servant as Athler and Arcane left the room, leaving us alone.