35. Scotlind
THIRTY-FIVE
SCOTLIND
I jumped at the sound of her voice. I was numb, frozen in time, that I’d forgotten where I was and what had happened. I tried to disassociate, to imagine any other outcome of my life other than what it actually was.
Four days had passed. Four days of not speaking. Four days of not being able to stomach looking at Vallie, of being too much of a coward to muster the courage. Her nickname for me flashed in my mind: Scottie-cat. Because growing up Vallie was always the fearless one. I just put on a brave face and pretended—pretended because I had no other choice.
But I couldn’t pretend what happened away. I couldn’t pretend Miles was still alive.
Arcane came to sample my blood every morning, my only indication another day had ticked by. I was thankful the King was preoccupied with preparing for the broadcast that he didn’t force me to eat my daily meal. I preferred the hunger. If there was anything in my stomach, I would have just vomited it up the moment I was forced to shove it down.
He barely slept in his bed, which meant it had been four days since he used Athler’s pheromones and forced Vallie into it. We were chained in his antechamber room. Forced to do nothing but try and avoid looking at what was left of Miles.
The stench of all the death was appalling, but the King’s pride wouldn’t move the dead servant or my friend from the floor. Miles was starting to decay now. I knew the servant was worse, but I couldn’t brave a look. All I could do was stare forward and pretend he wasn’t there. But we were forced to stare at Miles… He was positioned in between Vallie and me in a way that made it impossible not to see what was left of him whenever I looked at her. My vision tunneled in on him before I quickly jerked my head up to find Vallie already staring at me.
“What?” I asked. My voice was raw. We hadn’t spoken. I’d thought about what to say every second of every day that had passed, trying to figure out how to apologize. But every time I tried to speak, words never came out. I didn’t know where to start. I couldn’t fix this.
“I said I need you to do something for me.”
“Anything,” I breathed. I would do anything for her.
“I need you to not go through with whatever the King wants from you,” she whispered, surprising me.
“What? Vallie, I can’t. If I don’t…” I hesitated, trying to avoid looking at what was left of Miles, but it was impossible. I focused on the chain link in front of me, on where it connected to the floor. I counted them numerous times. There were fifty of them in total—at least the portion of it I could see. “Vallie, if I don’t do it, he’ll kill you too.”
“I know.”
My eyes snapped up, meeting her gaze, and I was surprised to find them clear. Some time during the third day she stopped crying, but her eyes were still red and swollen. She was determined, her mind made up. “Don’t let him die in vain. Don’t let the King win. Whatever it is he wants you to do, don’t do it.”
“No.” I shook my head, tears falling down my cheeks. “No. I won’t let you die. I can’t… ”
“Dying is better than this.” Her voice was barely a whisper and the way her words cracked…
“I can’t, Vallie. I need you.” Guilt took over me. I should have tried talking to her. I should have tried to say anything these past four days, but whenever we were left alone, Vallie curled up in a ball on the floor, turning away from me—away from Miles—and sobbed.
But I should have noticed the change in her the past day when the crying stopped. I could tell she was tired. She was a ghost of the lively friend that had been my family. I could see it in her eyes that she wanted to give up, could see it so clearly that it broke me. But I wouldn’t let her. I couldn’t lose her too.
She was about to answer when the door jerked open. A soldier strode in and walked straight toward me, sidestepping over what was left of Miles on his way. He unchained my shackles from the floor but kept them linked over my wrists.
“It’s time,” was all he said.
I couldn’t look at Vallie as I was led out of the room, couldn’t stomach to see her disappointment because I knew I would do whatever the King wanted of me. I wouldn’t lose her too.
My body was pink by the time I was scrubbed clean. Other than my visits to Arcane’s lab, it was the first time I’d been let out of the King’s antechamber. I hated that Vallie was left alone. She was by herself in the room where her twin’s body was rotting.
I still couldn’t process that Miles was dead, still didn’t fully believe it. It all happened so fast. With all the weeks of torture Vallie went through, I assumed when Miles was brought in, the King would torture him too. I thought I’d have time to figure out how to save him, to save both of them. The King was creative in how he punished Vallie. He did it in a way that hurt her but never killed her. But now I realized it was only selfish acts that kept her alive. Acts that kept his bed warm.
I’m going to show you mercy today. And to prove how generous I can be, I’m going to give this redheaded friend a break. That’s what the King had said moments before he murdered Miles in front of us. I didn’t even have time to think about what the King would do to him before he burned his head off. I didn’t even get to tell Miles anything. There were so many things I wanted to say: I miss you. I’m sorry. I wish the three of us were on that planet we talked about as children … But I said none of that. And now I’d never be able to tell him anything ever again.
Miles’ screams would haunt me, muffled through the air shield that the King kept perfectly molded around his head. I kept seeing his face melt off, leaving nothing left of his features, leaving nothing left at all—just an empty body.
Fire.
The King ultimately used fire to kill him. Fire that also killed my parents. Fire that haunted me my entire life. Fire that the man I loved possessed. Tezya’s fire. I knew it was just another move he made to play mind tricks with me, but it was working. I was starting to fall apart. Vallie and Miles were the only family I’d ever known. They were all I had and now half of that family was gone.
Dead.
Miles was dead.
And now Vallie was so beyond destroyed she wanted to die too.
I wasn’t paying attention to where I was being dragged until I was inside a ballroom. Four familiar thrones were erected on a raised platform. The King lounged on the largest one. Arcane took up his seat on the second. He was stoic as he watched me approach. Dovelyn’s seat was vacant, but my gut twisted when I saw the fourth. Tezya’s throne was now occupied by Athler. This was the same ballroom Kallon had portaled me into for Yule. The night I found out Tezya was the youngest Prince of Lux.
“Impressive what a wash and a nice gown can do for the appearance,” the King murmured as he assessed me.
Everything about my appearance was pristine, so at odds with how I felt on the inside. Even my chains were swapped with new ones. The servant’s urine and blood had dried on the ones I was originally wearing. Now they were silver, matching the decor in Lux. I could feel the Alluse sinking into my veins, mirroring how I felt—numb. Empty. Nothing.
The dress I was forced to wear was thin. The white silky material had high slits running up both my thighs, revealing my legs and exposing the brutal scar Kole had given me from my hip to knee. But it was nothing. Nothing compared to the scar over my heart from watching Miles die, of knowing it was all my fault, of knowing Vallie was suffering because of it.
“Bring her forward.”
The soldiers didn’t hesitate as they led me up the steps of the dais. My bare feet padded the cold marble, filling my body with dread. They didn’t stop until I was standing directly in front of him, and I could feel his breath against my throat. The King went to reach for my chains but grabbed my palm instead, his fingers digging into the bare skin right before my wrist met with metal as he turned my hand over. “What is this?”
“Nothing,” I blurted.
He smiled. “I hadn’t noticed it before, but my servants informed me of your scar when they were cleaning you up. You’ve been doing a good job of keeping your palm hidden from me, and I want to know why.” He dragged his finger over the thin, white scar. “This,” he murmured, “I remember. This is your blood bond mark with the Dark Prince. But this one,” he dug into my scar with Tezya, the wound almost entirely healed now from the weeks that had passed. “This is new.”
“I tripped while holding a dagger. I landed on the blade wrong,” I lied. My heart was pounding, and it took every ounce of self-control I had to remain calm.
He laughed. “You tell such terrible lies. I would bet my life that my son now bears the same scar across his palm. But what I’m not sure of is if the bond took.”
I tried to pull my hand away but his grip tightened around my wrist. “I’ve always been curious about the bonds and how they work. It’s forbidden in Lux to complete them, so we haven’t had a bonded match since our kind first settled here.” His smile was vile as he looked up from my palm to stare at me. “You will be punished for breaking the law, but I figured we could have a little fun first. I’m curious how connected you two are. For example, if I cut into you, would he feel it?”
I pulled away again and this time he let me. I staggered back before regaining my balance, almost falling off the dais.
“We’ll find out soon enough because my son will come for you after this. We’ll have plenty of time to test the limits of your new bond, and I have a lot planned for it.” He rose from the throne, towering over me. “In the meantime, we have a broadcast to air.”
I stiffened as he passed my chains over to Arcane. “Run tests on her blood and compare it to our databases. See if your brother’s blood is mixed in her palm.”
Arcane nodded.
“The broadcast is in two hours. Make sure whatever you do to her doesn’t show, and don’t be late.”
“Yes, sir,” Arcane said as he started to walk toward his lab, forcing me to follow him by my chains.
“And Scotlind,” the King added just before we reached the doors of the ballroom, “I don’t think I need to remind you that if you mess up, your friend will be the one who pays the price.”