Chapter 54
CHAPTER FIFTY-FOUR
MORGANA
T hey’d thrown me in a cell beneath the castle. A wretched, wet cell. I groaned—I’d been locked away once too many times since meeting Aster Sinclair.
I wanted to never see a dungeon again, if I could help it.
I held onto the rusty iron bars and screamed. I shook the metal, but it didn’t so much as rattle against the foundation. “You don’t understand! ” I hollered. “Let me out . The future king of Verdantis is in… in… danger! ”
Silence. For hours, it was silent. No one came to chastise me. No one questioned my hostility toward Erynna, nor did they come to free me—not until the sun was poking through the narrow window at the top of the cell. Two guards snapped at me to stand, grabbing my elbows when I’d not listened to them with haste. They dragged me out of the room and toward the throne room. I was tossed onto the hard floor before the Avendatis king and queen. I choked on a gasp, turning my head to see if anyone else was near. It was just me and the monarchs.
Where in the hells was Aster?
Had he left me to die? To face the wrath of a king they both warned me was cruel, lethal, for far less severe crimes?
The king’s voice broke through. “Lady Tillington.” The weight of his words was ominous. They’d kept my true name a secret? “You have been a subject of chaos twice within twenty-four hours. To threaten an Avendatis royal with a blade is punishable by death. To threaten your lover’s sister, however?” Lucif laughed. “That is golden—but, nonetheless, unacceptable. You see, Verdantis is a close enough ally, for now.”
I lifted my chin to regard King Lucif and Queen Lucifina, my frown so deep it hurt.
King Lucif curled his hands around the plush armrest, his light-yet-hostile gaze heavy upon me. “And as such, I am inclined to investigate each disturbance within my castle appropriately. I am inclined to uphold Aster’s two requests—the first with my son, and the second to show you mercy.”
“What?” I rasped, the blood rushing from my face.
“Well, the crown prince seems to think you are salvageable. I did not think Verdantis had grown so weak as to show such mercy, but here we are. There are ways to prove your innocence though. The very same methods that will prove my son’s. Since I care little about you , you will go first.” He raised his voice with a resounding, “Bring in the Blood Sisters.”
I started to stutter in disbelief. The two guards hoisted me up, and I lunged up with the force, flailing my arms wildly. “No, no. I can’t—this isn’t right. Please, please, get Prince Aster. There is an explanation ?—”
I wanted to cry. I wanted to scream that Erynna was a traitor plotting against him, but I had no proof. I had nothing. I only had the glimpse of a secret meeting, the fleeting affection before the cloaked figure disappeared.
They twisted me around as a red-hued light slowly converged across the sunroof over us. Two women entered the throne room, adorned in deeply cut gowns that stopped above their belly buttons. They had golden chains linking their wrists to each other. The two of them walked in unison, and though the ringing in my ears shielded their voices, they talked at the same beat too.
It was as if they were one.
The guards forced me on my knees. “Please?—”
“Go on, girls.” Lucif’s laugh was a resounding threat. Guttural. Evil. “Feed on her guilt.”
They each grabbed my wrists with their unbound hands, hissing at me in a language I wasn’t sure still existed. Then they bit into my wrists. Their canines, sharper than blades, pierced through my flesh, and then everything burned.
My bones ached, as if broken.
My blood burned, as if on fire.
My soul shattered. As if death were pillaging the remnants of my soul.
I could feel their magic mingle with my veins, a scream rocking through me. They were picking them apart like a broken spider web. They intruded into the darkest recesses of my mind—their fingers pulling back the layers of truth I’d hidden for so long. All of the agony. All of the trauma. All of my most vile, pathetic truths?—
And then I saw it all. The darkness within me merged with the evil within them. Their screams exploded into the air, and I was stripped from this trance they’d placed me in. I immediately collapsed when the guards let go of my shoulders, my body convulsing, my heart cracking my breastbone.
In the darkness were monsters.
Within me , there were monsters.
They’d protected me. They’d poisoned the vampiric Blood Sisters who had tried to invade my darkest memories.
“She’s fucking cursed —” one of them wept, the sounds of their bodies dragging against the stone as they backed away. I couldn’t see through the pain. I couldn’t see through the terrible, terrible pain.
“Just like that wretched prince!”
“And her name. Her name is Morgana Kyllingham, my King.”
“And the mirror—the mirror is gone.”
“She’s here to threaten your crown!”
“They were prepared to kill you, my king. They were prepared to kill each and every one of you.”
The king had remained quiet as I wept, the pain still searing through my veins. Every bit of me was on fire. Every morsel of my being was begging me to fight, but I was stuck in place—as if their bite had rendered me to stone.
And then the hinges of the door screamed, the weight of the door slamming shut as Lucif said, “This is a private hearing. Leave, Sir Matthew?—”
“Your Majesty, it is imperative that you hear my?—”
“Leave, Sir Matthew.”
“The heir is dead, King Lucif. Prince Eamon has been slain.”
Even through the pain, the terrible agony that was overcoming me, I froze. I turned my head in the direction of the throne. Through the blurred haze, I saw him stand. They’d stripped me of my blade, but I still had the toxic ring on my finger.
King Lucif’s glee—the toxic laughter, the condescending tone—had vanished. His command was clear.
It was a decree that overpowered the sound of the gem shattering as I used the last of my force to break the ring against the hard floor.
“Kill her,” he said. “Kill all of them!”