39. Raithe
Raithe
I once heard that cold water could help clear an impure mind. I didn’t know if that meant a simple splash or full-on plunge, but the latter seemed most appropriate.
As soon as the sun rose and Felaf took my place, I raced to my chambers without so much as an acknowledgement.
She’d been asleep while Rahzlyn and I talked, but it was our silence that worried me.
The silence where a hidden beast demanded to be set free and explore Rahzlyn’s mind and body unabashedly.
I could count on one hand how many times in my life my cock had operated with a mind of its own, growing hard and uncomfortable upon waking. My hands drifted beneath the cool water, itching to relieve the throbbing ache. I steadied my breath, attempting to resist the pull.
In a moment of weakness, I let myself wonder what would have happened if she’d stayed.
“Fucccck,” I groaned, tossing my head back.
My hips jerked at the memory of how close we’d been—Serpentine, atop Cobalt, the infirmary, the bath… last night. She was always right there, infiltrating my mind and skin, yet it wasn’t close enough.
I wanted more.
There was no law in the Treaty against imagining such unchastity, but what had almost happened was dangerous. I’d been one second away from kissing her.
Kissing her, for fuck’s sake.
Even if we weren’t Chosen, I could never deserve her affection. She was tender and warm, my opposite in every way.
My desire banked slightly at such an impasse.
I didn’t know a damned thing about attraction or bonds, but I did know there was no good reason for her to want someone like me.
More harsh truths sliced into me, and I relished each of them, basking in my own unworthiness until finally my cock settled. I emerged from the bath reminded of my purpose. It didn’t include desiring Rahzlyn.
The cold helped, but it wasn’t enough to fully ease the tension burning inside me.
I knew something else that could.
“He’s been especially quiet despite your initial warnings,” Vesperah informed me later that morning.
I trailed her down a long, drab corridor belonging to the citadel dungeons in Antares.
We passed the main cells filled with prisoners who whistled and howled as we walked by.
Most inmates resulted from petty thievery or drunken brawls, both of which had increased dramatically since the curse began.
“Petty” didn’t necessarily feel appropriate anymore.
Not when the prisoners didn’t have enough meat on their bones to separate them from the skeletal remains of their cells’ prior occupants.
“And you’re certain no one has been made aware of his presence?”
Vesperah shot me a look before jiggling the ring of keys at her belted hip. “Not even Alekko knows.” Her resentment was deafening. “Only I have access to the citadel’s private cells.”
We entered another passage far beyond where she had her guards posted. Vesperah carried a torch to guide the way and lit a lantern hanging on the stone wall.
“Per your orders, I have given him water every other day, food every three days, and only allowed him to sleep up to three-hour intervals,” she explained. “How much longer do you intend to keep him here? He’s taking up valuable resources, not to mention my time.”
“As long as it takes. I’ll let you know once I’m finished.” I paused, recognizing that I’d asked a lot of her by keeping this secret. “Thank you, Vesperah.”
She knitted her brows. “I didn’t know you were capable of gratitude. Alekko wouldn’t believe—”
I shot her a warning look.
She raised her hands before departing. “Not a word, I know.”
The prisoner’s white head lifted slightly from where he sat crouched in the corner.
Hopefully, hunger and sleep deprivation would finally loosen his tongue.
“You’re back,” he said. “Come to kill me this time?”
“I have no interest in killing you, Kole. At least not yet,” I added, though it was a lie. I wouldn’t kill him without Rahzlyn’s permission first. She still needed to learn he was in Scorpio, a fact I’d been prolonging for as long as possible.
I’d seen how fervently she meant her handshake. I couldn’t find it in me to deny her trust, but the quiet, lingering doubts I still had about her demanded to be proven wrong by this man.
I clenched Rahzlyn’s golden leg chain I kept in my pocket, unable to part with it.
“I'm not telling you shit.” Kole spat at the dirty ground between us.
My boots scuffed as I inched closer. “Not even about the brand on your foot? The one that looks like this?” I held out a Serpentine entrance coin. “Want to tell me about it?” I neared the bars. “The sooner you answer my questions, the sooner you can get out of here.”
Kole laughed bitterly, throwing his head back. “We both know I’m not getting out of here alive.”
As much as it knotted my insides, he meant something to Rahzlyn.
I wouldn’t hurt him no matter how much he deserved it, which was why I hadn’t resorted to standard interrogation methods.
The problem was, I couldn’t let him go running back to Markus and Allory.
I certainly couldn’t trust him to be a spy.
The longer he stayed here, the more likely it would be for Maryn to discover his presence. He’d be interrogated to no avail, revealing how he knew Rahzlyn.
I considered my next move. “Tell me something, Kole. Or should I say, Kolbyn?”
His eyes widened slightly. “How are you able to say my true name?”
“It’s a gift.”
“It shouldn’t be possible. Unless you’re one of us.” Kole shook his head. “You can’t be.”
“And why’s that?”
“Because you took her,” Kole growled. “You took her, and she wasn’t yours to take.”
“Who?” I feigned ignorance. “A bit hard to keep up with the women in your life.”
He ground his teeth. “You know who. Pretty hair, big tits, brain the size of a—”
“Ah, yes,” I said lightly, corking my rising irritation. “The dancer who, correct me if I’m wrong, was about to commit treason against her king. That dancer. You know, she had the same mark that you do on your foot.”
“Had? Where is she now?”
“I dealt with her, same as I’m dealing with you,” I said, attempting a different approach. “Only she seemed to hardly know anything, so it did not end well for her. I killed her shortly after capturing her.”
“You’re lying,” he seethed.
“I would like to know how that brand on your foot works, Kole,” I said, casually pacing with my arms folded.
“You see, I’ve discovered your little secret.
True apostates bear its mark, and somehow it prevents you all from being able to say each other’s name, or anything relating back to your cause to another.
” I cocked my head at him. “Except for Serpentine. That you can say to anyone, and I’m guessing that’s because you all need to lure others in to join your ridiculous uprising. ”
Kole said nothing.
I slipped out a knife from my boot and flipped it by its hilt several times in the air.
“I’m trying to give you a way out here by telling me everything I need to know before you lose an eye or your leg.
Because you don’t have the same luxury as your fallen comrades did.
Unlike with them, you can tell me everything you know about the apostai even though I don’t bear the brand. ”
“Impossible,” Kole ground out.
“Alas, here we are.” I pointed the blade at him. “Tell me why.”
“Tell me if she’s alive,” he countered. “The Black Rose.”
“I told you. Dead, like all the other apostates I’ve caught and questioned before her.”
Kole jumped to his feet. “She can’t be dead. It’s not possible.”
“And why not?”
“She can’t,” he said to himself. “The Black Rose can’t be dead.” I couldn’t discern if it was Rahzlyn’s death that pained him or the symbol she represented.
“Did you love her?” I demanded. I didn’t give a fuck that the question lacked relevance.
He faced me, his features contorted into something akin to disgust. “What the fuck kind of interrogation is this? No, I didn’t love her. She was promised to us. She was the catalyst, the answer, the beacon of our new future. The Black Rose was meant to be his.”
Everything in me darkened from the possessive way in which he spoke. He never cared for her. “You used her.”
“The Black Rose was meant to be his,” Kole repeated. “His, not yours to kill!”
“Whose?” I snarled. “Markus’s?”
Kole scoffed. “Markus is his servant. We all are. Which is why you must be lying. Because the prophecy—”
“A truth for a truth, Kole.” Another idea popped into my mind. “Tell me about this prophecy, and I’ll let you see your sister. Mel, right?”
Kole’s face went ghastly white. “What? She’s here?”
Stars, was he gullible. “I went back to Serpentine in search of collateral and low and behold, there she was. A spitting image of yourself. She’s unharmed.” I paused. “For now.”
A frustrated noise erupted from his mouth.
It was a gamble, testing whether his sister could be at Serpentine and if he cared enough about her to divulge information in exchange for her safety.
But as my threat hung in the air, Kole heaved a sigh in defeat.
It worked. I always thought such affection was a weakness, yet his love for his sister was conceivably his only redeeming quality.
“Alright,” he lamented. “I’ll tell you what you want to know, just—fuck, don’t hurt her.”
“What’s your sister’s name?” I mulled over our first encounter when he’d called Jere by the name of Jerrome. “Her true name? And you better make sure you give the same answer she gave me.”
Kole sneered. “Melanie.”
Truth, my intuition confirmed.
Mel was a branded apostate too. How could Rahzlyn not have known that everyone in her life was lying to her? Fucking stars, I’d never met someone so… Vulnerable. Foolish. Naive.
But also… Hopeful. Idealistic. Genuine.
Someone who truly wanted to believe the good in others.
Anger rose within me at this fucker for taking advantage of Rahzlyn’s heart. Relying on breathwork I hadn’t had to use in years, I calmed my mind down barely enough to avoid slamming this pig’s face into his own pile of shit in the corner.