30. Killian
The guards drag me naked and struggling down the empty halls of Belterre Castle. If there was any point to it, I’d twist out of their grip and run, but as long as Alistair has Briar, I’m not going anywhere. This is my last stand.
The men throw me into Alistair’s monster trophy room, and throw a pair of trousers at me. I’m still buttoning the fly when he storms in, strides over, and throws a punch.
I let him. I damn well earned the burst of pain, the snap of my head, the gush of blood from my nose.
“You lying coward.”
He swings at me again. This time, I put up my arms to protect my face.
“Is this why you did it?” Alistair shoves my marked arm. The mark beneath my scar has darkened and thickened. “She did something to you. Bent you to her will. Tell me it was her fault, Kill. Maybe I’ll let you live.”
“I did it because I love her.”
Guilt grabs me by the balls and twists.
Alistair scoffs. “You. In love.”
“Yes.”
Lightness settles over me, having said it. I should have told her while I still had the chance.
“Are you hoping I’ll send the two of you off to live out your happy ever after?” He sneers, then jabs his finger at the wall of dead monsters. “You think you can fight off all those things and keep her safe.”
“I did it once.” I wipe the blood from my face with the back of one hand and gesture at the wall of trophies for proof. His scowl deepens. “The only reason you were able to kill the gryphon that crashed your ball yesterday evening is because it was distracted by her.”
His face mottles red with fury. I’ve taken his woman and his victory in battle. The last thread of friendship snaps.
I feel lighter. Maybe blunt words aren’t so bad, when they carry the weight of truth. Ours was a friendship based on lies and half-truths, but now my loyalty to him is over. I’m free of my vow, and not because he granted it to me. It was always mine to give.
Briar gave me the courage to claim my freedom.
She has my heart, my loyalty, my everything, forever. I give it all to her.
I wipe away the blood dripping from my nose. It’s not broken. Alistair’s strong but he’s still a pampered prince, shaking his hand and wincing. Hitting me hurt him as much as it did me.
“The monsters will keep coming, Alistair. Magic demands balance. When she was born with that face and body, her beauty had to be balanced with ugliness. The monsters will be drawn to her for as long as she lives.”
He chuckles, a low, nasty sound.
“Is that why you think she’ll choose you?” He shoves me. “Because you’re an ugly beast, too?”
Fuck him.
I swing. Alistair ducks. I clip his jaw.
“You were prepared to burn your life to the ground for a chance to get between her creamy thighs, weren’t you,” the prince says, backing up as I advance. “No wonder everyone leaves you, Kill. You’re nothing but a cheating, lying killer.”
I swing, and this time I don’t miss. Alistair reels, then straightens. Blood drips down his chin onto his frothy white shirt.
“Did she tell you she loves you?” He scoffs. “You wouldn’t know what to do with it if you had it, Ironheart. Love is useless. Love makes fools of us. I thought you knew better.”
I hate that he’s right.
I lunge, but he’s ready for me. Alistair’s leg shoots out at the same time he shoves open the sliding panel, and I go tumbling down into his hellhole of despair.
Briar
On the morning of my wedding day, I’m roused from a fitful rest by the maids. They fly into a tizzy, ordering cucumbers and tea poultices from the kitchen to fix my cry-reddened eyes and summoning the beleaguered healer, pleading with her to do anything she can to improve my appearance.
Magic tingles over my face. Exasperated, she throws up her hands, saying it’s hopeless.
Precisely how I feel.
I’m suffocating from the pressure of expectations. How am I going to get out of this without Killian’s help?
“The prince awaits you in the cathedral receiving room.” She drapes a veil over my face. “There. This will conceal the worst of it. Can’t have you crying on your own wedding day.”
If I’d hoped to find Killian outside my room, my foolishness is rebuked by the presence of six armed guards, all stone-faced strangers.
I am escorted to a palatial cathedral with my maids carrying my long train and the veil.
“Where is he?” I demand the instant we’re alone. If Killian is dead, I’ll feed him to the monsters. Let them tear the prince to pieces.
I notice his lower lip is swollen and take grim satisfaction that my knight got in at least one good shot.
“You look divine, my sweet.”
Alistair looks handsome, hard, and calculating—like the fate I risked death to escape a hundred years ago.
“Killian. Your knight. Where is he?”
Hard blue eyes meet mine over my gloved knuckles where he’s bent to brush a kiss. I resist the temptation to snatch my hand away.
“He’s gone, Rose. I signed a decree dismissing him from service this morning. As of an hour ago, he is on his horse headed back to that monster nest you call a castle. Alone.”
I’d have taken the news that he’d been hanged better.
I guess I’m not worth fighting for, after all.
The strongest, most valiant knight in all Belterre just up and left me to endure the consequences of our shared actions, alone.
Alistair would rather die than allow the fact that I slept with Killian to become public knowledge, but clearly we’re going to have the truth out in private before we marry. If only I could corral my racing thoughts and heartache that he’s gone.
The prince moves in closer, likely as a precaution against being overheard, but the effect is menacing. Intentionally so, judging from the razor edge in his tone.
“Whatever you think you feel for him, Rose, I assure you, it is entirely one-sided. You are not the first woman to fall for his heartless rogue act, and you will not be the last.”
I loathe his sneering tone, even as a sick, small part of me agrees.
“My name is Briar.”
He drags the back of his knuckle down the curve of my cheek. An answering shudder quakes down my spine. He senses my revulsion. I brace for a slap that doesn’t come.
The prince only wanted to make me flinch, to prove he could.
“You are Rose, the Lost Princess Aurora of Isanthia, the Sleeping Beauty of legend, and you will marry me. Today. With your monsters at my command, I will be able to expand Belterre’s territory. Even conquer Isanthia.” Again, he touches my cheek. “Wouldn’t that feel good, Rose? To take revenge upon the people who abandoned you?”
He grabs my chin, not gently, and forces me to look at him. I glare daggers and say, “No.”
I don’t crave revenge upon anyone. Then the other thing he said sinks in. I dig my nails into his wrist. “Why do you think I can control them?”
He releases me with a light shove.
“You can call them without even trying.”
“No, I can’t.”
“They come at your beck and call.”
“Alistair, they don’t.”
But gods, what if he’s right? I don’t call them consciously, yet they do appear to congregate whenever I’m distressed.
“They do!” he roars. “You will learn to control them, Rose. It will take time to build an army that can fight alongside your monsters, but I am confident you will learn to command the fae beasts.
Alistair crosses his hands behind his back and paces the room.
“As of this morning, Kill is a free man, the owner of a cursed castle infested with fae beasts, and a duke. I made him everything he is, just as I can make you into a queen,” he gives me a knowing smirk. “Or an example.”
I want to claw the smug satisfaction off his face, but before I can lunge for his throat, he yanks open the curtain covering a Juliet balcony. My jaw drops open at the sight of the ancient queen in pillory on a hastily-built platform in the private courtyard below.
“Not long from now, you will walk down that aisle and accept my ring with a smile, or you will join her on that platform.”
“What will you do to her?” I manage to rasp through dry lips.
“At the conclusion of our ceremony, your curse will finally be broken.”
“You mean to bed me immediately after.”
“I have desired you for weeks, Rose. For weeks, you have denied me. Can you blame me for wanting to claim what’s mine?”
He twitches my veil straight, almost tenderly.
Death, or marriage. Those are my choices.
Alistair has glimpsed my darkness, and to my surprise he did not shy from it. He believes he can tame me and my wild things. Own me the way he believes he’s entitled to everything else in this land.
He needs a reminder that he does not yet rule.
“Nothing in this kingdom is yours, Prince. It is the king’s. You are only Belterre’s caretaker-in-waiting.”
Alistair’s blue eyes crinkle in a smile that does nothing to warm his eyes.
“My father will step aside once our honeymoon is over. He’ll have to. While I’m busy removing any doubt around our progeny’s fatherhood, your monsters will continue to rampage across the country. I won’t be the one in charge. My father will be. By the time I release you from my bed, the people will beg me to save them from the fae monsters.”
He takes my hands, both of them this time.
“With you, I can finally prove I am the bravest, strongest prince in all the land. The people will clamor for me to save them. I can hear them now. Can you?”
From the open window, I can see harpies winging in the distance. People chant my name, along with Brave Prince Alistair.
I taste bile.
“You see? The people love me now. All thanks to you, my darling Rose.”
In the next breath, a sip of air that doesn’t loosen the vise around my ribs one iota, a rush of longing washes over me so strong I can’t escape the pull. Killian is the one I drank poison for, because I knew, even when I was only twenty-two and not a hundred and twenty-two, that my knight was out there.
Even if his armor gleams black instead of shining silver, Killian is my knight. Mine.
Not the prince’s.
Alistair was simply the means fate chose to bring me the one I needed. I did need to be rescued by a prince. In a way.
Fairy tales are told after the fact. They’re a gloss we paint over darker truths. We tell the stories as we want to hear them.
I stare blankly at the floor.
My heart bleeds openly inside my chest, yet my pristine white dress remains unstained. How is it possible? There should be blood everywhere from the force of this blow.
“Come. It is time.
I swallow my heartbreak and listlessly allow the prince to lead me toward a fate I now accept as inevitable.