CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
LESSONS ON REVENGE
The dungeons are darker and colder than I remember. Probably because it’s my first time here as a prisoner. And probably because my cell is across from Kaidren Vale’s.
He stands against the far wall of his cell, expression shifting between surprise and anger as the decurio lock me in. “What are you doing here?” He settles on anger. “Gloating?”
“Pretty sure gloating would be more effective from the other side of the bars,” I say.
The soldier who locked my cell walks away, and Kaidren’s brows rise as he realizes I’m as stuck in here as he is. “You were arrested? What for? Being a compulsive liar?”
“For helping you kill your father, actually.”
His dark chuckle lacks humor. “It’s rare to see irony strike so quickly.”
He has every right to lash out at me, but I’m angry too.
Getting arrested wasn’t part of my plans for tonight.
Neither was kissing the enemy or wrecking my brother’s trust in me.
Everything is spinning out of control, especially my emotions.
“I found the same poison that killed Arliss in your room, and you freely admit you despised him. How was I to know I was framing you?”
“I didn’t kill him.”
“Not hearing you deny the poison was yours,” I say.
Kaidren glowers at the floor. “I don’t have to explain myself to you.”
“You do if you want any hope of getting out of here.”
He raises the force of his glare from the floor to me.
There’s so much fury swirling in his eyes, I take a half step back.
“You think I want your help? Are you serious? I already tried reasoning with you. You threw it in my face. Now isn’t the time to talk.
That was hours ago, when I begged you to listen to me, and what did you do? Oh, right. You framed me for murder.”
“I didn’t know I was framing you.”
His expression twists into a sneer. “As if that would’ve changed anything. You wanted to get rid of me, so you did. Congratulations. I hope sitting across from me in prison is worth it.”
“I have no intention of staying here. If we help each other—”
Kaidren cuts me off by throwing his head back and cackling. “You’re joking.”
“Rarely,” I say flatly. “Come on. Wouldn’t you rather hate me from outside prison? You want to get out of here, I want to clear my name. We can escape together, find Arliss’s real killer, and both of us get what we want.”
Kaidren purses his lips, considering. “No.”
My jaw drops. “No?”
“That’s what I said. In the past hour, I’ve resigned myself to sitting in here for a while. Now that you’ve joined me, I’d rather both of us rot in here than give you anything.”
I fold my arms, trying to convey more confidence than I feel. “You know, I can just get myself out of here and leave you behind.” It’s an empty threat, and we both know it.
He shrugs, immediately calling my bluff. “Go ahead. I’m guessing your escape plan involves magic? I might be a liar, but the decurio will probably be more inclined to believe me if you disappear from a locked cell without a trace.”
I hold in a groan. “You must have a price. What do you want?”
“Apologize.” He says it instantly, as though he was just waiting for me to ask.
I want to object, but we need to get out of here, and—all right, fine—maybe I do owe him an apology. “I’m sorry for framing you,” I say. “Really. Let me make it up to you by getting us out of here.”
He studies my expression, searching for a hint of insincerity. He must not find one, because he sighs, looking more exhausted than angry. “Fine. Apology accepted. How do you plan to break us out of here?”
Escaping is the easy part. Aikkari are typically kept in separate cells from the rest of the public—tshira prisons are great for people without magic but useless for an aikkari with access to their source.
The decurio don’t know I’m aikkari, so Kaidren and I are in cells with tshira walls.
“With magic. But before that, I need all the facts. Tell me everything you know about your father.”
Kaidren looks doubtful. “We’re on a mountain. We can’t just leave—we need a place to go, and both our homes are out of the question.”
“I’ve got that handled. Once we’re out of here, I know the perfect place we can go where no one will find us.”
“You expect me to trust you, after everything?”
“You definitely shouldn’t trust me,” I say. “Tell me about the poison. If you didn’t kill Arliss, why did you have kishori?”
Kaidren’s lips twist into a smirk. “I’m disappointed you haven’t already worked that out. I didn’t kill my father, but I’ve been poisoning him for two years.”
Arliss first fell ill two years ago. No one knew what caused it, but suddenly, he was too sickly to attend Honorate meetings, and he was headed swiftly for death. My eyes widen with realization. “You’re the reason he got sick.”
“Like you said, I despised him.”
“But not enough to kill him.”
“Enough to know a quick, painless death was too easy. He cost my mother her life, and he didn’t even care.
I kept track of everything he ever did, read every Shadow Queen column that mentioned him.
He had power and status people would kill for—and all he ever did was bed women and abuse his position for his own gain. ”
“You poisoned him to punish him?”
“Yes.” Kaidren starts to pace, considering his own words. “Maybe. Part of it was to punish him, but mostly, I just wanted to force him to finally see me.”
Arliss knew he had a child, and rather than acknowledge it, he fired Kaidren’s mother, ensured she would never find employment in Virdei again, and ignored his son for years.
Why shouldn’t he have? Kaidren is Opheran, and as far as Arliss knew, he had the rest of his life to sire an heir he wasn’t ashamed of.
He was a powerful man who valued legacy above all else. When someone like that thinks he’s dying and has lost the chance to father more heirs, he becomes desperate. Desperate enough to seek out the bastard son he spent years pretending didn’t exist.
“I spent every coin I had on kishori,” Kaidren says.
“A few times each week, I snuck into his house and slipped it into his food. Small doses. Never enough to kill. The same week I heard the news that the great Arliss Vale didn’t attend the latest Honorate meeting, I received a summons to the Vale manor.
He was sick in bed when I arrived. He looked so weak and fragile—and for the first time, he called me his son. ”
Finished with his story, Kaidren stops pacing and looks at me. His feet are hip width apart, his stance is self-assured, but there’s a question in the quirk of his brow. He’s wondering if I’m disgusted by his admission.
I probably should be. He just confessed to poisoning his own father, and all I can think is that I’ve never been more drawn to him.
“Was it worth it?” I ask.
“I planned to poison him for the rest of his life. Just enough so that he’d live on, sick and bedridden for years.
And then I’d sit at his side on his dying day, and hold his hand while I told him what I’d done.
Unfortunately, someone else killed him before I got the chance.
My only regret is never getting to see the look in his eyes when I told him I was the reason he fell ill.
The reason he never had a Virdeian son.”
Cold words that inexplicably make me warm inside. Not because he’s lying—he’s vicious with his honesty—but because there must be something seriously wrong with me.
“Does that scare you?” Kaidren mistakes my silence for fear.
Slowly, I shake my head. “I’m not sure what it says about me that it doesn’t.”
“Probably the same thing it says about me.” He comes to the front of the cell. “Now, I’ve told you everything. How are we getting out of here?”
“We’re going to walk out. These”—I knock against the wall of the cell—“are made of tshira. All I need is a lie. I’ll get a guard’s attention, get him to lie about something, and—”
“I have a better idea.” Kaidren gazes at me from between bars. His jaw is clenched with residual anger, but when our eyes meet, it softens. A corner of his mouth lifts in an almost smile. “I regret kissing you.”
Heat ignites in the pit of my stomach.
His gaze holds me captive. He gives me a smile. A tender, real one. “Did it work?”
I nod, trying to find my voice. I don’t know how to respond, or if he even expects a response.
I press my hands to my cell bars and push magic out.
They look the same, but magic has shifted their form to something malleable and easy to move through.
I slip through and take hold of the bars over Kaidren’s cell.
“Walk through.”
He looks doubtful but steps forward anyway. We’re outside our cells, but still in the dungeons. Already, I feel the magic waning.
I guide him down the hall, away from the entrance. Kaidren frowns as he follows me. “Why are we going this way? The door is in the opposite direction.”
“The door isn’t the most direct way out of here,” I say. We’re underground. The cells are carved into the tshira that makes up the mountain. When we reach the end of the tunnel, I touch my hand to the wall.
Magic hums within me, warm and soothing. I push it out. The tshira shudders, transforming into something like a membrane.
I tug Kaidren to stand next to me. “Come on.” I try to pull him with me. Even though he just walked through solid bars, at the sight of the wall, he plants his feet. “Not sure if you noticed, but there’s a wall in the way.”
I resist the urge to roll my eyes, reminding myself that not everyone is familiar or comfortable with magic. I shove a hand through the wall, showing him it’s no longer solid. “We need to hurry. It doesn’t last forever, and I’m not sure how long I can hold it like this.”
Kaidren takes a breath and holds it as we step into the wall. Passing through permeable tshira is a strange sensation. Like trudging through slush after a snowstorm. It’s icy, thick, and unpleasant.
We’re both out of breath when we tumble out on the other side. It’s difficult to breathe when walking through solid objects.
It’s not snowing, but it’s freezing, and neither of us is dressed for it. We’re still wearing our clothes from the masquerade—which means there’s nothing to cover my shoulders, most of my back is bare, and Kaidren still wears his gray suit, sans shirt.
I hug myself, rubbing warmth into my arms, prickling with goose bumps.
Kaidren slings an arm over my shoulder, huddling me against him for warmth.
“We need to stop at your house. Quickly.” I’m shivering so hard, it’s difficult to speak as we shuffle forward.
“We’ll need food and warmer clothes to survive the night. ”
“Is that a good idea?” Despite his objections, Kaidren allows me to steer us toward the Vale manor. “That’s the first place they’ll look.”
“They don’t know we’re missing yet. Soldiers patrol the dungeons, but their rotation is irregular overnight.
” A tidbit of information I picked up from my time with Flynn.
“We have at least an hour and a half before anyone patrols our corner of the dungeons and finds us missing. We’ll be long gone by then. ”
“Gone where? You never told me where we’re going.”
I tighten my arms around myself. “Back to Ophera.”