41. We’re All Monsters
We’re All Monsters
Darien
Darien shoved Larissa behind him as he peered over the tailgate to catch sight of Calder.
He’d managed to pull his body into a sitting position, but the bindings on his wrists and ankles held.
Darien regretted not tying Calder’s hands behind his back as he saw the blindfold lying on the truck bed beside Calder.
In that instant, as Calder’s eyes caught Darien’s, a foreign consciousness drove like a dagger into his mind.
Remembering his training, Darien threw up his mental shields, but not before he recognized his brother’s mind.
Cloaked in bitterness and agony, Aeron’s consciousness remained.
Darien had spent hours in his brother’s mind as a child, just as Aeron had done in Darien’s.
There’d been no secrets in the complexities of each other’s thoughts as they’d practiced training their galdr on one another.
But this was not training. Aeron’s familiarity was swept away by the dark presence that Darien could only recognize as Calder, who sent attack after attack to find a weakness in Darien’s shield.
Darien held his body rigidly. The mental battle was too fierce for him to even consider moving.
He reached out his own consciousness to find a gap in Calder’s defenses, but there was no wall.
Darien’s thoughts met a pit of despair so powerful that his mind reeled back in an effort to protect itself.
“Enough!” shouted Larissa.
Calder’s attack stopped instantly, though an immediate pounding replaced its presence in Darien’s mind. When he opened his eyes, Larissa stood over Calder in the truck bed, her gun shoved against his temple with enough force that his head tilted away from it at an awkward angle.
“Hello, Princess.” Calder’s eyes raked up the gun and toward Larissa’s face. “Can’t blame a guy for trying, can you?”
“Do that again, and it’ll be the last thing you try,” she hissed.
Calder’s look of approval grated on Darien’s nerves. “You know, I actually believe you.”
Rushing footsteps registered behind Darien only a moment before Anara and Masai burst through the trees with Kai and Halla close on their heels.
Anara hissed at Calder, though she did not advance further.
Masai’s face was a mask of cool detachment.
Halla stayed hidden somewhat in the shadows, but Kai moved closer.
Fear was written on every inch of the boy’s face even though Calder was subdued by Larissa’s gun.
“I heard him too late,” Anara explained to Larissa. “I was trying to give you two privacy. What happened?”
“It’s okay,” Darien said quickly, his words aimed at Kai, who stared at Calder.
“It’s taken care of. Lara, get that blindfold back on and tie his hands behind his back so he can’t take it off.
” Though Calder didn’t need eye contact for his galdr , the lack of it would certainly weaken his hold if he should try again.
Calder scoffed as Larissa knotted the fabric around his face. “So what’s the plan? Torture and murder?”
“No one is killing anyone,” said Masai, his easygoing voice at odds with the tension in his shoulders.
“Speak for yourself,” Anara grumbled.
Calder’s head turned toward them. “Still can’t understand what you’re doing here, Masai. Never thought you would be the one to tempt the Empress’ wrath against Smaragd after so many years of mercy.”
Masai’s hands spasmed at his sides. “Shiko doesn’t know what mercy is; neither do you.”
“Do you?” Calder taunted. “Is it mercy that your traitorous actions will bring to your mother’s door? She barely survived your father’s treachery—”
“Enough,” Anara barked. Perhaps she’d seen the way Masai’s dark skin had tinged grey at Calder’s words.
“Anara, darling,” Calder chuckled. “I can hear you chomping at your leash to get to me.”
To Darien’s surprise, Anara turned from Calder, looking at Larissa instead. “We’ll take turns watching him. We still need sleep, but we can’t leave him alone. Two at a time should work just fine. I’ll take the first shift—”
“No,” said Darien. “We’ve seen what happens when you exhaust yourself. Sleep. Larissa and I will take the first shift. You and Masai can take the second.”
“What about us?” Halla’s voice, though soft, was strong.
“Not a chance.” Larissa hopped down from the truck, placing her hands on Halla’s shoulders. “Let us handle Calder. You get sleep.”
“We’re not kids,” Halla protested, her chin jutting forward.
Darien could see Larissa struggling with the same exasperation that she’d shown when Darien had first met Halla hiding behind those crates of produce. She shook her head. “I know, but still. Please, Halla, just listen for once.”
Kai nudged his shoulder into Halla’s. “She’s right. You shouldn’t go near him.”
Even beneath the blindfold, Calder glared in Kai’s direction, but Kai only moved to stand more in front of Halla.
Noting Darien’s silent cue, Anara moved toward Halla, shuffling her back into the trees. “Come on, they’ll be fine.” As she herded the others back through the trees, Anara threw her last sentence over her shoulder. “We’ll trade in four hours.”
“I’ll miss you too, Anara,” Calder called.
“Calder, make no mistake,” Anara hissed. “If you piss me off, I will murder you in your sleep.”
Then she disappeared back toward the camp, leaving Darien alone with Larissa and Calder. As if realizing the same thing, Larissa looked to Darien, discomfort written across her face as she gestured uneasily toward Calder.
“Oh don’t go quiet on my account.” Calder adjusted himself against Helga’s metal frame. “It’s been years, after all. Haven’t you missed me?”
Nodding toward the trunk, Darien hefted himself up onto the tailgate and reached for a blanket left behind in the truck.
He offered a hand to Larissa, who took it, sitting opposite him.
Her touch sent his blood racing as it had been only moments before Calder’s interruption.
He breathed deeply, willing his mind to stay alert.
Though the blindfold and Larissa’s threat would most likely be enough to stop Calder’s use of his galdr , it wouldn’t stop him entirely if Calder was insistent.
Larissa stretched out her legs, entangling them with Darien’s to form a barrier at the end of the truck, though Calder looked quite comfortable leaning against the cab.
Darien spread the blanket over them both and settled against the metal frame, crossing his arms as the bitter cold of the night crept through his protective leather jacket.
Though perhaps the cold was best to keep his mind focused on the task at hand.
“Not feeling talkative?” Calder mused. “Not quite the Darien I remember.”
“You’re not quite the brother I remember either.”
“That’s because the brother you knew died decades ago.”
Darien shifted. “Then I suppose we don’t have much to talk about, do we?”
“What about you, Princess? Want to tell me a story to pass the time before my draugrs find us and rip your little sister to shreds?”
Galdr sparked from Larissa’s hands, singeing the blanket clasped between her curled fingers. Darien spread his fingers over Larissa’s tensed calf. He shook his head. There was nothing Calder could do but talk, yet it seemed even without his galdr , his words were still poison.
Calder leaned his head back as if he could see the stars through his blindfold. “So much for old times’ sake. What’s the plan, then, if you aren’t going to kill me? You don’t seem to care much for my company.”
“You’ll stand trial for your crimes.” Darien worked to keep his voice as disinterested as possible.
The chuckle that came out of Calder was so much like Aeron that Darien’s stomach clenched, but the malice in the man’s words swiftly demolished the comparison.
“Torsten will never allow that. He’s already given you my crown and all but buried my body.
Putting the true Crown Prince of Safír on trial is the last thing he’ll want.
He won’t dare to tarnish his perfect persona.
You might not kill me, Darien, but Torsten will. ”
“No.” Darien’s voice was sharper than he intended. “You’ll get a fair trial.”
For Aeron’s sake.
Calder’s head snapped in his direction. “I already told you, Aeron’s dead.”
Kings and Queens. Darien hadn’t realized he’d said that last part out loud.
“In that, at least, Torsten has it correct,” Calder continued. “Aeron died decades ago in Shiko’s prisons when you all abandoned him.”
“We never abandoned Aeron—” Larissa started.
“No?” Calder sneered. “I must have missed the rescue parties you sent for Aeron. Of course, you couldn’t come looking for Aeron yourself since you were too busy playing hide-and-seek with the Norn.
At least that answers why I haven’t been able to find you and why I didn’t recognize you on that farm.
” Calder calmed, yet in his calm, Darien sensed greater danger.
“Does Halla hate you? Now that she knows you’re the reason why her parents are as dead as your own? ”
Larissa clenched her jaw, staring fixedly on her lap.
“Maybe I should tell you a story,” Calder continued.
“I know how much you used to love them. Will you enjoy hearing how Aeron watched his men be executed in front of him as they begged him to save them? Or how Shiko dragged Aeron through the frozen streets of Diamant while draugrs lashed his body with their tails? Or how Aeron spent years in the icy cells splattered with his own blood and waste until he realized no one was coming?”
The horror on Larissa’s face was reflected in Darien’s own. At Calder’s words, Larissa’s galdr faded from her hands, and Darien’s chest stilled until hardly any breath could enter or escape.
“Then why?” Darien asked. “Why would you serve her after everything that she’s done to you?”
“Survival.” Underneath his blindfold, Calder’s lips drew back into a mocking smile.
“The Empress is a monster, but at least she doesn’t pretend otherwise.
Shiko was the only one willing to speak truth into Aeron’s life.
The truth that his own brother was relieved, happy even at his supposed death.
You would get everything that should have been his, isn’t that right, Darien?
The girl, the crown, even your father’s approval and admiration.
Even Aeron’s father, whom he’d done everything he could to please, would easily replace him.
After all, what was one son compared to the other as long as Safír thrived? ”
“How could you believe any of that?” Darien interrupted, his voice rising even as Larissa shot him looks of warning.
“It wasn’t a matter of belief. She pulled the truth from Aeron’s own mind.
Shiko helped him remember the way you and Lovisa used to scorn Aeron when you thought he couldn’t see.
Aeron remembered Anara’s disdain and even Torsten’s lack of love.
It was all there in his own memories. Shiko revealed what Aeron didn’t want to believe.
It took time—” Calder stuttered over some memory.
“Aeron was stubborn and naive. He held on to hope far longer than he should have and suffered needlessly for it. Once he accepted the truth, what was left but for him to die so that I might be born? Honestly, you killed Aeron as much as Shiko did.”
A theory in Darien’s mind swirled until it solidified into one horrifying revelation.
He looked at Calder, really looked, searching for evidence that Aeron might still exist. Darien’s thought was a wild and mad hope, yet it held a certain logic as well.
“You said that Shiko helped you remember this past where we all hated you and wanted you gone?”
“Helped Aeron ,” Calder corrected. “Stupid fool should have listened earlier.”
Understanding crept across Larissa’s face, followed by revulsion. “Shiko’s galdr is illusion. She lied to you, Aeron; she showed you things that weren’t real.”
“Call me Aeron again,” Calder hissed, “and I’ll kill you myself, regardless of the Empress’ orders.”
Darien’s hand found his sword at the same time that Larissa reached for her gun, but Calder was already settling himself as if nothing had happened.
“We loved Aeron,” Larissa’s words were thick with emotion. “Shiko lied. Like you said, she’s a monster.”
“And she’s not the only one. Killed any Regents lately, Lovisa?” At Larissa’s silence, Calder laughed. “Stolen any thrones recently, brother? You say the Empress lies, and yet all you’ve done is proven her point. We’re all monsters. The difference is that I don’t pretend to be a hero.”