Chapter Forty-Seven
Analleia
The darkness swallowed me whole, eating me alive like a predator not willing to wait for the prize.
I stumbled through the shadowed alleyways, sloshing through puddles, trying to hold my cloak around me as the rain soaked through my clothes.
Shivers overwhelmed my body as I fought my way through the deluge, trying to make sense of the endless roads around me.
I passed street gangs, darted from corner to corner, tried to avoid detection.
I collapsed beneath the awning of a bakery in a grimy alley, the rain and thunder masking the cries that slipped from my throat, the tears that poured down my face.
Defeat and hurt pulsed through me like poison, voices in my head shouting it was all my fault, that everything that had happened was because of me.
And they were right.
I’d had Athello in my grasp, and I hadn’t been able to kill him. It had cost me the enchantment, making everyone I loved vulnerable.
Desmond was captured.
Nadiyah was—
I burrowed my head between my knees, the sobs racking my body as I coughed from the exertion, my limbs going numb from the cold and the pain of losing her.
They’d tried to talk me out of this, tried to get me to abandon the Enchantress’s games, but I wouldn’t.
I’d made a bargain, and I had dragged them into it.
It didn’t matter if they had come willingly, it should have been me bleeding out on the floor of that hallway.
Not Nadiyah. She’d protected me when no one else would, stayed with the girl who woke up screaming every night.
Being my roommate was a living nightmare for her, but she’d never once complained.
I knew she had nightmares too, but she never talked about them.
She’d always been there for me, and I was so— I had been so stupid.
They would execute Desmond before I could break him out, or torture him to death first. And he would never forgive me. Nadiyah’s death was on me. He would never look at me the same again.
I wrapped my arms around my knees, trying to ward out the cold, trying to think straight, but I couldn’t.
I’d failed Desmond. Failed Nadiyah—and I’d failed my family.
I’d begun this whole charade five years ago to avenge my family’s death, and now I wouldn’t even have the chance to get close to King Zaricor again.
He would walk free for the rest of his days, living his life as king with no consideration for those below him, and I would walk the rest of my days as a failure.
Knowing I wasn’t good enough. That I had sentenced everyone around me to death.
And Valeris.
Even in my grief, my heart ached. Ached for him.
Ached at the utter look of betrayal on his face, because now he knew.
I wasn’t the girl he’d met by upsetting his deal with Lord Eyreling, nor the girl he made a deal with to use her as his spy.
I wasn’t the girl he’d kissed. I was the girl who had dared to challenge him to a game of chess, beating and humiliating him.
Surprised when he later asked me to dance.
Now I was the girl whose kingdom his had destroyed, and he would never forget that. He would never forget I had tricked him, that I had tried to kill his uncle. That I had lied to him from the moment our first conversation began.
Lights bobbed in the distance, and I struggled to my feet.
They would search for me all night, and if I wanted to survive, I needed to get somewhere safe.
Somewhere they couldn’t find me. I felt for the key secured in one of the inner pockets of my leggings, ensuring it was still there.
I staggered back into the streets, trying to read the signs through the freezing rain.
I finally came across one I recognized from the maps, turning right and making my way to the lower edge of the city where the lanterns were dim and the atmosphere was heavy.
The inn stood slanted, barely held up by its foundation, windows broken and the inside visible through the cracked slats of wood.
I didn’t go through the front door, couldn’t risk the chance of someone seeing me.
All I could do was hope the twisted innkeeper hadn’t rented out my rooms in our absence.
I frowned as I clambered up the back end of the building, the siding slick from the rain.
I feared my weight might be too much for the panels to support, but they held.
I perched on the window ledge of the third floor, opening the shutters and slipping inside the musty hallway before pulling the shutters closed behind me.
It muffled the noise of the rain but I was also grateful for its patter; it masked the creaking of the floor as I made my way to my room, slipping my key into the lock and turning the handle.
To my surprise the room was empty. I thought the innkeeper might be greedy enough to double book if I didn’t make an appearance, since I had secured it for the entirety of the Paravellian Balls.
I locked the door behind me, pushing the dresser in front of it.
Shivers ripped through me, and I reached for the case I had stashed on the other side of the room when we first arrived, setting it onto the rickety bed and pulling all the cranks and levers in a specific sequence until the lid popped open.
It was obvious it had been tampered with in an attempt to search for valuables, but whoever it was, they hadn’t been able to figure out the puzzle. We’d planted one of these in all three extra rooms we’d booked for our stay here should something like this happen.
An extra set of my dark assassin’s garb lay inside along with a set of knives and poisons.
I dropped my pack to the floor, grateful I had secured it to me before leaving my room earlier.
It wasn’t much, but it had my collapsible bow and a full set of arrows.
I hadn’t known what I was going to be facing when I’d entered the palace earlier tonight, and I was glad to at least have one familiar weapon left.
I tried to shut out the doubt that overcrowded my mind, but it was difficult. It feasted on my fears, using every possible thing it could find within me to rip me apart. I collapsed to the floor at some point, eyes swollen and cheeks stained.
I had no one left.
––––––––
WHEN I ROUSED SOMETIME later, the sun was peeking across the horizon, its rays spreading out across the sky like beacons of hope, promising a new day.
Something clicked inside of me. A resolve.
A determination. It overpowered the defeat, choked out the haunted whispers that plagued me. I had failed Nadiyah. And Desmond.
And Valeris.
But the finale was barely a day away—and I was not going to fail my family. I’d run once. I wouldn’t do it again. I studied the items on the bed, peering out at the shops around me to see what assets were within a short distance of the inn.
A plan formed in the back of my mind, piecing itself together as I stripped out of my mud-splattered clothes and into the fresh ones.
I heard a door open in the hall, listened for which room it was from, and waited for their footsteps to fade.
I slipped out and picked the lock on their door, stealing one of the dresses inside before returning to my room.
I pulled the too large dress over my dark clothing, securing the large garment with a belt to keep it from falling off.
I continued piecing my plan together as I left the inn, shoving every other thought out of my mind.
The finale was at hand.
And I had a king to assassinate.