Chapter 4 #3
Another broken pick. Another wasted minute.
I switched to smashing the lock with a loose paver, hoping it would break.
But it never did. I wasn’t going to lie down and die.
I’d spent my life cowering to the demands of the crown, and I hated the idea of turning to the demon that would stab me in the back.
But I would not die. Even more, I wouldn’t let them kill Deldren.
I’d bargain for his life with the demon. It was the only way.
But dawn verged on rearing its horrible head. Perhaps only an hour away from the sickening blue the corridor had taken.
Would he come without the cover of dark?
I doubted it. But this would be my only chance to bargain for Deldren’s life.
Yet terror gripped me, piercing my veins as I crept toward the dim corner.
When I placed my foot into it, the chill hit me and crawled up my skin, blooming gooseflesh as it went, like the pure ice of deep winter.
I pressed on until I was close enough to knock.
Knock.
Knock.
Knock.
My taps were soft, yet the sound echoed across the cramped space like branches against stone in a violent storm. When nothing stirred, there was a brief thought that maybe I didn’t knock hard enough. But when something slithered at my ankle, I stumbled back, falling against the unforgiving stone.
The light in the dungeons dimmed until it looked closer to midnight than sunrise. The slither ate the shade, drinking it before it expanded outward. Then the darkness took shape, the tendrils coming together to form a man who stared at me with blue-rimmed ebony eyes.
“You came quickly. Has something changed?” he crooned, keeping his voice low.
“No, nothing,” I retorted, my heart quickening. He didn’t need to know of my oncoming demise. That would only give him leverage to change the details of the deal. “I summoned you to offer my own bargain.”
The creature grinned, showing a set of sharpened teeth. I pushed past the visceral shudder that took me and forced my voice to steady.
“If I agree to kill my father, you need to save both my brother and me. They’re going to kill him, but he’s done nothing wrong except fall ill—” And be born a bastard.
“No deal.” The demon didn’t hesitate and crossed his arms. “I couldn’t, and wouldn’t even if I had the means. He is nothing to me and incapable of answering the bargain. You may accept my terms or nothing at all.”
My mind spun, and I searched for the anger I once had, but the only thing I found was fear—an ocean of it that might drown me.
I had no more options, and not a single choice left to me, but I couldn’t let my little brother die.
Though he had the form of a man, when I looked at him, I still saw the bouncing child on my knee.
“Save him. Just him. I’ll die. Anything for him!”
His features twisted with anger, and he balled a fist. “Enough! You think this a game? I have not offered him a lifeline. I offered it to you. Accept my terms or I leave.” He wasn’t loud, but his words pressed into me like thunder, shaking me to my core.
This was a horrible idea. A terrible idea.
I couldn’t have thought of a worse idea than making a pact with the enemy of my people for the brief respite my brother wouldn’t get.
But when he started toward the corner, my heart jumped, inundated with the image of lying over the chopping block. Of its freezing wood pressing into my throat. All the things I would lose. Every lost touch, never-kiss, and unplanned game of dice.
But mostly, I thought of the pain.
Because I was weak. I was a coward. And I wouldn’t die.
So I screamed for him to stop, and he did. He cocked his head with a sickening, knowing smile that went from ear to ear. He’d trapped me like an animal, a rat beneath his sole, and he knew it.
“Are you ready to accept my generous offer?” He gestured with his arms like he was giving me the world, and not tying me with a promise to murder my parent. And my brother.
My mind screamed no. In fact, it pleaded with me and bellowed no from every part of me. The correct answer was to refuse, but I said, “Yes.” At least my mouth had the kindness of doing it through clenched teeth—to make a deal with the other kingdom’s devil.
The demon king’s messenger reveled in my discomfort, a cruel smile playing on his lips.
“The details of this pact are such: You will cull Arthvur Gelding Demitruis. In return, I will give you freedom, and as an act of kindness and great generosity from your rapidly deteriorating circumstances, which I must stress, are dire, I will also guarantee you safety and the sparing of your life. That means your neck.”
A chill went down my spine, not only from my father’s full name, but that he already knew of my future beheading.
“How did you know?”
“How could I not know? News of a former princess being sentenced to death is the business of every town crier.”
The color drained from my face. “I’m not a former princess.” But my stomach clenched and told me otherwise. He’d stripped me of my titles, too. I’d be slaughtered like swine and not buried with my ancestors.
“Right. Of course, Princess Little Bird.”
“Don’t call me that,” I snapped.
He circled, his gaze never leaving my face. “You’re not in a position to be making demands. Do you agree to the pact? You’d better hurry. The minutes are ticking ever closer to your demise.”
“Yes,” I blurted before I changed my mind. He would open the cell door, and then I’d release Deldren and kill my father. The after would be dealt with later.
He closed the distance between us. With him looming over me, I had to plant my feet to keep them from retreating. The hood darkened his face, only exposing his unnatural eyes.
“Give me your hand.”
I wanted to argue, to fight him, and maybe hit him in the face. I should have refused. But I didn’t. My hand didn’t crack against his cheek, and I bit my tongue so deeply copper flooded my mouth. A weak effort to avoid speaking the curses that boiled in my soul.
I held out my palm, expecting him to wound me.
But when he took it, his long, bony fingers merely caressed the surface. “This will sting briefly.” He laid his palm across mine. “Where there is light, we bring the dark, and bind in safety and escape, Arthvur’s breath will depart.”
The sharp pain began, as if someone drove many needles into my hand. But the pain left as quickly as it came, disappearing into the chill of his touch.
“What was that?”
“An elegy—a reverence, and prayer to the numen. It writes and imbues the rune.” When he moved his hand away, beneath was a glowing symbol that quickly dissipated into nothing. “The mark of our agreement. It will follow you—always.”
I swallowed, knitting my brows. “This isn’t how we use impetus.”
“Impetus?” He chuckled. “Is that what you’re calling this magic? His lies have teeth.”
How many times would he mock me? I had to focus on not striking him. I imagined that would end poorly, with my premature death. If being royalty had taught me anything, it’s when to know you’ve lost, cower for your opponent, and begin to plot your revenge.
I hid my hand behind me and tried to shake off the chill of the rune. “Let me out now.” It didn’t matter what insults he threw at me; it was time to leave. The newfound issue of the mark would be dealt with later when I’m far from this filthy place.
He laughed, his chest rumbling with the musical sound. “I will return at some point to make good on our bargain. For now, you’ll have to make do with the rats.”
“In the dungeon? Let me out, you swore you would, you—”
Before I finished cursing his name, he smiled, and his figure collapsed to the floor into a pool of inky tar. Quickly, those remains darted to the room’s corners, melting into the shadows and disappearing.
Tears threatened to spill over at the corners of my eyes. But I pretended they didn’t exist, blinking them away.
That bastard won’t have my tears—and he certainly won’t have my Father’s head. But now, I needed a new plan—quickly, for my time was running out. The demon hadn’t opened the damned door, and if he wouldn’t, I’d have to sort it myself.
I kicked a bucket so hard it slammed into the wall and exploded into a pile of metal and planks.
There are plenty more where that came from.
The buckets littered the floor, most filled with the sticky remnants of urine: foul-smelling, useless containers. I picked one up and examined it. Besides being rusted and rotted, most were quite sturdy.
Perhaps not entirely useless.