Chapter 56
Fifty-Six
ALLETTE
The sweat bathing my skin turns into tendrils of icy dread as King Boris shakes his head and huffs a resigned sigh. His silver eyes zero in on Senan like a hawk tracking its prey. “Brother, brother, brother. What am I going to do with you?”
Senan shoves me behind him, as if that will save me from what has come for us. There is no escape. No way out. No happily-ever-after waiting for us at the end of this dark day. My heart and lungs burn with exhaustion and fear. We were so bloody close; I could practically taste the starlight.
Silver-clad guards flank the king, five on each side. Even if Senan and I were both armed, there are far too many to take on with any hope of winning.
King Boris clicks his tongue. “Imagine my surprise when I went to your chambers and found the room empty.”
Senan’s spine stiffens.
I clutch his blood-soaked shirt, pulling him closer.
Boris unfastens the buttons on his cuffs, rolling his sleeves to his elbows. “Where is your wife?”
“How the hell should I know?” Senan spits.
A twisted smile curls the king’s lips. “I will only ask this once more. What have you done with the princess?”
Senan backs up a step, urging me back as well. “I left her in my bed.”
In his bed? Did he sleep with her? Not that it matters now. Whatever happened, we will deal with it together.
“Boris, if you would just listen to me for a moment, I think we can come to?—”
“I’m afraid the time for talking has passed. I’m going to give you what you want, Senan. I’m going to let you go.” He gestures toward the guards, and they take a step back from the portal.
He is letting us go?
This must be some sort of trap, right? The king would hardly bring all these men here only to set us free. I shouldn’t celebrate, and yet my heart begins to sing.
Until a hand clamps over my mouth and an arm bands around my torso, dragging me against a solid frame. A blade presses against my throat, stifling my cry as more guards swarm the alley on silent feet.
“You…you are?” Senan asks, clearly not noticing that I no longer stand at his back.
“Yes. But first, a parting gift.” The king clicks his fingers.
Two guards lurch forward, grabbing Senan’s arms. He whirls, his wide, panicked gaze flying to mine. The color in his face drains away. Hot tears roll down my cheeks, the blade cutting deeper each time I swallow.
“Let her go.” Senan curses and writhes, pulls and drags, but the men do not loosen their hold. “I swear I’ll come back to the castle. Just let her go.”
The king wags his finger, stepping closer to his brother. “Ah, ah. There is no need for more of your false promises.”
Senan never stops begging as the guards force him to his knees, and then to his chest, pinning him in place. I hold my breath, watching the king stroll forward and stomp on Senan’s spine. My love’s onyx wings burst from behind their glamour. Two more guards catch the feathers at the ends, forcing them wider and pinning them on the cobblestones with their boots. Senan’s broken cry muffles the crunch of his bones.
“Why couldn’t you just take your dust and die? That’s all you had to do. Fuck the princess, get her pregnant, and then leave us in peace. But no. You had to fight, didn’t you?” The king withdraws a vial of black liquid from his waistcoat pocket.
He grips Senan’s jaw, forcing him to look up, and dumps the liquid down his throat. “Now, I’m going to ask you once more, and this time, I want you to tell me the truth. What did you do with the princess?”
“I left her in my bed.”
“She wasn’t in your room, brother. Where did you hide her?”
“I left her…in my…bed,” Senan slurs.
What the hell did the king give him?
The king turns to the closest guard and holds out a hand. The man places a thick silver saw in his sovereign’s palm.
“No,” I whimper, bucking my hips and stomping my captor’s foot. The blade bites deeper, stalling my attempts to save my beloved from his fate.
A deep, guttural scream wrenches from Senan’s throat when the saw meets his flesh, dragging with jagged strokes, back and forth. Sawing. Cutting. Severing his right wing from his body. I shout, no longer caring about the blade at my throat, scratching and clawing, trying anything and everything I can to get to him.
How could the king do this to his own brother? Where is his compassion? Forgiveness? Mercy? King Boris wipes a hand over his brow, smearing blood across his forehead.
Then he cuts off Senan’s second wing.
My prince falls silent, his body limp and lifeless, splayed on the cobblestones like a sack of grain. The wound in his side would’ve taken too much magic to heal. His well must be depleted. Even if the sun could reach us down here, he still wouldn’t have enough to heal this wound.
And if he cannot heal himself, he’ll bleed out.
He’ll die.
I have to go to him. I have to do something .
I stomp on my captor’s instep and ignore the sting at my throat as I manage to duck out of his hold. “Stop! Please! Please stop!” My screams echo off the plaster walls, melting into the thick clouds above.
“This is what we do to traitors,” the king snarls, picking up one of Senan’s beautiful wings and calling fire to his palm. The inky feathers burst into flames, black smoke twisting toward the gray clouds. “This is what happens to those who defy their king.”
Blood pools in puddles on the cobblestones. So much blood .
A guard yanks me back by my hair. I watch helplessly as they drag Senan’s lifeless body toward the portal, leaving a bloody trail in their wake.
They can’t put him in. He has no wings. He’ll fall to his death.
Stop fighting.
Save yourself.
He is already gone.
“Let him go!” I scream.
The king’s head tilts. “You heard her, men. Let him go.”
The guards lift my love over the portal’s edge…and throw him in.
I surge forward, slipping from the guard’s grasp.
No one tries to stop me as I sprint toward the portal…
And leap in after him.