Chapter 25 #2
“You surround yourself with men who would serve themselves before they serve a queen,” she said. “I should have expected nothing less. You are, after all, Lilawen’s daughter. Led by your cunt instead of your mind.”
The words were a slap in the face, the impact more forceful than any blow. Anger crackled through me, and I stepped toward her. “You—” My voice cut off as an invisible hand locked around my throat. It tightened as she continued speaking.
“You reek of stolen power, girl. Gifts taken by force and charmed by elves aren’t gifts at all.”
The hand disappeared. I doubled over, coughing and gasping as I dragged in precious air.
“I didn’t…take them,” I said between breaths.
And how did she know about the Everless, which was supposedly impenetrable?
When my lungs stopped spasming, I straightened and forced my shoulders back. “They were given to me.”
“By men.”
My anger swelled. “It doesn’t matter where I got them. I want to defeat Rasimir. I would have taken the vials from anyone.”
“As you took power from the innocent?” She laughed, and the torches’ blue flames climbed the walls again. When the fire settled, her tone turned dismissive. “You will fail in your task, as Lilawen did. Your line is strong but flawed.”
“Then why bother speaking to me?”
Marrigan remained still—except for her eyes, which she narrowed ever so slightly. Tension coiled in my chest as she stared me down. I waited for her power to choke me again.
“I shouldn’t have,” she said finally. “You are exactly as I anticipated. Lilawen was just as impetuous, but she made up for it with breathtaking power. Magic came to her like a natural language, vor s landing on her tongue like honey. You are a disappointment. A waste of time.”
“But you brought me here anyway,” I said. “You entered my dreams. If I’m a waste of time, you must be bored.”
In unison, the torches burned lower. “Come here,” the Devout Mother said.
My body complied at once, my feet moving me forward without my permission. I attempted to dig in my heels, but it was useless. My muscles weren’t my own as I walked to the base of the dais that held her throne. My head tipped back of its own accord, forcing me to meet her gaze.
Whispers rushed through the temple, the words unintelligible. Quick and invasive, they flowed over and around me like hands brushing my skin. A whimper trembled in my throat, but I pressed my lips together to trap it. That, I could do. Marrigan didn’t control my voice.
“A pity,” she said, her gray eyes mocking. “You could do with someone wiser curbing your tongue.” The whispers stopped, and she curled her long fingers over the arms of her throne. “Your mother failed in that regard as well. You’re as ignorant as you are wanton.”
The whimper became a growl, and I let it emerge. “That’s hypocritical coming from someone who trains her followers to seduce.”
“Sex is a tool like any other. What would you be, I wonder? A tool or a blade?”
I knew my dislike showed on my face as I stared up at her. “Why do you keep asking me that? I thought I was a waste of time.”
She lifted a hand, her fingers like claws. My feet moved again, drawing me up the steps. Fear pumped through me, and knowing she knew added to the humiliation of her stripping my will.
I stopped a step below her throne, the dragonstone cloak swaying against my ankles. Even at close range, Marrigan’s face was difficult to make out. Various features sharpened and then blurred, making it impossible to tell her age or true appearance.
But her eyes remained sharp as she studied me, and her voice turned thoughtful as she said, “Rasimir was right. You do have a bit of Lilawen in you.”
Longing tightened my throat. Vander claimed my mother joined the Crau Setra at six years old.
When I’d seen her in my dreams, she looked as she did now, a competent adult completely in control of everything she touched.
So much of her life was closed to me, but Marrigan knew what she’d been like as a girl—what experiences had molded her into someone who would enter the Drakhold to kill a king.
“You’re curious,” Marrigan murmured. “And for once, you’re correct.
I know Lilawen. I know all.” She lifted her veil, pushing the gauzy material over her headdress.
Dozens of eyes covered her face, each one centered with a black pupil wreathed by gray as sharp as steel. My pale face was reflected in each one.
A scream tangled in my throat, and I might have fallen backward if not for the Devout Mother’s power holding me rigid. It swirled around me again, thousands of whispers overlapping in my ears.
“I see all,” Marrigan said, speaking out loud despite no longer possessing a mouth. “Past and present. Lies and truth. You think you want the latter, but you don’t.”
“Yes, I do,” I said, my lips barely moving in her pupils. The force of her power threatened to steal my voice, too.
“The truth is painful,” she said, and now her voice was in my mind as well as my ears. “You should know that by now.”
Her power angled my head down. Cyprio’s tiara shimmered in my hand, the gold tinged with blue from the torchlights. Blood dripped down my fingers as the silver underneath seared my skin.
“No matter how skillfully we lie,” Marrigan said in my mind, “the truth will always out.”
Out.
It echoed in my head as I fell to the ground in the maze. Purple dawn glowed around me. Panting, I lay in the grass for a moment before pushing to my feet and looking at my hand. My fingers throbbed, but the skin was whole and uninjured.
Change melted down my dress, the dragonstones winking red in the predawn light. Confusion swamped me as more stones rippled down the skirt, replacing the glittering black. I hadn’t told the gown to change…
Murmured voices brought my head up. The sound drifted from straight in front of me.
A man’s voice…and a woman’s. Delphine.
Ignoring the pain in my fingers, I rushed forward. As I rounded the end of the hedge, Delphine and a tall, nude man came into view. His hair fell to his shoulders, and his irises were bright yellow. Before I could duck out of sight, he and Delphine swung toward me.
Delphine’s eyes rounded. “Your Highness!”
The man snarled, then turned and scurried up the hedge, scaling it in seconds and dropping over the other side.
I stepped toward Delphine, the shock of the temple replaced with the shock of seeing her with a werewolf. “Are you part of the Resistance?”
She stared, her expression frozen. “We have to get back,” she said, spinning and rushing down the line of hedges.
“Wait!” I called, hurrying after her. Her white hair bounced against her back as she whipped down one row of hedges after another. Jogging, I struggled to keep up with her.
“Delphine, wait,” I said as loudly as I dared. She slowed long enough to meet my gaze over her shoulder.
“Hurry!” she whispered before turning and breaking into a run.
Gritting my teeth, I ran, too. My fingers throbbed with every step, and my skirts threatened to trip me. Clenching my jaw, I grabbed them with my good hand and kept going.
Delphine’s hair rippled behind her like a banner as she turned down another tunnel of hedges.
“Delphine,” I snapped under my breath. My lungs burned. The next time she made a sharp turn, my frustration boiled over. “Who was that werewolf?” I demanded, rounding the corner and almost smacking into Rasimir.
Lorcan stood beside him, his shoulder brushing the hedge that towered over us. The splash of water from the fountain filled the air, which had lightened to lavender.
Delphine stared at Rasimir, her face pale and her eyes wide and terrified.
The entrance to the maze loomed behind Rasimir and Lorcan, the merman a gray mass behind them.
Red flashed, and Vander and several knights stepped between the hedges at the front of the maze, their bodies blocking the merman’s bulk.
Vander wore his black armor, Rasimir’s serpent glittering on his breastplate.
“What werewolf?” Rasimir asked, his tone conversational, as if he inquired about the weather instead of a mortal enemy.
Delphine began to tremble. Excuses tumbled through my mind, each one more unconvincing than the last.
The scent of blood hit my nose. Rasimir was covered in it, I realized belatedly, his coat glistening in the encroaching dawn.
He noticed me looking, and his eyes crinkled as he gestured to the stain. “The guard outside your room has gone missing. But don’t worry. I’ve questioned his friends. If he abandoned his post, he’ll suffer the consequences.”
My stomach twisted. More deaths landed hard on my conscience.
Rasimir looked at Lorcan. “Bring her,” he said, turning and heading toward Vander and the knights.
When Lorcan started toward Delphine, I moved to intercept him.
Don’t , he mouthed, his black eyes flashing. I shrank back, and he took Delphine’s arm and steered her toward the front of the maze. I followed, fear and desperation swirling in my chest. Lorcan hadn’t fed, which meant he couldn’t speak in my mind. He couldn’t guide me. I was on my own.
Vander’s eyes were hard and his mouth was a grim slash as we entered the courtyard. Rasimir was his sire. If Rasimir ordered him to kill Delphine, he had to do it. If Rasimir told him to kill me, he’d do that, too.
Rasimir positioned himself in the center of Vander and the knights, forming a semicircle in front of me. The courtyard’s statues sparkled under the rising sun. Lorcan kept a tight grip on Delphine’s arm as he pulled her to one side.
“Tell me, Daughter,” Rasimir said, tucking his hands behind his back. “Do you dislike your chamber?”
It was a trick question, of course. We both knew the script, but I couldn’t deviate from it. He wanted a show, and I either gave it to him or suffered his wrath.
“No, Majesty,” I said. “The chamber is beautiful.”