28. The Rose
Chapter 28
The Rose
G etting caught sneaking into the dungeon in the middle of the night would do nothing to convince Grayson I had nothing to hide, especially when we’d agreed to interview Kenna together. We’d barely spoken after Kenna had been taken away. I wanted to slink away into the night, but that was impossible before the Rite was complete.
When the ground stopped shaking almost all of the pack had returned, and a few were determined to claim their spot in the hierarchy. I’d have been impressed by their bravery if they hadn’t fled from danger not twenty minutes before.
Three more challenges took place after Kenna was detained. Most of the onlookers left after the first, but several, including the foxes, had stayed through the end. One male who’d started at the Academy this year unexpectedly challenged Grayson for Alpha. He was carried from the field with a broken leg and bloodied skull not five minutes after the battle began.
Grayson stayed by my side the entirety of the other challenges, his thigh nearly pressing into mine. He kept touching me: a hand on my shoulder, his knee knocking into mine, a tug on a lock of my hair. All of them were small, thoughtless actions that had my already racing heart beating even faster against my chest.
Each touch was a small, public gesture of affection I should enjoy, should reciprocate, but I wasn’t. I couldn’t. Because each touch was an offering he’d surely snatch away if he knew what I was.
How long would it take him to throw me in a cell next to Kenna’s? Or would he simply have my head and be done with it, no interrogation or trial needed? Yesterday I’d been collecting each brush of his warm skin over mine like gems to line a crown, but today? Today the world was spinning and Grayson’s affection only made it spin faster.
When the challenges were complete, we’d tasked the Enforcers with bringing the injured to the infirmary and closed the Rite. Afterward neither of us had the energy to do more than trudge back to the pack’s wing for the night. We agreed to confront Kenna after we both got some much needed rest.
It was an agreement I couldn’t afford to keep.
I knew that seeing her alone, before the others could question her, would cause at least one person to wonder if I was colluding with her. Which, in some ways, I was, but it was a risk I had to take.
There was little doubt in my mind Kenna knew what, and maybe even who, I was. What I didn’t know was how she knew it, and more importantly, what she planned to do with that knowledge. As no one had stormed into Isaac’s room and bound me in chains immediately after the Rite, I could only assume she hadn’t revealed my secret—at least not yet.
The sun would be rising soon and students, staff, and professors along with it. There were too many potential witnesses, yet there I was, skulking along corridors and dipping into shadows on the path Isaac had plotted for me. He’d begged me to stay put or to at least bring him with me, but I held firm. I needed to do this alone. My mere existence put his life at risk every day, I wasn’t going to risk it further by having him accompany me. Kenna knew my secret, but she didn’t know his, and I was keeping it that way.
I peeked around the last corner before I reached the dungeon’s entrance, expecting a guard to be posted at the top of the stairs. Instead, it was empty, perfectly still apart from the shadows dancing down the spiral stairs, cast from the lanterns’ flames.
I was cautious as I crept forward, half expecting a horde of soldiers to suddenly appear and reveal this was an elaborate trap created to catch me in the act before ordering my immediate execution. As I descended the stairs I bade the lanterns to dim ever so slightly as I passed.
The dungeon floor was dusty, and there was a chill in the air I could feel even through my boots. Cells lined either side of a long pathway, each of them housing threadbare cots and a bucket I didn’t think was used for water.
“I wondered when you’d visit me.” A raspy voice called from the corner cell furthest from the entrance. I quickened my pace but continued to step lightly. If a soldier or pack mate was lying in wait, I would at least make it difficult for them to know when to pounce. “You can stop your prowling, my ember. It’s only you and me for now, though if you’d arrived a few minutes earlier that wouldn’t have been the case.”
I couldn’t see her properly at first. She sat on the ground with her back against the wall, legs splayed, and bloody hands bound in front of her—was it her blood or another’s? Shadows obscured her torso and down-turned face. What must have at one point been her cot lay in pieces in the opposite corner of her cell.
“Don’t look so horrified, Princess,” Kenna said hoarsely, “I wouldn’t call it cozy, but we’ve both lived in worse conditions than these.”
She lifted her chin from her chest, and my limbs began to go numb as pressure built in my throat. Her face was a collage of purples, blacks, and blues. Dried blood was smeared across her cheek, fading into her hairline.
“I didn’t do this much damage to you in the Pack Rite.”
Her chuckle was dry, humorless. “You are not the first pack member to visit me tonight. You’ll never believe how vindictive some folks can be when they feel betrayed,” She revealed, the implications of her broken voice settling in my mind like a weight pressing the air from my lungs. Her vacant eyes met mine as she said, “I hope you never find out.”
I wanted to say that I wished she hadn’t either, that I was sorry this happened to her, but there were too many questions I needed answered before I could allow empathy to rule my choices.
“You brought an amphitheater down around us, and you can’t free yourself from a cell of stone?”
The walls were over a century old. The metal bars had begun to rust. I suspected I could break free from the cell without needing an affinity for earth. For her, it should be next to nothing. Yet here she sat, bloodied and bruised.
Her smile was feral, revealing red-tinged teeth, as she raised her bound hands. “Unfortunately others were able to make that leap of logic as well. I won’t be going anywhere as long as I’m bound by these little treasures.” Woven into the rope were black stones flecked with red.
“Bloodstone.”
She nodded. “Yes, but that wasn’t what you wanted to know.”
Kenna arched one elegant brow, waiting. Even facing certain death she appeared calm, in complete control. Had I not known better, I’d think the entire sequence of events had been her plan all along. That it had landed her exactly where she wanted to be: this cell.
“I’ve relived that fight a thousand times since it happened, and I can’t understand it. What made you lose control?” I asked as I lowered myself to sit on the ground, watching her through the iron bars that separated us.
“Isn’t it obvious?” She nodded at my chest. “Your marker called to me. At the worst possible moment too. We both know I was going to win that fight. If that accursed necklace hadn’t popped free, I’d have had you pinned in a few more seconds.”
“I see time in this cell is already eating away at your sanity,” I deadpanned then said, “And what do you mean it called to you? What power could a mere trinket have?”
She tilted her head back and cackled, clutching her bound hands to her stomach and bringing her knees off the ground.
“A mere trinket?” she asked between chuckles, “Do you think this act is convincing to me? Honestly, my ember, you’ve concealed yourself beautifully for all this time, but did you truly think you’d outrun them forever?” She clicked her tongue and shook her head in mock pout.
“Stop calling me that.” It set my teeth on edge. “And I’ll ask you again, what are you talking about? Outrun who?”
“What? Does that pet name bring back a few too many memories? Please. You’re not that delicate,” Kenna said, “Stop pretending. I’ve already proven I’m not going to spill your demonic little secret. If the blows to my face and blades beneath my nails didn’t loosen my tongue, I assure you, nothing will.”
“Kenna. Whatever memories you’re taunting me with, they’re not mine,” I grasped the bars in my hands and pulled myself as close to her as they allowed, “Hear me when I tell you this: I am not pretending.”
Her brows drew in and she dragged herself over the dirt-encrusted floor until she mirrored my position. Her eyes, only a few inches away, searched between mine. Whatever she found there had her shoulders falling as the breath escaped her lungs.
“You don’t know.” Her voice grew louder, more aggressive as she asked, “How can you not know?”
“So tell me!” My voice echoed against the stone wall, and I flinched. We both turned to the entryway and froze, listening for any sign I’d been heard. Only silence greeted us. Kenna turned her gaze back to me, what little life I’d seen return to her face as we spoke draining.
“If you do not know, I cannot tell you.”
She froze for a moment. I didn’t speak for fear she’d choose not to do or share whatever it was she was considering.
“I cannot tell you what you do not know,” she repeated slowly, raising her bound hands to pull at her collar, “But I can at least show you this.”
She grimaced as the clumsy movement pulled at her wounds, but eventually, she managed to reveal a chain hanging around her neck.
“I don’t understand,” I said in a pained whisper, “How? Why?”
“What?” she asked humorously, “Did you think it was one of a kind?”
Kenna’s pendant was nearly identical to my own. If it had been cast in silver instead of gold I’d think she’d stolen it from my neck.
“You’re too intelligent to believe in coincidences, Briar. You have to think. You have to remember.”
A scream longed to explode from my throat. I felt my temperature rise and my fire pressed against my skin in frustration, begging me to be let out. My hands grasped at the roots of my hair. If I was less vain I’d rip it from my scalp just to try to find relief.
I was so close to unearthing the truths that had escaped me since waking to a field of my own destruction. I knew there was someone—something—out there searching for me, ready to take retribution for what I’d done, I just didn’t know their identity. How could I? I didn’t even know my own.
“Kenna,” I pleaded, releasing my hair and holding my shaking hands out in front of me, “Please. You have to tell me!”
“I can’t.”
“Why?” I asked. Desperation clawed at my chest as I shook the bars between us, the metal starting to glow from the heat of my hands.
“Briar, look at me.” I did. “I physically cannot.”
She moved her mouth but no words formed. Instead, her face turned red, her eyes bulging as she began coughing and gasping for air.
“Your tongue is bound.”
She nodded, catching her breath. “I cannot give you the answers you seek.”
Tears pricked behind my eyes, and I had to look away from her for a moment to collect myself. Think, Briar, think. There had to be another way. There was always another way.
“You cannot speak,” I realized aloud, “But you can still give me answers.” My gaze darted back to her and I pulled myself to my knees.
“I think I hit your head one too many times.” She looked me over. “I doubt even you have the power to unbind a compulsion.”
“No, I don’t,” I acquiesced, “But I don’t need you to speak to indicate yes or no.”
I watched as realization dawned on her face. Thousands of questions burned at the tip of my tongue, but our time was limited.
“To your knowledge are you the only other elemental at this school?”
She nodded hesitantly at first, then when her breathing remained uninhibited, more confidently.
“Did you intend to put the pack in harm’s way?”
She shook her head. I prayed to the suns and stars she answered truthfully.
“Is the person you think I’m running from an elemental?”
Head shake.
“Are they a demon?”
Nod.
“Is there more than one of them?”
Nod.
“Are you working with them?” She paused for a moment, a small, sad grin crossing her face.
Nod. I didn’t want to ask my next question, but I had to know.
“Is this because of me?” I asked, not meeting her eyes, focusing instead on her chin, “Do they know what I did?”
She hesitated.
“Tell me,” I demanded.
She nodded.
“One final question,” I asked, clearing my throat, “Will they come here?”
She nodded before dropping her head down to her chest.
My heart dropped with it.