Chapter 64
“What have you done, Isolde?” Sando asked in disbelief that morning after returning from the trial. His hair was disheveled, as though he had been pulling at it the entire way back to his chambers, and the lines across his forehead had been deeply etched into his pale skin.
I was sitting on the floor, leaning against his bed, my hands bloody from picking at my skin and my eyes red from crying all night. I couldn't even bring myself to look ahead anymore, nor could I stand on my feet. My arms fell between my knees, and I lowered my forehead onto my bent leg.
“What is his fate?” I asked, trying not to cry again.
My brother only stepped across the enormous rug and pulled me forcefully to my feet. I staggered before he caught me and kept me from falling.
“Isolde, I told you to be careful, damn it,” he said, his voice caught somewhere between anger and sorrow, but I couldn't even bring myself to look him in the eyes.
My lips trembled, and my stomach tightened with pain.
“Brother...” I tried to wheeze out, but my voice hitched with sorrow. He only sighed and pulled me against himself. His strong arm pressed my head against his chest, and sobs began shaking my body.
This was all my fault.
“Brother, please. Tell me what the verdict is.” There was no need for me to ask. I already knew, but I had to hear it. I had to hear how I had killed the man I loved.
Sando buried his face in my hair before saying quietly, “Public execution in a fortnight.”
My legs gave out, and he caught me before I fell. I began screaming from the pain, clutching at my chest, but he only held me tighter.
“They wouldn't even let me go inside, brother,” I sobbed, and he ran his rough fingers through my hair.
“You didn't listen to me, Isolde,” he almost shouted. “You weren't careful!” This time, he let me fall to my knees and lean back against the leg of his bed while he looked down at me with eyes full of disappointment and anger.
Then he crouched in front of me and touched the pale bruise on my neck with one finger.
“Faran had the final say, and he said he caught you in an improper position, and his guards said the same. He said the skirts of your dress were parted and...”
My eyes widened.
“That isn't true—”
“I know, Isolde, but Father didn't want to hear anything else,” Sando simply replied.
My skin began to prickle.
“Please help me, Sando. I've made a mistake, but please—”
“Isolde, I can't help you anymore.”
He rose to his feet and stood beside the window. The morning sunlight illuminated his face, making him look so tired, almost sick.
“You weren't careful, and I told you—”
Something inside me snapped.
“And were you careful?” I asked, my voice carrying the sweetness of his hypocrisy.
“What is that supposed to mean?” he asked, but I could hear a trace of fear in his voice. I only chuckled and shook my head as another tear rolled down my cheek.
“The forest witch casts spells...”
His eyes almost turned black, the blue transforming into a devastating storm.
“...and a little white dog, with blackened paw who followed her everywhere...”
I threw my head back and laughed, while he crouched in front of me again. He tilted his head and narrowed his eyes so much that wrinkles formed at their corners, and a vein bulged at his temple.
“Are you blackmailing me, little sister?” he asked, as though he couldn't believe those words had just left his mouth.
“No. No, no, no,” I said, leaning closer into his face. “But clearly, you aren't as careful as you think you are either.”
Then I leaned back against the mahogany post, lifting my gaze toward the vaulted ceiling, my fingers mindlessly tracing the golden ornaments carved across the stone. “But he does. Me..”
I brought my gaze back to Sando's pale face and parted lips. “Faran approached me. He offered me a trade. He wants me to reveal where you are hiding her, and where Meera fled with Corian. He promises that if I give him information, he will release Lysande from the dungeon.”
The skin along his cheek twitched, and the vein in his neck now joined the one at his temple.
“And will you do it?” he asked, unable to hide the way his voice broke at the end.
I shook my head, my fingers tightening into my lap. “Perhaps before I found my humility, I would have. But not now. Lysande would have loathed me for such a betrayal,” I spoke with absolute, crushing honesty. “And I would rather die than see that look in his eyes.”
Sando rose again. He ran a hand through his hair, pulling at the ends, then rubbed his face so hard that red marks from his rings remained across his skin.
“I made a mistake, brother, but please aid me,” I pleaded.
His eyes finally broke, filling with unshed tears.
“I cannot, my Sun. After the assassins breached your wing, Father confined me strictly within the city's boundaries. And at the trial... he permitted Faran to stand beside the throne and deliver the final verdict himself. It was a punishment for me, I suppose.
Father claims I failed my ultimate duty, that I failed to protect both you and Meera.”
I swallowed the dry air and pushed myself onto trembling legs. I placed my hands behind my back while my heart pounded violently in my chest. My skin burned, and the ringing in my ears never stopped.
“Sister,” he said, “he said you will be confined to your chambers until you are given a new knight... after the execution.” I turned my empty face toward him.
“If you think I am going to breathe long enough to receive a new knight, Sanaedeo, then you should light a candle for me right now.”
I stopped for a moment before I turned to him once more, my hand reaching for my pocket.
?Oh, and I almost forgot, my prince. I found this next to a sellsword I killed that night.
“ With a small flick of my wrist, I threw the sapphire across the floor.
It rolled across the floor, glinting under the morning sun, before stopping directly beneath his feet.
With that, I walked outside, straight into the hands of Faran's hounds, who dragged me back to the chambers and locked the doors.
Only these weren't my chambers.
They were Lysande's.