Chapter 42
Chapter Forty-Two
Monster
MAGNOLIA
Dahes’ laugh hit every nerve in my body.
Suns, I hated him, hated me. I wanted to disappear. I wanted to vanish from this room and crumble just like my bleeding heart.
I knew what Hael was doing—he was going through every single interaction we had together, his mind trying to decipher if it was all fake.
But it wasn’t fake. It was real to me.
Dahes’ hand tightened around my ribs, and my breath hitched.
Shit.
Numb, Magnolia. Be numb. Stop thinking—
“Let’s go,” Dahes ordered, his voice crawling, before going into my head. “Follow me.”
He rose from the throne, forcing me to stand with him. His hand moved from my ribs to the small of my back as he gently ushered me down the dais steps.
Together.
Hael watched every move, his eyes tracking us, as I willingly followed Dahes.
I wasn’t in chains. I didn’t have sentries pulling me anymore.
My heart cinched inward when I realized the sentries were dragging Hael behind us. I winced as his chains kept scraping against the white stone.
Breathe. One. Two. Three. Four. Exhale.
I tried not to think, tried to build up my walls again, but it was impossible. I could feel Hael’s eyes burning into my back, his anger from my betrayal palpable.
I focused on my feet, keeping my head down as I padded through the ominous halls.
Blood trailed behind me, dripping onto the stone, the back of my thigh burning with each step I took, but I barely noticed. I tried not to think about the fact that Hael was trailing even more.
It wasn’t until I felt the dips beneath my feet and saw the blood filling the crevices of the cracks that I realized we were in the dungeons. The floor down here was rough, the stone not smoothed over like the rest of the castle.
Shit—
Breathe. One. Two. Three. Four. Exhale.
The air was colder down here, more dry and stale than the rest of the castle. There wasn’t a lick of moisture collecting on the walls, and I knew it was intentional. Dahes kept his prisoners starved. He used it as a manipulation tactic.
He also kept it dark.
Three sentries were carrying torches, but it only cast a soft glow onto the path in front of us.
We stopped in front of a cell, barricaded by iron bars. Dahes waved his hand and the lock opened on thin air.
The groaning of the metal grated my nerves, settling in my core. Was he putting us in a cell—
“Are you finally owning up to your word and going to let us go?” a soft feminine voice asked.
No—I recognized that voice, knew the moment another pitch joined the first.
“Keeping us starved with little food or water isn’t exactly keeping us unharmed.” One of the triplets folded her arms across her chest as she glared at Dahes.
Their blonde, silky hair had layers of grease and their clothes hung against their thin shoulders. They were losing weight. I could see their clavicles protruding, their cheeks hollow and caved. The stench alone told me enough about how they were treated.
Dahes clicked his tongue. “Be more precise when you make deals with me, and maybe next time you can negotiate food.”
“Magnolia,” his voice crooned inside my head.
No. No. No—
“I need another eye.”
My gaze snapped to his, my own eyes widening at his grin. “No,” I said, hating that my voice had a slight quiver even inside my head. I had never said no before, never had the courage.
His grin immediately wiped off. “I don’t think you understand. You don’t have a choice.”
The triplets stopped talking. Out of my peripheral, I saw them all take a collective step back, but they couldn’t go far. They were huddled together, backs rammed against the stone wall on the opposite side of the open bars.
“I’m letting you decide,” his voice whispered back into my mind. “You get to pick who loses an eye.”
I stared at him in disbelief. There were only four people in the room that he meant—the sentries didn’t have eyes and there were no other prisoners in this section. Just the triplets and Hael…
My breath caught as I looked into Dahes’ gaze. “Any eye?” I asked inside my head, knowing he was still listening.
His answering smirk was all I needed. I tried to keep my mind blank, tried to not let him read what I planned on doing.
I jumped, closing the gap in front of us, as my hand rose to his face. I had my fingers pressed into his iris before I was thrown backward.
He roared, his hands pinning my wrists above my head and pressing them against the cold, metal bars as he glared down at me. I couldn’t move. Every inch of his body pressed into mine.
Then he laughed. A single dark chuckle that filled the deafening silence.
“You’ve grown feistier, little ghost,” he murmured, his gaze still boring into me.
He moved both my wrists into the palm of one of his hands before trailing a single finger down my face.
Breathe. One. Two. Three. Four. Exhale.
He stilled, his hand cupping my cheek when realization hit him.
“You want me to take your eye?”
I didn’t answer, just stared directly into his gaze, bracing for the pain. Because I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t ruin the sisters’ lives any more than I already had and there was no way I was taking Hael’s.
His hand started moving again before his thumb swiped over my temple. “You will take one of their eyes, Magnolia,” and I felt the order resonate in my bones. “I don’t want to deform you.”
He let me go, my back still pressed against the bars, as my breathing turned ragged.
The triplets were crying softly, probably already aware of what Dahes wanted me to do. It was their only conscious interaction of me, ripping out Kip’s eye—
But Hael. He had no idea. His eyes were watching me and I hated it, hated how he was going to see the monster I was.
It was intentional. Dahes was making sure he was watching. My stomach lurched, like the floor had dropped beneath me.
Breathe. One. Two. Three. Four. Exhale.
It didn’t matter. The command was already working. I peeled my back off the grated bars, felt my feet move across the rough stone.
I walked into the cage.
Breathe. One. Two. Three. Four. Exhale.
I took another step, blocking out the triplets’ screams.
“You promised we wouldn’t get hurt—” one of them sobbed.
“No, I promised I wouldn’t hurt you. Magnolia didn’t do the same.”
I picked the first sister, the one closest to me. I tried not to think about it, didn’t want to give a thought to which one I was deforming…
Breathe. One. Two. Three. Four. Exhale.
Her screams pierced my ears as my fingers dug into her. She was moving too much, the other two trying to fight me off that it was taking longer than it should have.
“I’m sorry,” I mouthed, trying to block out the loud pop that echoed off the walls. A single tear rolled down my cheek, but it was nothing compared to her sobs as she fell onto her knees.
“Good job, Magnolia,” Dahes murmured from behind me. “Now give them the eye.”
I extended my hand to them, trying not to think about how sticky it was, but the triplets didn’t move. The one I deformed was hunched over, screaming. Blood was pouring down her face. It was all over my hand—
Breathe. One. Two. Three. Four. Exhale.
I had to fight the urge to drop it.
“If you don’t take it,” Dahes warned, his voice lowering. “Magnolia will rip all of your eyes out.”
One of the sisters—one with both of her eyes—snatched the eye from me, and I quickly backed out of the cell. The second sister was bent over, rubbing the back of the one I ruined, whispering something softly to her.
“Now read me the same vision,” Dahes ordered.
“No.” The sister holding the eye glared at him. Her back was straight, her eyes narrowed.
“Magnolia, take her other eye.”
“No, no, no,” the girl sobbed, her scream echoing off the stone. “Please don’t—” She was still on her knees, her hand pressed to her face and her single eye had tears streaming down it. Her other hand lifted, like it would protect her from me.
“Fine,” the one standing in front of me said. “Just give her a second.”
“Stand, Nuna,” the other triplet urged, and her name rang in my ears.
Nuna—Kip and Nuna.
She was trembling as her sisters helped her stand. They were holding her up, each with searing looks of hatred that ate away at me.
“Tell me if everything is still aligned for the Solstice,” Dahes ordered.
My gaze strayed to Hael even though I told myself not to look. I knew what he was seeing. Nuna’s blood coating my fingers, chunks of something stuck underneath each nail bed.
I was a monster.
The sisters chanted in unison, passing Nuna’s eyes between them. When it was Nuna’s turn to hold it, she sobbed, her fingers shaking…
The chanting stopped and all three girls whipped their gazes to me. A chill ran through my bones before they turned to Dahes.
“The vision remains the same. As long as Hael fights with you, he will kill King Elion.”
“And the blade,” Dahes growled. “You said it would fall at my feet.”
They paused, their eyes flitting to Hael like they didn’t want to admit what they were about to say. “He already possesses the blade and has brought it inside your castle.”
Dahes smiled. “Good.” He turned to Hael. “Tell me which one has the dragon fire.”
Hael’s jaw clicked, probably feeling the deal work for the first time, fighting against the compulsion.
“The dagger,” he ground out, his jaw set.
Dahes grinned, flicking his wrists, re-closing the bars and locking the triplets in. He turned toward a sentry, “Go through his weapons and bring me the dagger.”
One of the sentries tilted his head down, before clicking against the stone and walking back up to the throne room.
“Magnolia, go to your room and bathe,” Dahes ordered, but this time he wasn’t looking at me. He was staring directly at Hael. “I’ll fetch you when it’s time for dinner, but first, I have some business to attend to.”
My stomach churned at the way he was looking at Hael—Hael wasn’t backing down, just meeting his stare with hatred and glaring straight back.
No. No. No.
I knew whatever torture he gave Hael earlier wasn’t nearly enough. It was just the beginning. Hael murdered his dragon. He touched me.
Dahes was pissed. He was going to—
“Room, Magnolia. NOW.”