Chapter 58
Fifty-Eight
- MARCELLA -
One year ago
Panting fills my ears. Though I can’t distinguish which is from me or my brother. We run side by side, leaping over tree roots and rocks. Dipping under low branches and skirting around bushes. They’re hot on our trail. We’re no match for the amount of men after us.
“You’ll have to split and hide,” I manage through my breaths. “Go left, and I’ll lead them right, away from you.”
“No!” he barks.
“Connor, once they capture you, they will flog and kill you, whether they believe me or not!”
“I don’t care! We stick together!”
I growl against his stubborn antics. Nabbing the shirt at his shoulder, I rip him to the right with me. We get to the outskirts of Southlight, and I afford myself a grin. Perhaps we can lose them here. We’re so close to the border. All we need is to slip into Arterias, and we’re free.
Warning people to move, we burst into the crowded streets of Southlight. Left, right, left, right again. Turning down every opportunity we can to snake through the town. Once I’ve spotted an empty merchant cart, I rip him underneath it with me, pulling the skirt over the wheels to hide us.
I turn to him. “Quiet your breath. In through your nose, out through your mouth.”
We work on it together, eyes exchanging worries as we slow our breaths.
The normal bustle of town buzzes around us.
Of boots on cobblestones. Chatter in the alleyways.
Wheels hitting each bump, and coins being exchanged.
There’s only a slight gap between the bottom of the cart skirt and the street, enough that shadows pass back and forth in busy flashes.
“Alright, Robert. Thank you for the bulk order, I’ll come next month for a restock if you need!” a cheery man calls out.
A creaking of wood sounds before a set of the wheels lifts off the ground an inch.
Eyes flashing wide, I look to Connor. Slamming a finger up to my lips, I crouch with the new angled ceiling above us.
I use my two fingers to illustrate a person walking.
He nods, then crouches beside me. Whoever the man that owns this cart is, he pushes it down the street.
The two of us are awkwardly bent over and keeping pace to stay hidden.
My back eventually bursts into a burning at the unnatural angle.
Until we’re both struggling to keep pace.
Connor slips first. The back of the cart slamming into him before I can pull him up. The merchant stops and lifts the cart skirt, letting light spill into the space. He gasps when he notices us, and I grab Connor. We slip out from beneath the cart. Squinting, I pull him into the crowd.
“They’re over there!” the merchant shouts. When I glance behind us, he’s pointing a finger at us as several guards rush through the crowd.
Finding our last bits of strength, we shove through the bodies around us. My hand is tight on Connor’s as I try to pull him through. As we cut down an alley, I turn to him.
I hiss at him, “This is it. You go and don’t turn back and I’ll distract them.”
“No—”
“Connor!” I snap, frantically tucking my most prized possession—our father’s family ring—into his pocket. “I will never forgive you if you let them take you.”
“Mother will wither away, don’t you see that!
” he spits back. “If they don’t take me, what will I go back to, hmm?
After everything, not only have I lost the one person I truly love, but I’ve lost my entire reputation.
No one will want to hire me, let alone look my way.
It’s already happened to mother! Out of all of us, you have the most promising future. You have the King’s favor already.”
“Then I’ll use his favor for a different option!”
He shakes his head and I try to shove him away as the guards round the corner for us. “Go!” I scream. I shove him harder, almost pushing him to the ground. “Go!” I shout harder with tears glistening in my eyes.
His stubbornness is as strong as mine. As the guards tackle him to the ground and pull my arms behind my back, I cry out. Kicking my legs. “It wasn’t him that killed the priest, it was me! You have to believe me!”
I writhe and fling back against my captors. “I killed him and I would do it again!”
Connor’s face is shoved down onto the dirty cobblestones, one eye sliding up to me as they shackle his wrists and drag him up.
“Tell them!” I scream at Connor. “Tell them it's a lie! Tell them it was me!”
But he doesn’t look my way again.
It’s the last time I see him as they cart him off.
Six months ago.
“You do realize if he’s even still alive, he’s probably wishing he was dead?” a man’s voice comes from behind me.
I whip to the black hooded figure who stops beside me. Only a sharp nose and set of thin lips is visible. Turning my attention back to the guards patrolling around Millton’s prison, I hiss, “Piss off.”
The guards circle around the gated bottom portion of the prison. It’s a staggering build of cold stone towers. Growing taller as they’ve had to expand over the years. A single tunnel bridge leads from its gated entrance to us on its outskirts with another gate.
I was on the other side of this gate. Not for long, though.
Once they captured and brought us back from Southlight, no matter how hard I tried to explain I was responsible for the priest’s death, no one would listen.
They saw me as the desperate sister, rather than the trained soldier.
One who’d have no problem killing. My truth fell on deaf ears.
They let me go. Released with a hefty fine for assisting a fugitive.
I tried to send letters to Cyrus for an appeal to put me in Connor’s place.
But as a commoner now, it’s pointless. Letters from the public aren’t accepted.
And I couldn’t exactly storm his castle to ask in person, for fear of leaving Connor in Millton and chancing they do a public execution with the priest’s family as a willing audience.
My mother showed yesterday. Letting me know King Cyrus sent me a letter, calling upon me for a special project. But I couldn’t accept it. Still can’t leave Connor for a sin I committed.
Even if Connor wasn’t imprisoned, I’m not sure I could face Cyrus again.
Not after everything. I hadn’t cried until the castle faded from my view.
It was a painful goodbye. But one that was needed—I spent too long falling into him.
Too long letting him break my walls down, changing my mind on what was important to me.
I didn’t want to become someone else. Someone soft.
Someone who was dependent on a man like air in my lungs.
It’s better this way.
This is who I am. Who I’m trying to convince myself I’m meant to be.
The hooded man asks, “Tell me. Now that you’ve been at this for months with no success, what’s it going to take for you to give up?”
“I’m not going to give up,” I grumble, not wanting to give the man next to me any more attention.
He hums in appreciation. “I respect your tenacity. What if I told you, there’s a guaranteed way you could free your brother?”
I drop my arms from being crossed over my chest as I turn to look at the man. “What? And what would be in it for you?”
He slightly turns his face toward me. Eyes drowned in shadow. A coy smile lifts his lips. “You infiltrate Vitalis.”
I snort while rolling my eyes. “You’re asking for the impossible.”
“The king called you for a special project. You answer it, you’re in.”
I flip back to the hooded man. “You realize intercepting someone else's mail, and at that, the king’s mail, is punishable by death?”
“Punishable by death if I’m captured.”
I narrow my eyes. “So…say I infiltrate Vitalis. Then what? My end of the bargain is done?”
“You know of the King’s little secret. But what you don’t know is how much of a risk he is to everyone in the realm. You kill him.”
I step back, shaking my head. “I’m not some assassin—”
“You’re right. You’re simply a desperate sister looking to free her brother for a crime she committed. You’re a smart woman with morals looking to correct the wrongs you’ve created.”
My face falls. How does this stranger know so much of me? So many things that no one else does? “No. I’m not interested.” I turn and begin to walk away.
“That’s too bad. It’s your first and last chance. Good luck trying to free your brother when he’s no longer here in Millton.”
I stop in my tracks. Slowly, I look over my shoulder at the hooded figure. “What are you talking about?”
A wider smile stretches over the man’s face. “Your brother isn’t here. Hasn’t been in two months since I took him.” On cue, the man pulls out something from his robes and holds it in an open palm.
My heart drops. There in his hand is our father’s family ring. An undeniable source of proof.
“And if you don’t decide to take my offer…
then I’ll be sure to beat him bloody and bruised until that’s all his skin knows.
His body will ache bone-deep from how we use him.
I’ll keep him alive until his body gives out and all he experiences is endless agony.
And you, my dear, will be the reason for it.
” The man pockets the ring again and begins to turn away.
“Stop!” I blurt, reaching a hand out before my fingers shake. My stomach curled into a coil like a snake.
How can I possibly be so selfish to leave Connor, who’s already been punished for my crime, to be left for a lifetime of pain?
The hooded man pauses.
“Alright…I-...” I whisper weakly, “I-I’ll make a deal with you.”