Chapter An Eye
An Eye
MAGNOLIA
I silently watched as the triplets shook in terror. I reacted the same way when I was first brought into Dahes’ castle.
They fully regained consciousness once I dropped them onto the stone floor in the middle of Dahes’ throne room.
Time passed too slowly as the girls freaked out in hysterics. Dahes let them, waiting patiently still for them to notice him.
I tried to make myself invisible as I watched the one I didn’t drag try and fail to calm the other two.
It took me over an hour to get them here.
The triplet with the now broken ankle was tied to my back, but I dragged the other two across Moriann and it showed.
Most of their skin was raw, scraped off from being tugged, but I couldn’t help it.
I didn’t have enough rope to tie them all, and I couldn’t risk bringing them in one at a time.
Dahes said he needed all three of them and fear of disappointing him had me disregarding human decency.
They were alive. Deformed and severely injured, but alive. It was what mattered. At least it’s what I told myself as I avoided their gazes.
Their sobs only muted after they noticed the monster on the throne.
Dahes was wearing his devil’s mask. It was the same one I saw on him the night I made my deal. The same one everyone saw him wearing. He only ever took it off in front of me. Every time I came back from a hunt, he’d have it on. It made him terrifying, made him look more animalistic than human.
But I could still see his eyes. They glowed through the alabaster plaster.
It matched his skin perfectly, molding to his face until it became a part of him.
I could still make out his expressions—the mask moved as he talked like white paint dripped over him, leaving only his eyes untouched.
Ivory horns spiraled from his temples, ending in spikes above his head.
If I’d never seen him without the mask on, I would’ve thought they were a part of him. Everything blended so seamlessly—
“If we read you a vision, you’ll let us go?” one of the sisters asked after going back and forth with Dahes.
They were beautiful, mesmerizing—despite their abraded skin.
Well, only two of them were covered in blood.
When I first saw them, I couldn’t tell them apart, and if I hadn’t seen the three of them huddled together, I would have thought they were all the same person.
Long blonde hair with bright green eyes and figures I was envious of.
Now, I could at least distinguish between the girl I carried on my back.
The only one whose hair hadn’t ripped off in places and whose skin was still intact, despite the broken ankle.
“If you give me what I want,” Dahes drawled, his voice bored.
He was sitting on the throne while the triplets and I were standing on the pale stone floor below him.
If he wasn’t daunting enough, his throne was.
It was the only thing in the large room with white steps that led up to the dais, forcing everyone below to crane their necks.
Besides the smooth seat, the entire throne was covered in spikes.
I knew they were used as weapons rather than for show.
I had stood here multiple times as he used the spikes, when he’d make people walk into them.
The red coloring wasn’t originally there.
It was darkest toward the base of the throne, the blood drying almost black, while fresh blood still marred the tips.
Dahes never cleaned it, and by how all-consuming the blood was, he had to have killed thousands this way.
One of the sisters, the one I carried, narrowed her eyes. “We’ll read your vision, but we won’t be held accountable if you aren’t satisfied with the answer.” Dahes tsked, but the side of his mouth rose into a half smirk as she added, “You will let us go unharmed.”
“Smart girl,” was all he said. He was right. If you were making a deal with Dahes, wording was everything. I would know.
“Fine,” Dahes spoke after a moment. “Read me my vision, and you have my word that you’ll be returned to my streets.”
“And left unharmed,” the sister’s gaze narrowed on him.
He smirked, the plaster of the mask tilting upward. “I promise I will not lay a finger on you.”
The other two sisters relaxed a fraction while the untouched sibling still spoke. “My sisters need to be tended to first. The dragon flew low over the Sands and some of the black grains stuck to them, blocking their access to our powers.”
I tried to remain emotionless as I envisioned the black desert. It was one of three land masses separating Viven from Moriann.
The Sands were dangerous, not only because of the blistering heat during the day and the potential for sinking dunes, but it was the only place in Hilithia where Tokens were rendered useless. Magic didn’t work there. Something about the black grains stopped it.
Even without the looming height of the Senith Cliffs, I highly doubted anyone in their right mind would cross them.
Dahes didn’t react, didn’t move a muscle, but the gasps from the other two girls had me whipping my head toward them.
They started to transform. Their skin started to reshape, the blood disappearing.
I couldn’t see the black grains on them, but if any of the sand was stuck to their clothes, it was now gone.
He was healing them. I tried not to react, tried not to show how envious I was with how stiff my body felt.
But he wouldn’t heal me. He never had from a hunt before. My ongoing theory was that he relished in my suffering. I always found his eyes on me more whenever I was injured.
“Hair holds memories,” the sister said after she inspected her siblings. Her green eyes turned back to Dahes. “A vision from the past will require a single strand of hair plucked from the scalp of the dead. I’m assuming, being the ruler of them, you won’t find that too difficult to acquire.”
Dahes’ eyes narrowed. “I want a vision of the future.”
The other two sisters shifted as the third held her ground. “We don’t do those readings. They’re—”
“I’m aware that readings of the future were banned by your king.
It left you in poverty. No one cares about the past. As soon as you stopped reading the future, the three of you moved from the Second Province to the Fourth.
From there, starvation led you to steal, which is why you’re now standing in my kingdom.
” One of the sisters shifted from foot to foot, the other narrowed her eyes, while the third looked down at her feet. He struck a nerve.
“I’m also aware the methods are…” He paused, thinking over a word, “Grotesque.” He was smiling now, and my stomach flipped. “But Elion isn’t your king anymore, I am, and if you want to leave this room alive,” he continued, “you will tell me what is needed for the reading and get on with it.”
I heard one of their breaths hitch, but I had no idea which triplet it came from. They all looked uncomfortable.
“The sight of the future requires a sacrifice from the living, of the seeing. We would need someone’s eye.”
“An eye?”
“Yes.”
Dahes rose from his throne, and I couldn’t breathe. He was walking toward me, his gaze honed on mine.
Fuck. Was he going to take my eye? I went to retreat, but his voice entered my mind. “Do not move away from me, Magnolia.”
It felt unnatural, his voice hitting every nerve in my body and twisting it as his order sang through me.
My breathing hitched as every fiber of my being screamed at me to run even though my feet stopped, his compulsion working against me.
I was stuck in place, forced to stand still as he walked across the empty throne room.
It was another part of our deal I made a mistake on.
I didn’t realize when he said I would have to obey him that he meant it literally.
I thought he would just give me orders, and while he did do that, I physically couldn’t refuse him.
Whatever he told me to do, I did. I was his puppet on strings. His obedient pet. His mindless slave.
My body didn’t react on its own anymore.
Most of the time I obeyed him without him needing to use it, and I swore he got off on the fact that I was willingly doing what he wanted, that he controlled me in every aspect.
I had seen firsthand that being rebellious only made things horrendously worse. But every now and then, he reminded me that I had no choice, my free will was frayed, and I was literally forced to obey.
I was trapped. He made sure of it.
It felt like an eternity until Dahes was standing before me. A single tear slid down my cheek as I looked into his white eyes. I couldn’t help it. I tried not to show any emotion around him, but the thought of him ripping my eye out—
My breathing turned ragged. I was hyperventilating, on the verge of passing out. I started to brace myself for the pain…
Dahes leaned down until his breath was against my face. It was never foul smelling like the monsters and beasts he ruled over, but reminded me of mint. It made me hate the scent. “Go into the streets and bring me back a civilian.” My head whipped up to his. His gaze was blank, assessing, watchful.
“What?” I breathed, barely getting the word out.
“Bring me someone. Anyone you choose. You have one hour, Magnolia, or I will take that beautiful gray eye of yours.”
I still couldn’t move.
It wasn’t until he entered my mind again and murmured, “Your time has already started, little ghost,” before I bolted toward the doors.
I roamed the streets over and over, making the same turns on repeat in Salvira until I was walking circles around one of the bridges. My breathing hadn’t slowed, and I honestly wasn’t sure if I was going to pass out.
I was bringing back a person to get their eye ripped out. How could I pick someone for that? I kept scanning the crowds as people walked past me, and I couldn’t decide. But if I didn’t pick someone, he’d rip my eye out. I knew he would.
He never made idle threats.