28. CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
Astaroth
W eapon at the ready to maim whoever dared cross into my private quarters, I spun around to find Calista sprawled on the floor by the bed. Blood oozed down her raised arm as she pointed behind me.
“Pearce!” Mergle shouted and ran past me toward the door.
I followed, leaping over Mergle, and came to a stop at Pearce’s prone form in the hall. His singed shirt rose and fell with his chest, but he was unconscious. My nostrils flared. His deception was as rank as his scent.
“Are they gone?” Calista gripped the frame with a trembling hand covered in blood and peered around hesitantly.
She averted her gaze when I gently pinched her chin and tried to raise it. I didn’t have time for this. I needed to know she was okay. “Look at me.”
Her pain-laced eyes flicked to mine when she tilted her head back. A faint pink hue lined her throat. The sign a redcap had marked their next kill.
I cupped the back of her neck, my thumb brushing over the promise Pearce left behind. Her necklace was missing. Again. “There were others?”
“Several.” She stared at Pearce and rubbed her back with a wince. “None like him, though.”
I pulled the back of her shirt up to find a bruise forming. Another round of healing was in order. “Did they abscond with the pendant?”
She shook her head, tugged down her shirt, and hugged her middle to keep me from doing it again. We would discuss it when I returned.
“Stay with her.” I snatched Pearce off the ground by his throat and stepped through the shadow that formed with little effort. It grated me to the bone that he resided in the same building where Calista slept. I would’ve killed him now if I didn’t need him.
The catacombs beneath the castle were my least favorite place to visit. If I was here, it was because one of my brethren forced my hand. Spaced out through the labyrinthine halls were barely lit isolated cells. I chose the nearest one and went inside, dropping Pearce onto the dirt floor. He groaned and rolled onto his side. The moment he realized where he was, he sat up, frantically looking around before his gaze settled on me.
I squatted in front of him, the scowl on my face deepening, and he gulped. “I didn’t want to believe it, yet there you were.”
“Your Highness—”
“Silence!” The walls reverberated my command, threatening to bring the entire castle down on our heads. I reined in my slipping anger before I exploded. “Do not cower to me when you had the courage to commit treason against us all.”
Pearce dropped his facade. Resentment through and through emanated from every pore. How did I never see it festering before now?
“What is treason for you is freedom for another. There are many of us who feel the same.”
“As I have learned.” I gritted my teeth. “What freedom did you expect to claim by killing my betrothed and stealing from me?”
“Your betrothed,” he mocked me. “We suffer while you worry about getting your prick wet.”
“Suffer? Do tell how you suffer more than the rest of us.”
His face turned red, and his jowls shook. “While you play king, enslaving the rest of us to wait on you hand and foot.”
“I didn’t ask for this. You put me in this position, even as I fought against it.”
“You were supposed to return us to where we came from. Instead, you played games and gave your power to a human girl. You put us all at risk, including our home. We have watched it decay, watched all of us wither again, and still, we are no closer to leaving. None of us asked for this existence. We want out, one way or another.”
How did he know about that? “And you thought you, a redcap, could harness my magic and do what I haven’t been able to do? What of the pixie? What were your plans with that?”
He glared at me, bitterness growing.
I bit my cheek to keep from lashing out. Some of his grievances were valid, and many of them would soon be rectified. Calista’s presence with the stone was already reverting things back to right. Once I stitched our life source together, I would take back my power. That needed to happen soon, with the newly discovered threats against her, and with the influx of pixies. It wasn’t a coincidence they appeared after her arrival. Her being here is the catalyst for us finding our way out. I knew it. Unfortunately, Pearce would never see it.
I pushed to my feet and backed out of the cell. Pearce scrambled forward, meeting the bars as I closed his cell. He gripped them with his blood-crusted fingers and pressed his face between them.
“Your Highness, don’t leave me here!”
“If you’re so powerful, find a way out.”
Pearce jerked on the bars and screamed. “You will regret this!”
I laughed. “I don’t think I will.”
In response, he hocked a gooey ball of spit on my boot. It rolled down the toe, refusing to drip off. With a growl, I held out my hand and the pixie orb hanging next to his cell drifted into my palm. He watched with wide eyes as the portal opened next to me.
“You don’t know the meaning of suffer. But you will.”
He screamed at me as I left with his only light source.
Mergle raised a brow when I finally rejoined them. I had walked the halls of the catacombs until I calmed enough to face Calista without frightening her. By the expression on Mergle’s face, it didn’t work.
I kept my voice low so Calista couldn’t hear. “He has been dealt with.”
Mergle’s brow furrowed, then he nodded. “Jessandra locked down the castle. No one is leaving until they’ve been questioned.”
The tension in my shoulders eased hearing of her return. “Good.”
“Calista has offered to identify the others involved.”
I moved toward the doorway and glanced inside my room. She lay on the bed, staring at the ceiling. Her head turned my way as if she felt the pull of my gaze. Dazed, red eyes looked back at me.
“That would lower his ranks some.”
“I feared that.” His chin dipped in thought. “Maybe seeing the outcome will dissuade any others.”
I clasped his shoulder. “We shall see.”
Mergle left to assist Jessandra with the roundup. I scooped the knob off the floor, pieced it together, and willed it to repair itself. The wood knitted together seamlessly. Calista’s blood on the knob caught my eye. No one should have been able to enter my room without my say. Even her. The ward hadn’t been reconfigured to accept her, yet she was in here without the pendant.
In a few strides, I was next to her, lowering myself onto the edge of the bed. Calista wiped her raw cheeks with the heels of her hands before scooting up and leaning against the headboard. This week was more than we both bargained for.
“Where is your necklace?”
“That’s all you care about.” Her voice wavered as she rubbed her chest. “That stupid fucking necklace.”
“That stupid fucking necklace keeps you alive.” I barely kept my voice below a roar. Shaking, she pulled her knees to her chest and hid her face against them. Her ignorance was due to me, and she didn’t deserve wrath meant for others. I lowered my tone. “Where is it, Calista?”
Her soft response came out muffled. “I-I hid it. In my room.”
I stood up and extended my hand. “Show me.”
She ignored it and climbed out of the bed. We walked down the hall in silence, but she remained vigilant, checking around us until we reached her room. When we went inside, I saw the devastation left in the wake of the traitors.
“Were you in here when they entered?”
Calista shook her head and dropped to her knees. She conveyed the story to me as she lifted a stone from the floor and reached inside to retrieve the music box. It played the tune of the realm as she pulled the necklace out and put it on. Calista returned the brick, now noticeable with the grout missing around its edges, and sat back on her heels to survey the mess.
“This won’t take long to clean up,” she said.
The one place I was certain she would be safe was destroyed. Even the wooden furniture was broken and fractured. I gripped the edge of the mattress and laid it down. Stuffing protruded from rips that ran the length of it. They left no stone unturned in their hunt, except the ones in the floor and walls. I focused on the brick, thankful she thought enough of the pendant to hide it so well.
“What possessed you to take it off and stow it in the floor?”
“The truth?”
I raised my brows. “Always.”
“The damn thing scares me.” She lifted it off her chest to look at it. “And now it scares me even more because those monsters are willing to kill me for it.”
That word shot out of her mouth like a sharpened arrow aimed straight at my heart. It was a direct hit. I was one of those monsters, albeit a stronger one, but I was no different. Was her perception of me altered because I resembled her physically? Or did she view me the same as my brethren and was too terrified to admit it out of fear?
“It was meant to make your life happier, not scare you.”
“Happier? It twisted everything I ever asked for.” Her chin quivered. “It killed my father. I should’ve known better, considering who it came from.”
Determined to keep her talking and build trust with her, I sat in front of her and crossed my legs to appear as non-threatening as possible. “There are two sides to everything in life, just like a coin. Call them what you will—light and dark, positive and negative—but they must balance. Your world is ruled by time, and consequences—good or bad—can occur at any point in your lifeline. This place is ruled by magic. That power is vast and ancient and demands immediate balance. You say you want the polar opposite of what you were gifted, but it senses the intent behind the spoken word. Sometimes, it manifests in cruel ways. Either way, it delivers exactly what you desire.”
“So, I killed my father?”
“No.” Her gaze snapped to mine. “You did no such thing.”
She looked away. I could see her mind racing as she thought about what I said. I hoped she relieved herself and me of that guilt. It was what it was. Simple as that.
The moment awareness struck, her face scrunched up in deep thought. “It delivers things I don’t wish for though.”
A small, satisfied smile tugged at my mouth. Calista bonded with the realm through the wishing stone. It was one less thing to accomplish now that she was here. “But you do, in that moment.”
Calista rested her cheek on her propped fist and flicked at the crumbled bits of grout around the loose brick. She would need to digest and accept the realm on her own terms. I could help her if she would let me, but trust wasn’t there yet.
I left her to think and collected her jewelry scattered over the floor, putting it back in the upturned box. A piece lay under one of the boards of the bookshelf. I moved it out of the way and paused when I came face to tortured face with a miniature goblin. I picked up the remaining baubles and put them in the box, staring at the statue.
“Where were you while your room was ransacked?” I asked, testing her honesty.
“I was bored and went for a walk.”
That wasn’t the complete truth. I turned in her direction. “Where?”
Calista’s finger hesitated before flicking another bit across the floor. “The castle.”
“Calista.”
Her head fell back slightly, and she sighed. “And to Bobbins’ shop. And before you ask, yes, I was alone.”
The box dug into my squeezing palm. She had a target on her head, and probably a large bounty to entice others to join Pearce’s cause, and she was gallivanting in the area he first tried to kill her. She couldn’t be trusted as much as him.
I picked up the goblin with great care, noting how damaged it was, and held it out to Calista. An overflow of mixed emotions poured through my connection with the stone without tapping into it. Sorrow and compassion diluted the others as she gingerly took it from my outstretched hand.
“I found it in a pile of trash,” she said softly and stroked a reverent fingertip over its cheek. “I couldn’t leave it there.”
My love for her grew with every delicate touch. She may have called them monsters, but her compassion for them was evident. I wondered if the realm made it easy for her to find, calling her through the forming bond to sway her preconceived notions. He wasn’t safe there, bound to be destroyed by careless passersby, just as she wasn’t safe here.
Calista stood and brushed her hand over her bottom. “I should clean before the lineup.”
“Leave it. This room is no longer safe for you.”
“This place isn’t safe for me.”
It wasn’t, and I hated admitting that. “No, it’s not.”
Hope filled eyes met mine. “Will you send me home then?”
Her safety was my first priority. If it came down to it, would I release her from our agreement? “No.” Her chin dropped, and she hugged the statue to her chest. “I’ll have the servants collect your things.”
“Where are you moving me to?”
“My room.”