Chapter 52 #2
This woman had deep brown eyes, similar to my own. She stared at me like she’d seen a ghost. Like I was the ghost.
She tried to speak, some creepy garbled sound.
“May I speak into your mind?” I whispered.
She tried speaking again, but her head jerked in a nod as she looked between me and Wyatt.
What is your name, dear lady? I asked.
Josefa, she replied with relief. Rogelio, my king. I never thought I’d see the day. I thought I would die before you came for me.
Wyatt and I shared another uneasy look.
And you have brought one of your Link-mates. I am honored. How many of the others remain?
Wyatt looked at me with alarm.
Yeah, this was bad. I didn’t need another person dying in Wyatt’s arms tonight, that might send him over the edge.
Josefa, I said gently. I am about to tell you something very upsetting.
Nothing you say could ever upset me, my king–
I shook my head. Josefa…I am not Rogelio. I am Rafael, his grandson.
Josefa, if possible, looked even paler than before. Her already white skin turned gray. The heart-rate machine next to her increased, the blood pressure machine beeping as it sky-rocketed, but her breathing only grew a little shallow.
Rafael. G-grandson to the k-king?
Rogelio is dead. My mother, Ramira, succeeds him.
Josefa sucked in a ragged breath.
I am twenty-eight years old, I went on. Josefa, with this information, can you tell me how long you have been here?
I was brought here on coronation day to King Rogelio II.
I cursed inwardly. It was just as I’d thought. Rogelio II, my grandfather’s father had done this. Rogelio I lived to be old as shit, I was pretty sure, so Rogelio II was already forty when he took the throne. My grandfather, Rogelio III, was fifteen years old at the time.
That’s why Albert thought he’d only been down here thirteen years when I told him my age.
I thought for sure his son would come for me, Josefa said in a small voice. B-but he didn’t?
No, I replied softly. Unfortunately, Rogelio III ended up making his father look like a saint.
Josefa winced.
These people had expected a lot from my grandfather. I wondered what kind of a kid he’d been to make them feel that way.
And…your mother is a Telepath? Josefa asked the question carefully.
She’s trying her best, but it is her only affinity.
I didn’t bother sugarcoating it. Somehow, Josefa’s expression fell even further.
Madam, Wyatt said from next to me. Please. Who put you here? Why?
Rogelio II, she answered after a moment of thought. He hid away the Palace Sensors after his second assassination attempt.
Marion was his personal Healer that day, I told Wyatt. A Telekinetic tried to squish him.
You know Marion? Josefa’s expression changed, just barely, her eyes widening in…I’m not sure what. She’s here? You’ve spoken with her?
I shook my head slowly. No, Marion is free. She’s served as the Palace’s head Healer for longer than I’ve been alive.
Josefa considered that for several long seconds.
And…Rogelio III? Josefa asked slowly. What was his fate?
Cancer, I answered. Marion was attending to him personally.
Does that mean anything to you? Wyatt asked. I gave him a look, but he only shrugged. I didn’t want to make the woman feel as if she were being interrogated.
Josefa’s brow furrowed just slightly.
Rogelio III…died of cancer? He was not fully connected to his Chain?
We thought he was, but now I’m learning that may not have been the case, I replied. It’s an old wives’ tale these days that fully connected Chains don’t get sick.
It’s no wives’ tale, Josefa replied almost sharply. Rogelio II put us here to hide his secret.
And what would that be, my lady? I asked a little desperately. I didn’t know how much time she had. I didn’t want to keep going from room to room as each person died, like Wyatt and I were some fucked up reapers.
He was not the Key to his Chain, she said. He hid us away to try and find the Key, but another Sensor believed the Key had already passed. Rogelio was never meant to be the king. Only a Key can hold the throne.
For the second time tonight, I felt as if the ground fell out from under me. I strode away from her, resting my forehead against the dingy, damp wall for a moment while I considered what I’d just learned.
It all made sense, somehow. Every Rogelio that’d existed had been a giant asshole at best and downright sadistic at worst, which was probably why my mother had deviated in naming me something else.
My king, I cannot leave this bed.
I turned back to face her. Wyatt sat at her bedside, holding her frail hand, giving me a look that said there was no way he was sleeping tonight, or maybe ever again.
My Link-mate is a Healer, Josefa. We can bring you with us once he helps you.
Wyatt pursed his lips, but didn’t speak, and a guilty pain flared in my chest.
I was lying to her. Even if I was trying to be optimistic, it was a lie. It didn’t feel right, lying to this poor woman who’d laid here, year after year, waiting on her king to save her.
I cannot leave this bed. I am too old, too weak.
I know another Healer, I said, instinctively knowing Zephyr would never turn this down. The brother to my Key.
I know, Josefa replied a little weakly. The specter and the phantom. I can sense them.
My hair stood on end.
I was simply floating through the universe at this point. I couldn’t feel my legs. Couldn’t feel if I was standing on the stone floors or not.
I’d never seen Wyatt look so afraid.
Interesting choice in nickname, I said lightly.
There’s something else, she said, then let out an ominous wheeze. These affinities are genetic.
Wyatt are I stared at each other as Josefa began to wheeze more, her breathing weakening by the second.
A man comes here, a false prophet. He searches for them. He searches for your Key. I thought–
She cut off abruptly, then coughed a very wet cough that didn’t sound good at all.
I thought it was Rogelio’s Key he searched for…I could never see them clearly…I was confused. But now that you are here, my king…Rafael…I can see her clear as day. I see her, her Chain of five…her brother and his Chain of four. All strong. All powerful.
Wyatt made a strangled noise at that, and my mind replayed her words over and over so many times, I almost convinced myself I’d imagined them.
She’s confused, I said to Wyatt.
My time has come, Josefa said. Now that I know the truth, I am weakening. Now that I have fulfilled my purpose…
Josefa. How many others are there? I took her other hand, holding it gently, since it was so frail I thought it’d break off.
I’m no longer sure, she coughed, but they are my age or older. They will not survive long.
Was it better to leave them here, in this godforsaken place? If they would die as soon as I tried to free them…which was a crueler fate?
They will want to see you, Josefa went on. They will want to see the king who saved them.
I’m not the king, Josefa. And if I’d learned anything in this conversation, it was that I would actually never be the king, since I wasn’t a Key.
You are to us, Josefa’s voice weakened. We waited for you. I would wait all over again for this moment. Thank you for coming for me.
The unwelcome sting of tears met the back of my eyes, and I glanced at Wyatt to see that my friend had already lost the battle. Tears streamed down his face, wetting Josefa’s delicate hand that he held against his mouth.
Show me the man who keeps you here, I said. Show me the man who’s used you, and I will avenge you all. I swear it.
Kind even in the face of such horror, Josefa commented, then closed her eyes. I will show you every man who has visited me here.
Nothing could have prepared me for the faces I’d see.
Rogelio II, a given.
One of his Link-mates, a nameless nobody.
Dozens of nameless guards.
One of Rogelio III’s Link-mates.
A tall man, a little older but still handsome. Broad shoulders, soldier’s stance. Black hair and piercingly pale blue eyes.
And at his side, a man with slightly deeper skin, and carefully styled black hair. High cheekbones, dark eyes, strong brows; resembling what I saw in the mirror every day.
Because that man was my father. And at his side, the Crusader.