CHAPTER FORTY
“Lee,” I said, breathless.
“I thought you’d stopped chasing the prince,” he murmured.
Blood pulsed in my ears as he dragged me back through the garden. I jolted at an owl’s hoot. Stray branches scraped my arms as Lee pushed my head down to duck through a hedge’s gap.
“What are you going to do to Prince Thomas?” My voice was muffled through the bag. The dark cotton brushed against my cheeks.
“He’s wronged enough people. I thought you’d be on my side, little mage.”
“What are you talking about?”
“I was supposed to find the cure after enough time passed. He’s ruined everything.”
I fell silent. Our ragged breaths filled the cold air as he shoved me into a carriage. My hands were tied together with ropes in front of me, my muscles weary from the water spell.
Lee knocked on the roof, and I jerked as we began to move. My lungs gasped for breath as soon as the bag was removed from my head.
The carriage was dark but for the small ceiling lantern in the corner. Lee’s face was cloaked in shadows.
“Where are you taking me?” I asked.
Lee glared at me. “Away.”
“Where’s Prince Thomas?”
He had to be alive. He was the mage prince. He couldn’t—
“It’s a pity you didn’t catch the plague. It would’ve been a much better fate.”
A chill swept through me.
“I didn’t do anything wrong,” I said, voice wavering.
“It’s not that you did something wrong. It’s that you ruined something that was right.”
“Like what?”
“My plan. Again, Thomas and his little mistress get the glory.”
My heart pounded. “I’m not his mistress.”
He laughed. “Sure,” he said. “If that’s what he tells you.”
I leaned my head back, blinking rapidly at the faint torchlights that seeped through the blackened windows. “Is any of it true? What you’ve told me all this time?”
“What about what you’ve told me? I thought you hated the prince.”
“I’m no traitor to Amouridia.”
He laughed bitterly. “You’re not even a real Amouridian.”
I spat on him. A small spot struck his mage robes. His hand darted out, squeezing my jaw so tight my gums ached.
“I was born in this country. My Papa—” My voice broke off. My hands trembled within the ropes that bound them.
He fell silent for a beat and released me so harshly my chin jerked.
“I knew this would happen,” he muttered. “What a mess.”
I opened my mouth to speak, but nothing came out. Something scraped against my throat each time I tried. Tears stung my eyes from the pain.
Lee’s gaze glimmered in satisfaction. “That spell wasn’t in your introductory textbook, was it?”
I wanted to scream, but my throat burned like fire. I leaned back and tried to force my breathing to steady.
My mind whirled. I couldn’t seem to sort truth from lie. Not when I couldn’t trust a single word Lee had said.
I only hoped with everything in me that Prince Thomas was still alive.
When the carriage came to a stop, the bag was once more thrust over my head. Lee shoved me out the carriage door. I stumbled. The horses huffed and pawed the ground with their hooves, and the sound of distant chatter travelled over the wind.
Lee dragged me into a building and up a flight of stairs, down long corridors, and into a quiet room. Faint light seeped through the bag’s dark cloth. My wrists ached from rubbing against the rope. My throat still burned from Lee’s spell.
I wanted to kill him.
I was forced into a chair, my ankles tied to the seat beneath me. Finally, the bag was pulled off my head once more.
I gasped for breath before growing still.
Thomas sat across from me, similarly bound. Fear flashed in his eyes. He pulled against his restraints, murmuring into his gag, but his efforts were weak.
My expression softened as I tried to show that I was alright, that we would get out of this, that everything would be fine.
My pulse raced, and fear whispered that this was the end of me, of my dreams.
Of us.
A movement to my left caught my attention. Lee was rifling through shelves full of jars, pitchers, and medical equipment.
I drew in a shaky breath.
Lee pulled down two glass vials of liquid that sloshed in his unsteady hands. “Here they are.”
He slammed one down on a table near us, startling us both. “Here is the cure. The one I was supposed to discover, Thomas.”
Thomas raised his brows.
Lee rolled his eyes. “Now that draught sales have slowed and the Council grows restless, the antidote was supposed to be released this spring for another wave of profits. For Blackwood glory.”
My blood ran cold.
Lee took the vial and chucked it at the wall. It shattered, the fluid leaving a blood red stain on the faded wood panels. Glass splintered onto the floor, shimmering in the window’s light.
At Thomas’s mumbles, he leaned over and yanked the gag out of the prince’s mouth. Thomas gasped for air.
“What do you have to say for yourself?” Lee asked.
“You’re insane, Blackwood.” Despite the passion in his eyes, Thom’s words were slurred. Worry pooled in my stomach.
Blackwood.
Memories slammed into me: the pond’s eavesdropper, the library argument, the name scrawled on Stephen’s stolen letter.
That family… they’re dangerous. I wouldn’t want to get someone like you involved.
I’d become so irritated at what Thomas had meant by ‘someone like me’ that I hadn’t pursued more answers about the Blackwoods.
I scanned Lee, his mage robes covered in mud from tousling with me in the gardens, his hair askew from the way I’d put up a fight. Even with the disarray, I could sense the proud nobility in his posture, the spoiled care in his features.
“How did you find out I had the cure?” Thomas asked. “I told no one.”
He tilted his head, his eyes squinting as mischief glimmered within. “Oh, Thomas. You don’t even come close to understanding the depths with which my family hates yours.”
Thom winced.
“I’ve been keeping an eye on you for a long time. And on persons of interest,” he said with a pointed look toward me, “once I realized you’d lowered yourself to love a commoner.”
I strained against my ties.
“And I had my suspicions you were close after the banquet, after the arrogant smugness on your face and my conversation with your mistress here. After that, we watched your lover more closely. After Lyranore’s little niece fell ill, I simply had to wait until you came riding in with the cure to save the day. ”
Nausea rose in my throat. Lee smiled at the shock in my eyes.
“Surprised? I know all about you, little mage. Your brother-in-law liked coin well enough.”
My breath caught.
Felipe.
I’d never wanted so badly to murder him. Poor Kelara.
Thomas’s eyes bore into mine, pain and anger sparking within.
“I didn’t forget about you, Thom. How could I, when you have been a thorn in my side my entire academic career?”
Thomas’s jaw was clenched tight. He closed his eyes. A book slowly hurtled across the room at Lee.
Lee caught it with a hand and snorted. “You always hated potionwork. I’m amazed you found the cure at all. Didn’t notice the draught slipped in your drink, did you?”
“What did you do to Caleb?” Thomas asked.
Lee gave a wolfish grin. “Your palace guards will sleep it off.”
I made a gurgled sound, trying to talk. The taste of metal flooded my mouth.
“I’m not done speaking, little mage.” He turned back to Thomas with an apologetic expression. “After Autumnfest, I sent word in your lover’s hand that she needed you to come back.” He grinned at the confusion and anger in my face. “And you lovesick fool, you came running.”
“You didn’t write,” he said breathlessly, his eyes locked on mine. My chest chilled.
I gurgled again.
I had. I’d told him everything I discovered. I asked Mrs. Calloway to—
I suddenly remembered the stacks of letters tucked in the housekeeper’s drawers. Perhaps my message to him had never arrived, instead doomed to the inside of Mrs. Calloway’s office. She would see it as looking out for me, just as she did with his letters.
And if true…
He didn’t know about my magic. My year without him. He didn’t even know about my premonition.
My stomach dropped.
I should have told him. I should have talked to him. Stupid, stupid pride.
“No, you idiot,” Lee said. “That love confession was from me.”
“I can’t wait to read your obituary,” Thom muttered.
My heart ached as Thom avoided my gaze, his face flushed.
Oh, Thom…
“And I yours,” he returned. “But this,” he said, picking up the other vial and giving it a shake. The transparent blue liquid swished within, a dark green mist floating at its center. “This will help.”
Thomas jerked beneath his ropes. “The King will know it was you.”
He laughed. “You went out for a night walk, as you’ve always done, and never came back. Your guard was drugged—your cauldron will have remnants of a sleeping potion that matches his symptoms.”
Thom stiffened, and Lee smiled and continued. “You were… too heartbroken over Lyranore. Decided to leave the royal lifestyle for good.”
He furrowed his brow. “That’s not—”
Lee held up a piece of parchment, and I tried to cry out when I recognized it. He must have taken Thom’s final words to me from my pocket at some point this evening. I felt Thomas’s heavy gaze on me.
Lee laughed again. “This is too good. Thom, I’m embarrassed on your behalf just reading this.”
His stare turned cold and cutting. “Enough.”
A flame appeared in the corner of the letter. Just as quickly, the fire was put out, smoke writhing in the air above it.
“You forget that I’ve scored higher than you in every class we’ve taken together,” Lee demurred. “I just don’t have a crown on my head, so people don’t notice me.”
Thom hung his head.
“With a few adjustments, this letter shall explain your heartache for me.” Lee’s gaze returned to his vial.
“I’ve been designing a special potion for our future Grand Mage.
Granted, it’s had a few hiccups along the way, but I’m fairly confident in this batch.
And since we have a commoner—” his eyes flashed to me, “—why don’t we let you go first? ”
“No,” Thom said.
Lee paused. “Are you volunteering?”
Thom’s gaze bore into me. I found the courage to meet it, and through the spell that strangled me, I wished I could finally confess my feelings right here, right now, right when it might be my last chance.
His eyes filled with grief. “Yes. I am.”
Lee’s face split into a grin. “Excellent.”
He took a syringe and plunged it through the vial’s opening, the cool liquid disappearing inside the bronze tube. “Luckily, you are perfectly positioned for this experiment.”
Thom grunted, his gaze locked on mine.
I love you, I tried to tell him with my eyes.
I love you, you arrogant, awkward man…
His expression softened as the needle penetrated his upper arm. Lee slowly inserted the potion into his bloodstream.
And I imagined him saying he loved me too.
Black smoke began to emit from the injection site, slowly at first before consuming the area. Lee coughed, backing away as the prince was enveloped. I tried to scream, pulling at my wrists and legs, both tied to the chair. The smoke slowly dissipated, leaving nothing in its wake.
The chair sat empty.
And suddenly, a frog hopped.
“Incredible!” Lee cried out with a cackle. “It turned out even better than I imagined.”
“What did you do?” I tried saying, but only a cough-like noise erupted from my chest.
“Sorry, something’s wrong with your voice.” He snapped.
“What did you do?” My voice scratched, but anything was better than the silence.
“It’s a simple transformation potion,” he said. “Enchanted to help its drinker fit where it belongs. They fade into the background of their own making.”
I looked as Thomas hopped around. “Can’t he undo it?”
Lee laughed. “Magic doesn’t undo. It makes. My potion made him into a frog. He can finally join his friends at the pond. Maybe he’ll even realize he’s nothing special—he’s just like the rest of us.”
Magic does undo, you twat, I wanted to say. But the less he knew, the better.
“The King will know.”
“Not without proof. And what evidence does he have? He can search our grounds all he wants. He’s not going to realize the prince is already at the palace, jumping around his own garden.” He smiled. “Sweet poetic justice.”
He turned to me. “And to tidy things up, you’ll be next. I just have to whip up another batch. I wasn’t expecting to run two experiments today.”
Thomas hopped off the chair onto the floor. Lee leapt, landing atop, holding the frog in his hands. “No, you don’t,” he muttered. He deposited Thom into a small cage.
He locked the cage, then crossed to the door.
“The irony—the amount of frogs and rats that man went through trying to perfect his little cure.” He glanced at me.
“I’d release your binding, but after your little stunt earlier, I don’t exactly trust you.
I hope you understand.” With a nod, he left me alone with Thomas, whose tongue slipped between the bars to capture a fly.
“That’s disgusting.”
He croaked.
Oh spirits. Oh saints.
When the door’s lock finally clicked, I closed my eyes. I could feel Thomas’s frog eyes boring into me, but now was not the time. I needed to focus.
I want to be free. To unwind the ropes, reverse the binding.
I flexed my fingers. Opening and closing them.
I want to be free.
The rope binding me fell, my hands and legs going slack. I opened my eyes. The rope lay on the floor in a heap of individual strands, unmade entirely.
My lips curved.
I rushed over to Thomas. “Don’t worry, I’ll get you out of here.” He croaked once more in response. The lock was an easy spell, breaking with the snap of my fingers. I cradled Thomas’s slimy body to my chest. My pulse thundered in my ears.
“Ew,” I murmured. “Please forgive me.”
He ribbeted, and I gave a breathy chuckle despite myself.
“I can imagine you trying to tell me what to do just now,” I told him as I walked over to a window, looking out at the moat that surrounded Blackwood Manor.
“But you haven’t seen me in a long time, Thom.
” I adjusted my dress and smoothed my hair.
I grabbed the leftover metal syringe from the table.
“And I’ve become stronger, better, like you told me I would.
” I used all my strength to smash it against the window.
A small splintering appeared in the glass.
I smashed it again, the pane shattering. A trickle of blood ran down my arm.
Thom’s croak rose an octave.
“And the good thing about privileged idiots like Lee,” I said, sweeping glass from the sill, “is that they always underestimate the people they see as less than themselves.” With a deep breath, I called the water up to meet the windowsill.
The golden thread appeared before me, elusive and thin from a long evening.
I wrapped my mind’s fingers around it with all my might.
I would need every inch of strength I had.
I hauled myself out the window, holding Thom’s slimy skin against the front of my gown. The water carried us over, kissing my skin and cooling my fears. It dropped us off on the other side of the moat, my wet slippers touching the now-soaked grass.
“Someone probably saw that,” I said. “So we really ought to run.”
And we did.