27. Chapter Twenty-Six
Chapter Twenty-Six
Archer
There wasn’t much time before dinner, but I couldn’t waste another moment, not when Father would likely drag Scarlet up to the dining hall for me to kill on the spot.
Lighting a candle, I shoved aside the shelves in my bedroom that led into the castle’s secret underbelly.
Tunnels that led into other quarters, the servants’ wing, libraries and studies and war rooms, and even down into the depths of the dungeons themselves.
The guards didn’t question my presence as I strode up, demanding a private audience with their most recent captive. They handed me the keys and let me push through the entrance and find my own way to Scarlet’s cell.
When her door creaked open, she was already looking up, warily studying the entrance to see who her visitor was.
My candlelight flickered across her face and danced in her dark eyes, shining with fiery determination.
A mother prepared to give and be anything to protect the child she’d been separated from.
“You’re here to murder me finally?” Her throat worked, but nothing else belied her fear or pain. “What you were too cowardly to do last night?”
“Answer me plainly and I’ll ensure you see your son again. Have you been raising the dead?”
She blinked. “Phoenixes can’t raise the dead.”
“You can raise yourselves from the dead.”
“That’s rare magic, only under the right conditions. And only for ourselves, once in our lifetimes.” She licked her lips. “We might have some power over death, but I’ve never seen or heard of a phoenix shifter practicing necromancy.”
I shifted, watching her carefully. What I was about to do was treason, and if it were discovered, more fae than just myself would pay the price. “Is your son a phoenix shifter too?”
Scarlet shook her head quickly, her curls bouncing with the movement. “No, he has earth magic. Please, spare him. He isn’t one of us. He’s innocent.”
“I know,” I muttered, drawing a dagger sheathed at my hip.
Scarlet’s eyes widened as she reared back. Her manacled hands clanked as she curled them into fists. “You said I’d see my son.”
“I’m going to free you both, but no one can know.
Listen carefully. You must pretend to be under the influence of my magic as we leave, eager to obey me.
I’ve already sent for someone else to bring your son to us, and a trusted friend who will help you out of here.
You’ll need to go by a new name and live in a new home—both of you.
Forget Tideglow. Forget everything from your life before.
And don’t use your phoenix shifter magic again, as long as you live in Rainsong. ”
Scarlet swallowed, nodding toward my dagger. “And the blade?”
“I need you to make a blood vow that you will never wield necromancy, and that if you ever hear of anyone who has, you will disclose that information to me.”
“No oath about keeping what you’ve done secret?”
I smirked. “That’s self-preservation. You’re not going to reveal who you are any more than you’d reveal what I’ve done. No oath needed.”
I sliced a cut across my palm. After all the times I’d tried to summon Mortius, I was becoming alarmingly talented at injuring myself.
With a careless smile, I wiped the blade on a handkerchief before stuffing it back inside my jacket and offered Scarlet the dagger.
“I’ll trust you with this, since I’m giving you your freedom. ”
“Generous,” she quipped, not even blinking as she made a matching cut in her own skin. Maybe she was well-versed in pain as well.
Lifting her hand to mine, we pressed our palms together.
Scarlet didn’t hesitate. “I vow never to wield necromancy and to share with you if I learn of anyone who has wielded such magic, so long as we both live, unless you should release me from this vow or break your own to me. May this oath bind me or, if I fail it, take my life.”
I repeated the words, replacing her vow with my own: “I vow to free you and your son and protect you from being discovered again, as much as it is in my power.”
As I finished, we pulled our hands apart. I could feel the magic burning through my veins, tethering me to my oath.
Without wasting more time, I unlocked her manacles and led her from the dungeons, not through the usual entrance but through a secret exit in the back that joined with the rest of the underground tunnels.
Lily, Owen, and Cypress met us in the tunnels.
The former held up the potion she’d pilfered from my own sister, Briar.
“Does Briar really like to change her appearance that often?” she asked, holding the potion up to my candlelight.
“Father and I can see right through it. Something about blood relatives always being immune to potions like that. Don’t worry—if she ever tried to trick you, I’d let you know.” I smiled reassuringly despite the tension radiating through me.
Lily explained to Scarlet how she had to hold the vial and speak aloud the wish that it would let whoever consumed it take her appearance.
When the phoenix shifter was done, Lily took the potion, tipped it back with a whispered “cheers,” and gulped it down. The transformation would take at least an hour, but Lily could stay in the tunnels and hide until it was complete and Owen returned for her.
Lily accepted the two keys I slipped into her hand, even as, with a grimace, I tugged out the forget-me-not manacles Scarlet had been wearing.
The pain they infused was instantaneous, like ice shooting through me as my mind blanked, removing my memory of magic and how I’d accessed it.
It felt like something vital had been carved from my own soul.
Just as swiftly, the feeling passed as I finished locking them around Lily’s wrists. “I’m sorry,” I murmured. “Thank you for agreeing to this.”
I turned, noticing the darkness shadowing Owen’s eyes as he watched us, his eyes lingering on Lily’s pained expression as she settled on the tunnel floor to wait.
“We’re trusting you, Archer,” Owen said, voice low and unreadable. “We don’t need your thanks, as long as you’re doing the right thing for Emberglade.”
Nerves pricked through me. I was deeply testing my friends’ loyalty, asking them to release a phoenix shifter for me.
Asking them to—once again—commit treason with me.
But neither of them would ever harm a child or condone a child being harmed—and I don’t think they wanted to see Cypress left orphaned, either.
“Always,” I said.
As we prepared to go our separate ways, Scarlet paused. Hand in Cypress’s, she studied me for a quiet moment. “You are not what I expected, Prince of Death.”
The title sent a ripple of unease through me, reminding me of my secret deal with the god of death, but I smiled wryly. “What a relief, or my life would be frightfully boring.”
Without a backward glance, I left everyone behind.
My mind whirled as I navigated my way back through the tunnels and reentered my own quarters.
A part of me longed to tell Owen and Lily about Isoria’s true identity and the burden of the bond we shared, but I didn’t want them to carry any more dangerous secrets, even with their charms to protect them from my father.
There were other ways to obtain information, and I’d asked enough of them already. Too much.
Some things I’d carry alone.
Isoria
Somehow, I endured another meal with the king. Archer played the role of lovesick prince a little too well, even though all I could think about was how he was going to murder a mother and leave her son alone in the world. The thoughts haunted my emotions until I retired to my room for the night.
I wasn’t sure what I could do, but I had to try to do something.
A phoenix shifter’s life and the fate of her son were teetering on the edge of doom, and here I was.
Pacing my room, I began brainstorming what excuses I could make to get to the dungeons, or how I might bargain with Archer to free them.
A knock sounded on my door and Orchid entered. “Oh good, you’re safe.”
Frowning, I froze. “Safe? I’m in my own room. What would possibly happen to me here?” Unless you knew I’m a phoenix surrounded by her enemies, I added to myself wryly.
Orchid started picking out a nightgown for me from the closet. “The king has ordered guards to search the castle and assigned extras to stand watch outside each royal’s wing. A prisoner escaped the dungeons tonight.”
I caught my breath.
“The phoenix shifter they just captured for questioning, no less.” Orchid’s voice was hardly above a whisper, as if speaking the words aloud further endangered her.
Trying to ignore the pang that her fear of my own kind inflicted, I focused on the hope her news brought. She’s escaped. Thank you, Solea.
Relief flooding me, I sat contentedly as Orchid brushed out my hair and helped me out of my clothes and into my nightgown. She chatted about how they hadn’t found a sign of the female anywhere and how frightening it was to imagine one stalking through the castle.
“Maybe it’s the one Prince Archer’s prophecy is about,” she fretted. “The one said to destroy the entire royal family. Or the crown. Oh, I’m not sure how it’s worded, but how awful if there’s an assassin on the loose.”
“Don’t worry, Orchid,” I reassured her as she started for my door and I pulled back my bedsheets. “I’m sure the guards will protect us all.”
Thanks to the servant’s news, I slept a dreamless sleep, grateful for the hope. I wanted to take it as a sign. If one phoenix shifter had found her freedom from this accursed place, surely I could.
And I had to get out of here. The next morning, after scouring through Archer’s library while he slept in, I found the book he’d read from when he’d shared about the blood bond.