39. Raithe #2
“Let’s try something simple, Kole. How did you find the Black Rose?”
Kole swallowed. For a moment it seemed like he still wasn’t going to share anything. When I backed away, blade in hand, he sighed. “Okay. When my friend—”
“Names. I’ll know if you’re lying.”
“Guardians can’t—”
“This one can,” I snarled.
“When my friend Parsley introduced his sister—”
“You’re lying.” I turned and picked up the torch, making to leave. “I wonder what sort of pain tolerance your sister has. Guess we are about to find out—”
“Wait, wait, wait! Fucking stars!” Kole yelled at my back. “When my friend Basil introduced us.”
“Is that his true name?”
When he didn’t respond, I faced him, contorting my features into something minacious.
Kole quivered. “Basileus.”
Fuck. I rubbed my jaw, wondering how in the stars I was going to explain this to Rahzlyn. “And how did you meet him?”
He exhaled a long breath. “We met where I work, at a tavern called the Stinky Boot.”
“Charming name.”
“We both were in dark places at the time we met.”
“How long ago?”
“Four years, maybe? Basil had a strong dislike for our baroness, for whatever reason, as well as our former king. He spoke about wanting a better, different way of life where royals and Chosens didn’t exist anymore.
I told him such a world could come to be if he opened his imagination to the idea.
Where the only balance that mattered was fairness for all.
No more limitations based on your birth or your blood.
No more unfair distributions of wealth, land, and power. ”
“No such world exists.”
“Not yet.”
“Explain.”
He groaned. “What do you want from me? My entire life’s story?”
“If that’s what it takes.”
“How long have you known the apostai to exist?” He leaned forward. “How long have we been a nuisance to society?”
“Nearly always.”
“Since the First War,” Kole said. “Everyone always said our people were unhappy with the cards life dealt us. Bitter about never being Chosen. Nothing could be further from the truth. We have simply been waiting for our one true leader. The one who was prophetically promised to bring about the end of the Astrals.”
“That’s the biggest load of Pegasus shit I’ve ever been told.”
“The true Black Rose’s birth indicates that the time of the twelve Astrals is coming to an end. The prophecy describes her as a dancer with dark hair that burns red in sunlight. She is a twin to the one who will sacrifice her in order to bring about the new era we’ve been waiting for.”
“Tell me this prophecy,” I demanded. “Now.”
With a resigned sigh, he hung his head and recited under his breath, “But first a dance to catch his eye, and signal to all followers the last blood is nigh. From a rose so dark with hair burning red, she will steal man’s hearts and remain unwed.
Through this dance her thievery concealed, whilst her true target of stone be revealed.
From her twin shall her divine sacrifice be made, for him to return by his sistered blades. ”
I pondered his rhyming words. “Is that how Basil fits into this supposed prophecy? He’s her twin, who must sacrifice her?”
“Basil…” Kole cleared his throat. “He was all too eager to join me at Serpentine. His job at his family’s shop provided the perfect cover—he often travelled, so he would cite that as an excuse when he was actually spending time with me and learning about our cause.
I knew from the moment I met his sister that she fit the criteria of the Black Rose, better than anyone else had in a long time. ”
“Is he still alive?” Gregorios had confirmed Basil’s death through his tarot cards, but for Rahzlyn’s sake I found myself hoping they were wrong.
Kole glanced away. I could have sworn sadness filled his eyes. It was worth a shot.
“What made you so sure that his sister was this prophetic Black Rose?”
“They’re twins, and her name had Rose in it.
I knew Basil suspected that she fit the criteria too, but it wasn’t until I mentioned it one night that he grew livid for suggesting such a thing.
He was always protective of her. Obsessively so.
But he could never say no to her. He tried to keep her away from us—”
“Us?” I prompted.
“My sister. She befriended her so we could keep an eye on her, and Roselyn was so desperate for love, all it took was a few pretty words and my tongue down her throat before I had her wrapped around my finger.” He snorted. “Or should I say my cock.”
It took an obscene amount of willpower unlike anything I’d ever experienced to remain outwardly unbothered. Inside, I was seconds away from smashing a hole through that stupid, smug face of his.
“I didn’t press Basil, for at the time we had another dancer—”
“Thusiah?”
His eyes narrowed. “Roselyn told you about her, too? That little—”
“What happened to Thusiah?” I pressed.
He ran his tongue over his teeth. “She was eliminated.”
“Killed,” I clarified. “For not wanting to partake in your twisted plans?”
“For not being the true Black Rose. It wasn’t until I found out Basil was gifted with Sight that I knew it wasn’t a coincidence.
The prophecy speaks of a divine sacrifice that must be made by the twin of the Black Rose.
Roselyn was so desperate to dance and prove herself that finally getting her brother out of the way and bringing her to Serpentine was the easy part. ”
I suppressed a growl at his lewd words. “What does any of that have to do with stealing King Zephyr’s stone? Is that the sacrifice you’re referring to?”
“The only Black Rose dancers who have ever been employed at Serpentine are women who fit the description of the prophecy. Only now you’ve gone and ruined everything by killing her!”
“Pity I put such a damper on your plans. Why did you blow up her apothecary?”
I was met only with his silence and the faint sounds of the flickering torch.
“If you don’t want me to start torturing your sister in front of you, you’ll answer the question.”
He peered at me with suspicion. “How do I know you really have her?”
“From what I’ve gently pried from her, your mother walked not long ago, didn’t she? Leaving you and your sister on your own, sending you into that dark place you mentioned? Terrible tragedy to take one’s life and free-fall to the Barrier—”
“Roselyn could have admitted that,” he hissed. “Before you killed her.”
“Hmm. Perhaps you don’t need to see her. Maybe you need to hear her.” I turned. “She doesn’t need all ten fingers for knitting, does she?”
It was a truth I’d gleaned when Rahzlyn spoke about her friends, and that tiny kernel of information now came in handy.
“Alright, you fucking ass,” Kole hissed, his lips trembling. Rage swelled in his eyes. “Swear to me that you won’t punish her. I know more than she does anyway.”
I raised my hands. “I swear on my mother’s soul.”
He continued reluctantly. “Serpentine exists in each territory, but you’ll never find them.
Not even I know where they are. Gemini’s is the most lucrative and public location, where we convert those easily persuadable to join our cause.
We have an understanding with the Geminian king that allows this to continue. ”
“So King Zephyr is an apostate.”
“Not in the way that matters.”
“Clarify.”
He rubbed his chained wrists together. “He reaps the benefits without truly supporting our cause.”
“And your true cause is sacrificing the Black Rose in order to obtain talismans for, what?” I said, piecing everything together.
“Someone like Markus to come to power who will eliminate the Astrals? Disrupt the ancient Zodiacal magic that has kept our world safe in the skies above the Barrier?” I studied him.
“Help me understand something. You assholes want to weaken the Astrals, right? You do realize that when your people claim the Astrals don’t exist, they are still technically believing in the Astrals.
” I paused. “Speaking of them is a source of belief, which strengthens them.”
“There are some who truly don’t believe the Astrals exist,” Kole seethed. His ardent passion loosened his lips for me. “Those are fools. Those are the apostates you think you know.”
It was a lot of information to wrap my head around. “You’re saying King Zephyr doesn’t know any of this?”
“All he does is teeter along the edge of his chastity oath, and in turn for Markus’s discretion, turns a blind eye to all that goes on in Serpentine.”
It had to be more than that. “You could reveal his treachery to the people, to his court,” I said. “The apostai want to weaken the Astrals. Eliminating Chosens could help accomplish that. So, why don’t you? What does Markus get out of this dynamic?”
Kole rubbed at his wrist absentmindedly again. “I don’t know.”
“Then tell me about the brand.”
“All I know is that when you enter Serpentine, everyone either leaves with a brand or—” He cut himself off.
“Or?”