Chapter 25 Spilled Secrets
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
SPILLED SECRETS
The chanting thrummed through the air.
There were no words, just a rhythmic swell and ebb that I understood in my bones. As I relaxed, the teeming mass above my head calmed, lapping at each other like ocean waves, sliding into the spaces, constantly moving.
The pulsing hearts on the wall sank into the same rhythm. The silver, sapphire, ruby, and emerald winking sleepily.
As one, everything paused.
Then the prince walked in.
The incantation redoubled, the hearts trilling as fast as a sparrow’s.
Prince Bellinor wore long, flowing robes with diamond crystals woven into the thread.
A sash around his waist captured a long, naked knife with serrated edges.
The hood sagged across his face, but even beneath the shadows, his teeth gleamed too brightly.
“Good evening, Tam,” he said. “Are you ready to play my game now?”
My heart thumped, nausea welling in my throat.
He walked toward me and ran his finger along my cheek. I shuddered, the chains clinking together behind my back.
“It took quite a while for me to claim you.” He lifted my chin, forcing me to meet his keen gaze. “The spirits are blind until they are given the scent. You must know how contact magic works?”
I pressed my lips together, sequestering my emotions deep inside. Of course I knew, it’s what I did, what every bounty hunter used, but each in their own unique way. Even Siobhan used it to keep tabs on me, but she preferred to mark me with her mouth, not her hands.
“Well, loyal Clement tried to prevent the inevitable, always getting in the way. He is far too good for the likes of us. I couldn’t understand why you at first, but eventually I saw it.
” He knelt before me, his hand sliding around my neck to grip the chain.
“I saw you.” He tugged the links, my head snapping back, neck extended.
He pressed his nose to my throat and inhaled deeply, my skin moist and clammy beneath his touch.
“There’s magic in you, powerful magic. And I want it. ”
His tongue carved into the groove of my throat, tracing the pump of blood up my neck.
I squirmed helplessly, my body bound by the cold iron.
“But you need to give it...” he pressed the knife to my heart, the tip biting into my flesh, while his mouth hovered above mine, “willingly.”
“Get the fuck off me.”
He tsked, rocking back onto his heels before standing. He tucked the knife back into the sash, patting it lovingly and walked to the far wall, admiring each hung woman with his hands clasped behind his back. The glow from their hearts bled light onto his face.
“These lovely souls,” he continued to stroll up and down the raised altar, “all gave themselves willingly. Their spirits live on, encased in their precious metals. It’s how their homelands flourish.
Why the emerald isle never runs dry, why the Goddessforsaken southern wastelands still overflow with silver.
“Not all the families are content with this deal of course. Some insisted the bodies be returned, but once they leave the castle, the spell breaks, and the supply dries up. The sensible ones realize what I’m doing for them.
I’m royalty, not a God. I can’t control the weather, turn the tides, exile evil.
I can’t even control my own damned fate. ”
His hands dropped to his sides in fists while his body momentarily seized. He exhaled, regaining composure and lowering his voice. “But I can command the flow of wealth.”
He stood in front of the shadow with the golden heart and faced me.
Slowly, he lifted the knife and untied the sash, his gaze intense on mine.
The black robe pooled on the floor, his body completely naked underneath.
He dug the tip of the knife into his chest, not even a flicker of pain crawling across his face.
Blood trickled from the wound. He sliced upward, peeling the skin back from the glistening ribs underneath. A flash of candlelight hit his chest, the carved hole sparkling with the shine only diamonds produced.
I pressed into the wall. Awareness shivered through me, brushing my crown, my neck, my spine. The spirits from the ceiling clustered above me, sinking deeper down the wall, hovering barely inches away, but they weren’t threatening me.
They were cowering.
“Well, Tam, now you know.” He pressed the skin back, the rapidly clotting blood suctioning it closed. He prowled toward me with the knife held loosely in his hand. “Do you want to join me?”
I glared at him.
He sighed. “Well, unfortunately for you, I love this part even more than I do the wealth.” He dragged the edge of the blade down my cheek, smearing his warm, clotted blood on my skin. “Which is why my own mothers banished me here in the first place.”
I leaned as far back as the chains would allow, the freezing stone digging into my shoulders.
“Oh, come now.” He flipped the blade, repeating the motion on the other side of my face. “The others will go easier on you if you cede. If you fight too long, it reminds them they didn’t do enough when it was their turn.”
The spirits above churned, but their hate wasn’t directed at me.
“That woman you tried to save...” He smiled at my twitch of recognition. “Oh, I know everything, Tamara. It was valiant of you to try and release her spirit, but you really shouldn’t have dragged poor Lilyanna down there with you.”
He pointed the tip of the blade on my forehead and dragged it down, slicing through my eyebrow, lifting just enough to not sever my eyelids.
I hissed through clenched teeth as a line of fire burned down my face.
The edge of my lip gushed blood, spilling into my mouth and coating my teeth.
I spat into his face, peppering him with flecks of spittle and blood.
He continued to smile. “At every turn, there you were obstructing me, preventing me from adding gold to my empire. There should never have been a wedding, it makes it that much harder for me to claim the next one. It does present a good face to the public, I suppose. Regardless, it’s why I sent the spirits after you.
I couldn’t understand why it was taking so long.
It must have been your kinship, your magic.
They like power. Shame you’re not as powerful as me. ”
He slid the knife down my face again. I bit back my whine, twisting the metal shackles around my wrists to distract from the burn.
He grinned and wiped his hand across his face. “No one likes a show-off, Tam.” He dug the blade into my forehead again, in the exact same spot. “A little harder this time?”
My heart throbbed. My chest burned. I dragged in a breath, every muscle in my body taut and expectant.
The knife sliced deeper, scratching bone, a slash of red candlelight burned through my closed eyelids. I tried not to whimper but a choked sob escaped my lips. I dug my nails into my palm, pulling my focus from him.
The gold bangle clinked against the chains. If only he’d untie me.
“There was a swathe of magic in that room when we held that trial, far too much. The divining rods couldn’t decide whether yours or mine was stronger.
But after you left, they wavered toward that woman.
Her magic was weak, mainly elemental, basic trickery.
” He scoffed. “But she harbored traces of blood magic, enough to keep me satisfied and strong for a while. You, though...” His smile widened. “Will last me for months.”
A form flickered amongst the tangled mass on the ceiling. Was she here? Would she remember I’d at least tried to save her?
“Again?”
The spirits above held their breath, a brief pause in the swell.
I held still.
“Spill your secrets, Tam. Come and join my collection. You just need to say the word.” The knife returned to the start. A spasm of pain vibrated through my face as the tip carved a groove in my skull.
I closed my eyes, focusing on the pounding pulse in my ears, the pressure in my palm as I slowly speared my nails in further.
“Tut, tut. Poor Lilyanna. How long do you think she’ll last when you’re dead? Well, not dead exactly. Perhaps I’ll have you fetch her in spirit form, hold her down while I mount her on the wall with the rest of my collection.”
Blood gushed down my face, welling in my eye sockets, gumming to my lashes.
Boom! Something heavy collided with the door and the whole wall shuddered. We both jumped. A frantic thumping followed, then a muffled shout. The prince stepped back, tugging the knife from my skin and brandished it at the ceiling. “Bring him in.”
Don’t. I willed them. Don’t open the door. I knew who it was, and I didn’t want him to be forced to watch.
The spirits’ hesitation was brief. Short enough that barely three heartbeats passed, roaring in my ears, but it was enough that the prince noticed.
“Now,” he spat.
The tension cleaved as quickly as it had come. A portion of the roiling mass separated and flowed down the walls, seeping through the grout.
A moment later, Clement shot through the door.
He spun around, eyes wild, his movements frantic.
Then he lunged toward me but snapped back, caught by invisible claws.
“No! You need to—” His shouts were silenced as black vapor poured into his mouth.
He pawed at his face, but his arms were pinioned to his sides, gripped by shapeless beings, his tunic tearing at the shoulders as he fought for freedom.
Bruises puddled around his wrists and encircled his neck.
Eventually, he stilled and so did my heart.
The look he gave me cut to my soul. The fear, the regret, the guilt.
My throat closed. My breaths carved from my chest as I offered him a small smile.
I’d seen that look before. When desperation seizes control of your entire body, and you’re plunged headfirst into inertia because there’s so much you should do, so much you’ll spend eternity blaming yourself for not doing.
Yet, all you can do is look. To capture every last second before time changes for ever.
That was me twenty years ago staring at my parents' bodies. Inhaling the blood, seeing the particles of dust and smoke and life ebbing away. When I moved, if I blinked, I would fast-forward, my life reset.
“Not her,” Clement choked as the bruise darkened on his neck. “She’s...”
“Special, I know,” the prince finished. “Don’t you think she’ll fit in nicely here with her attitude? Bound to serve me like the others.” He knelt in front of me and speared the tip of the knife into my chest.
My whine was lost amongst Clement’s muted screams. The spirits tightened their hold, more pouring from the ceiling to strengthen the barrier.
“And you’ll still get to see her.” The prince twisted the knife. Its edges scraped along my ribs, inches above my heart. “But she needs to agree. That's the only way it’ll work.” He leaned forward until his lips hovered above mine. “Now, where was I?”
Even if I could scratch him, I’d still die. The feeble tower I’d spent my life constructing would topple. The deal would be over, the Collectors would have their lives ended.
And Clement? I’d watched people I loved die when I could have stopped it. I’d lived with the guilt. I’d not do it to him. He didn’t deserve that fate.
My hand shook as I forced my fingers to slide under the thick iron bonds and depressed the clasp on the bangle. The cold tip of the needle slicked out.
One of the spirits slithered down the wall. Ice prickled my back as it molded itself around me.
I’d never join the prince. I’d spent my life bending to another’s will, and I wouldn’t spend eternity doing the same.
A single bony finger inserted itself between the cuff and the needle, but it wasn’t enough. I speared the needle into my wrist, locking it in place with the heavy shackle. The spirit’s form shuddered against me.
Numbness spread like a void through my hand, up my arm and into my chest until my heart seized, and I slumped against the wall.