Chapter 14 #2
August extends his hand, and ice begins to coat the floor, slowly creeping toward us. I open my mouth to explain more, but before I can, Asmo summons a dagger from Elle’s belt. In one swift motion, he snatches it from the air and slashes the sigil through my shirt.
I yelp, more in surprise than pain.
“Sorry,” he mumbles, then takes the knife to his ribs. His features slowly shift back to his real ones—his frame lengthening, his hair turning a shade darker, and his eyes shifting back to their pools of darkness, the fern-green forming around his iris, the silver cutting right through its middle.
“What is going on?” August asks—no, commands. “What is this?”
“August, just listen to me,” I say. “The Mae that’s on the throne isn’t me.”
He pauses. “What do you mean?”
“We’re confident Elle is pretending to be me. We think Marik is using this same dark magic to change her appearance to make it look like me. But it’s not. We’ve been in hiding since the wedding.”
August looks at Asmo. “And what about you? That’s your brother on the throne. You’re telling me you have nothing to do with that?”
“That’s exactly what I’m telling you,” Asmo responds coolly. Normally, an insulting nickname would have been tacked onto the end of that.
Such restraint.
August looks back at me, his arms now crossed, the muscles strained. “And I’m just supposed to take your word for it?”
“Think about it. What’s your last memory of me on the night of the wedding?” I ask him. He just stares back at me. “Think,” I urge.
“Cora had just fired a bolt of lightning at you and you died.”
I take a cautious step closer. “And? What happened after that?”
He stares up at the ceiling for a moment, but then says, “I don’t…I think Luca and Ivan dragged your body away.”
Asmo nods emphatically. “Yes. Holly and I defended them as they did.”
“Have you been to the Deer Court since then?” I ask August. He nods. “And did you see Asmo, Holly, Ivan, or Luca while you were there?” I press.
He shakes his head slowly. Hope spreads through me. Maybe, just maybe, we convinced him.
“That’s because they’ve been with me. We’ve been in hiding around the court while we healed,” I say. “Ask me anything. Something only I know.”
He hesitates, then says, “Tell me of our first date.”
“You mean your only date,” Asmo says wryly.
August ignores the comment, still staring at me with his arms crossed.
“You took me to the lagoon in the woods. I got scared. I thought you were leading me to my death or something because of how dark the forest got,” I recall with a snort. “You had a picnic—kind of—set up. There was a canoe. We got in the canoe, but you left the picnic basket on the shore. You—”
He strides toward me and grabs my left hand. Asmo tenses beside me.
“You’re not wearing the ring,” he says. He yanks the scarf from my neck. “Or the necklace.”
I don’t even know what happened to my wedding ring. I shiver as I think of the weight of the sigil. I can’t imagine how it must be to constantly wear a necklace made of dark magic.
“No, I don’t. Because I’m not the one sitting on that throne,” I say softly.
August sinks into the chair, putting his head in his hands. He runs his fingers through his hair, then looks up at me. “Okay, fine. I believe you.” He looks at Asmo, then me. “You trust him?”
I nod firmly. “I do.”
My net snags on my own lie, as if reminding me of the truth. I may be beginning to trust him, but I don’t fully. Not yet, at least. I’m not sure it’s a luxury that I have.
August’s jaw clenches once, but he nods firmly. Acceptance. My knees threaten to give. “Okay. Now what?” he asks.
“We need your help,” I say. “Is there another place we can talk?”
August funnels us away from The Fox Den, its wooden interior now replaced by shades of gray stone.
“Welcome to my humble abode. I’ll have to show you the bedroom another time, Mae,” August says with a wink as he drops his hands and backs away from us. The flirty comment is so quintessentially August that it fills me with a weightlessness that’s been missing since before the wedding.
I gawk at his “humble abode.” The living room is the size of my entire house in Pinebend.
Rough stone covers the floor and travels up the walls, all the way to the domed ceiling.
Oversized windows line one wall, offering a view of the slope down the mountain to the frozen river.
From here, it looks like the thinnest of lines wending through the valley.
“Are we inside of the mountain?” I ask.
“Bit bigger than the mountains in the Deer Court,” August says, plopping onto a massive fabric sectional in the center of the room.
Asmo surveys the room, hands clasped behind his back. “A little darker than I thought the Golden Prince would have,” he mutters.
August shrugs. “Nothing I can do about the stone. Since, you know, we’re inside of a mountain. I do try to soften it a bit though,” he says, patting the white couch.
“Do you mind?” Asmo asks, glancing at the large fireplace, also gray. Fresh, unused logs sit in a tidy pile in the hearth. He doesn’t wait for August to respond and instead fires a ball of black flames at the logs. They light, sending a delicious crackling and warmth through the room.
Asmo heads toward the sectional, but before he can step on the rug, his foot freezes mid-air. August’s hand is outstretched as he stares at Asmo’s foot.
“Please,” August says, “no shoes on the carpet.”
I stifle a giggle as Asmo bends down and plucks each shoe off, setting them neatly beside each other in front of the cream plush rug. Holly and I follow suit, placing snow-dusted boots next to Asmo’s.
Holly takes a seat beside August on the edge of the sofa, hands on her knees. She looks more nervous than I’ve seen her in a while. Asmo and I sit on the opposite edge of the sofa, appropriately distanced. I swallow the desire to scoot closer to him.
We quickly fill August in on the last month—mine and Holly’s recovery, learning to use the sigils, sneaking into the tithe, rescuing Cally, and killing the witches. August listens with rapt attention, nodding and grimacing throughout.
“Are they looking for you?” August asks. “Surely they know you’re alive.”
“I don’t know,” I admit. “We’ve been careful in laying low. So careful that our own knowledge of what’s been going on has been limited. We didn’t know witches were placed amongst the courts until we visited Bouldercrest a few days ago.”
He sucks his teeth. “They’re trying to assimilate them,” he says with a roll of his eyes.
“Just an excuse to justify placing them in our courts while they terrorize our people and slaughter our animals. Their goal, in my opinion, is to make us feel defeated. The fact that they tried to harm you means they’re escalating. ”
I rub the nearly healed mark on my forearm from the witch’s dagger. “We were lucky.”
“How did you kill them?” August asks. “Their leathers make it difficult to harm them.”
“They must be imbued with dark magic,” Asmo says.
Ah, so that’s why my flames did nothing to their leathers. “The only thing that worked was when I set her on fire.”
August raises his eyebrows. “Impressive.”
I barely contain my grimace. Holly stares straight ahead with an empty gaze, and I want to kick myself.
“Fire and beheading should work,” Asmo says, completely oblivious.
“Noted. Okay, so…What’s the plan?” August asks, leaning back on the couch and spreading his legs, also completely oblivious.
“We’re not sure,” I admit. “We know something needs to be done about Marik and Cora. But we’ve been pretty helpless since it’s just been the five of us. We don’t have access to any kind of army to remove them. We don’t know what to do. We need your help.”
August leans forward, resting elbows on knees.
“I know it might not seem like it, but we do have an advantage. They must be nervous that you’re out there somewhere and they have no clue where.
So, we have two options. We can either tell the kingdom their secret—that Elle is pretending to be you—or we can use Elle on the inside. ”
“No, absolutely not,” Holly says, shaking her head. “We can’t leave her in there. We have no idea what he’s doing to her.”
“All due respect, Holly, but I think that’s Elle’s choice,” Asmo replies.
“It could work. We can find another way to get back in there and give her the option. Outing Marik and Cora would force their hand and give up the one advantage we have. Besides, who knows what they’ll do to Elle in retaliation?
I like the idea of letting them think we’re weak while we’re secretly working against them.
It gives us time to prepare without them attacking. And it keeps Elle safe.”
My body feels like it’s shrinking into itself with guilt.
I didn’t even think about what they might do to Elle if we attack.
And if I know her, she’ll sacrifice herself to help get us the information we need.
“If—and that’s a big if—we’re able to talk to Elle again, and she agrees to help us from the inside, you have to promise me that we’ll get her out the moment it gets too dangerous,” I say.
Asmo nods. “Deal.”
“And how are we going to do that?” August asks, kicking his feet up onto the solid white marble coffee table centered on the rug.
“I don’t know yet. We got in once. There’s got to be another way in. But I need more information on what’s going on. We’ve been secluded in cabins for the last month. We came to you for help,” I remind him, staring at him expectantly.
“Well, I wasn’t aware I’d be meeting with you all today.
I would’ve prepared my notes if I had known,” he says, then winks at me.
Once, it would have made me blush. Now, it makes me feel warm in a different way.
A familiar way. “Officially, the kingdom isn’t aware that Cora is working with Marik.
Right now, everyone thinks that you and Marik have retreated into your castle and shut everyone out while you play honeymoon.
Citizens are pissed about the tithe, but they were told by the High Crown that it’s necessary for the good of the kingdom. ”
“What a crock of shit,” Asmo mutters.
“Something about taxes and increasing wages for farmers. Unofficially,” he continues, “Dark magic is spreading throughout the kingdom and people are terrified. It sounds like the Deer Court is the last court to get hit with it, but we’ve been dealing with it since the wedding.
As I said, the High Crown has stationed covens of witches in each court.
Their pets have been responsible for citizens and livestock getting attacked at night.
When I brought this to Marik, he said he’d deal with it, but it’s only gotten worse. ”
He stands and walks to a dry bar built into the stone wall. “Better yet,” he says with his back to us, “the witches are allowed to come into our manors at any time. And they’re the only guests allowed at the High Castle right now. They report everything back to Marik.”
“Is that what you meant when you asked me about—what was the name?” I ask.
He nods as he grabs a bottle of amber liquid. “Whiskey anyone?”
Holly and I shake our heads. Asmo waves his hand, floating the bottle over to him in response.
“Piss-poor manners,” August mutters as he grabs two glasses from the built-in shelf.
I clear my throat pointedly. “The name?”
August sinks back into the chair and hands Asmo one of the glasses. “Astrid. She’s been a problem. She’s the witch in command around here.”
“How many witches are there here?” Asmo asks as he pours the amber liquid. He floats the whiskey back to August.
August plucks the bottle from the air, uncorks it, and takes a swig. He grimaces as he swallows. “I think twenty-something, but more come every day. Two less now, thanks to you.”
Asmo sneers at him, slamming his glass back on the table untouched. “You drink straight from the bottle, then offer the contents to your guests?”
August grins at him. “No, I offer my guests the first pour, then drink the rest from the bottle.”
“Can you two focus?” I snap. “This is happening in every court?” I ask August.
He looks at me, taking another swig from the bottle. “As far as I’m aware, but I’m not sure about the Serpent Court,” August says, glancing back to Asmo, who shrugs.
“Do you think Koa and Barrett would be willing to help us, too?” I ask hopefully.
August nods. “Yeah, they’re sick of this shit.”
Beside me, Asmo picks his whiskey back up and surveys the contents, as if looking for any sign of August’s backwash.
“Can you keep this from your parents?” I ask August. “Do you think Koa and Barrett would be able to keep it from theirs? We need as few people knowing about this as possible.”
August nods. “Yeah, don’t worry about it.”
“Thanks. And definitely keep it from your cousin,” I say.
August rolls his eyes at the mention of Flint. “That little…I’m going to wring his neck when you leave.” He glances at Asmo, still surveying the contents of his glass. “What—”
Three knocks rap on the door. I nearly jump out of my skin.
The witches are allowed to come into our manors at any time.
Asmo surges to his feet and reaches for me, but August holds two hands up.
“Relax, for the Mother’s sake.” The footsteps retreat and the pounding in my chest lessens. August stands. “It’s mid-day.”
“And?” I ask.
“Daily briefings are delivered. Reports and such things to review before I meet with the Pack.”
“The Pack?”
“Their version of the Herd,” Asmo explains.
Sure enough, August opens the door to a neat collection of papers.
He snags the bundle and shuts the door behind him, switching the lock in place.
He scans through the documents, then gets to the newspaper at the bottom of the report.
His eyes widen as he reads. “Looks like Elle is playing High Queen tomorrow.”
He tosses the paper onto the coffee table, and all the blood drains from my face as I read the headline.
High Queen Mae Vikander Invites Local Teacher, Eliza Rainey, to High Castle to Discuss Education Reform
My name alone sends shivers along my skin. I wasn’t prepared to see Marik’s last name as my own. But the shivers turn into the clawing fingers of horror as it hits me.
Someone in the High Castle is summoning Asmo.
Someone knows.