Chapter 35
Chapter
Thirty-Five
NISSA
The pain radiating through the back of my head pulls me awake.
Groaning, I try to lift my hands to touch the source of the throbbing.
My eyes fly open when I realize that my wrists and ankles are bound to a chair.
My head spins as the light in the room floods my vision, and I’m sure I’m going to be sick.
I do my best to breathe through the nausea and confusion but the wind is putrid. I gag at the burnt, moldy odor that fills my nose. I close my eyes tightly, trying to remember what happened. I recall Ophe and I arriving in Varethiel and making it to the witch’s empty shop…
A string of questions bloom in my mind. Where’s Ophe now? Was this a trap? Did Aiden lure me away, just like he did Nova? But what’s his plan? Kill me? Use me as leverage?
I don’t know enough about Aiden or the politics to figure out his end game. But I don’t want to stick around in Varethiel to find out. I need to find Ophe and get out of here.
I reach for my magic to snap the bindings that hold me down. When nothing answers, panic instantly takes root in my veins. I try again and again to pull vines through the moss and algae covered stones that cover the floor, but nothing grows.
My magic that is now normally a vibrant, mighty plant, is nothing but an unreachable seed below the surface. Even rootwalking is unattainable in this position.
With the bindings still secure, I frantically look around to figure out where I am. Aiden obviously didn’t bring me to his castle. Unless this is a long-forgotten section.
The gray stone walls are faded and covered in burn marks, paint is peeling off the door from years of aging and what looks like water damage. Parts of the ceiling are missing, exposing wooden beams that look ready to collapse on top of me at any moment.
Twisting my head, I find a mattress with a stained blanket and no sheets. My heartstone shattered on the floor next to it. Otherwise, the room is empty. I want to call out for Ophe, but Aiden, or whoever he had taken me, could be on the other side of the door.
I slump in the chair as I weigh the pros and cons of drawing attention to the fact that I’ve woken up. Surely, he has someone keeping watch outside the door.
Before I can make a decision, I hear Ophe’s voice. “Hey, burnout! How about you tell me what the hell you want with us?”
A loud thump follows. Ophe goes quiet. Chill bumps break out across my skin, and I begin fighting harder to free myself. The shackles cut into me, not budging a leaf.
I gasp when the broken door begins to scrape across the floor but panic quickly erodes into confusion.
The male's face is partially hidden with his downcast eyes, disheveled hair, and unkept beard. His clothes are dirty and torn, like he has been living on the streets. Or somewhere like this. There is no guard’s uniform. There is no well-kept Aiden.
“Caspien?” I gape at him as he lifts his dark eyes to mine. There’s no doubt it’s him, but the lack of any emotion in his gaze only increases the anxiety that had been growing since I woke up here.
If the Guardians were searching for the prince, it makes sense they would have overlooked him. This male looks half out of his mind.
Caspien’s eyes are wide, wildly scanning the room like someone other than the Fae he tied to a chair would be hiding here.
Is Cillian looking for me? Does he even know I’m missing yet? What were we thinking, going to Varethiel alone?
My frantic heartbeat has my body shaking, but I try to keep my voice calm. “Caspien… where are we? How long have I been here?”
His only response is a manic laugh that sends ice through my veins. Once he’s closed the door and convinced himself that no one else is in this empty room, he turns his attention to me. He seems to be taking me in like I’m the intruder, not the person he just knocked out and kidnapped.
I can see how sunken in his eyes are. He’s lost weight and looks so tired. Despite everything, for a moment I feel bad for him.
“Are you okay, Caspien?” I understand what it’s like to be uprooted and discarded like you are worthless.
“Am I okay?” He breaks out in a laugh again.
“Really?” He runs his hands through his hair and pulls it at the ends, then bends down to look me in the eye.
His face is too close, his breath carrying the sour stench of ash and decay.
“Hmm, let me think. I was supposed to be the king, and you and your damn sister had to go screw everything up!” Straightening, he looks around, spreads his arms. “Now I’m hiding out in this shit hole, while you and my brother are playing house in my fucking castle!
I’ll give you one guess, Nissa. How the fuck do you think I am? ”
“Right, so not okay.” Even as I mumble it, I know it is the wrong thing to say, but I can’t seem to stop myself. Oh, how I wish I had listened to Isolde’s lessons about holding my tongue.
“You stupid bitch.” He is pacing the room again, and when he turns back towards me, a blade flashes in the dim light.
The wind catches in my lungs. “Caspien, please. It isn’t my fault that Gaia selected us. You don’t have to do this.”
“Oh, this is very much your fault! If Nova wasn’t dead, then it would be her and me ruling now! Not you and that traitor of a brother!”
“I wish Nova was alive too,” I soothe, making a conscious decision to omit that he was never intended to rule.
“I’m still trying to figure out what happened to her.
That’s why I was in Varethiel. Is that still where we are?
” My voice is slow and calm, following up on what he’s said, like I’m speaking to a toddler.
“Alive?!” He spits the word in my face. “Alive?! She’s dead. How is it not your fault?! If you had shown up when I sent for you, then she wouldn’t have died! You knew what would happen!”
My mind is reeling, trying to understand. The pounding from the back of my skull isn’t helping. “What are you talking about?”
His manic laughter fills the room again. Maybe he’s been drinking the wrong elemental’s experiences. Maybe that’s making him hallucinate, and he’s confusing that with reality.
Back in my face, he’s burning with anger. “I sent for you! You were supposed to come. Not Nova! You were supposed to die, Nissa!” He hisses out my name as he backs away, pulling at his hair again.
“You… you killed Nova?” I’m barely whispering, but he must still hear me over the horrible rattle that fills the room from something outside.
“No, you fucking idiot! I killed you!” His eyebrows knit together, and he is pacing the room again. “But when I went to get rid of your body, it was Nova! I fucking killed you.” He says the last part like he is trying to convince himself of it, like saying it could make it true.
He sent for me. The castle must have sent his request to my mother’s house, just like they did my gown and the letter from the queen. Nova must have received it. Nova who always preferred I stay away from Caspien. Of course she would have gone to see what he wanted. He sent for me. To kill me.
“But why? Why did you want to kill me?” I’m still not positive he isn’t hallucinating, but I have to know if he truly killed her.
“Because Solevara and Varethiel are mine!” he snaps in my face.
“I was supposed to be the one to rule the Two Kingdoms. ‘Two crowns to rise from ancient lore,’” He mockingly quotes the prophecy.
“If you were what Aiden needed to finally separate from us, then you had to die.” He looks at me like it’s the most obvious answer.
As if I should just agree that I should have died that day to put both kingdoms under Vaylorian rule.
“The prophecy.” I whisper. A chill runs down my spine. He is the one that knew about it all along. He is the one that was trying to stop it from coming to fruition. Not Aiden.
He ignores me. “But now everything is ruined and Cillian is the king! With Nova gone, that conniving brother of mine is ruler of both kingdoms—of all of Castara. My brother, who claimed he never wanted to be king. Yet our whole lives he showed me up in lessons, in meetings and made me look bad. Acted like I was nothing but an ember for enjoying my position! But I’m the one who did all the dirty work! ”
His black eyes turn back to me, full of venom.
“But don’t worry. With the storms starting back, he will lose Varethiel.
And he’s already lost you.” A vindictive smile splits his face, and a new level of fear grows in my stomach.
“My brother, who claimed that my betrothed was his. Funny how things play out. He may be king, but I have his queen.” He slides his eyes up and down my body.
Oh Goddess, no. I can’t hide the tremor that racks my body. His smile grows even wider at my obvious fear.
I swallow the bile rising in my throat. “Do your parents know you killed Nova?” Probably not the best question, but it will keep him talking. Give Cillian time to find me.
As soon as the words are out of my mouth I try to connect to our mental bond. Of all times for me to get a message through to him, it would be now. I don’t know where we are, but I know we started in Varethiel. And Caspien couldn't have gotten two unconscious females very far.
“Caspien has me. Varethiel.”
“Caspien. Varethiel.”
“Caspien. Varethiel.”
“Help. Please.”
I don’t know if he’s hearing any of it. Tears fill my eyes as I continue to try and send anything through to him.
He ignores my question, continuing his ranting.
“They tried to keep the truth of the prophecy hidden. Keep you hidden. Why do you think your family sent you away? Why no one ever trained you to be a royal? If Aiden did get his hands on you, we weren’t going to be the ones who prepared you to be the perfect little queen for them. ”
His words bring my thoughts to an abrupt stop. “My parents were part of all of it?”
“Well, your mother was. Your father was never on board, but my mother took care of that. His two princesses.” He rolls his eyes and scoffs. “Like it was an honor to have a daughter being the Princess of Varethiel.” He spits the name of the second kingdom.
“But you know what is great about this city?” He looks through me, not waiting for me to answer. “With the witches allowed to live here, you can buy just about any type of potion or herb you can imagine. I already gave you forget-me-nots when you were out.”
A wicked smile stretches across his face when he sees the horror in my eyes. “Yeah, you know what that means don’t you?” He mocks.
I swallow thickly. I do know. Forget-me-nots are one of the few flowers that are cruel enough to strangle a Fae’s element from the inside out. Once they take the root in, the magic will wither. Starve. Until the body finally purges it.
I don’t have my magic…
He pulls a vial out of his pocket and dangles it in front of me with two fingers. “And then there is this potion. Why don’t we do a little experiment to see what this one can do?”
I fight my restraints, trying to get any traction on the floor to push away.
He grabs me by my hair and jerks my head backwards.
Gripping my jaw painfully, he forces it open.
I send every ounce of strength I have to my magic.
I feel only the smallest quake. I’m doing everything I can to fight his prying fingers and the liquid he’s trying to pour into my mouth.
But some of the liquid slips down my throat before I’m able to spit it out.
I immediately begin to feel its effects.
My body is going numb, and for the briefest moment, I feel the smallest connection to Nova.
I don’t know if it’s finally finding out what happened to her, or if it’s our fates connecting us in our mirrored deaths, but she’s here.
I feel her fear as she realized she would die at Caspien’s hand.
The fear she felt knowing she would never see those she loved again. I feel her spirit with me.
And then she’s gone, and I’m alone. With him. And my heart is uprooted from my chest and buries itself into my stomach.
As the potion takes its full hold of me, I no longer have any control of my body. I am limp in the chair, unable to even hold my head up.
“Now, when we were to be bound, I was excited about the fight in you. But tonight, I decided it would be better to have you a little more agreeable.” I can feel him working the knife against the ties on my ankles.
“I’m confident that you’ll be a good girl now. I should probably thank you for making it so easy to grab you tonight. I’ve been watching for an opportunity and you, showing up here with no Guardians...” He laughs.
I try my best to shake my head, but nothing happens. And my foggy mind does nothing to settle the dread as he finishes freeing each of my legs. I try to kick my legs out when he moves on to my wrists but again nothing.
I realize the only thing I can do now is focus all my energy on reaching Cillian.
“It’s Caspien. Please! Help!”
Tears are streaming down my face.
“Varethiel. Please!”
This can’t really be happening.
“Please hear me…”
After cutting all the restraints off of me, he lifts me from the chair and unceremoniously drops me on the stones at our feet. I squeeze my eyes shut, shutting out what is happening, trying harder to focus on summoning any magic I can reach in the stones that surround me.
I feel a sharp burn to my face as he slaps me. “Keep your eyes open!” He roars in my face. I can smell his rancid breath. The cool metal of the blade against my neck. “You will be awake through all of this!”
Unable to respond, I do my best to keep my eyes open, trained on the cracked ceiling, barely blinking.
And all I can think is, Goddess, help me…