The Prince of Power and Lies (Smoke and Shadows #2)

Chapter 1

Warm blood runs along my spine with each crack of the whip as it cuts my back open.

I hardly feel the stinging anymore. I’m already back at the pond, watching my father reel in another trout. The sound of his belly laughs when the fish jumps out of his hands and back into the water makes my heart smile. It’s a sound I never want to forget.

Another lash of the whip threatens to pull me back, but I’ve gotten good at disassociating.

Two months of torture. Two months of refusing to use my power.

Two months of disobeying King Cimmerian’s requests.

Two months of playing back every one of Damien’s betrayals.

Two months to learn how to trick my mind into escaping into the memory of my father and me fishing in the pond behind our house.

It’s now as if I’m two people. I’m not sure who is more real—the little girl wearing the sundress, hugging her father, or the girl who is bound by chains and torture. Neither of them feels right, and yet, they are all I am now.

I don’t even notice when I’m tossed back into my cell until Kane pulls me from the mental prison I’ve made my home.

“Reign, you can’t keep doing this. You’re going to have to give him something.”

“Over my dead body,” I promise.

“You know he won’t kill you. You’re too valuable to him.”

“Not if I keep my powers locked away,” I argue.

“He’s going to find a way to break you. It’s only a matter of time,” Slader hisses from his dark corner.

“Well, he’s going to have to do more than torture me then.”

It doesn’t matter what he does, I refuse to be a pawn in his game. I’ve been on the brink of death more times than I can count these past two months. He’s going to have to kill me because I’d rather die than let him use my power.

“I don’t get why he hasn’t just used his powers to manipulate you into doing his bidding like he does with the rest of us,” Kane contemplates aloud.

“Maybe he’s just saving that move as a last resort,” Slader offers.

“If he does that, he’ll have to admit to himself that he couldn’t break me, and I don’t think his fragile ego can handle that.”

Kane lets out a half-hearted laugh. “You have a point there.”

Just as Slader is about to say something, the doors down the dimly lit corridor creak open.

“The king wants to see you.”

The burly man, who was assigned by the king to bring us meals and escort us throughout the dungeons, starts to unlock my cell. He takes off the shackle attached to my right ankle and locks two around my wrists instead.

The look Kane flashes me as I pass by his cell tells me I should be more concerned than I am, but there’s not much else the king can do to me. Killing me now would only be a welcome escape from this hell.

When we get to the Throne Room, King Cimmerian is already perched on the dais surrounded by ribbons of black shadows.

Once I’m only a few feet from the steps, the man who goes by Orien, shoves me to the ground and forces me to my knees, still holding onto the chain attached to the power dampener locked around my neck.

“You don’t look so good, Reign.”

I loathe the way my name sounds on his lips.

When I don’t respond, the king claps his hands and motions to someone hidden behind one of the columns.

“You should see for yourself.”

A skinny man, who looks as if he too has been chained up for far too long, walks out holding a large oval mirror.

His bony arms shake from the weight of the mirror as his shackles force him to shuffle slowly across the room.

Once he reaches his destination, he sets down the mirror in front of me, forcing me to face the truth of what I have become.

The girl looking back at me now is unrecognizable.

Her cheekbones have hollowed, and her face has grown gaunt from hunger. The light in her eyes has gone dark, matching the circles just underneath them. The protruding edges of her collarbone stick out farther than they should, and patches of dirt cover her body and face.

The black tank top she wears is now only held up by one strap, and her black leggings have been torn open in multiple places.

The loose curls that used to fall gracefully around her face are now wild with tangles and knots.

Open wounds and healed scars mark up the areas of her body that are visible.

She’s nothing but a living corpse, waiting for death’s kiss.

I look away, not wanting to see what I’ve become. I want to remember myself as the girl I was two months ago. The girl who was capable and strong. The girl whose heart was full of love. Whose life hadn’t yet imploded.

Ironic that it took until now for me to truly appreciate how far I had come in the last two years.

“Rumor has it, you’ve been stubborn when it comes to using your power,” the king begins again. “I admire your resistance, but I have a job for you, and it requires your cooperation.”

“Well, it looks like you’ll have to find someone else to do your dirty work.” I spit on the floor in front of me, imagining it were his face instead.

“I had a feeling you might say that, which is why I thought you may need some motivation.” He pauses, looking past me toward the back of the room. “Bring her in!”

There’s no need for me to turn around. I can already see her in the reflection of the mirror still positioned in front of me.

The chains binding her ankles scrape across the marble floor with each step.

When she stops next to me, our eyes finally meet. Even bruised, they bring a sense of warmth with them. I reach for her, but my wrists are yanked back before our hands have a chance to touch.

“I’m so sorry.” My voice breaks with the apology.

“Shh, this is not your fault,” she whispers back.

“Let her go!” I plead to the king. “You have me, you don’t need her.”

“Actually, I think I do. Bring the other one out,” he orders to someone I can’t see.

The skeletal man, who had just brought out the mirror, is dragged back out by a Royal Guard.

“Bring them forward.”

The two of them are pulled to the very front of the dais and pushed onto their knees, just as I was.

“Now, Reign, you have two choices. Set my prisoner here on fire or watch her lose her head.”

“NO! You monster! Let them go! Kill me instead,” I offer with a pitiful cry.

The older man begins to sob uncontrollably as fear coats his face.

“Sorry, but that’s not one of the options,” he hisses with a sinister grin.

“It’s going to be okay, Reign. Be the strong girl I know you are,” she says as a single tear slowly falls down her cheek.

The power dampening collar unlatches and falls to the floor in front of me.

“You have three seconds to decide. Three. Two.”

“AGATHA!”

Her body falls to the side, sending her head rolling. It stops a few feet from me, and her kind eyes, that have always brought so much comfort, are now stilled by death. The sound that escapes my throat is similar to that of a dying animal.

Everything around me goes dark as I look at the face of the woman who had become a mother figure to me these past two years. It’s as if the world has instantly dimmed with the loss of her life.

My fire lashes inside me, demanding to be let out. Rage and sorrow battle one another, fighting to take control. I’m just about to give in when I let out an ear-shattering scream instead. I grab my head with both hands, letting the screams of anguish tear through the room.

They ricochet off the marble, echoing one after the other. I use it as my outlet for every emotion now threatening to consume me. Guilt, anger, hate, grief, all flare within me, and I don’t bother suppressing them.

The cries of pain don’t stop until my voice gives out, finally falling silent.

When I look back up, the king’s proud smirk burns into my memory. He may not have gotten me to unleash my power, but seeing me like this seems to be victory enough.

“What happened?” Kane asks quietly over the sound of my sobs.

“He killed her.” My voice cracks as the image of her head being cut from her body replays in my mind. “He’s going to kill everyone, isn’t he? Everyone I love.”

“I’m so sorry,” is all Kane says. It’s all he can say. He and Slader tried to warn me that the king would find a way to break me, and he has.

How long until it’s Amaya or Emeric?

That is, if they even survived the attack on the Sector.

I haven’t allowed myself to go there mentally for the past two months, but now I can’t stop the flow of thoughts. There’s a very real possibility that everyone I love is already gone. I’ve tried to block out the negative thoughts, knowing they’ll destroy me, but I can’t ignore them any longer.

Even if by some miracle my friends made it out alive, their lives are still in danger. As long as I’m alive, he’ll just keep killing everyone I care about until there is no one left. I’ve tried to hold on to hope for as long as I can, but there’s only one way this ends.

I pick up the piece of stone I’ve spent the past month sharpening. Originally, I was planning to use it against Orien, but it would be useless. The king would have an army of guards on me in the time it took me to unlock my cell.

“I’m sorry,” I whisper to The Mother and to Agatha. “I wish I could’ve been stronger.”

I press the sharp edge of the stone to the inside of my wrist, cutting through the skin. The pain is excruciating, but it’s nothing compared to the pain I would feel if I had to watch another person I love die.

The blood slowly drains from my wrist onto the cold ground next to me. Eventually my head begins to spin, and I close my eyes, embracing the peace that is waiting for me on the other side.

When I open my eyes, I expect to see a glow of white light or my mother’s face, but instead I’m met with three stone walls and a row of steel bars. I look back down at my wrist and find the wound completely healed. It’s as if it had never been there to begin with.

“No!”

“No, what?” Kane asks.

I didn’t even realize I had said it out loud. I walk over to meet him, sticking my arm with dried blood through the cell bars. It doesn’t take long for him to understand what happened.

“Oh.” He turns his back to the wall, leaning his head against it. “I should’ve told you. He’s thought of everything.”

“What is this? What did he do?”

“He knows people like you and me would rather die than help him, so he had his witch, Athea, cast a spell that prevents us from harming ourselves or each other.”

The realization slowly sinks in as I slump to the ground.

He’s taken everything from me. My father, my home, Meeka, Agatha, my freedom, my friends.

And now he’s taken away my choice to die.

The walls surrounding me seem to close in as whatever hope I had left slowly vanishes. There’s no escaping. I’m bound to this nightmare that has become my life, and the horrors I have been trying so hard to hold off are now inevitable.

There’s nothing stopping the king from using me as a weapon now.