Chapter 38
Petra
Today would be the day I died, and in that lack of control was an overwhelming sense of peace.
The note I left for Cal this morning had enough detail I knew he wouldn’t come after me. He’d find it when he and Miles returned from their morning training session. Tyrak had stayed out of my way. He knew my plan, I was sure of it. And Queen Irli had been fussing over Nell since she’d arrived.
Everyone was where they needed to be.
I hoped when the time came to end Malosym’s life, my power wouldn’t rock the castle. I hoped they could have one final day of being none the wiser to my self-destructive plan before they reaped the benefits of the peace it provided.
That same damp scent assaulted me as I descended the stairs to Malosym’s cell. Shame that would be the last thing I ever smelled. Or maybe it’d end up being the smell of burning skin as I incinerated Malosym. Was that better ?
I was halfway down the stairs when a hushed voice filtered through the stone corridor.
I wasn’t sure why my steps froze. Malosym wasn’t alone in the dungeon.
There were other prisoners and guards. But the low timbre murmuring through the hall was definitely Malosym, and I narrowed my eyes.
The echoey corridor wasn’t conducive to a quiet conversation, no matter how low his volume was, but I still couldn’t make out a single word. Was he talking to himself?
No, there was another voice. A guard, most likely.
I inched forward, keeping my steps as silent as possible.
And though I was surprised to see Malosym’s cell door hanging open, I was even more surprised at the sight of two bodies laying motionless on the ground outside it.
My hand flew to my mouth as I took in their limp forms, the key ring strewn on the ground beside them.
The guards were both breathing. Unconscious, not dead. What the fuck?
The voices became clearer as I grew closer, but they were still too muffled by the echoey corridor for me to pick anything out.
It better not be fucking Cal. This was the kind of shit he’d do, too, try to interrogate Malosym so I didn’t have to. How irritatingly noble of him.
“So why have you returned, then? To make penitence for your wrongs?” Malosym asked, his words just clear enough for me to hear them. I couldn’t tell whether his tone was placating or if the question was genuine.
Carefully, I pushed forward, stepping over the first guard’s hand to wedge myself between the open cell door and the wall. Who the fuck was in there?
“The only wrong I committed was getting involved with you,” the other voice answered. Familiar. I’d heard that voice before.
Chains clinked softly as Malosym must’ve shifted in his seat. “So what, are you here to strike me? Break my bones? Shoot another arrow through my back? Tell me, how are you going to punish me?”
“The deepest pits of Hell would be far too kind a punishment for the things you’ve done.”
“Take the revenge I know you believe you deserve.” Malosym’s words were a taunt.
“Why would I waste a single breath punishing you?”
“Because I took everything from you.” The chains rattled and clinked again, and I imagined Malosym leaning forward, egging on the stranger. “I took your rightful crown. I took your family. I took your education, your home, and the woman you loved. I took your very soul .”
Who was he talking to?
“Though it seems I have my soul once again.”
“Not all of it,” Malosym responded smugly. “A fragment of it will always belong to me.”
Silence fell for a beat before the stranger finally spoke again. “What the hell do you know about souls?”
“She never loved you,” Malosym said matter-of-factly.
I didn’t need to see the look on Maloym’s face nor the stranger’s reaction to know it had been a low blow.
Malosym was inflicting emotional pain, trying to rebuild his strength.
“How did it feel to watch her die and know her death was at your hand?”
My eyes widened as the rigid silence expanded. Though I couldn’t see the man Malosym was talking to, I swore I could feel his anguish pulsing from inside the cell.
The stranger took a deep, steady inhale. “You killed her. Not me. You.”
“Face the truth, Vic–”
“Now you want to call me Vic?”
Vic. Vic? Who was Vic?
Malosym’s laugh was humorless. “What are you really doing here, Vic?” He said his name like it was a private joke.
Boots shuffled against stone for a split second before I heard the distinct sound of someone choking.
My first instinct was to surge forward, to stop whoever it was from ending the life that was mine to take, but I paused.
This stranger couldn’t kill Malosym. I imagined a hand around Malosym’s throat, strong enough to crush his windpipe.
Maybe he couldn’t kill Malosym, but he could make him hurt.
Malosym bled the same as the rest of us.
The wooden chair legs screeched and Malosym took a wet, heaving breath. Footsteps sounded and I flattened as much as I could against the wall, praying whoever it was wouldn’t see me.
And then the stranger swept out of the room, slamming the door behind him and leaving me completely exposed. I squeezed my eyes shut and held my breath, sure I’d been found. But he mercifully turned the other way, heading deeper into the dungeon.
Where was he going? There was nothing beyond Malosym’s cell. My eyes bulged as the stranger turned a corner I couldn’t see from this angle, disappearing behind the wall.
I made it one step in his direction when something sounded behind the closed door of Malosym’s cell. My stomach flipped as wood screeched over stone and chains clattered. Then there was nothing. Silence.
Ice spread through my gut as I stretched on to my tiptoes to the barred window near the top of the door. I was just tall enough to peer inside, and see…
Nothing.
I heaved the door open with a grunt, left unlocked by whoever the fuck had just left.
The wooden chair was empty. The chains were coiled on the floor as if he’d simply stood and shirked them off.
I spun in place, searching the ceiling for a grate, for a vent, for a way out other than the door I knew he hadn’t gone through.
Malosym was gone.
“ Fuck! ” I bellowed, tearing out of the room and sprinting in the direction of the stranger, careening around the hidden corner to find nothing but an empty, narrow corridor.
The smell grew mustier the further I ran, the only light coming from the sparsely placed torches.
I turned another corner and there he was .
“You!” I roared, my pace quickening impossibly faster.
His feet pounded to a stop as his hands slammed into the stone wall, his head wildly turning backward. It was a dead end. I’d cornered him. None of his features were distinguishable in the low light, but it didn’t matter, because I was seconds away from ripping that hood from his head.
With one hand, I cast a burst of fire. It sailed down the hallway and slammed into the stone beside him. Fuck. I pushed my legs harder as his hands began to move frantically over the stone wall, as if he was looking for some secret way out of here. Not fucking happening.
I called upon my flames again, another ball of fire flying in his direction.
I blinked in disbelief as the wall gave way beneath his hands and he slipped through a door that had materialized from between the stones.
With a bang that tore through the stone corridor, he slammed it shut behind him just as my fireball collided with the place he’d just been standing.
No fucking way.
I hit the wall at full force, the bite of the stone cutting into the blisters on my palm nothing more than a far-off ache. I winced as my hands ran over the wall, following the movements I’d seen him do, feeling for, what? A lock? A latch?
“Please, please, please,” I begged, and I wasn’t sure if I was pleading with the wall or the Saints or what.
Who was he? Malosym had said he’d taken the man’s rightful crown.
Someone of royal standing. Someone here for the ball.
Probably someone who fell into Malosym’s trap back when he was Castemont.
But then why the fuck would the stranger release Malosym from his cell?
“Come on !” I barked, steam rising up the back of my throat.
Tiny pieces of sediment crumbled to the ground, knocked loose by my palms. I kicked at the stone, grunting when it didn’t give way in the slightest. My movements slowed, defeat rushing up swiftly to meet me, until my finger caught on a large pebble and I heard a soft click .
Yes.
The mortar between stones separated and the door swung away from my hands. Without a second thought, I was through and the door latched shut behind me.
And as my eyes adjusted to the low light, my mind adjusted to what I’d just done. I’d followed a cloaked stranger into a hidden passageway. I was a fucking fool. But this stranger had to pay for releasing Malosym. I was sure he’d done it. I just didn’t know how.
The passageway was dim, but it wasn’t pitch black. Tiny openings at the top of the wall to my right allowed a small amount of white light to filter in. The stone walls seemed to press inward, the hall disconcertingly narrow, so much so I wasn’t able to extend my arms completely.
Footsteps sounded and panic burst to life in my stomach.
Wait , I thought, why the fuck am I panicked ?
I’d done nothing wrong. But I flattened myself against the wall nonetheless, focusing on the female voices that echoed off the stones.
They were…coming from the gaps in the ceiling?
The light dimmed for one moment, the voices growing louder and louder until they began to subside, sounding farther and farther away.
This hallway — a tunnel really — was below a corridor in the castle, I realized. Or…beside it, maybe, I couldn’t quite tell. Was it common knowledge this hidden tunnel was here? No, because why else would the entrance be so secret unless to keep it hidden?