Chapter 39
Petra
Shock kept me from resisting when Ludovicus grabbed me by the shoulders and pulled me into a narrow alleyway. He grappled for his hood, pulling it back over his head as his eyes wildly scanned the streets.
My face hardened with anger when I finally caught a hold of my senses. “ You !” I shouted.
“Shh! Please,” he begged, frantically looking down the alley and back to me again.
“What the fuck !”
“Please! Keep your voice down!”
“How dare you tell me to keep my voice down after you set Malosym free!”
Ludovicus’ grip on me loosened slightly as his face went slack. “What did you just say?”
“You set Malosym free!” I spat in his face, my hands growing hot as the flames began to spark to life .
“I–I didn’t,” he stammered, his grip releasing as he jumped back, staring down at his reddening palms. His neck was still marked with the blurred outline of my hand, the only thing that remained from the moment my rage had boiled over when I found him in Blindbarrow.
“You were in his cell with him, and after you left, he was gone,” I snarled. “That little show of innocence you gave me back in Astran was nothing but a slimy fucking act and it will not fool me again.”
“Your Majesty, I didn’t set him free.” The words came so fast, they almost seemed to blur together as he turned to look back at the street again. “I swear it. I didn’t free him.”
“Then where the fuck did he go?”
His mouth opened and my flames banked involuntarily, almost as if my power felt something I didn’t. “I don’t know, your Majesty. You must believe me.”
I eyed him suspiciously, the way his palms were raised, the tilt of his brows. “What are you doing here?” I demanded.
“I-I wanted to see him, I–”
“No, I’m not asking what you were doing in Malosym’s cell. What are you doing in Nesan? Why are you in Araqina?”
“I left the moment we returned to Taitha after the battle in Eserene.”
“But why ?”
“You can’t tell anyone I’m here, your Majesty, please –”
“Why. Are. You. Here ?!” I roared.
Another glance over his shoulder, as if he were afraid someone would look down the alleyway and find us. “I was thinking maybe there was something in the library…” He trailed off. “It’s so extensive, and I know it so well, so–”
“The library in the castle?” I asked, cutting him off, confusion rocking me.
He pursed his lips, his eyes nervously flitting back and forth between me and the street before he nodded.
“How do you have access to the castle’s library? ”
His movements were jumpy, nothing like the worn, haggard man we’d met in Blindbarrow. “You can’t tell anyone I’m here,” he repeated, reaching for my arms once again but pulling back at the last moment. “My father will have me executed if he finds out I’m in the city.”
“But why? Why would he–”
I cut myself off with my own realization.
Back on the road between Blindbarrow and Eserene, Ludovicus had told me he’d been from a family of high standing in Araqina — a city where he didn’t want to be seen and whose royal library he was familiar with.
He told me his father had cut him off from the family after he found out his son was involved with blood magic.
Queen Irli told me Laion had cut off their son for being involved in blood magic.
“Malosym called you Vic,” I breathed, my head shaking. No. It didn’t make any sense.
“Yes.”
Ludo vic us. “A shortened version of your true name.”
“Yes.”
I stared at him, heart pounding in my ears. “You’re the Lost Heir, aren’t you?”
His eyes moved to the dirt as shame cast a shadow over his face. Fucking Saints . The sigh he let out was strangled. “Yes.”
I took a step back, tearing my hands through my hair.
Malosym had taken his crown. Malosym was the reason Ludovicus’ father disowned him and scorned his memory.
Malosym was the reason Nesan had lost their beloved heir.
My brain was reeling, the pieces of his story lining themselves up in order. Of course it was fucking Malosym.
It was always fucking Malosym.
“You really didn’t free him,” I breathed.
“No, your Majesty,” he answered, checking over his shoulder once again. “Please. No one can know I’m here,” he whispered, and I swore I saw tears begin to form in his dark eyes .
I pushed all the air from my lungs, closing my eyes to try to get a hold of my whirling thoughts.
“Your secret is safe with me,” I said, and when visible relief softened his face, it made the dark circles beneath his eyes more prominent.
Fuck, he looked awful. “I was wondering if you’d survived the battle in Eserene,” I murmured.
He gave a weak smile that quickly fell away. “I was almost hoping I wouldn’t.”
I know the feeling.
“Where have you been staying?” I asked. “How are you staying hidden?”
“I get sleep when I can in the escape tunnels.” My eyes almost bugged out of my head.
He’d been sleeping in the rat-infested passageway beneath the castle?
Fuck. “When I have to buy food, I try to find the youngest vendors I can. Less chance of them recognizing me, since Prince Vic supposedly died before they were born.” Another glance toward the street before he looked back at me, pain lacing his features.
His fists clenched at his sides. “And when I heard Malosym had been captured…”
He had to see him. I understood that. I would’ve done the same damn thing.
“I never intended for you to find me. I hoped you’d just assume I’d died in Eserene.
One less thing for you to worry about. I knew it was risky, going to see Malosym.
I had to, though. I needed to see the man who’d taken everything from me, look him in the eyes with my own eyes, not the eyes of the soulless husk he’d created of me. ”
“But you didn’t accept his offer to take revenge.”
He inhaled deeply. For a moment, it seemed as if the busy street faded from his mind.
The nervousness, the jumpiness dissipated from his movements.
“I’m still in the process of wrapping my mind around the fact he was never Castemont at all.
He had Cal pinned to the ground, and I shot an arrow into Malosym’s back.
Lieutenant Landgrave was able to tackle and restrain him.
But the arrow wasn’t my revenge. My revenge was handing Malosym over to you. The rest is yours to take.”
He was mine to take. Mine to kill. I should’ve fucking done it last night. I shouldn’t have hesitated. I’d been selfish, wanting to spend one final night with Cal.
Silence descended between us, punctuated by the footsteps and hoofbeats on the street.
I stared at the ground, gnawing at my lip as I shook my head.
And before reality could knock me on my ass, I lowered myself to sit in the dirt.
Ludovicus dropped to the ground across from me, his arms slung over his knees. “How did he escape?”
My glare was withering. “I chased you out here because I thought you had the answer. But whatever happened, he’s gone now, and I’m back to square fucking one.”
“What was your plan?”
I eyed him carefully, sucking my teeth as I assessed him.
I held his greatest secret in the palm of my hand.
“Secret for a secret?” I asked. His eyes narrowed for a moment before he nodded.
I wasn’t sure how much of the truth to give him, so I settled on a watered-down version.
“I’m the only one who can kill Malosym, but it’ll kill me in the process. ”
His dark eyes flew open. “You’re going to sacrifice yourself?”
“Yes. No one knows that. Keep it that way.”
“Of course.”
“And now he’s gone.”
He considered me for a moment, brows pulling together. “If I didn’t set him free, who did?”
I threw my hands up. “I… I haven’t the slightest clue.
Maybe he escaped himself, had enough power to cross realms, somehow.
” I watched the profiles of people passing by, our presence completely unnoticed by each and every one of them.
I’d been riding the highest of highs just this morning, on my way to put a stop to the terror.
And just like that, the terror had seemingly grown wings and flown off .
When I looked back to Ludovicus, there was something different in his stare. For the first time since his curse had been broken and he’d revealed the truth of Malosym’s control, he looked at me with something other than pleading or apology. He looked at me with determination. “I have an idea.”
“I’ve just about had it with ideas. I’d rather not be disappointed once again.”
“Disappointment is nothing but the tragic death of hope,” he answered simply, pushing to his feet and readjusting the hood over his head. “Let it just be an idea for now. No hope, yet.”
I eyed the hand he outstretched to me. “Where are we going?”
“The library.
◆ ◆ ◆
I’d begun this day thinking it was my last. Now, I was following Ludovicus’ cloaked form through the tunnels beneath the castle.
What a turn of events.
“Are you sure you know where we’re going?” I whispered.
“I know these tunnels like the back of my hand. How else do you think I’d sneak out as a boy?
” He pointed out each almost invisible doorway as we passed, their outlines so well hidden in the lines of mortar between stones, I couldn’t have picked them out if I tried.
The west ballroom. The kitchens. The lower entrance to the Queen’s servants’ quarters. One of dozens of guest bedrooms.
I was a fool for questioning the unassuming wall we stopped in front of, because as soon as Ludovicus located the latch, the smell of leather and dust hit me.
Satisfied the coast was clear, he pushed through the door and we emerged at the back of the library.
We were somewhere in the stacks, my head so disoriented that I had no choice but to trust he knew where he was going.
“I suppose you would’ve found this book eventually,” he whispered as we crept between the shelves. “But this is better.”
Ludovicus’ nerves must’ve rubbed off on me, because I found myself glancing over my shoulder as we finally turned in between two stacks. He knew exactly where to find it, nodding to himself when he pulled it from its spot.
Theories in Advanced Weaponry , by Sir Tarwick Cateaux.
I opened my mouth to remind Ludovicus that the only weapon that could kill Malosym was me, but before I could speak, he was moving again.
“I’m so glad it was here,” he said quietly after we pushed back through the hidden door.
We both lowered ourselves to the dusty ground of the tunnel.
The book’s spine crackled when Ludovicus pulled back the front cover, and I conjured a spark on my fingertip to illuminate the pages.
“I purchased it when I was studying in Taitha, and when my father cleared the house we were staying in, this must’ve come back in one of my trunks.
Mother must’ve been the one to sort through my things, because she wouldn’t have thrown away a book.
” He flipped through the pages worn with creases.
Lines of text had been underlined and circled, the margins scribbled in on every other page.
“I’d forgotten all about it until you mentioned your…
predicament. Okay, here,” he said, turning the book around and placing it on the floor in front of me.
I peered forward, reading the words out loud.
“The great warrior Gisar of Arnen infamously lost his life at the top of Mount Centus when his outstretched sword was struck by an errant bolt of lightning,” I recited.
A name and place I’d never heard before.
“The current from the lightning traveled through his blade and entered his body, effectively burning him from the inside out. When Gisar’s body was recovered for burial, his comrades were unsuccessful in their attempts to remove his blade, as every time they came in contact with its hilt, the current traveled into their body, causing immediate death.
The sword still remains atop Mount Centus.
” I looked up at Ludovicus, finding expectant eyes.
“Okay,” I said carefully. “I don’t know who Gisar is or where Mount Centus is. Are you suggesting we go there?”
“No,” Ludovicus answered, placing one finger in the margin, pointing to a handwritten note I hadn’t noticed before. I squinted at the looping script.
Power stayed behind in sword. Can weapon be imbued with other power?
I glanced up to Ludovicus, whose eyes were intent on me. “What are you suggesting?”
“During my studies in Taitha, when I first started noticing something was wrong with me, I read that story. I fixated on it for some reason. Maybe it was genuine curiosity, or maybe it was the darkness taking root inside of me. Either way, the story stuck with me, and one day when I was in the forge, I thought I’d put it to the test. But I had no way to imbue a sword with the darkness inside me.
” His eyes were cautious, moving from the single flame that burned at my fingertip to my face.
“You can conjure your power easily, yes?”
“Easily enough.”
“There’s a forge in the slums. I knew the owner long ago, but I overheard when I arrived here that he’d died.
Had a son young enough that he has no idea who I am, and I bet if I pay him, he’ll let us have the forge for a day.
Maybe there’s something we can do. Maybe…
Maybe it doesn’t have to be you who kills Malosym. Maybe you don’t have to die.”
I stared back at Ludovicus, at what now shone in his eyes. “I thought you told me not to have hope yet.”
“I only have hope because I can tell you do.”