Chapter Thirty – Scarlett
Chapter Thirty
Scarlett
Two days had passed since my meeting with Roran. Which means I’m running out of time to kill Mira.
The thought settled like a stone in my stomach. But I kept my gaze on the manor up ahead, my hood carefully lowered to shield my features from view. Beside me, Aric and Lillian did the same.
It was fortunate that Mira had sent Odessa here. It had taken both my illusions and her assistance to slip past the guards stationed throughout the Kalurian palace and the city beyond. More than that, it had allowed me to put Aella under watch – a stroke of genius on my part.
The first few times Odessa had tailed Aella, we hadn’t understood why she would leave the Kalurian palace in favour of an aged estate in the countryside. But the moment Odessa had laid eyes on the red-haired boy, it had all clicked into place.
No wonder Roran favoured Aella. Why wouldn’t he, if she had provided him with a son?
Illegitimate, to be sure – but our father had made me part of the line of succession. Once Roran was officially crowned, and he could be sure the boy was safe, I felt certain he intended to do the same for his son.
Still, something didn’t ring true. I could accept that Roran had seen an opportunity to lure Aella away from Zandri by seducing her.
I could even accept that Roran had found a way to take Aella’s blood ruby and free her from my mother’s control.
But how could Zandri not have noticed if one of her Masks disappeared for nine months?
It was far-fetched enough to make me wonder if Odessa had set all this up, either acting on her own or under Mira’s orders. She had never liked me, and I wouldn’t put it past her to come up with a plot to destroy me.
But if Odessa was telling the truth . . . well, kidnapping Roran’s son was an opportunity too tempting to resist.
And if she was lying, I would happily kill her. Perhaps I could even use her death to win some favour with my brother.
‘I’ll deal with the guards around the back,’ Aric whispered to me, and then he was moving.
A few minutes later, distant shouts and the clang of metal against metal rang out. As if that was her signal, Odessa slipped inside the manor – leaving three dead Warriors at the entrance.
‘Stay here,’ I instructed Lillian, who was concealed amongst the trees. ‘Don’t come out until we return.’
She nodded, her face pale.
I approached the manor carefully, taking note of the dead Warriors. Roran was definitely hiding something here. Maybe this was just his way of keeping his lover safe – but it had to be more than that. I refused to even contemplate that we’d risked this much for nothing.
My curiosity and wariness increased as I entered the dark manor. There were two more bodies on the floor in front of me, and seeing them reminded me of Zandri’s warnings not to underestimate Odessa.
A scuffle sounded above.
I took the stairs two at a time, no longer bothering with subterfuge. I reached the landing in time to see the Warrior fall, a kerosene lamp falling with him.
Odessa’s eyes met mine over the body. ‘Come on,’ she said brusquely. ‘The boy is upstairs.’
When we reached the top landing, I told her, ‘Let me go first.’
Without waiting for Odessa’s agreement, I visualised my surroundings and called up an illusion of invisibility.
Two guards were stationed outside the door at the end of the hall, and though their weapons were drawn, they didn’t see my approach.
It was a simple matter of touching their faces to transfer the death within me.
A few heartbeats later, I stepped over their bodies and pushed open the door.
Aella was in the shadows, but the lamplight illuminated her eyes – large and brown, luminous even in the semi-darkness.
There was something odd about the way Aella was standing – as if she was trying to block someone from view.
I shifted to the right, and there he was: the red-haired child Odessa had described, sitting up in the bed behind her.
I took a step closer to Aella, but my eyes were on the blades in her hands. Did she really believe she could stand against me?
‘Roran is using you, you fool.’ My voice dripped with condescension. ‘Do you think you’re the first to fall in love with my brother? Plenty of women think he’s charming enough, at least until they end up dead–’
‘By Zandri’s hand, or on her orders,’ Aella retorted, inching further in front of the bed, and the boy who was watching us with wide eyes. ‘I should know, since I killed one of his lovers for her. Aurelia.’ Without shifting her gaze from us, she said, ‘This is Aurelius. Her son.’
I frowned down at the boy. He had inherited Roran’s green eyes and distinctive red hair, but he had softer features. For a child of four or five, he was strangely solemn as he met my gaze.
‘None of this matters,’ Odessa said impatiently from behind me. ‘We’re here for the boy; we don’t have time for–’
‘Aurelia begged me to keep her secret,’ Aella continued, her eyes locked on mine. ‘Zandri forced me to kill Aurelius’s mother just because she was close to Roran. What do you think Zandri would have done if I had told her about the boy? Whatever Roran is, the child is innocent.’
I could almost see Aurelius as she did: sweet and untainted by the sins of his father. But any child of Roran’s would always be a threat to me. A threat I couldn’t allow to exist.
‘I told Roran about the promise I made Aurelia,’ Aella said, her words coming more urgently now, ‘and I vowed to protect their son if he freed me from Zandri’s control. But while I may be Roran’s lover, my loyalty isn’t to your brother – only to Aurelius.’
‘Really?’ I tilted my head as I considered her. ‘You seemed enamoured with Roran at the banquet.’
Aella narrowed her eyes. ‘How do you think I’ve survived this long?’
Odessa crossed over to my side. ‘I don’t intend Aurelius any harm. All I want is to take him back to the Temple–’
‘As leverage,’ Aella finished, her voice hard.
Odessa had the grace to look apologetic. ‘This war isn’t over. Even out here, Aurelius may not be safe. He’ll be protected in the Wilds. Not just from future battles – but from his father, too.’
How convincing she sounded. I might have believed her if we weren’t planning to use Aurelius’s kidnapping as a way of forcing Roran to invade the Wilds, where Mira and the clans would have an advantage. Which meant war would find Aurelius soon enough.
But Aella’s shoulders slumped. She suddenly looked far more like my attendant than the cruel Mask I had seen standing at Roran’s side.
I inhaled, and as I did, the acrid taste of smoke filled my lungs. The kerosene lamp. The one that had fallen on the level below–
‘We have to go,’ I said urgently. ‘This entire manor is about to burn to the ground.’
I expected Aella to reach for her weapons and attack. But she only murmured something to Aurelius, and kissed him on his forehead. Aurelius climbed down from the bed, but she held him to her chest.
‘I want your promise,’ Aella said, her eyes burning into mine.
‘We won’t hurt him,’ Odessa said immediately. ‘You have my–’
‘It’s not your word I care about. I want hers .’
Aella looked at me with eyes like mirrors. Reflecting my every doubt, my every dark thought.
‘You have a choice, Scarlett,’ she told me. ‘You don’t have to be your mother. You can choose trust over fear.’
I glanced down at Aurelius. Trusting him was a fool’s decision. How could I know that he wouldn’t rise up against me one day? That he wouldn’t grow into a threat just as terrible as Roran?
Simple: I couldn’t. And I didn’t need to promise Aella anything. Her guards were dead, this house was about to become a death trap, and she was outnumbered two to one.
Odessa must have had the same thought. She lunged for Aurelius, but Aella held him fast. She didn’t even blink as Odessa raised her sword. Just kept her eyes on me as she said, ‘Trust, not fear. That’s what Severin would have wanted.’
It was the wrong thing to say. I moved towards her, my hand on my sword. ‘What do you know about Severin?’
‘I know that he chose to throw himself off the battlements rather than let Zandri kill him herself. I know that he didn’t try to run from death, but faced it head on, hoping it would finally turn you against your mother.’
If I had thought Aella was lying, I would have run her through right then and there. But the sincerity blazing on her face . . . the way her words made a terrible, sickening kind of sense . . .
I closed my eyes, thinking of everything my mother had said to me.
All her lies and assurances. The way she had ripped my heart right out of my chest. He chose to die rather than be with you .
Her words resurfaced, smooth and relentless.
They all turn against you in the end, don’t they? But I never have. And I never will.
‘How?’ I asked Aella sharply. ‘How do you know this?’
‘Zandri had me use magic on every Artisan in the palace, so that if you asked them what happened to Severin, they couldn’t say anything that would implicate her. And then . . .’ Aella hesitated. I thought I saw a trace of pity in her eyes.
‘And then ?’
‘I heard her gloating about it. About how Severin had sacrificed himself for nothing.’ Aella’s gaze was steady on mine.
‘Apparently he asked Zandri how she convinced you to betray Mira. Even at the end, he didn’t believe that you could have done it yourself.
That you would have been so cruel.’ Softly, she said, ‘Zandri found it amusing that Severin died for someone who doesn’t even exist. But I think .
. . I think he saw something in you that your mother ignores. ’
‘Because you know me so well.’ Sarcasm was thick in my voice.
‘You’d be surprised. I watched you for a long time, Scarlett. I’ve seen how you behave when you’re alone and when you’re with others – particularly your mother. And Severin.’
Severin, who had always brought out a gentler side in me. A version of me he had believed in enough to–