Chapter 34 #2
Revolving to face me now, Durian wraps his long-fingered hands around the bars, pressing his forehead to them.
Like a crown submerged in salt water, the king’s usual glimmer is tarnished by madness.
“Your curse. I’m honestly surprised you never figured it out yourself.
Those foolish woodlings can be rather clumsy at times.
When they took the life of your lover boy, Jace, they nearly woke you up. ”
Spots explode before my eyes and nausea roils. A fog of disbelief settles around me. On hyperspeed, my mind goes over every memory. Every death.
A montage of moments I’d chosen to ignore, chosen to forget, come crashing back.
Small smiles on Durian’s face at my friends’ and tutors’ memorials.
The way Durian was the first one to put the idea in my head.
That I was cursed. That everyone who loved me would die.
He said it so much I began to believe it, and so did everyone else.
“It was all…a lie?”
It’s as if I’ve been reading the same book all my life, and suddenly someone has handed me a pile of missing pages that change the whole story.
There is the briefest flash fire of relief—Tam isn’t going to die from my curse—but then it fizzles out to fury. Just because he isn’t going to die from a curse doesn’t mean he’s any safer. Not with Durian as king.
A sickening laugh leaves my maniacal brother’s throat.
“I may have been the one killing those who got close to you, but one look at your rotten heartwood and you can see that the Sovereign Tree never wanted you to begin with. You were never a true Sempervirens, no matter what Cyperus made you believe.”
Tears prick my eyes, my teeth gritting together so tightly I think I hear one crack. “You were always so jealous,” I whisper. “Because Cyperus cared about me and despised you. He always knew what kind of king you would turn out to be.”
“Why do you think he adopted you?” Durian seethes, green eyes darkening to onyx. “It wasn’t because he merely wanted to continue the Sempervirens line. He wanted there to be a choice. He intended to groom you to be king.”
“Me?”
I recall a time, long, long ago, when Cyperus sat beside newly adopted me and said, “Someday this kingdom will all be yours, Castor.” Once people close to me started dying left and right, though, he stopped saying things like that.
“I know. I also found it absurd. Which is why I knew I had to do something about it.”
“Ah, right. Cyperus intended for me to be king, so you just decided it would be a good idea to murder everyone who got close to me and blame it on an imaginary curse?” I say. “Well, you certainly proved him wrong. Clearly, you’ve always been perfectly mentally fit to rule the Redwood Kingdom.”
Bitterness and loathing fill my stomach, threatening to spill from my throat like bile. I swallow them.
“Don’t go getting a big head now, little brother. You may not have been cursed in the way you thought you were. But you were still cursed. No dryad wants to befriend someone who can rot them from the inside out.”
“Yes, they much prefer someone who can squeeze them to death with strangling vines,” I intone.
“And don’t act as though you have friends, Durian.
You have servants and people who fear you.
No one actually loves you. In fact, more people have loved me—the supposedly cursed prince—than have ever loved you. ”
Durian straightens, the cruel smile on his face slipping. Seems I’ve struck a nerve. I would gloat more, but I am also the one locked in the cage.
“Yes, perhaps I should change that…starting with your mortal lover.”
My heart sinks into my gut. “What are you talking about?”
“Well, since she will be living for a bit longer than expected, I figure I should keep her around. I could use the company, and I’m sure she could too. I hear she has a thing for kings.” He winks at me. “Besides, with you in here, I’ll have no one to play games with.”
“Maddox is not staying here,” I growl, moving toward the bars. Durian takes a step back. “She’s returning to the mortal lands.”
“I suppose you won’t know what she does, as you will be locked in here.” He runs a finger lovingly down one of the bars.
“My curse wasn’t even real. You can’t lock me in here if the pact was nothing but a game!”
“Oh, the pact was indeed real. If Maddox had told you she loved you, I would have been forced to stop killing your lovers and friends—after I killed her, of course. But the pact doesn’t matter anymore, does it?
After all…you practically begged to be locked in here.
What sort of king would I be if I denied my brother’s only desperate request? ”
“Please, Durian.” My voice shakes as I clutch the bars, willing them to rot away. They don’t. Instead, they heat up until I can no longer bear to hold them, hands coming away raw and charred. “Leave me in here forever if you want, just let Maddox go.”
“You aren’t exactly in a position to barter, now, are you?” He steps closer, lowering his voice to a whisper. “Don’t worry, Castor. Maddox will be taken care of. You know how well I treat my mortal women.”
Then he disappears from my view, leaving me with only the company of my echoing cries.