Chapter 47
Cillian
Imarched down the dungeon stairs, Sir Arthur’s voice ringing out. “On guard, you scum!”
Oh, godwitches. Why had we moved him back down to the dungeons?
Oh, right. Because he insisted he had to be down there to guard the “traitor scum” who’d returned to Fairwitch.
Sir Arthur didn’t even remember who I was half the time, but he’d had no trouble remembering the Wolfgang brother who had disappeared years ago and defected to the enemy.
“Arthur,” I said with a warning in my voice. “Stop terrorizing our prisoner.”
The suit of armor stiffened as I stepped up behind him, his wooden sword poking through the bars of the cell where Lor sat against the stone wall, head hanging, hair covering his face.
“So that’s what I am? A prisoner?” he asked as the crown still hovered over his head.
It was shiny and pristine, though grime and dirt covered the rest of him.
“Don’t come too close, Your Majesty,” Sir Arthur said. “He could grab your head, bang it against the bars, and then strangle you.”
“Thank you for the idea,” Lor said. “I’ll have to remember that one.”
“You’re not helping,” I said under my breath.
Lor’s lips twitched. “I’ve been here for six days, Cillian, and I have yet to be told why. This is the first time you’ve even visited me down here.”
“You know why, you traitor scum!” That seemed to have agitated Sir Arthur, because he was now trying to stick Lor with his wooden sword.
“I’ve missed you too, Arthur.” Lor flashed a smile at the suit of armor.
“I haven’t missed you. I didn’t say that,” the knight said, affronted by the accusation.
“Okay.” I put a hand on Sir Arthur’s metal shoulder.
“Thank you for your help, Sir Arthur. You’ve been a great asset to us, but I’d like to talk to him in private.
Do you think you could”—I gestured down the dark corridor of cells—“wander over there for a little bit? If I need help, I’ll make sure to call for you. ”
The suit of armor harrumphed but thankfully didn’t argue, clinking and clanking away until he disappeared into the darkness.
I turned toward Lor, who was standing now, his hulking form taller than mine.
“That scar is new,” I said.
“Not really,” he said in return. “I got it a decade ago. When I first joined the brotherhood.”
“Right.” I couldn’t help the tightness in my voice at the reminder of where my brother had been for all these years.
“Am I going to be let out soon?” he asked. “And where is Aoife?”
“She’s with her people.” The Fair Folk had been ecstatic about the return of their faerie queen, but I’d seen very little of her as they tended to her.
Lor’s jaw locked. “She’s not very grateful for someone whose curse was just broken. You’d think she wouldn’t leave me here to rot.”
“No one is leaving you here to rot, Lor. But you have a lot to answer for.”
“I know,” he said. “And I’ve already told the truth to Mother, Father, Nevan, Wolfe—everyone who’s come to see me. In fact, I’m getting a little tired of repeating myself.”
“Well, that’s too bad,” I snapped, the anger I usually pushed away boiling to the surface. “You left us, Lor.”
“I didn’t. I was taken, and I did the best I could,” he said.
“They recruited me, and I had no choice in the matter, like most of their recruits. Except I did something about it. I didn’t just conform.
I started a rebel group within the brotherhood to undermine their missions.
Do you know how much danger I was in? But I did it to protect places like Fairwitch Isle. ”
“You brought the brotherhood to us!” I spread out my arms.
“Leena is a member of my rebel team, and we were following orders. Where is she, by the way?”
“In another part of the dungeons. We separated all of you.”
“Smart,” Lor said. “But you need to let her go.”
My eyes bugged. “Are you serious right now?”
He moved forward, gripping the bars of his cell.
“Yes. Because apparently, I’m your high prince, Cillian, and if I’m not mistaken, that means I can’t go back to the brotherhood.
If they think you’ve taken me, what do you think they’ll do?
You’ll have brotherhood members scouring this forest looking for us.
Looking for me. Leena needs to be released so she can tell the brotherhood I’ve been killed, that we never found Fairwitch Isle.
Then she can take over our mission of taking the brotherhood down from within. ”
“It doesn’t sound like you’re doing a very good job if you’ve been a spy for this long and have yet to destroy them.”
A vein popped over his eyebrow. I’d hit a nerve. “Do you know how many lives and pieces of magic we’ve saved with our work? It takes time, Cillian. And I don’t get to be a part of it anymore.”
He sounded bitter. Sad, almost.
“What about the other one? Ronan? You said Leena was part of your spy group . . .”
Lor’s face fell. “You can’t let him go. He was ordered to go on this mission to see if Fairwitch Isle was on Kiln Mountain, and Leena and I volunteered to join him, hoping to steer him away, hoping to turn him, get him to join with the rebels.
But then Ceri appeared from that doorway, and Ronan saw her, and it was too late.
We couldn’t convince him to leave it alone.
He’ll reveal your location. He’ll reveal everything to the brotherhood. ”
“It’s hard to trust you,” I said. “I want to, and most of me believes what you’re saying, but there’s a small part . . .”
“That still doubts,” he said. “I understand.” He pointed to his head. “But how long do you think your castle will allow this? I am the high prince, the one this castle chose. You have to let me out sooner or later.”
I swallowed thickly, knowing he was right. “How did you find me?” I asked. “All those times I was outside of Fairwitch Isle getting my tonic, you were there too. Watching me.”
Lor shot me a sad smile. “The first time was a coincidence. One of the brotherhood members spotted you in a town, getting drunk and playing cards. They came back to our camp and said they thought they might have found the High Prince of Fairwitch Isle. I immediately volunteered to confirm your identity, and they let me. I watched you all night. Playing cards and drinking with women draped all over you.”
I hated the picture he was painting in my mind. I detested my life so much that I’d done those things, all to keep myself as numb as possible.
“Then I watched you amble out of the tavern, and I followed you all the way to the local apothecary, where I saw you get that tonic. You were so drunk you didn’t even notice me coming up behind you and planting a small tracking bug on the bottom of your boot.
Magic,” he said with a shrug. “It tracked your every movement outside of Fairwitch Isle and showed me where you were on a map of the continent.”
Fuck. It had been so easy for Lor to find me and track me. If he had been any other brotherhood member, we’d all likely be dead right now. They’d have easily found us and breached our city. I’d been so lucky and so unbelievably reckless.
Lor scratched his stubbled jaw. “I didn’t know what that tonic was or what it meant, but I had a bad feeling about all of it, and I wanted to keep an eye on you.
I went back to camp and told everyone it wasn’t you.
Just someone who looked like you. That was that.
But then one night, I woke up to the map glowing, and I looked at it, seeing that, sure enough, you were outside Fairwitch Isle again. ”
I swore. “How long have you been watching me?”
Lor shrugged. “About five months. I never meant for you to see me, but I knew you were in pain. Struggling. I couldn’t figure out why until I heard you drunkenly talking to some random old man about your best friend who you could never be with.
You didn’t give him any names or details.
You were very careful. But I put the pieces together.
I realized you were taking that heartstopper to numb yourself so that you didn’t feel all the pain of being kept away from the woman you loved.
” He swallowed. “I was worried for you, but I didn’t know how to help you. ”
My throat grew thick. “That makes sense.”
“Recently, I realized you were getting worse. Coming outside Fairwitch far too often. Someone was going to catch you if I didn’t help, and then I found you in that field after you overdosed.
I decided then and there that I was going to go back to all the spots you’d been visiting and buy out all the heartstopper. ”
“Wait a minute,” I said. “I had a faerie to portal me. How did you so easily appear in places all over the continent?”
He gave me a look.
“Right, with magic the brotherhood has stolen.”
“We have a lot of magic at our disposal, yes.”
“And the magic helped you into Fairwitch Isle?” I asked. “How did you know to come? How could you have known I was dying?”
Lor grimaced at my use of the word. “After I returned you to Fairwitch Isle, I was worried. You’d taken a lot of heartstopper.
A dangerous amount. I wanted to check on you, and I found you unresponsive, writhing.
I called for Margaret, remembering the sentient painting and how she could move around the castle.
When she arrived, I was already gone. She didn’t see me.
I just hoped me calling for her would get you the help you needed. ”
“It did. She got Ceri and our healer.”
Lor swallowed. “You’re looking so much better.”
“I’m getting the help I need. Finally. Thank you for looking out for me. I’m . . . I’m mad that you left us. I’m mad that you didn’t try to escape and come home. I’m mad that we lost all those years with you, thinking you were dead. But I’m also so, so proud of you.”
His thick eyebrows shot up.
“So is Wolfe, for the record. And Father will come around. So will Nevan. They’re both taking it hard. Mother is just glad you’re home.”
“I know,” he said with a quiet laugh. “She’s visited me every single day, filling me in on everything I’ve missed.”
“I’ll see about having Leena released. As for Ronan . . .”
“Let me handle him,” he said. “When I’m finally allowed out of here.”
I nodded.
“Will you let me talk to Leena?” he asked.
“I need to give her instructions, to keep her safe when she goes back to the brotherhood. They’re going to have a lot of questions about what we were doing and how Leena escaped.
I need to help her create a good story, one that the brotherhood will believe.
” He took off his maroon cloak. “And I need to give her this.”
I took the fabric through the bars and stared at the little golden patch on the chest that signified Lor’s high ranking. “I’m going to have to convince the council. But I think it can all be arranged. Just give me some time.”
“We don’t have a lot of time before the brotherhood comes looking for us. They sent us to scout this area, to find Fairwitch Isle. If we don’t return soon, they will be here themselves.”
I smiled. “Well, that’s one thing we don’t have to worry about.”
Lor raised a brow.
“Our barrier isn’t broken anymore. There are no holes, no weak spots. Freeing Aoife seems to have fixed everything. So if they come, they won’t be able to enter or see us. We’re safe, Lor. Finally.”
It was such a fucking relief.
He breathed out a breath, his shoulders slumping. “Good. That’s good.”
“Yes, but I don’t want the brotherhood sniffing around here any more than you do. So I will work on getting you released as soon as possible.”
I turned to go.
“Cillian?” Lor said.
I stopped.
“I’m glad you’re finally free, that you can be with Ceri. You deserve to finally get to do something for yourself.”
“Welcome home, Lor,” I said and walked out of the dungeon.