Chapter 6
Chapter
Six
-brIDA-
The ricocheting of my heart into my ribs was my only constant. Everything had faded into obscurity, a darkness I couldn't enter. A darkness I couldn’t reach.
I am with you, Ilia. Dainan’s last words to me. I had tried to tug on the thread that wove us together, the invisible force that tied me to him. But it felt empty. Hollow. All that remained was a sense of dread.
Marsh said that Dainan and Lil had escaped. But where to? Where in Eldara would they be safe? Had Dainan suspected Marsh was part of a coup? Was that what had created the rift between them? Had Marsh’s narrative of them in their younger years been truthful at all?
The wind from the Tactras Mountains echoed outside my window, howling as it moved from peak to peak, dancing along the snow-capped range, glistening white in the morning light, as far as I could see.
It’s beautiful, I thought to myself. If I had been here for any reason other than this, I would have been elated to see a court, to see one that was rumored to be limited to the members of the Court of Whispers. And their prisoners, I suppose.
Forcing myself to sit up, I rubbed the remaining sleep from my eyes. Addie clawing at her throat before collapsing, and the piercing shriek of Asana’s cries had jolted me from the few moments of rest I’d been afforded.
Pushing my hair back, I dragged my hands over my face. I could feel the lines that indented my skin. “A good look, I bet.”
“Not one of your better ones.”
I surged upward, looking to the corner of the room. A man rested on the chair there, one I didn’t recognize. His broad shoulders filled out the deep purple suit he wore, his hands, one of them scarred, rested on his thighs, giving the appearance that they could crush me in mere seconds.
Gods, he is the spitting image of Marsh.
Save for the shape of the eyes and mouth, they could have been brothers.
Perhaps they are. He’d always said he was an only child, but of what he told me, what could be trusted?
The cell was small, there was nowhere to hide.
Has he been here this whole time? How did he get in without me hearing anything?
“I dare say in this instance, you’re not wrong.” I would feign confidence. These men, or those who presented themselves as such, would not break me. They had stolen Addie and Alvar from me. They wouldn’t take anything else.
I turned the tap to the basin in the corner of the cell, not waiting for the water to warm—praying my hands wouldn’t shake, and washed my face with the frigid water.
Part of me hoped the cold would break whatever spell this was.
Send me back home. Home. I wasn’t sure Escalia had ever been my home.
Not in the traditional sense. Dad, Mom, Kadian, they had been my home.
But the place itself, the people—they never had been.
“You’ll come to learn I’m seldom wrong.” The man rose to his full height.
Standing well over six feet, he matched Dainan in size and stature.
What would Dainan do if he were here? Would he be granted access here?
He did, after all, possess some of their magic.
Magic he had kept hidden, magic I didn’t understand.
“Oh?” I reached for the rough towel that had been left behind by the previous occupant of the cell, and pressed it to my face. Its fabric was cutting. “Am I to be blessed with your company? Are we to become friends?” I turned to face him.
“In the spirit of friendship, Brida.”
Alvar’s words danced in my mind like we had at the ball. A formidable prince of Azmeer—the future king. He had become a fixture in my life these past months. The closest thing to a brother, save for Kadian, I would ever have.
Where were my friends? Lil was with Dainan, and I could hope somewhere safe. But the rest, what would become of them? A current of fear bubbled beneath my skin, like a pot sitting atop a flame, waiting to come to a boil.
They killed Addie, they killed Alvar, my friend.
Marsh kidnapped me. This involves me. Kadian isn’t safe.
Would Addie have been up on that dais if she hadn’t guessed that Dainan was important to me?
Would Alvar have tried to do… whatever it is he had done?
What was written on that piece of paper?
What had Thalius said to Rai? I need to go back. None of them—none of us, are safe.
My pulse quickened, my vision blurring. I closed my eyes, reaching for the edge of the basin. The thrumming in my ears grew louder and louder with each rapid breath I took. Do not break in front of him. You are stronger than this, Brida. You have to be.
I felt Dainan’s reassuring hands on my shoulders, his soft fingers caressing my cheek.
“They will not break you, Ilia.” Words I knew he would say.
I saw Kadian’s beautiful smile, his voice echoing in my mind.
“I’m with you, Bri. Until the end.” He’d said those words to me before our first trial in Azmeer, and I knew he meant them.
Placing my hand over my heart, the race that had been well underway in my chest slowed.
Breathe.
A long exhale left me, ridding myself of the last bit of warmth from my body.
“Brida,” the man’s voice was smooth. Before I could move, cold fingers wrapped themselves around my hand. “Come.”
I stared into eyes that were so similar to Marsh’s. A beautiful pale purple, the light on the edge of the horizon, the earliest signs of a storm. How had I never seen the signs of Marsh’s betrayal? How had I been so foolish?
I pulled my hand away and gritted my teeth. “Do not touch me.” I tugged at my shirt, readying myself for battle. “Per court regulations, no one will touch me without my consent, and you, whoever you are, will never be granted such.”
“Is there someone you would allow to touch you? A dark prince perhaps?”
The word lingered on the tip of my tongue.
Yes. I had spent my months in Azmeer fighting the pull between Dainan and I before admitting it was a losing battle.
I gave myself to a man I barely knew, yet knew in the depths of my soul.
A bond, a connection that both thrilled and terrified me.
A man who was made of darkness, and yet was the spark to my soul.
He took a step back, placing his hands in the pockets of his tailored suit.
I paused to gawk at him. In Escalia, the majority of its inhabitants worked with their hands.
Their clothes had been practical, bland, worn.
I’d never seen such a well-dressed man until I’d met Marsh on the veranda of the inn in Lesalia.
The crisp lines of his purple suit, the product or magic he had used to keep his hair in place, nothing about him had been disheveled. Nothing had been anything but perfect.
Like Marsh, this man too presented himself in an immaculate state of dress.
“Has your lord commanded you to check on me? How will the other courts react when they recover from the regicide we all witnessed?”
“I don’t concern myself with court affairs. I have a job to do.”
“And what is that job exactly?” I interrupted.
His smile was predatory, a hunter cornering its prey. “I’m a cataloguer, of sorts. Now, if you’d be so kind, please answer my earlier question.”
What did it matter to this man if I cared for Dainan?
Our relationship was doomed from the start.
Fae and human; ours was not a happy story.
Dainan’s life would unfold like endless pages—mine would vanish between them—a brief wind stirring in the grass before fading into the horizon. Would we be afforded any time?
“That’s none of your business.” I wrapped my arms around myself, as if they would provide shelter and protection from his prodding words.
“You will soon discover that it is, in fact, my business, and the business of many. That’s why I’m here.” He gestured for me to sit on the bed.
“Brida, sit down. It isn’t a request.” He chose not to touch me but began his own march across the small space, crossing the room in four strides. Resuming his seated position, he waited.
Rather than following suit, I made my way back towards the window.
The bars were unnecessary. Unless they were installed to somehow prevent wind-walking.
No one would be able to break free from this window and make it out alive.
My room stood several stories above the ground, with nothing to break the potential fall below but snow, ice, and jagged rock.
I wonder if shadow-stepping would work from here?
Similar to Azmeer, all of the courts were warded against magic that differed from its own.
I had closed my eyes in the night, stilling my breath.
Please. I’d whispered, digging deep inside myself, the place where I prayed Vasenia had granted me a spark of magic. Anything to help me. But I remained empty. I was a vessel for a Court that had chosen to give me nothing.
“You look as if you’re admiring the view.” His voice was melodic, a tool in his arsenal. Speak and lull the victim into a false sense of security, or sleep. How many would wake from that sleep?
“What’s not to admire?” It was difficult to ignore the beauty of the light dancing across the snow, like the ground was made of gemstones rather than the newly fallen flakes.
“After every storm, it’s like the world is made anew.” Those were the words Mom had spoken to Addie, and Addie had gifted me.
“I’ve never seen so much snow,” I whispered without thinking. I yearned to touch it, to feel its cold deep in my bones. Allow it to quell the fire burning inside my veins.
“I, for one, have never been a fan of the cold.” I could hear the chatter of his teeth. For someone of the Court of Whispers, he didn’t act as if he belonged here.
I laughed despite myself, “You’re in the wrong place if that’s true.” I returned my gaze to the stratospheric cloud that had appeared.
“What do you see when you look outside?” The scuffs sounding across the floor were my only indication he had moved towards me.