Chapter 45
Chapter forty-five
Alfrie
Iwake to footsteps shuffling around me, but I don’t open my eyes. I can’t. My left eye is swollen shut and, on the right, I only see a blur of red from the blood that blankets my pupil. I thought I was dead. I should be dead.
I suppose Hardin has returned to finish the job.
My body hangs limply in the chains that hold my arms out to my sides and my knees are aching under my weight. I hope it’s over soon.
“Alfrie? Gods.” I struggle to open my eyes at the harried sound of Alix’s voice near me.
He bends down to look at my face and I can barely make out his black hair and bright eyes.
“Don’t try to open your eyes. Just hang on.
” I obey and feel him move around me. I hear the metal sound of a buckle, “Here. Bite down on this.” Leather brushes against my mouth and I open, clenching my teeth on the belt.
He presses his hand against my back, and I flinch.
The fire from his healing magic rages through my body.
My nostrils flare and I bite down hard on the belt in my mouth trying not to scream from the burning sensation.
The hurt dulls and I brace for more when he settles his hand on my chest. The scorching pain from his touch shoots through my heart and is nearly unbearable.
His lifts his hand from my chest and the flames subside inside of me.
My breathing is ragged and my hands tremble with adrenaline.
“I’m sorry. This will hurt the most. Are you ready?”
No. I clench my jaw so tightly that my teeth hurt, and I nod. Alix places his hands on the sides of my face. White-hot pain surges through my head and a flash of light blinds me. I gulp for air and my body slumps when he removes his hands. My head hangs heavy, but I can see. I slowly lift my chin.
He’s watching me carefully. “Are you okay? Sorry, dumb question.”
“Thank you.” The bleeding might have stopped, and the bruising faded, but my bones ache with exhaustion from the torment and lack of sleep. “You have to leave. Hardin will be back.”
“I know you didn’t poison Zara. Tell me why Elara was with you the other night. The elixir was for her, wasn’t it? What did she want it for?” His questions come rapid fire, and I wish I could answer.
“I can’t say.”
“Dammit, Alfrie, let me help you.”
“I want to. But I can’t.”
Alix slams his fist to the ground and stands up. “What did she make you do?” He grabs my shirt collar, searching my face for the answers I can’t physically give him. He seems to realize his anger getting the better of him and releases my collar. “Please, give me something.”
I consider my wording. A way to tell him without telling him. “I made the poison, but it wasn’t meant for Zara. I don’t know where she got it or why she ingested it, but she had purple-tinted fingers—the same color as the elixir.”
“Did Elara ask you to make the poison?”
My tongue can’t form the words through the glamour put on me. But I can nod. So, I do. “You need to get out of here now. Go to Zara and keep her safe. Please. I don’t know why Elara wants her dead. I think Hardin has something to do with it too.”
He clamps his jaw but his stance is resolute. “I’ll find a way to get you out. Don’t die in the meantime.” He turns to sneak from the cell but doesn’t get far.
King Hardin and Elara stop him in his tracks, and they glance between Alix and me.
Alix tries to explain he’s here to see that I’m getting the punishment I deserve after my attempt to kill the princess.
But his lies fall flat. They see I’m healed instead of the broken mess they left me in earlier.
I watch helplessly as Hardin calls his guards over and they drag a fighting Alix down the hall to another cell.
My heart sinks. I just pray that Zara has found Leer and she’s safe.
“Let’s try this again.” Hardin enters my cell with Elara on his heels. “Show me what a Prince of Gridan can do.”
What did he just call me? I look up at Hardin. He grips the hilt of a dagger and plants the tip directly under my chin. But I hardly notice. “What?”
A sick smile spreads on his mouth. “You heard me. Let’s see you, Prince Finn. No more pretending.”
My expression hardens. “You’re legitimately insane.”
He drags the blade across my cheek and blood trickles down. I don’t flinch. I glare at him. Now, maybe I do want to fight. My wrists burn against the chains and shifting magic stirs deep inside of my stomach.
Not yet.
“Maybe. One way or another, we will learn the truth.” He slices the other cheek then presses the point of the dagger to my throat. “Well?”
I swallow against the sharp blade. “I told you before, I don’t know what form you wish me to take. And I’m no prince. Prince Finn and the rest of the Gridan family were murdered years ago.”
“Nonsense. I want you to show me the you I saw the day I slaughtered your family.”
My eyes go wide, realization setting in. He was there. But to attack my village, not rescue it. It was Hardin. But why didn’t he kill me too? “You’re not Unseelie…they would’ve slaughtered you too. How—"
“Don’t act so na?ve. We all have a price. What’s yours? Perhaps I should fetch the princess? Or your friend down the hall? His healing magic won’t be of much use after I’m done with him.”
I yank against the chains, wanting nothing more than to lunge at Hardin and tear the skin from his face. It’s the reaction he hopes to get from me. I stop pulling uselessly on the restraints and snarl at him.
He tilts his head in satisfaction. “Fetch my new daughter-in-law,” he says to the guards that hover near the cell door but doesn’t tear his eyes from mine. He lowers the dagger to his side, and drives his knee to my face instead.
“I don’t know why you insist on my punishing you. Just do what I ask, and this will stop. I won’t hurt anyone.” He brings his knee to my chest, and I gasp, my body folding inward. “Shift.”
“No,” I choke out.
He backhands me in the jaw. “Shift, Gridan scum!”
“What the hell is going on in here?”
Blood pours from my nose, and I can’t breathe, but solace sweeps through me. Leer. He’ll put an end to this. He won’t let them harm Zara. I lift my head, as he enters the cell, concern etched into his features. “Please, Leer. Tell them I didn’t—tell them. I’m a nobody. Please.”
He eyes his father and Elara disapprovingly.
“What are you two doing?” He grabs the knife from his father’s hand and wipes the bloody blade on his trousers.
I sigh in relief. He crouches down to assess me better.
“Oh, Alfrie.” He shakes his head and stands to address Hardin.
“You know it’s not necessary to go through all of this. He owes me a life debt.”
I narrow my eyes at him. What?
Leer puts his hand on Hardin’s shoulder. “We had an agreement. He has a very specific use—one I will decide upon.”
A muscle in Hardin’s jaw tenses. “I did all you asked. I gave you Lanray and Masseda! You promised the ruler of Lanray would be the most powerful in the realm.” He jerks his chin to me. “You don’t need him. He’s useless anyway. He doesn’t remember.”
Leer squeezes Hardin’s shoulder. “You played your part well my friend, and I did promise Lanray will be powerful.” In a flash, he thrusts the dagger into Hardin’s heart, twisting it with pleasure. “Under my rule.”
The color drains from Hardin’s face and he falls in a heap to the ground in front of me. I jerk my head to Leer. “What did you do? He was your—”
Leer lowers down to face me again. “No. He was a puppet. Do you truly not remember what happened that day?” He grabs my face in his hands. His empty expression and black eyes more terrifying than any torturous acts he could incite upon me.
It occurs to me that I’m staring face to face with an Unseelie prince. He attacked my home. And Masseda. Gods. I should have seen it. I should’ve known. How did I not know?
“Leer? What are you doing?” My voice is a desperate whisper. A plea to the friend that I've pledged my life to.
He sighs. A disappointed sound a parent makes when their child has worked their last nerve. “It seems you’ll have to clean up another of my messes, old friend. Zara should be dead. I need you to take care of that for me.”
“You’ve already taken two courts and killed their kings. Why do you need to kill Zara?”
“After Jeffery ordered the complete annihilation of our home and hundreds of innocents, we needed to do something. Mother had hoped if she married him, he would name her as his queen in Masseda, but we waited and waited. And alas. Jefferey couldn’t bear to put her before his only daughter in the line of succession.
” He shrugs nonchalantly to Elara who impatiently taps her long nails on the stone wall.
Mother? I might vomit. I glance at Elara. “Thea?”
She rolls her eyes. “Honestly, I thought a physician would be smarter.”
“But, now that Zara's my wife and I’m King of Masseda, I’ve no use for her. She was simply a means to an end. You understand. Pity though, because between us 'friends', she’s quite something in the bedroom.” He grins deviously at me and slaps my cheek.
“She’s no threat to you. She can’t even shift.”
“I know. Such a waste of time to try to teach her, but I had to be sure. I can’t have another Fae running around shifting into a tiger and challenging my court.
” He stares pointedly at me. A wicked smile curls his lips.
“I saw you that day. Gods, it was...glorious. I saw what you can do, and I ordered Hardin to spare you. Imagine my excitement at the thought of having a powerful Gridan shifter indebted to me. All that power at my fingertips instead of my throat.”
I suck in a breath hoping I won’t give myself away. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. Whatever you think you saw—you didn’t. I’m a nothing. A nobody. You should’ve let me die that day.”