Chapter 27

CHAPTER 27

A cheer went up from outside. Unable to stop myself, I stood on the wooden bunk and peered up at the grassy field just beyond my cell, holding tightly to the bars as I rose onto my tiptoes. Chairs were set up in neat rows, all decked with roses and garlands of ivy.

Women in swishing, pastel-colored dresses milled about while men in pressed pants and overly shined shoes roamed around the full skirts. Lively conversation interspersed with bursts of laughter assaulted my brain like a battering ram. How could anyone feel any semblance of happiness when my own heart felt so shriveled and empty? An orchestra wound up, and the feet that were just barely visible began moving toward their seats. The wedding was starting, and I was to have no part of it. I slumped back down to my bunk and curled into a ball, back to the cell door so no guards would see the tears I knew would come.

Buzzing like a swarm of angry bees filled the air. It swirled meaninglessly around me, and I couldn’t work up the mental energy to determine if it was a noise coming from outside or was a concoction of my own mind as I slowly deteriorated into madness. Korth and Odette would become husband and wife, and I was alone, forgotten and imprisoned, as I lived out the short remainder of my life in this rodent-infested cell until I hung for my crimes. Hot tears filled my eyes and began to fall faster than the water dripping into puddles from the ceiling above.

Sobs racked my body.

“Dahlia,” Korth’s hoarse voice came from just outside my cell.

His voice was the only sound powerful enough to compel me to sit up and turn around. My heart threatened to emerge from my throat just at the sight of his face. “What…what are you doing here?” I choked, hastily trying to wipe away my tears. “Your wedding…”

Korth looked just like how I felt—utterly miserable. His bridegroom’s suit of purest white trimmed with gold made him glow in the dim interior of the dungeon. The torches set into the brackets cast a flickering light over his face, giving his eyes a sunken, haunted expression as he stared at my dismal surroundings.

“I had to see you.”

I stretched my arms wide. “Now you’ve seen me,” I said dully. My eyes were puffy and red from crying, my nose dripped, and my hair was matted and uncombed. The state of my clothing was deplorable. There was no mistaking me for a princess. I had nothing to conceal anymore.

Korth’s gaze switched from my face to my shoulder. “Were those…scars on your back?”

Absently, I reached a hand over my shoulder to trace along one of the scars that had been visible while my back was to the cell door. All the gowns I’d worn while masquerading as a princess had covered them, but this one had a tear down the back that exposed them. “Courtesy of the real Princess Odette.”

We stared at each other through the bars. I wanted to look away. I wanted to hide my face from Korth so he wouldn’t remember me this way, but I couldn’t. The longer we looked at each other, the more intensely I tried to memorize every one of his features, never to be forgotten. Soon, he would leave and start his new life with a wife who wasn’t me. My stomach churned as I thought of him and Odette together, whispering intimately and swinging hands as they walked along the beach, perhaps even kissing at the top of each bridge they crossed. They would have children together and laugh about the foolish handmaiden who had failed to steal the true princess’s place.

“Why did you lie to me?” Korth burst out. “If you had told me, I would have helped. I could have?—”

“But you wouldn’t have,” I contradicted him. “If I’d come to you that first day and told you that I had replaced your true fiancée and was planning a coup to overthrow her corrupt father, you’d have had me imprisoned right away.” I gazed around at my cell’s tiny interior. “I knew exactly what would happen if I told you, and I was right.”

Korth winced. “On the bridge that night, we promised…we promised we’d never hurt each other.”

Tears welled in my eyes. “I told you that I never wanted to hurt you, and that’s true. But I never promised that I wouldn’t.” I hung my head in shame. “I knew what I had to do. People’s lives—their liberty and agency—they were depending on me. I couldn’t be selfish, as much as I wanted to be.”

“Dahlia, did you—” Korth broke off and pressed his dark head against the bars of my cell door, teeth gritted.

“Ask me, Korth. I won’t lie to you.” I raised my shoulders in defeat. The least I could do was give him the truth that I had withheld for so long.

“Was everything a lie? Did…did you ever love me?” Korth’s voice was strangled.

I crossed the length of my cell and gently placed my hand over his, a last touch to remember him by. “That part wasn’t a lie,” I whispered. “I love you more than you know.”

Korth gripped my fingers with his own, his forehead still leaned against the bars. “I loved you too, Dahlia. But?—”

“I know.” The ghost of a smile flickered across my face as I let my tears fall thick and fast, noting the past tense when he said that he’d loved me. I wasn’t worthy of his love anymore. I had been right; unconditional love was nothing more than a fairytale. “You deserve better than a traitorous imposter. I want you to be happy, even if…even if it isn’t with me.” My voice caught on the words and exited as a croak. I gulped for air. “Don’t marry Odette,” I whispered. “She will make you miserable, and I really do want you to be happy.”

“Dahlia,” he groaned, and raised his eyes to meet mine. He looked every bit as conflicted as I felt. “I fear I’ll never be happy without you in my life.”

A slight scuffling sound made both of us look around. Peter Pan was perched on his bed, chin cupped in his hands, as he stared unabashedly at us, each one of his teeth visible as he grinned.

“Don’t stop on my account, this is the best entertainment I’ve had since arriving on this godforsaken island. Go on then, Korth, you said you’ll never be happy without the girl who seduced you with the intention of betraying you and attempting to start a war. This is good.” He flurried his hand as if signaling for an actor to continue a scene after a missed line.

“Shut up, Pan,” Korth snapped. “It’s only because of my sister’s poor judgment that you’re even alive.”

“I thanked her for her excellent judgment.”

“And I’ll thank you for not butting into private conversations,” Korth retorted. He looked back at me. “Dahlia, why would you do this? Was everything Odette said true? What made you?—”

“I’ve been a part of this rebellion my entire life,” I confessed. “The last three generations of my family have worked to secure me a position close to the royal family. We wanted them surrounded by those loyal to the rebellion before we acted, and when you asked Odette to come here, we felt like it was the perfect timing.”

“She told me you handed her guards over to pirates.”

“That’s true. I headed the mutiny en route from Ebora. You must understand; I had to.”

Korth slowly shook his head. “But…that is wrong. Mutiny, treason…those are crimes punishable by death.”

“I know.” I clutched at the bars. “But what’s wrong is how Odette and her father were treating the people. Not all leaders share your honesty and compassion, and their power has corrupted them. All the people in Ebora have been oppressed for years. You said you saw my scars, but those are nothing compared to what others have endured. We had to do something . Odette and Raquel treated us brutally, and I couldn’t—I won’t stand by and let that happen. I’d rather die from trying to do what I feel is right than stand idly by and watch injustices happen.”

Korth buried his face into his hands. “I thought everything was so black and white. I can’t condone what you did.”

“I know you can’t. But believe me, I never wanted to see anyone get hurt. In fact, it was my desire to protect the people in my kingdom that motivated my decisions. If I was fighting for a noble goal, doesn’t that outweigh some of the less honorable means it took to achieve it? Turning a blind eye to those who are mistreated and enslaved isn’t an option for me. If the right course means doing nothing to stop abuse as long as it didn’t affect me, then I don’t want to do what is right, do you?”

“I don’t know,” Korth lamented, clutching at his hair. “I don’t know what’s right anymore.”

“That’s odd,” piped up Peter. “You certainly claimed to have a firm grasp on right and wrong at my preliminary hearings. I suppose if I’m not an attractive woman, I can’t sway your ethics the same way she can.”

In an uncharacteristically aggressive move, Korth kicked at the iron bars on Pan’s cell. “I don’t care how much my sister advocates for you, one more word and you’re going back to solitary confinement for the rest of your miserable life.”

Peter fell silent but still watched us so closely that it seemed like he could see right into my soul, a smirk playing across his face the whole time.

“I know you want to follow the rules, Korth,” I said quietly. “But if you never deviate from the rules and by doing so allow people to suffer, what has truly been gained? If tyrants go about unchecked and abuse those who are innocent, how is that just? You want to follow rules, but their rules are wrong.”

“There has to be another way,” Korth groaned. “I could… I could sign a treaty with Ebora like Treva did with the sirens.”

“You really think that a simple treaty will cause King Raquel to free all those he has enslaved? He has all the power in Ebora. All of it—no one can challenge him. People can’t even feed their families without begging for aid, and everyone else is in the same situation and can’t give the help that they so desperately need. We don’t need a treaty; we need an army. We need to be liberated.”

“You want me to start an unprovoked war,” he said slowly.

“Is it unprovoked, though? Or is it simply that you personally haven’t been provoked? Raquel is more than happy to work with you because you can benefit him. If you want the measure of a man, don’t look at how he treats his equals or superiors. How he treats his inferiors is a far more accurate assessment. You entering the war is better than allowing Raquel to continue the abuse he is doling out. And if you remember, I fully intended to start the war. I intentionally manipulated you into thinking that the king needed reinforcements so that you would send troops to dethrone who you thought was an imposter.”

Korth slowly shook his head. “I don’t know what to do. I don’t want to fight against you.”

“I know you don’t want to fight against me, but will you fight for me? You’re about to marry Odette and condemn all of us commoners to a lifetime of servitude and poverty.”

He didn’t answer. From down the hall, one of the guards called, “Your Highness?”

I lowered my voice and spoke in a rush. “Korth, I know how much you love your people. Every kingdom should have a ruler like you, but they don’t. I’ve told you before, not everyone is as honorable as you are. That’s why we need people like you to fight for those who can’t fight for themselves.”

“Prince Korth! Everyone is waiting for you.” The footsteps drew nearer.

I allowed my fingers to slowly fall away from where they had wrapped around his on the bars. “You have all the power now. What you do with it is entirely up to you.”

“Your Highness!” The guards would round the bend any second.

He looked desperately at me. “Dahlia, do you think what you did was right?”

I drew a deep breath, willing myself not to cry. “Yes and no. But I was fighting for what I believe in, and I will never regret that. If I die, at least I’ll die knowing that I did everything I could to help others, and that’s enough for me. I don’t want to be a coward who’s too afraid to take a stand against injustice.”

The guards clanked into sight, swords bumping against their thighs as they approached.

“Prince Korth,” a beefy guard with a bushy handlebar mustache said tentatively. “Everyone is waiting. We can’t delay any longer. Princess Odette insists.”

“Goodbye,” I whispered, shrinking back into the shadows at the back of my cell.

After a final look back at me, Korth allowed himself to be led away, back toward his wedding.