Chapter Twenty-Two

Getting to the castle is not the easiest thing with a shadowstorm raging around. The first time I was here, I could spot the castle walls from the river, and I was able to hop off the river and march right up to the front gate. This time, I don't see the walls through the scourge until I'm surfing along the river, around the side of it.

Going back would mean backtracking quite a bit, so I use magic to help me climb up and over the outer wall.

The storm doesn't stop at the wall. It covers the entirety of the Acadian castle. The village, the afflicted people roaming the streets; I can't see any of it. It's all covered in a thick, black haze. It makes parkouring off rooftops to get to the castle a lot harder.

The gates blocking off the way to the castle are still closed. I fling myself over them and land with a magical thud, the yellowish-white sparks from my magic the only bit of light around me. The shadowstorm is everywhere, even over the castle. Something had been keeping it out of the castle grounds before, but now… now it's running wild, and I worry that the Emperor has become one of the afflicted as well.

I'm still calling him the Emperor. I don't know his name; the dude never shared it.

I race up the steps to the castle as quickly as I can, and the moment I see the doors, I throw myself at them and burst inside.

The air inside the castle is clean enough, though stale and stagnant. Better than the shadowstorm outside. As the doors swing shut behind me, I take a deep breath, filling my lungs with air that's not tainted by the scourge.

I give myself a few seconds to gather my breath and calm my heart, and then I push on. Walking down the carpeted path, I should be greeted with the same sight as I was before, the last time I was here—but it's not the same.

The vines that were growing on the walls, surrounding the picture of Empress Morimento, are dead and withered. A result of the shadowstorm outside that's been raging constantly, or is it from something else? Something nags at me, but I don't know what it is, so I ignore it and push deeper into the castle.

With the storm raging, it's dark. The candelabras on the walls that had burning candles the last time have nothing on them, nothing but old, spent wax and no flickering flames to be seen. I have to use my tattoo to light up my way.

Something is wrong here. I can feel it. My instincts are flaring to life just as they did in Laconia right before the shadowstorm swept across the lower district. I don't know what it is, though, and I have no choice but to keep going.

I follow the carpet that leads to the throne room, and my feet stop me just before the doors. The only thing I can hear is my heavy breathing—the anxiety of knowing something is wrong without knowing exactly what's off is taking its toll.

My palms sweat. My skin crawls. The only thing that's left to do is go inside that room and see what I'm dealing with here.

If the Emperor is off the throne and one of the afflicted, I'll have to kill him. With any luck, killing him will end this eternal scourge and stop it from happening in Laconia again. But then, when has my luck ever been good?

My hand reaches for the door, and I steel myself as I push inside, ready for whatever will come.

The inside of the throne room is not like the rest of the castle. It's bright, and the sun shines through the glass behind the throne, enough to illuminate the wide space. It's like the shadowstorm no longer rages outside—but that doesn't make any sense. The same guards that lined the walls the first time I was here remain in place, as if they themselves haven't moved an inch.

The throne room is completely untouched.

What…

I cautiously walk past the guards, moving toward the throne. The Emperor sits, his gloved hands flexing on his armrests, his blond head tilting as he watches me approach with an expression I can't read.

I'm about fifteen feet away from him when I open my mouth with the intent of asking him what the hell is going on here. I want to know how this can be possible when so much of the land is engulfed in the scourge, but I don't get the chance to. The Emperor speaks first.

"And here I thought you wouldn't come back." His eyes, a brilliant, vivid blue are so focused on me, his expression so intense, that the breath is knocked out of my lungs. The corner of his mouth quirks in the quickest smirk I've ever seen, causing my stomach to twist involuntarily thanks to how handsome he is. "I was beginning to wonder what else I'd have to do to drag you back to me, Rey."

The way he's talking… doesn't sound like someone in need of help. Shit. Is this guy the reason for the shadowstorm over Laconia? Am I going to have to kill him just like I killed Empress Gladus?

Fuck. And here I'd started to hope he'd be able to help me find my way home.

"Well, I'm back," I say, mentally readying myself for another fight. How hard can it be to beat a guy who's been trapped on a throne? Sure, his physical physique hasn't exactly withered away, but still.

The Emperor moves his arms off the armrests and sets them on his knees as he leans forward. The jeweled band around his head sparkles in the light. "That you are." His gaze drops to my feet, and he doesn't hide the way he studies my stance. "And ready for a fight." The laugh that comes from him sounds wrong.

"Cut the act," I hiss as my hands curl into fists at my sides. "It's you, isn't it? You're the one behind the shadowstorm over Laconia and the one that's been raging outside ever since."

He cocks his head at me, the mischievous expression on his handsome face bordering on deadly. "Am I? My, my, Rey, you think you have it all figured out, don't you? You think you've finally put it all together, but you are just as blind now as you were then… only now you're more useful to me."

"Maybe I was blind before, but I can see what you are now—"

His gloved hands lift as he gestures around us. "Oh, really? Do tell. What am I?"

"You're just as insane as your mother was. Whatever made her lose her mind made you an asshole who attacks with shadowstorms. How do you think this is gonna go, huh? You think you can beat me while stuck to that throne?"

The Emperor grins at me, flashing a set of perfect teeth—too perfect in a world like this; everything about him must be unnatural. "Oh, Rey. So confident. So certain. You're right about the scourge. I'll give you that, but as for everything else… nothing is what it seems." The grin falls off his face. "Take a look around and tell me what you see."

The last thing I want to do is take my eyes off him; I don't trust him. Still, something out of the corner of my eye calls to my attention, a shift in reality. My head whips around. Over my shoulder, I see the guards that previously stood, lining each side of the room, now either lay or sit in crumpled heaps. Their helmets rest directly on their shoulders, their heads bent at unnatural angles, their weapons either on their laps or fallen out of their hands.

They're dead. They've been dead this whole time. But how?

My eyes are wide when I look back at the Emperor. "How are you doing all of this? Laconia only has empresses. They pass down their magic to the next empress. You…" I stop when I see his smile.

Handsome, yes, but maniacal. The smile of a villain, someone who's willing to do whatever it takes to be victorious.

"You still don't understand," the Emperor says, "so let me make it clear for you." Without another word, he stands, and as he stands, it's as if I'm witnessing a separation of two beings. He stands, but in his place on the throne, he leaves a small skeleton adorned in the same clothes he wears.

The same golden, jeweled crown sits on the skeleton's head. Judging by the size of the bones, he was just a boy when death took him.

The Emperor stands near the throne, glancing at the skeleton with the absence of pity. "Not everything I told you was a lie. I was trapped here, you see, stuck in this prison that Morimento made for me." He motions to the room around us again, but there's something different about him now—and it isn't because I can now see just how tall he is or how strong he is beneath those royal clothes.

No, there's something else. Something… familiar.

"She locked me away, but thankfully there was someone else who could help me." He glances over his shoulder at the skeleton. "Children are so easy to manipulate. It took much longer for me to… persuade Gladus that she was better off keeping me close."

I try to follow what he's saying, but none of it makes sense.

The look on my face must tell him everything, because he chuckles darkly. "And then there's you, Rey. I knew Krotas would always be the most challenging, so I decided to stick with you. I lost you for a while—and then I had to wait until you were so down on your luck that you'd have no choice but to help me."

My breath comes out short. He's still a good fifteen feet away, but it's like he's close enough to choke me. "You're…"

The next time he speaks, his voice does not belong to him—or maybe it does, and it's belonged to him this entire time. Heavily accented, each word laced with venom and derision. "What? Don't recognize me like this, Rey? Perhaps we need to have more heart-to-hearts."

No. No, no, no. This can't be. This guy, he can't be him. It's not possible. There's no fucking way.

The word is out of my mouth before I can stop it, "Rune?"

The way he smiles after that, the way his blue eyes flash a bit brighter… I was so stupid. This entire time, it's never been the Emperor. The true son of Empress Morimento died years ago, and this thing was trapped in his place.

The truth hits me like a bus.

It was Rune all along.

Rune's the villain in this story.