Chapter 21

W hen I felt steady enough, I followed the Prince out of the room. He was waiting in the corridor, his shadows gone but his stance tense.

“Where are your warriors?” My voice was smaller than I wanted it to be, and I tried to steel my nerves. “And why are all the walls here the color of blood?”

He turned and started to walk. I moved quickly to keep up with his long strides, trying to pay careful attention to the turns we took.

“My stepmother decorated.”

“And your warriors?”

“Enough talking.”

My pulse quickened as we headed down a spiral staircase that was distinctly familiar.

Was he taking me back to the monster-filled stables to punish me for last night?

Relief coursed through me when he stepped off the staircase before the bottom level, heading down a wide corridor. We walked past a few old and battered looking doors, until he stopped in front of one. The iron hinges looked bent and broken, the wood was scratched, and there was no door handle.

He held his staff up, and shadows snaked out form it, flowing into the gap around the door. They glowed silver briefly, and then the door swung open.

When I stepped through after him, I saw a dark cavern carved out of the rock of the mountain, like the one we had come to the palace through. There was a tiny boat on the little beach, and the Prince stepped into it. I followed him, and his shadows flowed to the little sail, swelling it enough that we moved easily onto the inky water.

We sailed across the pool that filled the cavern, until we reached a crevice in the rock. A narrow river flowed gently into the mountain itself. Claustrophobia pressed in on me as we sailed into it, the space barely wide enough for the boat.

“Where are we going?” My quiet words echoed off the stone walls.

When the Prince turned to me, his eyes were brighter than our surroundings, as though they had their own light. “Nobody knows of this place. You must never speak of it.”

“Is that why you warded my mind against the Queen? You don’t want her knowing about it?”

“Yes.”

“What about your warriors?”

“They cannot know either. Nobody must know.”

I raised my eyebrows. Surely he was giving me something I could leverage? Why would he risk telling his secrets to me? “Why am I here?”

“You will see soon enough.”

We traveled on in silence, and the dark, winding, narrow path through the rock seemed interminably long.

Eventually though, I saw light at the end of the tunnel.

My heartbeat quickened.

We emerged into a much bigger cavern, the narrow river opening out into another pool. But unlike the last pool, this one ran straight over the edge of a sheer drop.

I gaped, my pulse racing even as our boat slowed. I could hear the water crashing down over the rocks, and I had no idea how far the drop over the edge was. The cavern beyond was huge, the ceiling impossibly high and the far wall hard to make out.

I moved my eyes to the prince and saw that he was staring at me.

"What is this place?" I asked him, my voice small against the sound of the water. I was relieved that our boat appeared to be completely stationary now, hovering in the middle of the cavern.

"It is a place I have recently discovered," the Prince answered.

"How is the current not taking us over the edge?" I asked, though as I moved my eyes to the shadows filling the sail, I realized I already knew the answer. His magic was keeping us where we were. Which meant anybody without magic would be carried straight over the cliff.

The boat rocked as the Prince moved, ducking one arm down to scoop up a handful of water from the pool.

I suppressed a squeak of alarm and gripped the sides of the boat with both hands. My eyes moved to the waterfall edge, unbidden.

"Drink," said the Prince, and held out his cupped hand to me.

"What?"

"Drink the water from the pool."

I moved as much as I dared to peer into the pool. The water was bright and clear, the rock visible around the sides until inky darkness replaced it. Distrust flowed through me as looked back at the Prince.

"Why would I drink pool water from underneath a mountain, offered to me by a male who wants me dead?"

His jaw tensed. "I don't want you dead. You know I don't want you dead. We have been over this what seems like a hundred times.”

“Oh sure. You only want me dead after I've helped you with some secret task that you won't tell me about."

Anger crossed his features, his bright eyes flashing dark. "I am trying to show you now. Fates help me, if you will not do anything you are told this will take a very long time. Time I do not have.”

I stared at him and his proffered hand. "I have to drink the pool water?"

"If you want to leave this place alive with your friends, then yes. Drink the fucking water."

I leaned forward, ready to take a sip. But as I drew my head close to his large hands, I found myself taking in the rough skin that didn’t match the clean nails, the fine white scars under silver rings that no fighter could afford.

The male was an enigma, a contradiction. Desire to know more about him filled me, and I drew back. “I’ll get my own,” I muttered, before carefully dipping my own hand down into the pool. The boat rocked a little, but I was able to keep enough liquid in my hand to sip from.

It tasted of nothing. Just… water.

I looked at the Prince. “What happens now?”

Slowly, he tipped away the water in his own hand, eyes fixed on mine. There was a look I couldn’t decipher in them. Probably irritation.

“You are not a patient human.”

“No. I’m not.”

“Have you considered practicing it?”

“Patience?”

“Yes.”

“I’m not sure it’s something you can practice.”

“Believe me, it is. You are testing mine.”

I stopped myself from rolling my eyes. “And you mine. Why did I have to drink the water?”

“I do not know how long it will take to work on a human,” he said.

“How long what will take?”

“The effects of the water.” His answer made me uneasy, but before I could demand he tell me more, everything turned green.

I gripped the boat edge, blinking around. The green melted into yellow, bright enough it made my eyes water. “What’s happening?”

I looked at the Prince and the yellow morphed into orange. The only things not moving through the painfully bright colors were his eyes. They stayed clear icy blue as the orange faded to red.

“You are receiving the sight.”

“What sight? Everything’s the wrong color!” Panic laced my words, red turning to purple.

“It will return to normal in a moment.”

The idea of everything I could see rolling through the colors of the rainbow permanently made me feel abruptly motion sick. But as everything moved to blue, and much darker, there was a moment of fuzziness that gave me new cause for panic. Just as I began to shake my head blindly, gripping the boat so hard my fingers hurt, everything cleared.

And the cavern didn’t look the same as it had before.

All the colors were back to normal, only now, there was something jutting out over the cliff edge.

It was an arm. A giant stone arm, three times as wide as I was, ending in an open hand, palm facing up and hovering over the empty space below. Standing on the palm were statues. I was too far away to make them out clearly, but they were in a ring, facing inward.

“You can see it?”

“If by it you mean an enormous stone arm rising out of the water holding a load of statues over a sheer drop, then yes. I see it.”

“Good.”

The boat began to move, and I shook my head slowly as it butted gently against the stone wrist.

“I’m not getting out of this boat.”

“Yes. You are.”

The Prince moved easily from the little vessel onto the part of the stone arm that rose from the water. He held his hand out to me.

“No.”

“You are scared?”

I blinked at him. Yes . But how the hell was I supposed to admit that to him? “No.”

“Then why will you not come?”

I glared at him. He knew full well I was scared. Defiance soared through my veins, replacing the fear. I slapped his hand out of the way and scrambled out of the boat, getting my backside on the stone before slowly standing up. The wrist was wide, and I felt sturdier on the makeshift bridge than I thought I would.

“Good.” The Prince turned and strode down the arm, only pausing when he reached the cliff edge. He looked over the side, glanced back at me, then continued until he reached the palm and the ring of statues.

You’ve got this, Reyna. This is what you need. Find out what he wants. Get leverage. Do as you’re told. Don’t fall over a waterfall under a mountain and die .

I took a deep breath and followed him.