Chapter Six

Darius slammed one fist against the basalt wall of his cell, ignoring the jolt of pain that shot through his arm. He'd been pacing for what felt like an eternity, sometimes dredging up his slowly flagging strength to take his dragon form and rail against the bars that held him captive, sometimes blasting them with the most concentrated fire he could summon. It wasn't enough, it wasn't working. The bars weren't yielding, and the influence of concentrated earth and basalt around him was dampening his abilities too far to break free.

There was nothing to do. He couldn't act beyond what he had already done by asking Kai to help Tanitha. And that helplessness was maddening.

He began to pace, his steps quick with agitation. He'd heard nothing from Kai since giving him that desperate entreaty. Perhaps that was to the good; he'd asked Kai to tell Naratha what he'd learned about Tanitha's condition, convince her to stay her hand at least for the time being, then go to the Hold and ensure that no harm came to Tanitha there from Alethia. If Kai hadn't returned to him with additional news, it likely meant that he was occupied with the task Darius had given him.

At that moment, Darius heard footsteps from the stone passage outside his prison, and he whirled to face the front. The door to the room opened.

"What's happening—?" he began, expecting Kai, but then broke off. To his mingled astonishment and apprehension, it wasn't Kai who entered, but Alethia of Zharen.

"Alethia," he said, startled. His mind set quickly to racing; why was she here, instead of at his Hold? Had she already managed to break through the enchantments protecting Tanitha?

Had his entreaty to Kai been too late?

Alethia didn't speak, not even in greeting. Instead, she looked him over, a strange and wary assessment in her gaze. Beneath that, though, was something else, something he'd never seen in her before despite knowing full well that she was capable of it. Fury. A deep, roiling fury.

"Your Highness," she said, her bow quick enough that it was verging on ironic. Which it probably was, he thought with frustration, given their positions relative to the prison bars between them. "I hope you're well."

Darius looked at her warily, keeping the worst of his fears from his face. His mind was racing, but without knowing how much of the truth of the situation Alethia already knew, he needed to proceed with caution.

"Not particularly," he said at last, giving a quick motion to encapsulate the cell and the situation at large.

"No, I suppose not," she said. She walked along the length of the cell, eyes never leaving him. "I just learned something rather interesting," she said. "Would you like to hear about it?"

Since he was the very definition of a captive audience, he didn't suppose he had a choice, but decorum won out over the desire to say something to that effect.

"Please," he said with a courteous nod of his head. Despite his calm demeanor, though, his thoughts raced. He had more than a small suspicion about what could birth the kind of fury he'd glimpsed in that bare second, and he wished for an instant that he hadn't long ago given up on prayers and entreaties to the gods. Not that Alethia was the type to bow to divine intervention, anyway.

"Two nights ago, I returned from my training," she said. She'd made it to the far end of the cell, and she turned and began to slowly pace its length in the opposite direction. "Six weeks of testing myself, preparing myself for the Trials," she said, her voice taking on a musing lilt. "Of course, you know about that," she said, glancing at him. "Seeing as you instructed me to do it. And I'm sure you were receiving my missives during that time? Progress updates, the sort of training I was putting myself through? All to prepare myself to prove to you and your family that I was worthy to be your bride."

She gave a small, twisted smile. Darius felt as if he'd eaten something cold and curdled. He knew exactly where this was going, but he still couldn't bring himself to answer. When he'd sent Alethia away to prepare herself, his intention had been to marry her. That same night, though, had been the very night he'd realized how much he'd been lying to himself, how unbearable the thought of being without Tanitha truly was. And so he'd refused to keep deceiving himself, resolving to be honest about what he wanted.

He had not extended the same courtesy to Alethia.

"Have you been told what tasks I've been given to occupy myself since returning? Since your mother told me why you were, shall we say, unavailable to meet with me?" Alethia asked. He didn't answer. "No?" she asked, her tone's lightness at full odds with the dark anger he still saw in her eyes. "That's a pity," she commented. "It must be difficult for you to be down here, with no idea what is happening to everyone involved in this."

Darius swallowed, his mouth suddenly feeling dry. "Alethia…"

"I'll tell you, then," she said, cutting him off with a look of warning. "Your mother told me that you had made a grave mistake. That you, being at your heart a compassionate man, had spared someone who meant you harm. That you had sheltered an enemy, not truly understanding the danger she posed. That this woman had taken advantage of your nature in more ways than one. That she'd soul-bound you." She resumed her slow, contemplative pacing. "Naturally, I was furious on your behalf," she said casually. "Ready to tear mountains apart to get to any human who would dare do such a thing. After all, the story your mother had told me made sense, given what I knew of you. You'd always treated me with kindness, and a decency that I'd rarely encountered elsewhere. I thought that I'd found someone that wanted to come to know me, who thought that a union could be more than a means to an end. That I could be a companion instead of a tool. It was a lovely feeling, believing that. And so of course I was very inclined to put an end to the sort of woman who would endanger the man who had offered it to me."

"Alethia, I did want to come to know you like that," he said, agonized. It was true. He had. He'd admired her strength, her grace, and her direct nature. And he'd wanted what she'd just described for both himself and the woman he chose. "I never meant to—"

"Your Highness, I respectfully advise you to stop talking," Alethia said, her voice low, and despite her words, there was very little of the respect she'd mentioned in her tone. Normally this might have angered Darius, but something in her manner was warning him to make no attempt to chasten her for it.

"So," she continued, as if there hadn't been an interruption. "At your mother's request, I went to your Hold. I spoke with Tanitha. Her manner surprised me. She spoke of you with familiarity, and she seemed somehow convinced that you wouldn't want her to come to harm even after the atrocity she'd committed against you. This raised some discomfiting questions in my mind, obviously. But I dismissed them. I had asked nothing of you since the day I met you but your honesty. And surely, surely, I thought, I could not have been taken for such a fool that I'd falsely believed that you'd given it to me." She stopped her pacing to look at him for several seconds. "Do you know what happened next?" she asked.

Darius swallowed. "Did you hurt her?" he asked, his voice low. He knew it was the wrong thing to say, that asking that question would only give confirmation and thus more pain to Alethia, but he had to know. He had to know if Tanitha was still alive.

Alethia's lip curled into the beginnings of a sneer before she composed her expression. "No," she said. "The girl isn't a fool, and she didn't believe me when I told her that there was a chance we could undo what she'd done, that we might be able to show her mercy. She refused to leave the protection of your Hold."

Darius' shoulders dropped with relief, though it was short-lived as Alethia continued, "I informed your mother, and she assigned a number of really rather impressive demons to break through the enchantments at my side. It was enough to almost make me pity the girl, really." Darius waited, tense, and she continued, "Any sense of pity evaporated when we did break through, though. You see, she wasn't inside. Somehow, while we worked, she must have fled." She frowned. "It was a bit of a sting to everyone's pride, I think, that a lone human girl might manage to escape us. We scoured the surrounding area. Not a trace of her to be found."

"She… she escaped?" Darius asked, his heart pounding. He knew Tanitha was clever and resourceful, but the scenario Alethia had just described was a death sentence. The relief he should have felt at the knowledge that she was still alive was immediately swallowed up by the anxiety and fear of new questions. Was she safe? Was there somewhere she could go for shelter? Would she be able to continue to evade his mother's searchers?

Would she know that even now he was trying to protect her? Or would she think the attempts on her life were at his behest?

Depths of the Abyss… He wanted nothing more than to slump against the wall, hunched against the pain of that thought. He'd left her, telling her he meant to permanently separate them. And then demons had come for her, seeking her blood. Of course she would think this was because of him.

"Yes, she escaped," Alethia said, her voice flat. "Truly, no one has told you what's occurred over the past two days?"

"No," Darius said. Despite how maddening the lack of knowledge had been, despite how much time he'd spent railing at the bars of his cell in fury at that very fact, the deprivation of information wasn't surprising; Kai was out searching for Tanitha, and as for Naratha… he very much doubted that his mother would speak with him again until she was certain that his words were his own. Which meant that if she came to him, there was a very good chance it would be with tidings of Tanitha's death.

He fought to keep the helpless fury and terror that thought brought him from his face. "No," he said again, forcing his voice to remain level. "I've had no word."

"Tanitha came to us," Alethia said. His heart lurched. She'd paused again in her pacing, looking at him with a hard, cold gaze. "She returned to Karazhen and surrendered herself to Her Majesty." Darius couldn't speak, couldn't ask all that he desperately wanted to know. Alethia, mercifully, continued without prompting. "At first I thought it strange; she'd evaded us once, so why wouldn't she have fled elsewhere? To Sabria, perhaps. A soul-speaker with the enmity of the Ivory Throne? They would have welcomed her with open arms."

Darius' whole chest ached. No, that wasn't true. Tanitha was bearing a demon's child. There simply was no path to safety open to her. And it was entirely his fault.

"What happened?" he asked urgently, though he knew how unwise it was to let Alethia know the depth of his feelings for Tanitha. Not now, not when those feelings should have been directed toward her . Alethia regarded him, the reflection of the oil lamp's light flickering in her eyes. "Alethia, please," he said, heart pounding. " What happened? "

"Something that initially appeared very odd," Alethia said. "She didn't surrender herself in exchange for a merciful end. She didn't try to plead her case, or any other tactic that I would have expected. Instead, she simply offered herself in trade. Her freedom for yours."

"What?" Darius asked, trying and failing to keep the astonishment from his voice. "She… she offered herself in trade ?"

Alethia nodded once. "A strange action for an enemy, isn't it?" she asked, the low, simmering anger from before coming back into her voice. "A strange choice for a woman who had allegedly taken advantage of your kindness to gain power over you." She stepped closer, her gaze hard. "But not so strange of a choice, perhaps, for a woman who was desperate to protect the man that she loved. So," Alethia said, the calm of her voice in eerie contrast with the fury in her gaze, "I ask you, Darius. I can see plainly enough how she feels. But what about you?"

His shoulders dropped. There was nothing to be done, no way to soothe the wounded anger he saw in her. Lies would only worsen it, and besides, he'd given her far too many of those already.

"I feel the same," he said quietly. She took a slow step back, shaking her head once in incredulous disbelief. "Alethia… I'm sorry," he said. "I never meant for you to be hurt in any of this."

She stared at him for several long seconds, then turned away. "I think that's probably true," she said icily. "Since intending for me to be hurt would require that you give the matter of my feelings some tiny amount of consideration." Darius flinched internally. Alethia returned to her pacing, each stride slow and controlled. "Tanitha was kind enough to provide an additional piece of information," Alethia said, her voice still frigid. "The fact that she's with child. If she's telling the truth about that— I assume that she is, since you don't appear remotely surprised at the news— and also assuming my recollection of human physiology is correct, that means that you were intimate with her beginning well over a month ago." She tilted her head in consideration as she walked. "Probably longer," she said, her voice falsely level. "Probably at least the entire length of time you were pretending to court me."

Her cold, methodical analysis of the situation was far worse than if she'd shouted or raged at him. "Alethia. I will do whatever I must to make this right for you," he said, pained. "I truly didn't mean for it to go this way. I couldn't have told anyone about her. She would have been killed."

Alethia turned sharply on heel to face him. "I asked you for one thing," she said, a tremble in her voice. Anger or pain or both, he wasn't sure. "I asked you only for your honesty. And instead, you gave me the cruelest thing possible. False hope." She shook her head once, the motion full of disgust. Despite how much he knew he deserved that, though, he had the distinct impression that it was directed at least as much at herself.

She looked back at him. "You used me," she said. "You hid behind your public relationship with me, using it to cover what was happening with her . Tell me, how exactly do you plan to make this right?" she asked, a hint of mockery in her voice. "The usual politics, I imagine? Favorable trade arrangements for Zharen to soothe my wounded pride, perhaps?" She shook her head once. "No, Darius. I will accept none of that."

A chill ran over him. "What would you accept?" he asked, dread working its way through his core.

She cast him a scornful look. "As if there could be anything," she said. "As if you could remove the disgrace you've placed on me, lying to me while you bedded a human woman."

"Disgrace?" he demanded. "Your reputation hasn't been harmed. No one beyond my family knows the truth of what she is to me."

She scoffed. "I'm afraid, Your Highness, that is far from true." He gave a confused shake of the head, but before he could ask for elaboration, she folded her arms and continued, voice low, "If there was something I could do to hurt you right now, I would." He stared at her, stunned that she'd dare to voice that. "I want to be very clear about that," she said. "I want you to know with certainty that the fact that I can do nothing to you doesn't mean that I wouldn't if I had the opportunity. Because I never will have any such opportunity. Instead, I must find justice in the fact that there is nothing I could possibly do that is worse than what's coming to you."

Darius went utterly still. "What are you talking about?" he asked, the dread growing stronger by the second. She didn't answer immediately, just watching him. "Alethia. What are you talking about? "

"Your little human lover has until the child arrives, as I understand it," she said coldly. "That was her condition of surrender. That you would be released, and that she would remain alive long enough for the child to draw its first breath." She shrugged, ignoring the growing horror on Darius' face. "Noble of her, really. At least one of you knows how to exhibit that trait."

"What?" Darius demanded. "She— what ?" Alethia just looked at him coldly. "Alethia, please. Tanitha isn't the one who wronged you," he said. " I did . And I'm willing to do whatever I can to make restitution for that. But Tanitha is completely innocent in this." He gripped one of the bars tight in one hand. "This is wrong," he said, his heart pounding. "You know it's wrong. Don't just stand by and let this happen."

Alethia didn't respond for several seconds, and he struggled in vain to glean anything from her expression.

"There are quite a few things wrong with this situation," she said at last. "I don't see that there is anything to be done to make any of it right. And even if there were, I am not inclined to help you, as I believe I have already expressed." She turned away, her gossamer wings shimmering in the oily lamplight. "You have a rather astonishing amount of nerve to think to ask," she added with half a glance his way, then walked toward the door.

"Alethia, wait," he said, heart pounding. She looked back at him without any real interest or expectation in her gaze. Just that same frigid anger. Nonetheless, he pressed forward. "What would you have done?" he asked, his voice pained. "If there was someone you loved, but that same love endangered them?"

Alethia remained where she was, only partially turned toward him, for several seconds before shaking her head once slowly. "Good evening, Your Highness," she said, her voice still flat and cold. "I don't imagine we'll meet again."

With that, she departed, the cell door swinging shut once more.