20. James

20

JAMES

C old sweat covered my back. "What are you talking about?" I managed, though I feared I already knew the answer. "What event?"

Jeffry's eyes glittered with malice. "Two weeks ago, a comet graced the skies—do you remember it?"

I nodded numbly. The celestial event occurred once every seventy-five years or so, its history stretching back to antiquity. The palace traditionally held a viewing party for the peerage, but my father had canceled it due to overcast skies. Instead, I'd ventured out with Adina, and we'd been fortunate enough to catch a glimpse of it after the Parade of Lights.

"When His Majesty was informed that there was a break in the clouds, he sent for you to share the moment on the royal balcony with him and your mother. A once-in-a-lifetime chance," Jeffry continued, his voice dripping with false sentimentality. "Imagine his surprise when he was informed you were missing, and Ravana had been disabled. He wanted to send out a search party, but I asked him to leave the investigation to me. Coupled with some troubling news I'd received about stolen gold, it all made me very suspicious."

Jeffry's grin turned vicious. "It's amazing what you can overhear when no one can see you." He rubbed the ring, and suddenly, he vanished. Not the wavering mirage effect of most invisibility tech, but a complete disappearance—even his shadow was gone.

"I followed your tracks, and they led me many places," his disembodied voice continued. "You've been a busy man, wandering Londabad at night like a common thief. But who could blame you, when your instructor in wandering is a thief herself?"

"Leave her out of this!" I shouted, my composure finally cracking. "She has nothing to do with my decision to go beyond the palace walls!"

"Not at first, I'm sure," Jeffry agreed, materializing beside me. His sudden proximity made me flinch. "But I think she has everything to do with the fact that you decided to keep endangering yourself."

His fingers dug into my shoulder like talons as he leaned in close, his breath hot against my ear. "Did you know all the gold in the palace can be traced?" he hissed. "It's all been exposed to a mildly radioactive isotope—easy enough to counter with our medical technologies, but just as easy to follow with the proper equipment. I found the man your thief has been selling your father's property to, and I gave him the ending every thief deserves." His grip tightened painfully. "And next, I'm going to do the same to your little?—"

Before he could finish, my fist connected with his face with a satisfying crunch. Jeffry reeled back clutching his nose, while I stood there, chest heaving, barely containing the urge to run him through. I wanted to end his life as surely as he was ending all my hopes, but I couldn't. I wasn't a murderer, and besides, I still had a chance to put a stop to this before Adina got caught in the crossfire.

Without a backward glance, I bolted from my chambers. I had to go straight to my father, to beg for forgiveness and plead for Adina's life. I'd offer him anything he wanted—I'd marry Lavanya tomorrow if that's what it took to spare her.

I raced through the palace corridors, a blur of opulent tapestries and startled faces as I passed wide-eyed servants and guards. My heart pounded in my ears as I burst into the audience chamber where my father, mother, and an assortment of the peerage were engaged in casual conversation as if the world wasn't crumbling around me.

The moment my father's gaze fell upon me, I saw the ice in his eyes. He knew why I was there, and his expression told me he was not inclined toward mercy.

"Honored guests," he announced before I could open my mouth, "please oblige me by stepping out into the gardens for a moment. I need to speak with my son."

A chorus of murmurs filled the air as the nobility filed out. My mother paused as she passed me, laying a gentle hand on my shoulder. "I wish you had come to me," she whispered, her eyes filled with a mixture of sorrow and disappointment. Then she too was gone, leaving me alone with the king in the vast gilded chamber.

"Father," I began, struggling to regain my composure. "I need to speak to you."

"To speak?" he questioned, his voice sharp. "Or to confess?"

"I—"

"Because if you're here to lie to me about where you've been and who you've been doing it with, I don't want to hear it." He stepped closer, his face a mask of cold disapproval.

This was always how it went with my father. No matter my accomplishments or the lengths I went to in order to please him, nothing was ever enough. Even agreeing to marry the woman of his choosing couldn't satisfy him.

His only comment had been, "I expect she will tolerate you well enough." I didn't know what I'd done in the past to deserve such constant disappointment.

I wanted to believe that it was Jeffry's influence, and that underneath the enchantment or whatever Jeffry had done to him, my father loved me, but I had a feeling that he never had.

Perhaps he was incapable of love.

Nevertheless, I couldn't let fear silence me now. "I did leave the palace," I admitted, my voice steadier than I felt. "On multiple occasions."

"So you did," he said, his tone cutting. "Gallivanting around Londabad with some pauper who bewitched you into giving her gold. Our gold. My gold, James." His dark, bushy eyebrows drew down over his piercing brown eyes. "To give away your birthright like that as though it means nothing to you?—"

"What should it mean?" I shouted, my frustration finally boiling over. "What could it mean, when I have no way of knowing its true value? I knew nothing of Londabad before this, Father. Nothing! The children of the peerage are allowed more freedom than I ever was. Every pauper in the city is freer than I am."

"Would you exchange your wealth and security for their 'freedom'?" he asked, his voice dripping with disdain.

In my heart, I knew I would. In a heartbeat. But I couldn't say that, not if I hoped to save Adina. "No," I forced out. "Of course not. But I ask that you don't let my poor choices reflect on the woman who helped me make my way in the city and did everything to keep me safe. I gave the gold to her freely, as payment for her help, and I should be punished for it."

"And you will be," he said, his voice flat. "You will. James..." The king rubbed a hand over his eyes, and for a brief moment, I saw not the stern ruler, but a sad, worried, old man. For a few precious seconds, he looked like a real father, someone genuinely concerned for my well-being. Then he lifted his gaze, and the illusion shattered. "Come with me," he said coldly. "I have something you need to see."

He led me not to the gardens where the peerage were undoubtedly milling about like gaudy, bumbling moths, but through a door behind the throne. I'd never passed through it before; I'd only vaguely remembered its existence. It opened onto a narrow staircase that plunged downward, deeper and deeper into the bowels of the palace.

The air grew colder as we descended, the darkness broken only by lights that flickered to life as we passed. The silence was oppressive, with only the sound of our footsteps echoing off the stone walls.

"Where are we going?" I finally asked, my voice sounding small in the confined space.

"The dungeon."

"Why are we going there?" I dreaded the answer.

"You will see."

He refused to speak further, wouldn't even look my way until we reached a tall, dark metal door at the end of a long corridor. With a gesture, he bade me enter. I stepped inside, my heart thundering in my chest, and found myself in a chamber of horrors.

The walls were lined with torture implements, their cruel edges gleaming in the dim light. Two massive tables dominated the room, covered in thick chains meant to hold down the tormentor's victims.

But it was the center of the room that drew my horrified gaze.

A small figure knelt on top of a low stone slab, arms bound behind its back and a rough sack covering its head.

Jeffry stood above the figure, my sword clutched in his hands. His nose was no longer bleeding, but his face was a mottled mess of bruises. The look of pure satisfaction in his eyes made my stomach churn.

"Finally," he said, his voice thick with anticipation. "It's time to get this over with."

No. He couldn't mean...

This couldn't be...

The figure was so small, so vulnerable.

Even if it wasn't Adina—and oh, how I prayed it wasn't—whoever this was didn't deserve to die.

I turned to my father and fell to my knees, my pride forgotten in the face of this horror. "Please," I begged, my voice cracking. "I'm begging you. Don't do this."

My father's face remained impassive. "You betrayed my trust," he said, his voice as cold as the dungeon air. "You betrayed this family."

"I didn't realize," I pleaded, tears stinging my eyes. "Please! I just wanted to see something more than the palace walls. You have to believe me, Father, I never wanted to disappoint you!"

"And yet you did." He sighed, a sound of profound weariness. "And now this young woman will pay the price for it. Jeffry."

He made a curt gesture, and my heart nearly stopped as Jeffry ripped the sack from the prisoner's head, revealing Adina!

Her enormous eyes were brimming with tears, and despite the gag I could hear her muffled whimpers of fear. She stared at me, her gaze pleading without words, and I lunged forward, desperate to reach her.

A sharp blow to my back sent me sprawling to the cold stone floor. "I should have known it was too much to ask for you to maintain your dignity in the face of your punishment," my father barked, his voice laced with disgust. "Jeffry, do it!"

"No!" I screamed, clawing at the ground as I tried to crawl toward Adina. "Please, no!"

Swish-thunk !

The sound of my sword cleaving through flesh and bone was sickening in its finality. Adina's head hit the ground with a dull thud, rolling just far enough to hide her face from my view as her lifeblood poured onto the floor in a crimson tide.

I didn't need to see her face to know that she'd died terrified.

I didn't need to see her body to know that her death was my fault.

My fault.

My fault .