Chapter 28

Chapter

Twenty-Eight

CALLISTO

It's been two days since we found Ned out in the woods, but in that time my energy has slowly returned to the point where I feel pretty much back to normal. When I walk into Silas's temporary bedroom, I see that he's seated in a chair before the desk, poring over a book.

"Whatcha reading?" I ask.

"Nonsense about magic," he says.

"What's that mean?" I walk over to the chair, and since there's not exactly room for me to sit in front of him, I squeeze myself in behind him, wrapping my arms around his chest with my legs on each side of his. While the two of us don't necessarily fit phenomenally well in the chair, it's extremely comfortable wrapping him up. I could just sit here all day squeezing him to me.

I rest my head against his shoulder and close my eyes.

"How's Ned doing?" Silas asks as he cups my hands tightly.

"I honestly haven't heard much, so I'm hoping to hear more soon."

"Good. I hope so too."

"What do you want to do?" I ask.

"Hmm… I want to get a boring house that I will stuff you into and refuse to let you wander off." He fully knows that I wasn't asking about something that far in the future but instead about the mess happening in the present. Even so, his answer sounds almost intoxicating.

I bite my lip to keep myself from smiling too hard. There's still plenty of time to scare him off before we get to the "boring house together thing," so I have to be careful. "Yeah? Are you going to open another tavern to poison people?"

"I might. What about you? The person who can actually poison people."

"You're saying I'd be a good addition to your tavern? We could poison them together? How romantic."

Silas leans back and squishes me a little against the back of the chair as I laugh; I just respond by squeezing him even tighter. It makes Silas laugh too as he shakes his head. "No! I've never poisoned them… that I know of. Now what would you do if we were free of all of this?"

I think about it for a moment. "Well… I mean… if I had a home… to go back to, I couldn't think of anything nicer… especially with someone like you by my side. But enough about that," I say, wanting to push that idea as far away from me as I can. I don't want to be disappointed, and I've found the best way to never be disappointed is to never assume I'll have those things. To worry about the here and now and not what could be or could have been. So I quickly shift to a safer topic. "I always thought it'd be fun to help people. But I don't really know how. I only know how to be sneaky, steal things, and poison things… I definitely don't have the characteristics of a hero, do I?"

He tilts his head a bit so he can glance at me. "And you feel that I do? My magic is literally the ability to use fear to kill people. I don't see anyone raving about abilities like that."

"Is that how your magic works?" I ask curiously.

Silas doesn't say anything, and I realize that maybe he doesn't want to talk about it. It has always seemed to bother him. Is that why he'd been staring at the book of magic with so much disdain when I'd walked in? Does he regret not having a standard type of magic like something out of the book?

With a sigh, he finally says, "Yes… that is a stipulation of my magic. By seeking out their fears, I can manipulate the souls—or at least that's what I assume they are—of those I kill and use them to kill for me before setting them free to move on."

"But you saved hundreds or thousands of lives in the war," I remind him. "Every day you fought was one less day that hundreds or thousands had to die."

"It's hard to see it like that," he says, body tense.

"Maybe someday."

"So… you want to be a hero." It's not a question but a statement.

"I don't know about hero . Just like… help people… the way people like you and Markson helped me."

"I was not a hero."

"In my eyes, you were. Although… I'm probably not the most trustworthy. I was such a little shit."

Silas grins and squeezes my hands tighter. "Maybe. But you were also very sweet. When I was sick after killing those people, you made that flower bloom for me. It reminded me that there was still some hope to be had."

"Until your horse ate it!"

He chuckles about that. "Nah, the hope wasn't with the flower, it was with you. I knew that if I fought harder, I could save children from living like you did. I could help them."

"It seems like Madden and the others still want to fight, if they're still part of some kind of group or resistance or something."

"I'm not sure fighting is the right word. They want… change, maybe? We've all already done our fighting. We wanted to save humans from being so oppressed that they had no freedom within Vermillion. And we accomplished it… to a point. Fae still reign supreme and we're still plagued by tales of genocide and torture, which keeps us in line. But we do have more opportunities than ever before. I think they have some strange idea that if they eliminate the current monarchs, they'll be replaced with people who are more willing to search for change… or something."

"That's why you'll just live here. With me. There's none of that bullshit here."

"Maybe."

"Not maybe."

"Hmm…" Silas seems to ponder this. "When I say yes and agree to live here, is that when I figure out what's wrong with this place?"

"No. There's not that much wrong with it. Yeah, it has a few things here and there, but besides Markson making me write until I cried, they're not that evil."

"Until you cried?"

"Yeah. They were fake tears. I was trying to get his wife to take pity on me because he was making me write ‘I will not steal money from others. I will stop being a lazy ass and make my own' like five hundred times. I was like ten! And definitely not a lazy ass! I was working ultra hard stealing all that money!"

"If he gave you everything you needed, why did you need to steal?" Silas asks.

I think about it for a moment, but it's difficult to explain how hard it was to understand that others weren't lying to me. "Because I was a bit like you… I was constantly waiting for the day when someone would jump out and go, ‘Just kidding! It was all a trick. Look at how foolish you are to believe anyone could ever care about you.' So I thought if I just had a little stash of money and food and clothes, I would never go hungry or freeze again… and I was good at it."

I toss his coin purse up in the air as he cocks his head.

"When the hell did you get that?"

"A while ago now."

"How? I was holding your hands!"

I drop it in his lap and squeeze him. "I know."

Silas pulls one wrist forward until I'm forced to be dragged to his side so he can look down at me from where I lie in this awkward position. "You can have it all."

"What? No, I was just playing around," I say.

"I know, but you can have every last coin."

"What? Are you so rich that it doesn't matter?"

"No, I mean, I have some money, but I'm not that rich. But I don't want you to ever have to want for anything again."

"I want your mule."

"I don't want you to ever have to want for anything but my mule," he teases.

I grin as I let him drag me around so I'm now half lying on his lap and half stuck in the chair. It's really quite uncomfortable, but I love it anyway. "You're really too sweet. I actually have quite a bit of money, you know? So I don't need to steal your coins."

"You have a house?"

"No… I just… frolic around, forcing myself into the lives of others or doing jobs that constantly take me here and there. Sometimes I live in the castle, sometimes I travel with groups. But even so, I don't feel like I've ever had someone who could be my family… and that's what I want more than anything."

He trails his fingers over my neck to my back. "I hope someday I can change that."

There's a knock on the door.

"Callisto?" a woman calls.

I straighten myself up so I'm not sprawled all over Silas's lap. "You can open the door."

The woman is one of Ainsley's messengers who I don't know overly well. "I was told to inform you that Ned is doing well."

I smile at the news. "Oh! That's fantastic. Do you know anything else?"

"I'm sorry, that's all the information I was given. I can inquire if you'd like?"

"Nah, maybe I'll peek my head in to see, just in case he has more information on what's going on in Vermillion. Madden's been wanting to see the puppies again anyway," I say.

She gives me a nod and leaves me to it as I turn to Silas.

"Want to go check?"

"Sure," he says as I head toward the door but before I get too far, I reach back and hold a hand out to Silas. He takes it and I pull him up to his feet before he gives it a squeeze, leaving me to feel like I'm floating.

Leading him down the hall, I come across Dandelion who glances over at me.

"Hey, we're going down to see Ned. You want to stay here?"

He seems reluctant about the idea. "I was going to take a nap, but I can go with you."

"Just take a nap," I say. "I don't need you to come. We probably won't be gone long."

"Come find me when you're back. We can snuggle," he decides. "I suppose Silas can join… grudgingly."

"I'm actually more of a watcher than a snuggler," Silas says.

"Creepy," Dandelion comments, which leaves Silas standing there in confusion. Dandelion doesn't care, just pats me on the back and heads off.

"Why am I the creepy one?" Silas asks.

"Well, you did say you'd just watch, which is a bit creepy," I tease.

"I meant in an ‘I'm not going to snuggle with your beast. I'm going to stand off to the side' way."

"Sure, sure," I say with a grin as I head outside to where Madden seems to be in a conversation with a dog that looks far more interested in chewing on a stick than "talking" to Madden.

When Madden sees us, he perks up, then immediately tries to make it look like he wasn't excited to see us. It's all very strange… like why can't he just be excited?

"We're going to see how Ned is doing, if you want to come. I guess he woke up," I say.

"He's where the puppies are, right?" Madden asks.

"He is."

Madden flips off the dog that is enraptured by its stick and hurries off after us. "That dog was an asshole."

"Weirdly, everything you talk to seems to be one," Silas says.

"Ha. Ha. Funny. Where's Dandelion?"

"Taking a nap," I respond. "He seems pretty happy here."

"I don't blame him," Silas says. "He's being treated like an actual person for the first time in a very long time."

"Even so, we can't let our guard down," Madden cautions as he looks around, like he's trying to find something suspicious. He ends up pinpointing a super-sweet lady who runs the bakery. "I bet that woman's an assassin."

I shake my head. "She's a baker."

"That's what she wants you to think."

"Who always makes extra bread and hands it out to the homeless every evening," I say.

Madden hesitates. "That's what she wants you to think. Instead, she's putting some covert assassination plans in the bread."

Silas certainly has to be on my side, but he shakes his head. "I'm with Madden on this. I've never seen a more suspicious-looking woman," he teases as the woman hugs her daughter and kisses all over her face while the little girl laughs.

"How heinous!" I announce.

Madden actually laughs, and I glance over at him, surprised my joke has been acknowledged, but he quickly looks the other way, like he's going to pretend he didn't find something I did amusing.

We head into the leatherworker's shop, but when we open the door, we're greeted by neither dog nor human. Assuming that he's in the back, where their residence is, I walk through the shop until I reach the door and knock.

"Hey, Davy, it's Callisto," I call.

The door swings open. "Come in," he says.

I step inside a moment before something slams against the back of my head, throwing me right into the room. I trip and stumble before hitting down on my hands and knees.

"Callisto!" Silas yells as he rushes in, but before he can do anything, Davy presses the tip of his sword against my throat as I realize that maybe… somewhere along the line, we fucked up.

"Where is it?" Ned demands.

"Where is what?" I ask, rather startled by this turn of events. He looks quite fine compared to how he was a few days ago!

"The coin and the prince's body?" he asks, eyes narrowed. Why the hell would someone working with the Vermillions be here? And I've known these two a while; hell, Ned is part of the military, and still, he's jumping sides? Why?

"Haven't seen either, actually," I say.

Davy grabs me and presses the blade against my neck as he starts dragging me.

"Quietly follow or we'll kill him," Davy threatens.

"Do we have to?" Madden asks.

"Listen to them," Silas snaps as he pushes Madden forward. I'm dragged out of the room and into the next, which has a stairwell leading down into the cellar. The shove makes me stumble and nearly fall down the stairs, but Davy tightens the grip on my neck, choking me a bit on the way down.

When he finally loosens his hold when we reach the lower floor, it makes me cough, and Silas looks at me in concern.

"Put your hands behind your back," Davy growls.

"Silas," Madden whispers, but Silas shakes his head, telling me there's some reason he's not using his magic against them. Is he afraid to kill them? Maybe he's waiting to make sure they're truly bad people before doing so?

I could poison them, but in a room this small, I would poison Silas and Madden as well. If I could touch their skin directly, I could poison them individually, but the moment I poisoned one, the other would probably kill me. They've clearly thought of that because they're both wearing gloves so their bare skin doesn't touch mine.

Think, think, think…

"Just do what they say," Silas says, the personification of calm as Ned starts patting him down.

Ned pulls a knife off him, but besides that, it doesn't seem like Silas was carrying anything else. I know his sword is leaning against the desk where he'd left it, but it's not like he could have hidden that somewhere on his body. Once Ned is finished, Silas just sits down like it's every day that we get whisked off to a cellar where his arms and legs are tied to a chair.

Since they're patting us down, I have to assume they're also looking for the coin, so I have to make sure they don't get it. It's resting in my pocket, so I need to just put it somewhere they can't find it.

"I'm sitting, I'm sitting," Madden says, even though Ned hasn't patted him down yet. Madden chooses to sit on Silas, which seems to leave everyone in the room highly confused.

"Get in your own chair, dammit," Davy barks as I see Madden slide a knife into Silas's pants before Ned yanks Madden up and starts patting him down. Finding nothing, he gives him a shove toward another chair where he's also tied down. While Silas can't quite reach the knife Madden gave him, it does leave him with a weapon.

And while all that is going on, I tuck the coin into my hand. I don't want to risk lifting my hand up or moving it, so I'll have to rely on sleight of hand to keep their eyes off the coin. As Davy holds me with his sword at the ready, Ned starts patting me down. He yanks my arms this way and that as I deftly switch the coin to different positions in my hand so it's never showing.

"Nothing," Ned concludes.

"What the fuck do you mean nothing?" Davy growls as he starts a much more vigorous pat down. He crams his arms up under my armpits, yanks my mouth open with gloved hands, and nearly chops my balls off as he checks to make sure I'm not tucking the coin somewhere.

"I don't have any coin," I say. "And soon I won't have any balls by the way you're patting me down! Can you be any gentler?"

"Would you like me to cut them off to make sure the coin's not down there?"

"Not really, thank you," I say.

"Maybe it's in his room?" Ned suggests.

"Yeah, Ned, go check his room," Davy snaps.

"Yes, sir!" He takes off up the stairs as Davy drags me over to another chair and ties me up. Then he proceeds to stare at the three of us in dead silence as he thinks.

"Davy, why are you doing this?" I ask, wondering why the hell he'd switch sides like this.

"Don't talk unless you're going to say something useful," Davy decides.

"How will I know if it's useful if I don't know why you're doing this?"

"That was definitely not useful," Davy informs me. "Where is the coin and where is the prince's body? Those are the only two things I need out of you."

"I don't know where either are."

"We all know that you took over as the prince. So where is the body? You had to have hidden it somewhere so they wouldn't stumble across it and figure out your stunt."

Who even told him all of this? I thought he was just a leathermaker? "There was no body! I just saw the group of dead soldiers and took the prince's horse, end of story," I say, hoping he believes it but pretty certain he won't.

The door opens and Ned comes running down the stairs. He's been gone about ten minutes now, but was that really enough time to get into the castle and search the rooms?

"I have no idea where his room is," Ned announces, and Davy looks like he's trying to shit a brick with the way his face turns red.

Davy looks exasperated with his son. "What the fuck, Ned? Do you understand how risky this is? We have to be prompt. He's staying in the castle, so you need to go in the castle."

"Yeah, but like… what room?"

"Ask them!"

Ned turns to us and stares us down. "What room?"

I shrug. "It's like… second floor, and… I don't know, third door?"

"Fourth," Silas says.

"Yeah, but that's your room. Maybe they want my room."

"Then that'd be fifth," Silas says. "On the right."

"Depends what stairway you go up," Madden comments. "If you like go in and take a right and then a left and go up the stairway next to the statue of that super-naked man with a super-big dick, then it's going to be on your left."

"There's a statue of a dick?" Ned asks.

Davy looks exasperated that his son has veered so far off topic. "No! Goddammit, Ned, go. Don't let anyone see you."

"If you pass the second dick, you've gone too far!" I add.

"What if it's not even there and then I get caught?" Ned asks. "What if we torture them first to make sure it's there?"

"Fine, get something to torture them with."

"Like?"

"I don't fucking know, Ned. Grab something upstairs."

Ned stands for a moment and Davy sighs. "Fucking watch them."

"I will." He stands at attention as Davy hurries up the stairs. "Why are there so many dick statues? Does the queen just really like dicks?"

"Yes," I say as I hear Silas and Madden whispering to each other. "Super loves them."

"Silas," Madden hisses. "Why aren't you doing anything?"

"I can't for some reason," Silas whispers back. "There's something blocking my magic."

"What the fuck are you lot whispering about?" Ned asks.

"I was telling him how much I like your trousers," Madden says. "They fit very well."

Ned stares at his pants for a second too long before giving Madden a look and blushing a little. It's a very weird turn of events but we just roll with it.

Davy comes back laden down with tools of his trade. He sets them all on a table and picks up the first one. "This one is for punching holes in the leather. I bet I could punch a few holes in you. And this one is a beveler, but I bet it'd work just as well with human flesh."

I really think this is going to hell extremely fast. "Davy, I thought you liked me."

"I always thought you were an annoying little shit from the moment you stole my ring," he says.

Silas and Madden both look over at me as I grimace.

Maybe being a shitty little thief is catching up to me! "I was a kid; it was an accident. I returned it."

"After Markson threatened your life," he growls.

"Okay, but is that equivalent to this? Like I steal a ring when I was maybe twelve and you go and join an evil army threatening to take over an entire kingdom? Is it really the same?"

He smacks me across the face, and I realize that maybe it is. Maybe he really fucking liked that ring.

"Don't you dare hit him," Silas growls, anger radiating around him. While I don't know if the two deserve death, I'm quite curious why Silas's magic isn't working.

"You're first, eh?" Davy asks as he grabs one of his tools and heads over to my handsome man. Silas doesn't seem worried at all in the slightest, but I'm realizing how shit out of luck we are.

"Wait! Ned, the coin is in my room in the castle. There's a desk in the room with a drawer with one of those like secret compartments. There's a little switch under, you just have to give it a push and the door will open. The coin is there."

Davy sighs, as though he's disappointed I caved so quickly. "Go get it, now. And if you're lying, I'm going to torture and murder this one, and then that one, and then cut you apart piece by piece."

Ned's long gone as I try to call for some vines or something to bust through the wall and like… bludgeon Davy or something, but the cellar is ridiculously well made to the point that not even some rather vigorous roots that I can feel on the outside can reach me.

That's when I hear a dog barking from outside, and I realize that salvation might have been delivered to us in the form of a customer walking into his store.

"Fuck," Davy says, very well knowing that if someone came waltzing in, we could scream and get some help. He eyes us then scurries up the stairs as I listen carefully.