55. Dagmara

Deep underground, Dagmara stood face to face with the man who murdered the Azuremi Guardians.

Captain Sabien Renaud.

She could hear the pouring rain pounding against the door at the end of the corridor. Sabien said the door they had passed through didn’t open from this side. That meant she couldn’t turn around and make a run for it, and the door at the end of the hall was the only exit. She had to make it to Queen Bernadette.

“I must admit,” Sabien spoke, his voice rumbling deep in his chest, “I thought you were on to me much sooner. I guess you were preoccupied with the idea that I knew who you were from the moment I laid eyes on you.”

“The day I met you…the night before the coronation—”

“The night you drove a dagger through my chest and shoved me off the bridge,” Sabien added.

“You were there to kill the royal family.”

“Correct. I wasn’t there to speak with them about my magic, I knew exactly where my magic came from. The First Prince.”

“And you framed Claude for the assassinations?”

“It wasn’t hard seeing as he was already known as the Mad King.”

“But he was the one who signed off on the assassins’ false identities,” said Dagmara.

“You mean his royal seal? The one sitting inside his desk? Sorry to say, but he doesn’t sign every document. I have access to it, and I made those aliases with no problem.”

“But one assassin escaped.”

“That was me.”

Horror came crashing down. Dagmara stumbled away from him. He was the one in the aisle the day of the coronation. He was the one she stood up against. He was the one who killed Aleksy.

“I was the third assassin, Samuel Arsenault, who entered Azurem under a false name and then escaped. I still paid the border well to alter my description for the records. However, the mask you found wasn’t mine. That at least was Claude’s,” Sabien said. “The assassin who came for his parents left it behind as she fled for her life.”

“And the poison…” Dagmara’s brain raced with thoughts, “you found the false bottom of the drawer when I was searching elsewhere. You planted it in the drawer for me to find.”

“I love how intelligent you are.”

“Why did you poison us on the terrace anyway?”

“The servant was only supposed to poison you, but I guess I can’t trust anyone these days to do one simple task. I had already made arrangements with the servant before I arrived on the terrace and met you,” Sabien explained. “I thought the real Magdalena would be arriving, and I didn’t have time to call off the assassination attempt on your life.”

“But the letters to Flaustra on Claude’s desk—”

“You think I can read Flaustran?” He let out a bark of laughter. “I made all of that up. Nearly everything I’ve ever told you has been a lie.”

“Why?” Dagmara asked. “Why kill the guardians?”

Sabien inclined his head. “For the First Prince.”

Dagmara swallowed her fear. “TheFirst Prince from the legends? The one who is dead?”

A crooked smile appeared on Sabien’s face. “Yes. He’s locked in a tomb by four branches of magic. Mind, Life, Soul, and Spirit. He needs the branch to be severed for each lock to break, and in order for the branch to be severed, the guardians must be killed,” Sabien explained. “The Mind lock was broken when Claude’s parents died. I’m responsible for the Life lock. With Magdalena still alive, I haven’t killed all the Life Guardians. I need to kill her to break the Life seal.”

“Aren’t you a Life Guardian now? Don’t you have to die for the seal to be broken?”

“No.” Sabien laughed. “I was made a guardian, I have no blood connection to the founding guardians, so my blood doesn’t bind the lock that holds the First Prince.”

“How can you be made a guardian?”

“The First Prince can do anything.”

“But why are you working for him?”

Sabien laughed. “Why not? He is the most powerful guardian of all time. He is the only one who can hold the fifth branch of magic: the Void. Besides, he made me a guardian. Who wouldn’t want to receive the gift of magic?”

“He gave you the magic to assassinate guardians, Sabien,” Dagmara argued.

“You’re an assassin. You of all people should know it’s just a job. Instead of money, I get to be a guardian.”

“Why would the First Prince choose someone like you?”

“For starters, you were assassinating everyone he planted in Azurem, so that’s why he offered it to an Ilusaurian,” Sabien said. “It’s not hard for him to reach people through the Void. You simply have to witness someone you love be killed. Or, you can kill them yourself. That’s what I did.”

“You murdered someone you love for the First Prince?”

“I killed her to be a guardian. Serving the First Prince is only part of that.”

Shaking her head, Dagmara stepped away from him. “You’re despicable.” She stole a glance at the end of the hall, seeing her escape within reach.

“And yet we are so similar.” He smirked.

Dagmara glowered at him.

“Don’t act like you wouldn’t want to be a guardian.” He pointed his finger at her, moving toward her. “You’ve already taken someone’s life. All you’d have to do is kill a guardian, and you would keep the powers the First Prince grants you. Why not kill Magdalena to have the life of a guardian?”

“I would never hurt her.”

“Is she so different from the other lives you claimed?” Sabien countered. “Why is she special?”

“She’s like a sister to me.”

“And you’ve never assassinated someone’s sister?”

Anger began to simmer in Dagmara’s stomach.

“Besides, I’ve noticed you have an…ailment,” Sabien said, his eyes narrowing. “You’re not as good at hiding it as you think.”

Dagmara’s hands curled into fists. “So?”

“Life magic can’t fix that, but perhaps there is a slim chance…” he grabbed her by the chin, tilting her head higher, “...that becoming a guardian would fix you.”

Dagmara knocked his hand aside and swung hard, slapping him across the face. The noise rang through the corridor, and Dagmara felt her palm stinging from the blow. “I don’t need to be fixed. There is nothing wrong with who I am.”

After a moment, Sabien shifted his jaw, running his thumb across his lip. “My sweet Dagger, you really shouldn’t have hit me.” His eyes began to shimmer, and a blue tint edged his pupils.

Dagmara bolted toward the exit. She had nothing on her. All her weapons had been left behind before the wedding ceremony.

Sabien lunged toward her, missing her body but catching the train of her wedding dress. She tripped, slamming face first onto the ground. The impact caused her crown to break free from her hair, clattering to the stone in front of her. The world began to spin, stars dancing in Dagmara’s vision and threatening to obscure her entire sight.

A hand gripped her hip, rolling her onto her back. Sabien hovered over her. He extended his arms, his large hands binding around her throat.

She couldn’t breathe.

“Tell me where Magdalena is!” he growled, his grip tightening. “We can work together.”

Dagmara reached above her head, blindly feeling the stone to find her crown. As soon as she caught the edge, she used it to her advantage. She thrust the pointed diamonds into Sabien’s forearm with as much strength as she had.

Sabien yelled, reeling back. It gave her the leverage to thrust her knee into his groin. He screeched an Ilusaurian curse word she didn’t know, but rolled off her, yanking the crown from his forearm.

Scrambling to her feet, Dagmara ignored the dizziness that threatened to pull her down. She hiked up her dress, charging for the escape. She turned the handle and flew through the door. She battled a canopy of vines concealing the entrance before she burst into the night.

Rain immediately soaked her, streaming down her face and chest. Screaming could be heard in the distance, and muted explosions shook the ground from the attack by the Celesta. A lightning bolt flashed overhead, barely illuminating the forest that laid beyond the exit to the passageway.

She had to get to Magda before Sabien did, but what about Claude? Would he ever forgive her?

Sabien’s arm latched around her waist, yanking her off her feet. She screamed before he slammed her against the rock wall concealing the door. Her breath was instantly stripped from her as her back collided against the wet stone. The Ilusaurian captain was relentless, using his forearm against her throat to pin her in place as she gasped for air. Her head was spinning, and she could feel her heartbeat racing at an all-time high. She tried to kick free, but her attempts were futile. Without her potions and explosives, she had no leverage against his brute strength. She was weak. He was a guardian.

Sabien raised his free hand, summoning the raindrops to him. They transformed in a magical blue hue, congealing together into a dagger made of ice.

He drove the dagger into her stomach.

The immediate surge of pain was overwhelming, taking over every ounce of her senses. She gasped and gripped his arm before he could yank the dagger free and expedite her death.

“It hurts, doesn’t it? Being stabbed?” Sabien growled. “It’s not so fun when these roles are reversed.”

“Sabien…” Dagmara gasped.

Thunder rolled through the air. Water poured from the sky and Sabien basked in it. A smile creased his cheeks as he closed his eyes, feeling the rain cascade down his face. He let out a breath as the water brushed over his skin, immediately healing the wound she had punctured in his arm from the sharp point of the crown.

Then he looked at her, his eyes icy blue.

“I could heal you. You can join me. Think how easy it would be for you to walk right up to Magdalena. What is one more life when you’ve taken many before?” Sabien shifted closer, and Dagmara let out a shriek of pain as the dagger shifted inside her. His lips were inches from hers. “Or I can let you die.”

“Just let me go,” Dagmara said, her voice barely audible.

“That wasn’t one of the options,” said Sabien. “I need to know where Magdalena is.”

“She’s hiding in Azurem.”

“You forget I can tell when you’re lying.”

Within a flash, he withdrew the dagger of ice and plunged it into her side.

She screamed, blood pouring from the first wound. The pain was unbearable. Her mind began to fall numb.

“Tell me where she is, and all the pain will stop,” Sabien said, his baritone voice hauntingly melodic.

Dagmara assumed she was strong enough to bring her secrets to the grave, but in this moment, she was breaking. Her mind flashed to her mother. Was this the fear her mom felt when she was tortured to death? This was the moment she was afraid of. This was the scenario she desperately wanted to avoid. If Dagmara died, who would be left to take care of Teos?

“Heal me first,” Dagmara choked.

“You’re not in the place to make demands.”

“How do I know you won’t kill me anyway?”

“You’re the princess’s best friend. I plan to use you to lure her to her death. That is, if you cooperate now and tell me where she is.”

Dagmara knew that exposing Magda’s location would be like killing Magdalena herself. She would never take the life of her best friend, regardless if Magda’s life was connected to keeping the First Prince entombed. But dying by Sabien’s iceblade now wouldn’t help her save her friend. Dying now meant the end of everything Dagmara had worked for. She would never return to Azurem to see Teos. She would never see Claude again.

Claude. She had been so wrong. She blamed him for murders he had no part of. She had hurt the man she loved, and for what?

Tears welled in her eyes. With Claude on her mind, Dagmara knew she wasn’t ready to die.

Dagmara choked. “She’s in Flaustra.”

“Where?” asked Sabien.

“I don’t know!” Tears streamed down her face, dripping off her chin with the rain. “Truly. She never sent me a message when she arrived.”

Sabien tilted his head. “Hmm. I suppose we will find her together. That is, if you want to live.”

“Yes, I do. Heal me.”

A crooked smile appeared on his face. “I want you to beg.”

The world was beginning to blur. The stone rumbled as another explosion rang out in the distance. The sound of the pouring rain and the screams of war began to fade away.

Dagmara’s voice was barely audible. “Please save me. I’ll do anything, Sabien, I’m begging you.”

Sabien removed his forearm from her throat and held her by the chin. A smirk creased on his face as he said, “Good girl.”

Then he ripped the magical dagger free, eliciting another shriek.

Dagmara fell against his chest, every inch of her soaked either from the rain or her blood. Sabien knelt as her body collapsed in his embrace. The mud sloshed underneath them, rain continuing to beat down from the midnight sky.

First, Sabien ran his hand through her hair, slick from the rain. “There she is,” he said. The silver tint was washing out in the torrential rain, returning her hair to her natural blonde. Then Sabien’s hand roamed down her body before finding the wound in the center of her stomach. “I’m stronger than you,” he growled. “I won’t hesitate to bring you to the brink of death time and time again just to prove who holds the power.”

A heat began to radiate from the wound, magic seeping through her and sealing her injury. But she was out of energy, and there was too much pain. Thinking of Claude, she wanted to weep, but she had no more strength. Her head fell back, the blackness consuming her.

Before she lost consciousness, she felt Sabien tighten his grip around her, leaning closer to whisper, “You’re mine now, Dagger.”