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Chapter 31

Chapter Thirty-One

CLIO

Touching her throat, Clio cast a cloaking spell over herself, then started forward at a brisk walk. The path zigzagged through the trees, silent and empty. The tracking spell called her onward, hammering so loudly in her head that she almost wanted to deactivate it. But not yet.

She reached the edge of the trees as something splashed loudly, followed by wet, hacking coughs. Ahead, a memorial wall blocked her view. Barely breathing, she crept to the edge and peeked around it.

The first thing she saw was Bastian's back. He sat in a wooden chair that was completely out of place in the decaying park, facing a crumbling water fountain. Six daemons with red hair and tattoos stood at the edge of the fountain, and she didn't need her asper to know they were his chimera bodyguards.

Slumped at their feet beside the fountain was Lyre, a blindfold over his eyes and water dripping off his chin as he coughed violently. Convulsions wrenched his body as though he'd inhaled an entire bucket of water.

"How much longer, Lyre?" Bastian asked, his calm voice painfully familiar. "Next round, I'll double the time."

Lyre continued to cough up water.

When he quieted, Bastian rubbed his chin. "You are exceptionally stubborn. Tell me how to activate the KLOC or we will continue."

Lyre sucked in an unsteady breath to speak, but instead he spat on the ground in Bastian's direction. A clear answer.

Bastian waved his hand and leaned back in the chair, looking bored. The chimeras grabbed Lyre by the arms, spun him around, and shoved his face into the fountain.

Lightheadedness swept through Clio. Lyre writhed, his arms bound behind his back and his feet scraping helplessly at the ground. A guard snickered cruelly and rammed his knee into Lyre's back, pinning him to the basin's edge.

Bastian sighed. "This is tedious. I didn't expect him to hold out so long."

Clio didn't even realize she was moving until she'd burst out from behind the memorial. She hadn't decided to act, but her body was in motion and the only thing in her head was a raging fury so hot that it was like a poison flooding her body.

Focused on Lyre, the men didn't notice her until she was almost on top of them. The prince lurched up from his chair and three chimeras whipped to face her, but she had already reached Bastian, her arm pulling back.

She struck him across the face with all her strength.

He staggered, and then a blast of magic from a guard hit her in the chest, throwing her backward. She landed hard and two daemons sprang at her, their glamours vanishing and swords jumping into their hands.

"Stop."

The chimeras halted at Bastian's command, the points of their weapons aimed at her chest. She pushed up onto her elbows, too angry to feel fear. At the fountain, the other three guards hauled Lyre out of the water and dumped him on the ground. He retched and coughed, shaking violently.

How long had they been drowning him in that water over and over? Tedious, Bastian had called it. Callously torturing another daemon was tedious ?

She turned her enraged focus back to Bastian—and the daemon standing beside him. Eryx grinned delightedly. Her fury cracked at the sight of him, grief and helpless anguish rising through her, but she choked it back.

"Clio," Bastian murmured. The side of his face was reddening but he didn't acknowledge that she'd hit him. He flicked a glance at Eryx. "Check if she came alone."

Eryx sped away into the trees.

"How did you find us?" Bastian asked her.

"If I don't answer, will you drown me in the fountain as well?"

His mouth thinned. "I would like to know."

She stuck her hand in her pocket, pulled out the tracking spell, and threw the gem at him. He watched it clatter on the crumbling pavement, then peered at Lyre with his brow furrowed.

She glanced at Lyre as well, squinting with her asper as she wondered how he'd hidden his spell for so long. All she could see was his aura.

Bastian made a soft sound of surprise. "He swallowed it?"

Lyre lifted his head, his lips pulling back from his teeth in a humorless grin. "Surprise, asshole."

Irritation flickered across Bastian's face. He turned to Clio again. "I'm pleased to see you alive and unharmed."

"Are you?" Ignoring the chimeras and their weapons, she got to her feet. "Are you equally pleased that Eryx murdered Kassia in a cowardly surprise attack, or that he left me to die in Asphodel?"

"His methods may not be what I would choose, but Eryx is a loyal servant."

"Loyalty is important, isn't it?" she sneered. "You like everyone to be loyal to you, no matter how many lies you have to tell them to win them over."

"So you have spoken to the king." Bastian sank back into his chair, calm and composed as though they were discussing their holiday plans. "What did you learn?"

"That you've lied about everything!"

"‘Everything' is an exaggeration. "

"You lied to me about the threat of a Ra invasion! You tricked me into leaving Irida! You sent me to get military spells from Chrysalis when there isn't even a war!"

He smiled faintly. "But there will be a war, Clio."

She balled her hands into fists, trembling with fury. "You're a filthy liar. Why should I believe anything you say?"

"I rearranged the truth, nothing more. Would you like to discuss this, or would you rather rage and shout?"

Anger spiraled through her at his patronizing tone. She sucked in air, fighting for control. Breathing deeply, she unclenched her hands. "You owe me an explanation, Bastian. For everything."

He appraised her as though analyzing an interesting sculpture at an auction. "You told me many times over the last two years that you wanted to help protect our homeland. That is what you've been doing, Clio."

"But there is no threat?—"

"There is very much a threat, one that my father and his predecessors have ignored." He tapped a finger on his knee as though to emphasize a point. "Centuries ago, Ra forced a trade agreement on Irida. They made us purchase our own sovereignty, and we continue to pay for it centuries later."

She glanced from her brother to Lyre, who was on his knees beside the fountain with three guards surrounding him. "I don't understand."

"My father is too fearful of conflict to resist, but I am not. Before the trade agreement is next renewed, I will end Ra's dominion over us." Bastian rose to his feet and slid his hand into his pocket. "Ra sees us as weak, but I will prove otherwise. You have helped me prepare for that day, and I am almost ready to forge a new fate for our kingdom."

He withdrew his hand to reveal Lyre's spelled clock, its gears glittering with jewels. "You did very well in Chrysalis. Far better than I had hoped."

"You left me there to die," she choked.

"Eryx's choice." Bastian ran his thumb along the clock's edge. "No single life is more important than our goal. This is about saving Irida."

"Saving Irida from a trade agreement ?" She struggled to gather her strength, searching for the hot fury that had died beneath his cold logic. " I would have gone to Chrysalis even if you hadn't lied about a Ra invasion. Why did you send me to Earth?"

"To protect you. It was my mistake… I shouldn't have exposed you to danger by bringing you into the palace in the first place. It wasn't safe for you, Clio."

Her hands clenched as she searched his face. His sincerity sounded perfectly earnest…

"No, Clio." Lyre's hoarse voice startled her. His shoulders were hunched, his head hanging, the blindfold dripping water. "He brought you into the palace to show you the thing you wanted most—a family—then he took it away. He did it to make you dependent on him. He held your dearest desire hostage against you."

Clio stared at Lyre, then turned back to Bastian. His expression seemed blank but his eyes had narrowed and his mouth had tightened. Anger. Displeasure.

Pain ricocheted through her chest as her heart broke piece by piece.

"Was that your plan?" she whispered, her voice shaking. "From the very beginning? You wanted to use me all along… your secret mimic."

"You did well, Clio. You learned the skills you needed quickly, and you were ready to enter Chrysalis sooner than I had anticipated." Bastian hefted the clock like it was a well-earned prize.

She pushed her anguish aside. "You can't use that spell. It's too dangerous. You can't control how far it will spread or how much magic it will eat."

"Does that matter? If unleashed in the correct place, its uncontrolled spread will work in my favor."

"But—"

"I will purge Ra's shadow from over our kingdom, Clio. I will bring Irida back to its former strength and glory. The question is…" He fixed his cool stare on her. "Where do you stand?"

"What?"

"You have proven yourself resourceful and resilient. Your loyalty has… strayed somewhat, but it is nothing I am unwilling to forgive. You've proven your commitment to protecting Irida." He walked toward her, stopping a few feet away, and he smiled—the gentle smile of welcome that had won her over so easily when they'd first met. "Will you join me in the battle to free our people from Ra's shadow?"

Her throat constricted until it ached.

"I have used you," he admitted softly, "and I regret that I have hurt you, but this is for Irida. Help me protect our people, Clio. Fight for them at my side, not as a tool but as a valued ally."

The pain in her shattered heart turned to icy flames. "Free Lyre first."

Bastian's brow furrowed. "What?"

"Let Lyre go. Prove you're better than Ra and Hades and the other power-hungry warlords who do nothing but hurt and oppress whoever they think they can control."

Images flashed through her mind—Lyre in chains in Asphodel's basement; Reed with his eyes shadowed by helplessness; Ash covered in blood and bruises as he walked unresisting into a prison cell.

She raised an unsteady hand and pointed at Lyre. "Prove it, Bastian. If you won't free him, then you're no better than Hades and you have no right to call yourself a prince of Irida."

"Clio…" Bastian sighed. "He is far too useful, and too dangerous, to let go."

She lowered her arm, the last of her hope crumbling. "I defended you to Kassia," she whispered brokenly, "but she was right all along."

Bastian's face hardened with annoyance. Then a different voice spoke right behind her, its familiar arrogance triggering a cascade of loathing.

"I told you she was too stupid to understand."

She gasped as a man's arm clamped around her torso, then the cold edge of a blade pressed against her throat.

"Two for two," Eryx whispered in her ear.

Bastian dropped back into his chair. "Take the blindfold off the incubus."

A chimera ripped the cloth strip off Lyre's head. His eyes, black with fury, jumped straight to Clio, and he snarled at the sight of Eryx with a knife at her throat.

Bastian snapped his fingers, drawing Lyre's attention .

"Now, Lyre, let us try something different. My patience has worn thin, and I would like to proceed without further delay." He tilted the KLOC, the gems glittering in the moonlight. "Tell me how to activate the spell or Eryx will slit Clio's throat. You have to the count of ten."

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