“Oh they will,” Egos said brightly.
“They aren't dead yet?” Kahn snarled, a vein popping on his shiny bald head.
Gothel patted his arm, her expression light. “I'm sure he will have the deed done by nightfall, won't you Egos?”
“Planning on it,” he confirmed and I wanted to scream until my throat was raw, beg him not to hurt them. But I knew it was no good. I had to keep my head. Had to find a way out of this crisis. Because if I lost my wits, I'd be no good to anyone. Least of all Cassian and Aladdin.
I drew in a measured breath as two royal guards grabbed hold of Kyra and I. As I was escorted toward Gothel, I let my hatred for her drip into my voice. “Where is my father?”
“Quite unwell, my dear. I fear he won't be around much longer.” She gave me a cruel smile that cut into me deeper than any knife could have. “Though if you cooperate, perhaps he will find himself recovered.”
My shoulders trembled as she stepped away and curled a hand around Kyra's wrist. “Now,” she breathed, her voice husky and desperate as she rubbed her thumb across the lamp in her free hand. “For my first wish as your new master.”
Kyra remained silent, glaring at Gothel with pure poison in her eyes. A curling letter G appeared on her wrist and as Gothel spotted it, she checked her own arm. The swirling K that had been printed on Aladdin's skin now emerged on hers.
An ache grew in my chest as I waited for Gothel's next words.
“I wish for you to make my son beautiful,” Gothel said, surprising me that that would be her first port of call. “And to put him in clothes fit for a wedding.”
My mouth dried up at her command. “A wedding?” I gasped but Gothel didn't answer. I thought I had at least until the end of the month. Those were the rules of the Pageant. But today? Now?
“Kahn has to agree,” Kyra ground out as if she was trying to stop herself from saying it.
“I do,” Kahn replied quickly.
Kyra fought the wish for several long seconds, but her skin began to glitter and the magic lifted from her body in a wave, falling over Kahn instead.
A cloud of purple smoke surrounded him like a vortex. My heart beat rapidly as the magic shimmered and swirled, finally falling away and in Kahn's place stood the beautiful, fake version of him. Not only that, but he was dressed in fine silken robes, cream and marital.
He eyed his hands, turning them over as he admired himself. “Mother, how grateful I am.”
“Now to marry my beautiful prince to his beautiful princess.” Gothel clapped her hands excitedly while my gut knotted and knotted. She cast her eyes up and down my attire with a grimace. “Genie, I wish for Rapunzel to be dressed for a wedding.”
I pressed my lips tightly together and Kyra shrugged.
“I can't do it if she doesn't agree.”
Gothel scowled, stalking toward me and pinching my chin between her finger and thumb. “Agree or I will put your father in a world of pain.”
I sucked in a breath, horrified that she would do this to me. “Don't you love him at all?” I whispered, hoping there might be an ounce of humanity in her. But I already knew the answer. She was a witch, a Shaitan. And she wanted my kingdom in her clutches no matter who got hurt in the process.
She released a dark laugh then struck me across the cheek. I hissed through my teeth as pain bloomed across my skin.
“Agree,” she commanded.
“I agree,” I said at last, refusing to let her hurt Father. I’d take any pain to save him. But Gothel knew that too, and she could wield that love against me as much as she liked.
Kyra's magic washed over me like a warm caress. My clothes changed, sweeping out around me into a long dress of blue silk. Little gold coins hung from the hem and over my face was a half veil covering my mouth and nose.
“Your favourite colour,” Gothel mocked, goading me for a reaction. I gave her none, staring back at her until she turned away. “Come with me,” she called lightly as she headed inside and the guards closed in on me again.
“Please don't let this happen,” I whispered to myself, glancing up at the sky and drinking in my last ounce of freedom before I was hauled into the vast entrance hall.
Gothel guided us to the throne room and the guards released me as I stepped through the door. My heart dropped dramatically as I found a congregation gathered there. It was only small, a handful of nobles, but enough to lay witness to this event. They cooed as they spotted me, smiling serenely as if they truly believed this was the best day of my life.
Kahn headed up the aisle created between the rows of chairs to a priest in stately robes who was waiting for us.
Gothel gave me a look over and her eyes snagged on my hair. “Genie do something with that tangled mane,” she whispered as music started up around us. “What will the Emperor think when he sees his daughter looking so wretched?”
My eyes snagged on my father sitting in the front row and my heart jolted sharply. His head was hung low and I didn't need to see his face to know how ill he felt.
“She must agree,” Kyra pressed and tears pooled in my eyes as I knew I had no choice.
“I agree,” I whispered and Kyra gave me a wild, desperate look. Like she so wanted to do something to help me, but she simply couldn't. And I wasn't going to sacrifice my father for the sake of fighting a losing battle now. We had to bide our time, wait for the right moment to make our escape.
But how?
How how how?
Kyra's magic rushed over me once more, but this time a tiny, rebellious smile pulled at the side of her mouth as she cast it. My hair fell long and smooth around my shoulders. Then longer still, falling down to my hips, then my thighs.
“Kyra,” I breathed in a panic, gathering the ends of it into my hands as it continued to grow.
“What's happening?” Gothel demanded.
“I did something with it,” Kyra said with a victorious smile.
Gothel glanced at the waiting congregation with a pleasant smile, then turned back to us with a grimace. She grabbed Kyra's arm, dragging her into the back row at her side and gesturing for me to walk down the aisle.
I stared at my husband-to-be at the far end, his hands clasped behind his back and his chest puffed out.
I began to tremble as I took a step forward, deeply afraid that we might never find a way out of this situation. So long as Gothel had my father in her claws, I had to obey her commands.
My heart shattered into a million pieces as I thought of Cassian. Of how I might never get to tell him about the deep well of love I held for him in my heart.
By sundown, he and Aladdin could be dead. And the most terrible fate to ever befall my kingdom would be sealed.
I sat with my back pressed to the cold stone wall of the cell we’d been thrown into with my head between my hands.
My lip was swollen and I could taste blood.
Kyra was gone. Rapunzel was gone. We were going to die.
I never should have thought I could leave this place behind.
“There has to be some way out of this,” Cassian growled, kicking the door for the hundredth time.
I didn’t reply. He’d fallen back on rage while I’d sunk into despair.
Kyra had said she loved me. But she shouldn’t have. I didn’t deserve it. I’d promised to keep her safe and instead I’d watched as she was taken from me to be delivered into the hands of a monster.
I’d fought so hard to free her from the cage of her lamp and in the end it hadn’t meant anything.
For the briefest of moments she’d been mine. And not because I was her master. But because I was hers as well.
I’d always known I didn’t deserve love. And now I’d been proven right. The first person ever to love me had paid the price for it.
My death would likely do the world a favour.
“Snap out of it, Aladdin!” Cassian snarled. His palms landed on my shoulders and he shook me hard enough to knock my hands from my face.
I tilted my head
back to look up at him impassively.
“There’s no point in trying to break out of here,” I said, my tone even and low. “Egos built it to contain the best pickpockets and thieves in the twelve kingdoms. There isn’t a lock in existence that could hold us easily so he put nine on this door and added four bolts for good measure. And there will be six armed guards beyond the door at all times with orders to kill us should we manage the impossible and get out of here. It’s hopeless.”
Cassian stared at me, a deep V forming between his eyes as he looked at me like he’d never seen me before.
“This isn’t like you,” he growled. “What happened to the man who went into a fight against Kahn with a cocky smile on his too-pretty face and a swagger in his step that said he could take on the damn world and come out swinging?”
“He lost,” I muttered dismissively. “And then he kept on losing until he accepted his fate.”
Cassian stared at me in disgust and I dropped my eyes. I didn’t care anymore. I’d lost Kyra. I’d let her down when she needed me most and I was going to die at the hands of the man I’d always known would kill me in the end. It was what I deserved anyway.
Cassian’s palm slammed into my cheek hard enough to send my face careering sideways. I threw a hand out to stop myself from falling and the tang of fresh blood overwhelmed my senses as he split my lip open again.
“Snap out of it. You need to be on the mark if we’re going to have any hope of surviving what comes next,” he pressed.
I ran my tongue over my fat lip then spat a wad of blood from my mouth.
“There is no surviving what comes next,” I muttered.
Cassian slapped me again and I almost fell to the floor.
A flicker of irritation flared in me for a moment before stuttering out.
“I just hit your beautiful face twice. Aren’t you going to lose your shit over it? Doesn’t it make you want to hit me back?” he demanded.
“I don’t give a rat’s ass.”
The third slap did knock me into the wall and I cursed as I scrambled upright.
“You can stop that shit now,” I snapped.
Cassian ignored me, swinging his palm at me a fourth time. My hand snapped up at the last moment and I snatched his wrist into my grip, glaring at him.
“Not the damn face,” I growled automatically.
Cassian’s eyes blazed with triumph. “There he is.”
I snorted half a laugh as I released him. “What’s your mystical plan then, mate?” I asked. “Because we’re still locked in here until Egos comes for us and when he does, I promise you it won’t be pretty.”
“What will he do with us?” Cassian asked seriously.
“Drag us out in front of the rest of The Forty, make us stand before him while he lists off our crimes. Then offer us a fight to the death against him.”
“That doesn’t sound so hopeless,” Cassian said, his eyes brightening.
“It wouldn’t,” I agreed. “Except for the fact that we will be chained to the spot by one leg and he will be armed with a scimitar while we fight with our bare hands. Oh, and I’ve never seen a man move as fast as him with a blade or cut as deeply.”
Cassian’s gaze darkened at that revelation.
“Well let’s imagine that we did survive that and beat him,” he said thoughtfully. “What then? Will we have the rest of The Forty to contend with?”
“No. Anyone who beats Egos would take his place as leader of The Forty Thieves. Obviously no one has ever managed it before though.”
Cassian let out a breath of frustration and began pacing.
“Well if we’re probably going to die then why don’t you tell me a story?” he asked, clearly looking for a distraction.
“What story?”
“One of your ridiculous escapades,” he said. “Why not tell me how you got that scar?”
“What scar?” I asked innocently.
He stopped pacing to pin me in his gaze. “The one on your eyebrow. The one you didn’t want to tell me about before. The one you didn’t ask Kyra to get rid of for you even though it marks your pretty face.”
“Oh. That one.” I didn’t elaborate and Cassian folded his arms.
“This could be the final request of a dying man, won’t you humour me?” he asked.
I sighed dramatically, brushing my fingers across the scar in question as I caved to his demand.
“Fine. But it’s not some epic example of my brilliance or anything. I just like it because it reminds me to never forget.”
“Are you being intentionally cryptic?” Cassian asked with a smirk. “Because Egos will be here to kill us before you spit it out.”
“Do you remember the year that blight infected the grain stores? Must have been twelve, thirteen years ago…”
“Yes,” he replied. “We had to eat stale bread and sugared almonds for months.”
“How terrible for you,” I replied darkly. “Meanwhile in the slums thousands of people starved to death and nobody helped a poor beggar child no matter how pretty he was.” I let out a long breath and Cassian frowned in that way he always did when I highlighted the differences between the slums and the highborn sections of the city.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t think, I just-”
I waved him off dismissively. “Well anyway, starvation isn’t a pastime I’d recommend. It makes you do things you’d never think you were capable of and brings the term desperation into a whole new light. So obviously before this point I’d tried my hand at the odd bit of theft which I’d completed with varying levels of success, but I’d never really needed to rely on stealing to survive before. And as you can imagine, at that time, the most valuable thing anyone had was food. All of my efforts at pickpocketing the poor people who live around here couldn't earn me anywhere near enough money to buy food while it was in such short supply. I’d reached the point where the pain had turned to daggers in my gut and I could barely stand without passing out, so I decided to try something really stupid.”
“If you admit that it was stupid, then it must have been truly insane,” Cassian murmured seriously.
I nodded. “I decided to rob someone who I knew wouldn’t be going hungry. I didn’t want to waste my time and energy on any of the smaller houses in the city in case they didn’t have enough so I headed all the way to the South Quarter and picked the biggest estate I could find. I’d never broken into someone’s property before but I was truly desperate and willing to try anything.”
“And did you manage to find food there?” Cassian asked when I didn’t go on right away.
I nodded slowly. “I did. I snuck in in the dead of night, made it to the pantry through some kind of insane stroke of luck and it was like… like a dream come true. There was so much food, more than I’d ever seen in my life. And I was so hungry, I just… started eating. Right there. Like an idiot or an animal or some combination of the two. I don’t know what I was thinking but my legs were so weak and my stomach so empty that I couldn’t help myself. I ate and ate until I was bloated and then I started stuffing as much food as I could carry into a bag. I don’t even think I was being quiet. Which is probably why they caught me.”
“The royal guards?” Cassian asked uncomfortably.
I shook my head. “I think they might have been better. I was caught by the Count’s butler and hauled before the Count himself. He screamed at me a lot before he started laying into me. I was a kid; eight years old and skinny as a whippet. I’d never taken a beating like that in my life. I curled up into a ball and I guess I covered my face for the most part but his boot obviously found my eyebrow. I think that was the blow that knocked me out. Next thing I knew, I was underwater. The asshole must have thought he’d killed me and tossed me in the river. Lucky for me, the freezing water woke me before it could drown me and I managed to get to shore.”
Cassian stared at me, his face set in a mask of horror for long enough to make me squirm. I guessed the flat look I gave him in response to that made him
fight off the wave of pity and he forced his tone to stay neutral as he spoke again. “So why would you keep the scar from that attack when you could have asked Kyra to remove it?”
“Because, that night may have given me a taste of hell but it gave me a taste of heaven too. It made me realise that I could do more than just scrape by on the scraps my pretty face could earn me from kitchen maids. I’d eaten better that night than I had in my entire life-”
“But it almost cost you your life.”
“And I decided the price was worth it. I was willing to risk my life in the pursuit of living better. I didn’t want to scrape by anymore and I didn’t want to rely on the easy route my looks gave me. Would I use my face to my advantage? Hell yes. But would I allow it rule my destiny? Rely solely on that to survive? No. I was better than that. I could be better. I could be the best.”
“That’s why you got so good at thieving?” Cassian guessed.
“It is,” I agreed. “It took me two days to recover enough to head out again - thankfully the asshole hadn’t broken any of my bones. And when I went back to his house on the third night, I made sure to empty the parlour as fast as I could without succumbing to temptation and hanging around to get caught.”
“You went back there? After he almost killed you?” Cassian gasped.
“Damn straight I did,” I replied, offering him the cockiest grin in my arsenal. “And I pissed on his dining table before I left too.”
Cassian’s mouth fell open for a few seconds before laughter tore from his throat. “You’re one crazy sonofabitch.”
“Whatever it takes to be the best,” I replied smoothly.
Before he could come up with anything else to say to my story, the sound of the locks opening filled the small space.
Cassian’s gaze moved to me and I could have sworn I saw a flicker of doubt writhing there.
I stepped forward and slapped his cheek a couple of times patronisingly. “Chin up, mate, you said it doesn’t sound so hopeless.”
He brushed me off just as the door was flung open and a group of glowering thieves hauled us out of the cell.
Forbidden Fairytales- The Complete Series Page 64