I had to tread carefully, so I bit back my instinctive response, that I would rather the soldiers be dead than the villagers.
I wasn’t sure what it said about me that I could so easily decide which human life was less valuable, who was more deserving of death.
“That wasn’t my intention,” I lied. “Had I gone in with my limited experience, they could have gotten a hold of the necklace.” I met his eyes to let him see this truth blaze in mine. “Like you, I only want peace. You know that I would never do anything to jeopardize that.”
He examined my face for a long moment.
“Just don’t forget where your loyalties lie.”
“There is no danger of that.” Another truth I wanted him to recognize.
He put his hand on my wrist, squeezing my brand until I couldn’t help but cry out in pain.
“Do you know why I gave you this?” he asked curiously.
Because you’re a sadist.
“So the world would know I belong to you forever,” I said instead.
“That’s partially true. Primarily, though, it was so that you would know. You can also think of it as a warning.”
I swallowed, but he wasn’t finished. He squeezed harder, until tears sprang into my eyes.
“If I find out you were helping my niece or those with her in any way, you will long for the mere irritation of my name on your skin. Do I make myself clear?”
My blood ran like ice in my veins, but I refused to drop my gaze from his.
“Perfectly.”
“Good.” Then, he had the nerve to smile.
He turned to go to his bedroom, but seemed to change his mind.
Instead, he closed the small distance between us and gripped my upper arms, crushing his lips to mine for the second time today.
I am not here. I am somewhere else.
This one didn’t end as quickly as the one earlier had. His fingers dug painfully into my skin, and he pressed his body against mine, not seeming at all bothered by my lack of response.
He moved his lips across my cheek, leaving wetness in their wake, before whispering into my ear.
“You belong to me, Adelaide. Your loyalties. Your power.” He put a territorial hand on my back and let it slide downward. “Your body. Be grateful I’ve given you as much time as I have, but I won’t wait forever.”
At this rate, I wasn’t entirely sure he would wait the couple of days we had left.
The Idealist
Gunther brought a hand up to rub his face. Crust had begun to form around his eyes and his limbs felt achy from not moving. He wondered briefly how long he’d been asleep and why his brothers hadn’t woken him up when the memories began to flood in.
He sat up in a panic and grasped his side where the dagger had surely killed him. No blood was visible, and there wasn’t any pain. Gunther took stock of the rest of his body and, sure enough, he was healthy and wound-free, feeling better than he had in ages. More importantly, he was alive.
After a quick glance around the room, Gunther’s eyes landed on a tall narrow-framed girl with coal-colored hair and a shocked expression on her mouth. She dropped the book she had been holding and quickly made her way over to him. Her lips were moving so quickly that he wondered if she spoke something other than the common tongue.
He pointed a finger toward his ears to help her understand that he couldn’t hear, but her lips only moved faster. The girl’s features quickly morphed from one of surprise to one of concern as she took tools out to examine his ears and eyes for unseen trauma.
Gunther chuckled. He wasn’t sure why, but there was something about this girl that he already adored.
Chapter Thirty-Two
Clark
It was a solid day before we replaced the last set of servants with our people. Many of them had come willingly, either because they were genuinely loyal to the rightful heir or because they had seen so much carnage with the king that they would have preferred literally anyone else on that throne.
There were those that couldn’t be trusted and had to be forcibly removed, and a few who were too prominent to be replaced. The king’s servant fell into that latter category, as the man was always handpicked. Still, that left the majority on our side.
“Won’t someone notice?” Xavier asked for the fifteenth time.
Gunther was the one who patiently explained, yet again, that the servants were wantonly murdered and fired and ran away so often, in addition to being on a constant rotation, ironically enough, to avoid a revolt, that no one would notice before we had time to execute our plan.
I pleaded that he was right, especially since our latest intel from the servants we were swapping out with was that Addie had been sleeping in the king’s bedchamber.
I couldn’t think about that monster’s hands on her perfect body without completely losing my head in this mission, though, so I pushed that thought away.
I needed my wits about me for this part.
I left my brothers in the narrow passageway. I was part of the last group of soldiers going in as servants. Taking a deep breath, I ran through the general plan in my head.
“Remember,” Nell had said, “these people are as much under the thumb of the king as those in the villages. We are attacking them, not the other way around. Go for the tranquilizer first.” She held up her bottle, similar to the ones we had all been given, to drape on our weapon of choice.
The temporary paralytic worked instantly once it entered the bloodstream. We had coated our weapons with it as well as filling a few syringes.
“If you must fight, aim to wound,” she ordered in a strong voice. “We kill only as a last resort.”
The signal came at last, and my group emerged, one by one, into the hallway. This was one of four passageways we had utilized, one in each cardinal direction around the palace.
From there, we had each been assigned in twos to clear the hallways on each floor. I walked toward my destination with the hurried shuffle of a servant, my weapons hidden by my flowing uniform and the tray I carried in one hand.
My partner, RoGlenda was somewhere behind me toting cleaning supplies. Each team comprised of one male and one female in case we were caught anywhere we shouldn’t be.
The first duo of patrolling guards headed my direction, and I stumbled just as they passed me. They were so focused on the commotion, I managed to nick both of their hands with my dagger before they even noticed the weapon.
They collapsed into a heap, and RoGlenda and I made quick work of hauling them into one of our designated spaces. This one happened to be an unused guest room. It took us less than fifteen seconds to bind them to one another with the chains she had in her bag.
Using our efficient system, we cleared our designated area in a matter of minutes. I just hoped the other teams were having as much luck as we were.
The Idealist
Gunther was worried about Addie.
She was guarded, even with him, even when she didn’t mean to be, but he could see the way she tensed when the King was mentioned. He could also see the gears turning in her head, the way she despised feeling useless.
Gunther understood that well, but he also knew what kind of danger she was in. How it would destroy Clark if anything happened to her.
He had respected Addie from the moment he met her. Been amused by the way this tiny girl never batted an eyelash being surrounded by three well-trained men, two of whom spent most of their time arguing and trying to intentionally scare her.
He remembered the first time he had seen her with her guard down, that day in the safehouse when he had taught her to make coffee. Her kindness and her strength.
But he also remembered a girl on a different boat, one who believed herself to be broken. The way her body nearly had been.
He remembered the hollow look in her eyes when he cut her hair, how she had been little more than a specter of the girl who had left.
And he couldn’t pretend he wasn’t terrified now, both of what might hap
pen to her, and what it might do to his brother when it did.
Chapter Thirty-Three
Adelaide
I knew it was coming, so I shouldn’t have been surprised when a frantic knock sounded at the door to the timeless chamber. I didn’t have the brainpower to wonder how we could be contacted in real time if there was no real time here.
“Your Majesties, there’s been an incident,” a guard called, clearly alarmed.
If by “incident”, he meant “the palace has been taken over”, then sure. I focused on what I had to do instead of what I knew was happening out there so that the appropriate level of dread would seep into my features.
While the king walked to the door, face impassive, I slipped the amulet around my neck. The ends snapped together, as they had in the museum all those months ago.
When the king turned from hearing the guard’s report to see it on my neck, his eyes narrowed. I widened mine for a fraction of a second, just enough to convey innocence without overdoing it.
“I didn’t want to chance it being taken by the rebels. You can take it off later.” Though, I wasn’t as sure about that. The necklace had glowed from the moment I placed it around my neck. I wondered if it would be even harder to remove this time.
His impassive face didn’t convey whether he believed me or not, but we both knew there was no time to argue about it.
“Where are they?” he asked his Captain of the Guard as we walked, effectively dismissing me.
“The majority are in the ballroom, Sire, with a few scattered as guards around the perimeter.” The man bowed even as he walked.
“How many of my own men are left standing?”
I had to admit a grudging sort of respect for the king. Not only did he appear completely unshaken, but he wasn’t wasting time with questions that weren’t immediately vital. He didn’t ask how they got in or berate the guard for the incompetence of his men.
“Ten men are waiting to escort you to safety,” the guard responded.
The king scoffed. “Gather them and have them meet me in the ballroom.”
“But, Your Majesty—”
“Do not presume to contradict me when you have failed me enough this day.” The quietly lethal quality in his voice was so much worse than yelling, and I wasn’t even on the receiving end of it this time.
My heart beat faster, and the necklace glowed and pulsed in the same rhythm, as if whatever part of the crystal’s make-up which had bonded with my own liked being closer to my heart, flush against my skin.
“Of course not, Sire.” Though he was physically more imposing than his sovereign, the guard was dwarfed by the force of the king’s indomitable presence. The man scurried away to do my fake husband’s bidding.
When he was gone, I finally spoke my own concerns aloud.
“Why are we heading directly into danger?” Of course, I wanted to go to the ballroom, but I couldn’t for the life of me figure out why he did.
“There will be no danger there, certainly not for you, My Queen.” Something in his words sounded mocking, but whether it was residual anger that I was wearing the most powerful weapon in the palace or because he knew where my true loyalties lay, I couldn’t decipher.
I stopped talking after that. Not only was I sick of his head games, but I was running out of breath. I practically had to run to keep up with his long stride, but I had no complaints when every slippered step brought me closer to Clark.
The king had no guards and wasn’t bothering to mask his steps, so either he was genuinely unconcerned, or he knew something I didn’t.
Or he was trusting me to protect him, but I doubted even he was that arrogant.
Rather than enter through the main doors, he took us down a back hallway where we finally came upon a pair of guards. One was a Levelian warrior from the ship, HaNara, and I didn’t recognize the other.
“Adelaide.” The king’s low voice was commanding.
My mind raced, but it was too early to give the game up, not when I didn’t yet know the stakes. I only hesitated half a second before freezing them both in a hard container of air. I could always let them go with a thought.
His hand twitched in annoyance, likely that I hadn’t done more, but he didn’t say anything. He placed both of his hands on a panel in the wall.
That seems excessive just to open these doors, but the man has a flare for the dramatic.
Sure enough, then a section of the wall swung inward, right behind the throne. I instinctively angled my burnt wrist toward my dress to conceal the scar, taking a deep breath before following the king into the room. Our entry was anything but subtle, and I wondered at the point of all this.
I should have realized the king’s face was far too satisfied.
There was only a single, stunned moment to take in the sight of the courtier Levelians cowering into the middle of the room, surrounded by an armed group comprised of everyone we had been on the ship with, minus Gunther and the guard I had frozen.
SuEllen, Nell, Clark, and Locke immediately shifted to train their weapons on the king while the others kept their swords or bows on the group in the middle.
My knees sank in relief when Locke’s steady gaze met mine. Nell and SuEllen were focused on the king, but seeing both of them alive was a balm to my soul. Xavier nodded in my direction, relief plain on his face as well, though it was likely too soon for the emotion.
I couldn’t even look at Clark, not yet, not if I wanted to keep my composure.
And I didn’t want to look at a single member of the Court of Yomi. I should have expected them there, but the sight of the man who had tried to assault me, the brother of the even more despicable man who had succeeded at doing so, threw me.
Why don’t they wear their masks here? It hardly mattered, but the snakelike coverings would have been better than the man’s leering eyes.
All of this I observed in the handful of seconds before the very walls slid open in several places, revealing what was clearly some form of weaponry.
The entire room froze as blue and red and green beams of light crosscut the space. He couldn’t hurt them without hurting his people, but that wouldn’t stop him. I loosened my hold on the guards outside, for all the good it would do.
“You didn’t think I had left myself vulnerable in such a tenuous time, did you?” He sank down into his throne, pulling an ornate-looking crystal bangle from his jacket. With a pointed glance at first SuEllen, then Nell, both of whom were trembling with rage, he snapped the bangle shut.
“So what now, Uncle?” Nell spat at him.
“What an interesting question. You are, under Levelian law, a traitor to the crown.”
Her face turned purple with fury.
“The only traitor here is you. You killed your queen and her family and usurped her throne.” The comment was for him, but she looked at the room full of courtiers when she voiced it.
“Your mother kept a secret that nearly destroyed the world. I have merely been working to liberate it.” He shrugged, like that explained everything.
Interestingly enough, Nell didn’t argue. In fact, her face paled as though this wasn’t news to her, and I ground my teeth in frustration at once again being kept in the dark.
“You didn’t have to slaughter every last member of my family to accomplish that. Even the children.” Tears sprang into her eyes, but her voice remained steady.
The Levelians were riveted while Clark, Locke, and Xavier studied the room, searching for a way out of this mess.
Nell went on.
“Regardless, unless you plan to slaughter everyone in this room, it appears we’re at an impasse,” she pointed out.
“That,” he said cryptically, “remains to be seen.”
At that moment, the enormous bronze doors to the ballroom slid outward to reveal at least twenty heavily armed men. They were far outnumbered by our people, but the mystery weapons embedded in the walls more than made up for the discrepancy.
“You were saying?” The
king smirked at Nell, whose face had gone white.
We had underestimated him, all of us. I finally caught Clark’s devastatingly blue gaze, and I could clearly see he didn’t have any better idea how to get out of this than I did.
The guards marched in until they were evenly spaced around the perimeter.
“What have you done with the guards?” Fury laced SuEllen’s tone.
“Show her.”
At the king’s waved hand, the guards closest to the door brought in the bodies of the four guards who had apparently been posted outside the main doors.
I forced myself to look at the carnage, to remind myself what was at stake and what I might have prevented, had I played my game a little more effectively.
“You bastard!” SuEllen’s voice was harder than I had ever heard it. “Of course, you built weapons into the very walls, you despicable coward.”
“I’ll enjoy watching you die the most.” The king’s lips curled into a grim smile.
“Watching me,” SuEllen scoffed. “Only because you could never muster the bravery to do it yourself. You wouldn’t even risk an attack with your own wife under the same roof.”
His face went slack with rage.
“Adelaide, darling.” The bastard had the nerve to snap his fingers at me. “Don’t you think it would be fitting to have my new wife dispose of my former one?”
“She is not your wife,” Clark’s voice cut in before I could formulate a response. Rage coated his words. “She is mine.”
Some faraway girlish part of myself rejoiced at his words, just as I had the first time he said it. Until the king spoke and brought me back to the present, back to our bleak reality.
“I beg to differ.” He grabbed my hand, and I fought back a cry of pain when his fingers pressed against my still-tender wrist.
But that wasn’t half as agonizing as the expression on Clark’s face when he beheld the raised, red skin completely obscuring the wrist where his name had once been etched.
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