Now, I prayed that she wouldn’t. I spent my days and nights watching the western ridge where the walls between our worlds were their thinnest, hoping with everything in me that she wouldn’t appear there. Her returning to Velkin would be a death sentence. And even in the depths of my cold, cursed, untouchable heart, I couldn’t bear the thought of losing her.
No. I wouldn’t be losing her. I didn’t have her in the first place. I couldn’t stand the thought of the universe losing her.
It was in this state—of staring out at the Western Ridge—when the door to my chambers opened. There was not a knock. I should have known exactly who it was who dared to intrude upon my solitude. But it wasn’t until I heard the slightly ragged, certainly distressed voice of my brother that the hairs on the back of my neck rose on end with recognition.
“Anatole.”
Tormin. My younger brother. The bold, fearless warrior with an affinity for human culture and the love of a certain pixie. It had been my understanding that he’d run away, that he and his pixie had made good their escape to Earth and were going to try and mount an assault from there.
Secretly, I’d been rooting for them at first. Wanting them to succeed in their wild getaway. But as the days of Adric’s reign ticked by and his magic ate away at more and more of my being, I couldn’t help but hate them for having gotten away so easily. That bitterness tinged the edge of my response.
“Tormin. You’ve returned. Not the betrayer, after all.”
“Anatole, I’ve made an error in judgment.”
He was out of breath, as if he’d run up the thousands of stairs leading to this chamber. Fool.
“Yes, I know. You ran when Adric returned. He’ll make you regret that mistake, and rightly so,” I said, blandly, not bothering to take my eyes away from the window.
Tormin stopped his incessant prattling for a long, pointed moment. Then, he lowered his voice to a whisper, something I’d never heard him do before. “Who are you?”
“I am Anatole, prince of House Starborn. And I will do whatever it takes to restore our kingdom to its former glory. We will be conquerers and kings, Tormin. Isn’t that what we’ve always wanted?”
My words were rote. Repeated from the thousands upon thousands of times they’d been dictated to me by our new king. During the hours upon hours he spent layering my heart with the curses he’d discovered in his banishment, he reminded me over and over again that the pain would be worth it. That it would all be a noble sacrifice once we conquered Earth and had control over our homeland once again.
He still saw the humans as a threat. A menace to be wiped out or enslaved. I knew that arguing with him—telling him about Carolyn and her warmth and her smile—would only make the target on her back much larger.
I shuddered to think what Adric would do if he ever got his hands on Carolyn. I’d sent her to Earth and made her believe I didn’t love her because I wanted to keep her safe. Trying to argue for the virtues of the human menace Adric was so intent on destroying would have just the opposite effect.
“This isn’t you,” Tormin said, rushing to my side. “This isn’t like you. When I left, you were—”
“In the process of becoming all that I could be.” I titled my head upward, trying to wear my invisible armor proudly, trying not to let Tormin see the cracks in it. I couldn’t let anyone in this castle know of my weakness, not even the brother I trusted the most. “I see that now. Adric has showed me how powerful, how great, I could be if only I gave him the chance to mold me. These powers from the Outer Wilds…they’ve touched me. They have reached deep inside of me and changed everything. And they could do the same for you, if you let them. Is that why you’ve returned? Because you’ve seen the errors of your ways?”
“No, I’ve returned to bring Carolyn Conners back to Velkin.”
My entire world tilted on its axis. I understood all of those words individually, but when he said them in that order, they cracked the part of my conscious mind made to process and understand speech. He…Carolyn…Velkin…?
I tore my gaze away from the window, my body a dangerous, combustive cocktail of rage and horror.
In that moment, everything changed.
“You did what?”
“That’s why I went to Earth. To protect Kyra from the first attack of round-ups…and to find Carolyn.”
I wanted to slam my hands over my ears and scream. Maybe if I couldn’t hear him, that would make it untrue. Maybe that would save us all from what he was saying. Maybe that would turn back the clocks and stop him from making this stupid, stupid decision.
“Stop saying her name.”
“Why? Carolyn Conners is—”
“I said stop saying her name.”
BAM! A gust of green-tinted magical power shot out of my body. It barely missed Tormin as he dodged, but slammed straight into my unlucky wardrobe, which shattered when it flew into the stone wall across from it.
Tormin stared at the shards of wood. For the first time in our entire lives, my warrior-prince brother looked frightened. For once, he was staring at an enemy he couldn’t defeat. An evil he couldn’t vanquish.
He was looking at me. I was that evil.
“You truly are a monster,” Tormin muttered. “Just like he is.”
But I didn’t have the strength to divide myself. I couldn’t think about Tormin’s shock and awe at the sight of my new, destructive powers. I could only think about Carolyn Conners, the woman I’d now thoroughly failed to protect.
She was here. She was in Velkin. She was in Adric’s grasp.
All of the warmth left my body as the reality of that sunk in. I’d loved her…and I’d failed to protect her.
“Why did you bring her here?” I asked, my voice deadly quiet and threatening.
“Because you need her,” Tormin replied.
My mind raced. My vision swam. I’d done everything I could to make sure that she was out of his reach, that she would not be touched by the evil that was now invading my every waking moment. And Tormin had undone that. He’d brought her right back into the mouth of the monster.
“She would have been safe on Earth,” I hissed, unable to stop the magic brewing beneath my skin. These curses Adric had “gifted” me with all linked deeply to the hidden, buried emotions I tried to hard to avoid feeling. Any time they flared up, so did the magic. It made it almost impossible to ever conceal my true feelings. “She would have been protected.”
“For how long? You know Adric wants to invade Earth. You know—”
“I could have protected her,” I lied, though I knew the truth full well. I could lie to myself all I wanted, but there would come a day when I couldn’t protect Carolyn anymore.
I thought I’d bought her more time. Unfortunately, Tormin’s impulsive plan had cut that time short.
“Like this?” Tormin scoffed. I wouldn’t have been surprised if he spat at my feet. In that moment, his eyes burned with hatred. No, worse than hatred. Disappointment. The worst part was that I didn’t blame him. “Filled with hatred and evil? With a rotted apple where your heart used to be? I don’t think so.”
Still, no matter how much I may have deserved Tormin’s ire and anger, I couldn’t help the anger of my own, which ate away painfully at my insides. In this moment, I was disappointed in him, too. “You have betrayed me. You have betrayed her. Do you know what he will do to her once he knows she’s here.”
“He already knows. I wanted to give her over directly to you, but he saw her first.”
There wasn’t any time to waste then. Reaching for my cloak, I wrapped the heavy fabric around myself. The castle had been getting colder and colder lately.
“Where is she?”
“In the dungeons.”
My jaw tightened. The dungeons. He’d put her in the dungeons. Moving towards the door, I didn’t even give my brother a second look.
“I will deal with you later.”
But before I could slam my way out of the room, a small, broken voice p
iped up behind me. Quiet. Unsure. Agonized.
“Anatole. I’m sorry. I thought I was doing the right thing.”
In that moment, I knew I couldn’t truly blame Tormin, no matter how much I may have wanted to, no matter how much this evil magic inside of me wanted to slam him against the wall and make him pay for what he’d done to the woman I’d loved. We were all just trying our best, all trying to do the right thing. All just trying to survive in a world that was trying to destroy us.
✽✽✽
After leaving my youngest brother behind, I went straight through the castle in search of my other brother. As I walked, I tried not to look at the barren or destroyed walls of the Castle Bloc; I tried to focus on nothing but controlling the magic trying to rebel beneath my skin. I had to keep my emotions in check; I couldn’t reveal just how bitter and broken the news of Carolyn’s arrival had made me.
When I finally arrived in the newly appointed throne room, I entered without allowing the guards to announce me. Instead, I approached my brother with a downturned head, swept into a cape-fluttering bow, and cleared my throat before speaking.
“Your Majesty.”
Adric, who had been staring at a strange, foreign-looking map upon this throne, suddenly looked up at and smiled at me. Odd as it may have been, I hated it when the man smiled. The smile made everything else about him—the sickly, dead pallor; the sunken eyes; the crown of bones—all the more disconcerting and deadly. That smile reminded me of the shallow depths of his empathy, how he’d stopped being the brother I’d known and become this monster instead.
“Anatole. How good it is to see you. Are you here to discuss tonight’s banquet? I know it’s a bit excessive to throw a dinner for a traitor, but I thought perhaps the gesture would add to his guilt. Remind him of how good he’s had it here.”
“I’m sure that your plan will proceed exactly as you’ve imagined it. You were always the more analytical one between us. You’ve never failed us before,” I said, as stoically as possible.
Of course, Adric saw straight through me. His smile curved. He folded his map and pointed it in my direction like the tip of a dangerous saber instead of a paper weapon.
“Ah. I see. You haven’t come about the banquet at all. Have you?”
“No,” I said.
Adric’s expression flattened. I tried to read that expression, but it was written in a language I didn’t speak, one my magic hadn’t yet given me the sense to decode. Biting down on the inside of my mouth, I tried to keep calm.
“You heard about the little human in our dungeons, didn’t you?”
“I heard that a human had made it through the barriers, yes,” I said, noncommittally. “And as your advisor, I wanted to speak with you about possible solutions to this problem.”
Adric raised an eyebrow at me, questioning. Toying. “What problem?”
“Another human in our midst. The ones we’ve been forced to keep since the Exchange Program was put to an end are more than enough of a distraction, of a problem. We should send her back to Earth straight away.”
“Send her back to Earth?” Adric scoffed and rolled his eyes as he reclined in his throne. “I wouldn’t dream of it. This is a war, Anatole. There are bound to be prisoners taken in a war of this scale.”
My chest tightened. I would shatter if anyone so much as breathed on me. One of the small manipulations I’d managed during Adric’s reign had been the implementation of the “pet” system, wherein Adric believed that the humans remaining from the Exchange Program with earth were given as slaves to his most loyal subjects. In reality, I’d placed them with my most trusted friends and courtiers, where I was certain they would be treated as equals any time they weren’t in Adric’s direct presence. Tonight, at the ball, they would all almost certainly be in chains and pranced around like property, but that was a temporary solution to a problem that required a long-term solution.
Adric couldn’t just leave Carolyn in the dungeons. He…he had to listen to me. Had to see reason. Had to send her back. Or maybe he didn’t. Maybe I was just grasping at straws of hope. Traitorous, bastard hope. What good had it ever done me? All it had given me was a few brief, beautiful moments with the woman I loved before ripping her from me forever.
“You’re just going to keep her here? In the dungeon.”
“Unless you want her to run back to her human friends and warn them of what’s coming.”
I scoffed and played the skeptic, laying the act on as thick as I could manage when my heart wanted to leap out of my chest and tear Adric down off of that ridiculous throne of his.
“She’s one human. She couldn’t do that much damage,” I countered.
Adric’s smile froze. His eyes narrowed. All around us, the torches flickered. He was containing his dark magic, but only barely.
“Brother. I’m concerned about your insolence.”
“I only want what’s best for the people of Velkin,” I rushed to remind him, hoping it would be enough to buy his calm. “Having one human in our midst could cause trouble. Sending her back to Earth might save us from quite the distraction.”
From the brief look that passed across Adric’s face, I knew I hadn’t won him over. Once again, I’d failed Carolyn. I’d failed her completely.
“I appreciate your concern, but I have made my decision. Are you going to question your king once he’d made a declaration?”
“No,” I said, though everything in me wanted to scream that yes, I would defy him. I’d defy him to the ends of the realm if it meant he’d keep his hands off of Carolyn. The problem was that I knew it wouldn’t. The more I rebelled, the worse things would become for her. If I loved her, then I needed to play my part. “No, your Majesty.”
I offered a small bow, knowing I’d lost the battle, but not letting any of my disappointment show across my face. When I rose, I turned to leave the room. It was always better, in Adric’s presence, to escape before the flames started flying and the destruction started in earnest. You never knew when he was going to fly into one of his tempers, so leaving while the air was still clear always proved the safest choice.
But before I could make it to the giant door at the far end of the hall, he called out to me once more, stopping me in my tracks.
“But perhaps…” He hissed that last letter. I wondered if he’d even realized that he’d done it, or if he was just so taken by the darkness that he even lost control of his own speech. “Perhaps it would be wise if you went and paid her a little visit. You have grown strong in your training. If you are to conquer Earth and the humans at my side, then perhaps facing the one you cared for most would bolster all that you have already learned. I want you to be ready for our day of glory, brother.”
I didn’t turn as I spoke again. Making a promise to him…and to myself, too. “And I will be, Your Majesty. I will be.”
Chapter Three
Carolyn
The dungeons were cold. I’d been cold before. I’d slept nights without blankets and shivered as the wind ripped through shattered glass. I’d endured fingertips that lost their touch and shivers that eventually sent me into unnerved, uncertain sleep.
But I’d never endured a cold like the cold in the dungeons of Castle Bloc. This wasn’t just a cold in the air, one that sent the tip of your nose going red or that spread pain straight across your cheeks. It was a cold that permeated, that attacked. It wasn’t content to just be cold; it had to make you cold, to fight every last bit of warmth in your body until it had completely conquered you. Until you couldn’t think about anything but the cold, even as you wanted nothing more than to escape it.
In the corner of my cell, I huddled against the wall, trying to press myself into as small a surface area as I could. I wanted to conserve my body heat, and without a blanket or a stitch to be seen anywhere in the stone square that they called a cell, this was the best I could do.
I tried to keep my mind straight. To remember that I was here for a purpose, that I was on a mission. I needed to f
igure a way out of here, to come up with a course of action.
But when I moved against the wall, I accidentally, somehow, managed to dislodge a small stone from the old, seemingly impenetrable wall of the cell adjoining mine. And after a moment of rustling, a cool and familiar voice cooed from the other side.
“Oh, my dear. What have they done to you?”
A rush of warmth filled my cold, shivering heart. I knew that voice. That voice was the only one I wanted to hear right now, the only one I still trusted in this mixed-up world I currently found myself in. Queen Freia. Anatole’s mother. The one who’d told me I was the only one who could help Anatole defeat the evil. The one who’d shown me such kindness when I first arrived in Velkin and found myself completely lost in the magic of it all.
She was in the cell adjoining mine, wrapped in a threadbare blanket and peering through the small crack towards me.
“Queen Freia? What are you…” It didn’t make any sense. I understood that Adric was an evil invader. I understood that he gave me the creeps. But imprisoning his own mother? Queen Freia the strongest being I’d ever met, beautiful and strong and powerful in every way possible. To see her huddled in a cell…It rocked me to my core. As happy as I was to see a friendly, familiar face, I didn’t want to see her here. “What are you doing here?”
“Talking to you, my dear. Just like the chats we used to have in my office,” she said, light and airy and completely ridiculous considering our current predicament. I eyed her thin wrap enviously as my teeth chattered.
“I can’t…I can’t believe that they—”
Freia gasped as I fought to get the words out. “You poor thing. Here. Let me.” Holding out her hand towards the crack in the stone, she sent a wave of yellow-gold light in my direction, which shocked me to my core and filled me with a hazy, unnatural warmth. In that moment, the warmth was so deep and piercing that I’d forgotten what the cold even felt like. With a small smile, she nodded at me.
“It won’t last long, mind you, but it’ll be enough to keep those teeth of yours from chattering long enough for us to talk.”
Magic Captive: A Supernatural Academy Romance (The Velkin Royal Academy Series Book 2) Page 2