by Morgan Rice
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Angelica waited until Rupert was out about some business in the city before she headed down to the cellars and the hidden door that sat there. Rupert probably thought that she didn’t know about any of his secrets yet, but Angelica had always been quick when it came to finding what was hidden, and there was hardly a member of the household who didn’t know the rumors of what Rupert did down here.
The screams of the servant who had betrayed him had given quite a lot of it away.
She moved carefully. She was working to secure the loyalty of some of the staff there, had brought in some of her own people, but she didn’t have all of them so quickly, and it would only take one reporting this to Rupert. She had the bruises on her to declare exactly how dangerously unpredictable he could be. She moved by the light of a hooded lantern, sliding back the barrels as quietly as she could, then creeping into the space beyond.
Sebastian’s cell was the only occupied one. It made things simpler in its way, meaning that she didn’t have to kill any of the other prisoners to keep them quiet. The sight of him there, blinking at her in the lamplight, should probably have brought pity. Instead, she felt anger rising in her, cold and hard as steel.
“Angelica?” he said, in a hopeful tone, as if she were his salvation. “What are you doing down here?”
“You mean, am I here to get you out?” Angelica asked. “Why should I, Sebastian? Why should I, after all you’ve done?”
She let him have a glimpse of her hurt then. Of her hurt, and of the anger that it had turned into. Rupert might have done this to his brother, but this, this was her revenge.
“Angelica,” Sebastian said, “I’m sorry, I know I’ve hurt you, but—”
“But you did it because you love that whore Sophia, so that’s all right,” Angelica finished for him. She didn’t bother trying to hide her contempt for what he’d done. “You think that because you’re doing it for love, you can hurt who you like. Do you know that your mother tried to have me killed?”
Sebastian looked at her in shock. “She wouldn’t…”
“Don’t be a fool,” Angelica snapped back. She didn’t want to hear his well-meaning blindness to the evil in others’ hearts. “Those in power get there by being the strongest, the cruelest, or the most cunning. You know perfectly well how many people the Dowager has killed over the years. She was going to add me to the list for failing to seduce you well enough. For failing to get you into the kind of marriage that a proper prince should have.”
“Angelica, I didn’t know,” Sebastian said. Angelica guessed that was probably the truth. It didn’t make a difference. At best, it said that Sebastian was thoughtless and stupid. But no matter how much Angelica tried to tell herself that, she still had trouble thinking about anything but him.
“You didn’t know that you were doing harm when you walked out on me?” she demanded. “You didn’t know that you were running to the daughter of your mother’s old enemies? You thought that it was all right to leave me, not once, but twice?”
Sebastian nodded. “You’re right,” he said, “I’ve done a lot to hurt you, but we could make it right. You could still get me out of here, and then we could go across the sea, where my mother wouldn’t be able to touch you. We could go to Ishjemme together.”
“Where I would get to watch you marry her?” Angelica demanded. Was Sebastian really stupid enough to think that she would do something that would rob her of everything she’d worked for? Did he think that she was so blindly in love with him that she would give up everything the way…
…the way he had for Sophia? That thought just made Angelica angrier.
“I’m not going to run off on some fool’s errand with you,” she said. “I’m not going to give up everything for a man who isn’t ruthless enough to take the throne.”
“Is that all you care about?” Sebastian demanded. He grabbed the bars of his prison. “I thought I saw another side to you, Angelica. I thought you were a better person than that. I thought you cared.”
On impulse, Angelica grabbed him, kissing him through the bars, quick and deep, pulling Sebastian to her so that she could taste his mouth on hers, feel him close enough that he was almost a part of her. She did it because she wanted to, because she could, and yes, maybe because she did feel something for her lovely prince. Those feelings just made what he’d done hurt more, so she shoved him back, stepping away from the bars.
“You talk about caring as if it matters,” Angelica said as she wiped the taste of him from her mouth. “It doesn’t change anything in the world. It doesn’t protect you from the people who want to hurt you. It doesn’t give you power, or strength, or safety. It doesn’t make it hurt less when people betray you.”
That was the point Angelica needed to hang onto here. She was the wronged party in this. She was the one who had been put aside and attacked, pushed into a situation where there were almost no choices. She would not apologize for doing what was necessary to live.
She would not forgive Sebastian. But she would use him.
“You’re going to rot here,” she said. “You humiliated me, and I will not forgive that. I’m not going to throw away everything to free you.”
“Angelica,” Sebastian said. “Rupert is planning to install himself as the heir!”
He said it as if it were a warning. As if he were somehow saving her from some terrible fate. Maybe he was relying on her doing the right thing. Whatever his reason, Angelica laughed at it.
“Why do you think I’m marrying him?” she replied.
It was worth it just to see the hurt on Sebastian’s face. It went a little way toward repaying the hurt he’d visited on her. Not far enough though. Not by a long way.
“You’re marrying Rupert?” Sebastian said, and he had the temerity to sound as though he were the one who had been betrayed. He made it sound as though, having been put aside by him, Angelica should have retired quietly from public life.
“What did you think would happen?” Angelica demanded. “We could have married. We could have been king and queen of this island in time. I would have helped you to be great, although the Masked Goddess knows I’d have spent half the time trying to make up for your naiveté.”
“It’s not naïve to want to do the right thing,” Sebastian said.
If the bars hadn’t been in the way, Angelica might have slapped him then, just to try to break through his stupidity. There were some people who couldn’t be woken up to the world, though.
“And who do you think manages to do the most good in the world?” Angelica demanded. “The fool who gives up his path to the crown, or the one who takes that crown by force and then uses it to make a safe, prosperous kingdom?”
“Things won’t be either of those with Rupert in charge,” Sebastian said. “You know what he’s like, Angelica.”
She did, probably better than Sebastian did. She was counting on it. Rupert was her way to move from merely being a member of a respected noble family to having real power. He was the sword that would cut an opening for her to step through.
“You could let me out,” Sebastian said. “You could find a way to do it without Rupert learning it was you, I’m sure of it. You could still… if you really want to do it, you could still marry him.”
“Thank you for being so gracious as to tell me who I can marry,” Angelica said in a cold tone. Who did Sebastian think he was, to ask her to take that risk? Who did he think he was, giving her permission to marry Rupert?
“Do you know what’s going to happen to you, Sebastian?” she said. “You’re going to stay right here. You’re going to stay here, and you’re going to rot. You’re right, I probably could let you out now, but I don’t want to. I have no reason to. You’re going to disappear from the world, locked in the dark. It’s going to be your punishment for everything you’ve done to me.”
“Then why are you even here?” Sebastian asked.
He really was a fool, Angelica decided. A beautiful one, but a
fool nonetheless.
“Because I can be,” she said. “Because I want to hurt you. Because I want to make the point that you’re in my power, as much as Rupert’s. I’m going to marry him, and you’re going to spend your life wondering what might have happened if only you’d gone through with it instead of running off.”
She watched his face, seeking out the hurt there. She wanted this to hurt. He deserved for it to hurt.
“I’m going to become Rupert’s queen when he rules,” she said. “And that will be soon enough. Your mother will pay for trying to kill me.”
“A lot of people have gone up against her before,” Sebastian said.
“And they died for it because they weren’t ruthless enough, or they didn’t hold the right cards,” Angelica said. “Well, I hold both of her sons. I’ll have Rupert for a husband soon enough, and you…”
Maybe she shouldn’t say it, but she did anyway.
“Maybe I won’t keep you locked away in here all the time,” she said. “Maybe I’ll have you brought out when I want you, cleaned up and brought to my bedroom. The nobles of this kingdom treat girls like me as if we’re brood mares, so maybe I should treat you that way.”
“I—” Sebastian began.
“You wouldn’t have a choice!” Angelica snapped at him. “You could have been my partner, but now, I will decide what you are, and if it’s my plaything, then that’s what you will end up being!”
She could see the look of disgust on Sebastian’s face, and that just made her angrier. How dare he feel such a thing toward her?
“Do you think Rupert would stand for that?” he asked.
“Rupert will never know,” Angelica said. “It’s not as if he’s any brighter than you are. Maybe I should have gone after him from the start of this, but I had the foolish idea that you were the better man. I’ve been cured of that delusion, at least.”
She turned to go, then turned back to him, wanting to see him there, helpless; wanting to hurt him in one more way.
“Don’t think I’ve forgotten about Sophia, either,” she said. “She’s been behind too much of this, and she’s still an impediment, given her claim to the throne. I do not allow obstacles to stay in my path, and I do not forgive an insult.”
“If you hurt her…” Sebastian began.
“What will you do?” Angelica asked. “You’re stuck in a cell, with no way to so much as get a message out. I, on the other hand, can send messages to the kinds of people who will see your whore dead. I already have.”
There was even more satisfaction than she’d thought in seeing Sebastian trying to wrench his way through the bars. Angelica liked seeing that futile anger, because it said that she’d managed to hurt him the way he deserved to be hurt.
“You should have listened to me, Sebastian,” she said as she turned to walk away again. “You should have married me. We could have ruled together. Now, you’re going to stay here, and your precious Sophia is going to die.”
She walked away, picturing Sebastian watching her as she left. He was primed now. When she decided to act, he would do all that she wanted him to do.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Kate couldn’t remember a time when she hadn’t been in pain. Agony stretched into the past, filling so much of it that she couldn’t look past it. She couldn’t remember how long she’d been there, couldn’t work out if it had been minutes, hours, days, or years. All she could remember was the pain of a hundred or more different torments.
She burst free of the grip of a masked nun, then ran down a corridor filled with flailing arms, each ending in a clawed hand. The claws slashed at her, burning as they cut through her flesh, making her scream as she pressed forward. The wounds healed instantly, because there was no flesh to wound here, but that didn’t stop the pain.
“Please,” she begged, in spite of herself, “make it stop.”
She had once thought that she was the kind of person who would never beg anyone for anything. She hadn’t been afraid of whatever pain Siobhan could inflict on her; she’d only done what the woman of the fountain wanted when she threatened Sophia. She hadn’t buckled under the efforts of the masked nuns, or the violence of Ashton’s streets. Kate had thought she was strong enough to withstand anything the world could throw at her.
This wasn’t in the world, though, and it was breaking her, piece by piece.
Kate ran on, and now she was moving through a swampy landscape where the air was foul enough to burn her lungs, and flares of gas caught fire, singeing her as she passed. There were creatures there that struck at her: snakes and lizards, scaled things that tried to pierce her flesh with fangs or strike at her with claws.
The worst part of it was that there seemed to be no end to it. Kate couldn’t see the glimmering silver thread of the path; hadn’t been able to in so long that it seemed almost like her imagination. This wasn’t like some torture in the world, where she could have stopped it simply by giving someone what they wanted. This was a place where there was nothing she could do to end the agony, the constant violence and the fear.
She wondered what would happen when she finally ran out of the will to resist, or ran out of hope, or just gave in. Would what was left of her be torn to shreds? Would she merge into this hellish landscape? Or would it just go on without cease until the end of time, while out in the world Siobhan rode her body in an attempt to kill Sophia?
“No,” Kate swore. “I won’t allow it. I’ll find a way to stop it.”
That need, that connection, drove her on. If this were just about her pain, maybe she would have sunk into it, maybe she would have even deserved it, but she couldn’t let Siobhan kill Sophia. She couldn’t let the witch do what she’d threatened, and take over the body of Kate’s unborn niece. Kate would press on until she found a way to stop that, whatever it cost her.
She felt something then, in a ripple that seemed to move through this space beyond the physical world. There was something familiar about it; something that felt almost the way it felt when she connected with Sophia’s mind, yet it wasn’t her mind. There was something different about this. It felt… almost like a boy’s mind?
Kate frowned at that, and a part of her thought it must be some kind of trick. It had to be a trap, because everything here was a trap. Every scrap of hope here was just to draw her into more pain, every hint of respite only there to make the pain that followed worse.
She had to risk it though. If there was a chance that it might let her help Sophia, she had to grab hold of it. Kate stood still for a moment, ignoring the things that raked at her skin, trying to give a direction to what she felt even though this was a place where normal directions didn’t apply. Kate fixed it in her mind, turned…
…and ran.
She sprinted, ignoring everything in between, her feet carrying her across space that wasn’t space, moving her to a point where it felt as though the air became thicker. Kate pushed through it, forcing her way forward through something that felt like a curtain.
Then it was a curtain, or at least a screen made from silk. Kate brushed it aside with her hand like cobwebs, and found herself in a room with wooden floors, covered in the most elaborately woven rugs she’d ever seen. There were paintings on the walls that seemed to strive to convey the essence of their subjects in as few lines as possible. Looking through a window, she could see gardens that rose in a well-fed green space, despite the appearance of sandy dunes in the distance.
Was this some new place for her to suffer, or was it something else?
She could hear voices beyond the room, and Kate crept forward cautiously to the doorway. Beyond, she could see a fat man with a sallow complexion wrapped in silken robes, seated on something close to a throne. Her attention was on the two figures in front of him, though, because she knew them. She’d seen them in her dreams and in her memories.
What were her parents doing here?
“Will he be safe here, Ko?” her mother asked.
The fat man put a hand over his hear
t. “You know that I will defend him with my life, Christina. Do you have any doubts?”
“No, old friend,” Kate’s father said. “There is no one else we could have brought him to. We just fear the Dowager’s power.”
“That is not something that can touch the Silk Lands,” the fat man said.
“There are other powers in the world that can,” Kate’s mother pointed out.
The fat man bowed his head. “That is true, but you have done all that you can. Now, would you like to go and say farewell to… what is the child’s name?”
“Lucas,” Kate’s mother said. “His name is Lucas.”
They left, and the fat man sat there alone for a while. He looked over to the doorway.
“You can come out,” he said.
Kate walked forward, uncertain if she should, not knowing if this was just a prelude to some new kind of torture.
“What is all this?” she asked. “Who are you?”
“I believe the custom is that the guest goes first,” the fat man said.
“I’m Kate,” she said, still looking around. The room was simple in so many ways, but where there were carvings or tapestries, they were of a quality that would have put most palaces to shame. “Those… they’re my parents, or they were, or… what is this place?”
“A dream, a memory, something else,” the fat man said. “I am Official Ko. Well no, that isn’t true. The real me is in the world somewhere. I am a fragment given more life than it should have, nothing more. And you have the look of someone who is hunted.”
Kate nodded. She imagined that even now, the things that had been torturing her would be trying to find her. She half expected the man in front of her to turn into one of them at any moment.
“Are you one of them?” she asked.
The fat man shook his head. “I am not. I would say that you are safe here, but I suspect that isn’t true, not forever. There is only so long that a good dream can keep the bad ones at bay. We only have so much time, and I imagine that there are questions you want to ask.”