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Chapter seven

HYACINTH

I’d been pacing in front of the prison’s entrance since breakfast, my shadows flowing around me as the two guards stationed at the gates exchanged a nervous glance. I kicked a loose stone across the floor with the toe of my boot as I let out a long sigh, studying the dank stone space.

My guess was that I’d been here for at least four hours already, which meant Ata’s meeting with Dukovich was probably over. I desperately wished I could have been there with her. That she had wanted me to be there with her.

I groaned up at the ceiling as the same silent battle raged in my head as all the other mornings I’d come, only to leave with the promise that tomorrow I would do it.

I had never made it past this room.

It was time and I knew it. The time for me to come was months ago but if I was being honest with myself, I hadn’t been ready to face him. To face the man that had taken so much from me out of blinded jealousy. I still wasn’t sure if I was ready, but it had to be done.

I tucked a curl behind my ear and turned to face the two men.

Rolling my shoulders back, I cleared my throat and nodded.

The guards bowed their heads to me in unison as they each pulled a key from around their necks.

I watched as the gold stitching of their leathers shimmered off the dim light coming from the circular window inlaid in the ceiling.

It was the only natural light these dungeons would ever see.

I stepped up to the door as they pushed the keys into the locks then laid their palms on the golden door.

Forcing my breath to steady, I brought my palm to the door’s surface.

My skin heated as it connected with the prison gate and a white light ran underneath the three of our palms as the locks began to click underneath the surface.

The sound of metal scraping against metal echoed through the small underground chamber until the final gear clicked into place and the door began to open.

Watching as the guards grabbed the handles and pulled the doors fully open, I let out a sharp breath.

The gate was warded, and anyone who entered these prisons was documented when they laid their palms against the door.

If your essence was not mixed into the magic used to ward them, the doors would not open for you.

As far as I knew, only those closest to Landers and Elric and his captains had access to the inside of these doors.

I stood there for a moment, staring into the darkness that seemed to stare back at me.

I didn’t know what my plan was. Didn’t know what I would say, but I just had to get this over with. I couldn’t keep pushing it off. I took one step toward the stairs on the other side of the door, then another, then another.

My stomach lurched as anger rose to the surface at the mere thought of seeing his face again and when I took that first step down toward the cells, my veins filled with rage.

Every emotion ignited in the pit of my stomach like a bonfire and I pressed my hand against the damp stone wall to steady myself.

I had to do this.

Taking step after step down into the hole that was now Taft’s personal hell, I forced myself to breathe against the claustrophobia that was beginning to push against my skin.

Every level I descended was lined with golden cells.

The first few floors were reserved for those who had indulged in too much drink, causing trouble in Nethkar, or its neighboring towns and villages. They were only staying for the night to sober up. The next levels were occupied by thieves and swindlers.

As the stairs winded down, the severity of the crimes increased until they reached the bottom floor—where Taft was locked in one of two cells.

My boots hadn’t even connected to the floor of the prison when a soft chuckle echoed through the small candle-lit space.

I stilled. Listening as chains scraped across the stone floor.

“I was wondering when you would finally come to visit me,” Taft said, his voice rough and full of amusement. “Why are you hiding, Hyacinth?”

My skin crawled at the sound of my name falling off his lips and I clenched my fists, taking the last step onto the floor of the prison and rounded the corner.

“That’s not something I have to do anymore,” I said, willing my voice not to shake as I crossed my arms over my chest and leaned against the stone wall across from him.

He took another step toward me, slipping his hands through the gaps of his cell and resting his forearms on the gold bars. The manacles around his wrists clanked loudly against the metal as he smiled over at me.

“You are a sight for sore eyes. Did you miss me?” His smile turned feral and I scoffed in response as I studied him.

His skin was caked in a layer of dirt and his grime-filled hair hung over his face. It was longer now and beginning to mat.

“Not even a little,” I snapped and watched the lines of Taft’s face harden. “Ardan is the only person that deserves to be missed.”

“Ardan’s death is not on me. He was my brother; I loved him just as much as you,” Taft spat.

“You don’t get to speak his name. You know nothing of what it means to love,” I snarled, that anger slowly starting to seep out of my skin.

“Now.” I took a deep breath in an effort to ground the emotion spilling out of me.

“I’ve only come here for answers. Answers that you will give me, or I will rip them from you myself. ”

I pushed off the wall and took a single step toward him, watching as a small flinch shook his body.

He should fear me.

“If you tell me what I want to know, I will end your imprisonment and send your soul back to the Gods in one piece. If you refuse, I will spend the next hundred years having you cut apart, piece by piece, only letting you heal enough to carve those pieces from your body again and again and again.” The words were soft as they left my lips, the sound gliding through the air like a sinister melody.

Taft took a step back, his fingers wrapping around his cage.

“Only a few short months, and I no longer recognize the person that stands before me,” he said, his voice a low growl, but I could hear the unease tugging at the seams of it. “What happened to the girl who loved me, who once called me family? The girl that would die for her family?”

I scoffed, amused at the manipulation that used to make me feel guilt.

“What makes you think I want to be recognized by you?” I asked, my voice cold—hard.

I pulled a dagger from my sheath and let the shadows pluck it from my hands. Taft staggered deeper into his cell, away from the tendrils flowing toward him—his back pressing against the hard stone.

“The thing is, Taft, you are not my family, and I know now you never were. I am no longer that same gentle, submissive creature you once knew. You are right about one thing, though. I will no longer die for my family. I will kill for them.”

Shadow wrapped around his limbs and he struggled against them, fighting as they pulled him back toward me and pushed him to his knees. The dagger fell into my open palm as they coiled around us, wrapping around his throat and squeezing as I crouched down to meet his gaze.

“Answers, Taft. I need answers. War is coming and you have used up all your grace.”

He lifted his eyes to mine as he tried to claw at the tendrils around his neck.

“I will never tell you anything,” he spat. “You will lose this war and the Gods will condemn you for this. I will pray for you—pray they give you leniency.”

He gasped as the tendrils tightened around his airway.

A corner of my lips lifted as I reached through the cell bars. He recoiled as my hand connected with his skin, pushing a strand of hair behind his ear before my fingers slid down his jaw and pulled his chin toward me.

“Hear me when I say this,” I breathed, my eyes locking on his as his skin turned red from the lack of oxygen. “I am your God now. You pray to me, and I will not answer.”

Taft jerked his head from my hands, gasping as my words hit their mark and allowed him air again. He hissed at me as he scurried away from the bars.

“Where are you from, Taft?” I asked, knowing that he would not answer.

I clicked my tongue into the silence.

“Unfortunately, I have no more time to give you this morning,” I said, turning toward the stairs and taking the first step up, then paused. “Think about what I said here today, and choose wisely, or the next time I see you, you will not be left whole.”

The threat flowed from my lips over my shoulder as I turned my head back to the stairs and began my climb.

“Is this a bribe?” Wren asked, setting down the last of the crates we had hauled down the hill from the castle as the five of us stood in the entry of a house that would soon be Ata’s new home. “I wasn’t aware we received gifts for bad behavior.”

I slapped Wren’s chest playfully with the back of my hand as I stepped further into the large, circular foyer, trying to imagine how Ata would decorate it.

Two large staircases stretched upward before us on the opposite side of the foyer. The one on the right, led to a den whose balcony overlooked the main level, and the other led to the bedrooms and washrooms.

“It’s the only thing she has ever asked for, and after what she has been through, she deserves to have someplace to feel safe,” I said, turning just in time to see the Elric and Wren exchange weary glances.

“What?” I asked, my eyes flickering between them.

“Elric and I have some . . . things we need to discuss,” Wren said as he took a small step backwards toward the door.

Pri tilted her head toward him, shaking it as a knowing smile split onto her lips.

“Besides, I know nothing about decor,” Wren said, flashing me a sheepish grin as he gestured his head to Elric, his eyes darting to the door.

“Go,” I said, waving my hand toward the door as I rolled my eyes. “Be free.”

They tethered from the room in the next breath and Andrues chuckled as he stepped between me and Pri.

“Are you sure you don’t want to flee with the others?” I deadpanned as I glanced up at him.

A small smile crossed his lips as he pointed to the den.

“I will take that space.” He was striding toward the steps before I could respond and I smirked at his back.

Who knew Andrues would be into this.

“Obviously, the kitchen is where I will be headed,” Pri sang over her shoulder as she headed across the foyer to the back of the house and disappeared down the hallway that connected the front of the house to the kitchen.

Magic began to flow through the air as the two of them began conjuring items from the crates stacked in the entryway and I sucked in a deep breath, trying to calm the adrenaline still buzzing through my veins.

I should have stayed longer with Taft, pushed him harder for information.

But the longer I stayed trapped in that dungeon with him, the faster my confidence began to drain from me, as if he was sucking it out of my body. There was something darker, more sinister about him than I remembered. An aura of evil that unnerved me.

Maybe it was the prisons, and the horrors those walls had seen, or maybe it was just him, and I was finally coming face to face with the man he truly was.

But I had done it.

And that was all that mattered. I had broken that seal, and next time, it would be easier. For now, I was going to focus my energy for the rest of the day on this house.

Focus my energy on the things—the people—that mattered.