Page 20 of Son of the Drowned Empire

Chapter Nineteen

I rolled over on my cot. Kenna stood in the shadows before my cell, her hair shining and polished, her body sheathed in a Glemarian green dress.

Bowen bowed quickly. “I’ll give you both some privacy. I’ll be just down the hall until you’re ready.” He bowed again, holding Kenna’s gaze for a long moment, something unspoken passing between them. “Lady Kenna.”

She nodded, watching him retreat. Only when he was gone did she turn back to me, her expression hardened. “Rhy.” Both hands gripped the bars. “Rhy.” She took in my weakened body, the bandage over my eye.

I exhaled a sharp breath, pressing my hand to my face to cover the wound, hide the evidence. Not that it mattered. I squeezed my eyes shut. I barely had the strength to see her. She wasn’t supposed to come see me. I didn’t want to be seen, didn’t want to be pitied. I didn’t want her here to see how pathetic I’d become. And if she was here, then she was still under my father’s rule, and still within reach of her own father’s cruelty.

“I thought you’d escaped,” I said weakly, my voice dull.

A long moment passed. The only sounds beyond the night’s snowy gusts of wind were her uneven breaths. I opened my eyes and watched her.

“I couldn’t.” The moonlight cast a faint glow on the braid wrapped around her head and disappeared into the gleaming locks that fell past her shoulders. She wore a headband of silver wings behind the braid. “This is my home. I’m not running away.”

“You did tell me that before,” I said, shifting.

A sob burst from her. “Your eye.”

I rolled back on my cot, staring up at the ceiling, my teeth grinding. “It will heal. I don’t know how. The last healer who checked it said I should have lost it completely. I should be blind from the injuries around it.”

“The Gods protected you.”

“Protected me? Fuck the Gods.” My hands clenched at my sides. “They didn’t protect me. All they saved was my eye.”

She sniffled. “And you.”

I softened. And Kenna.

“Will it scar?” she asked.

“Yes.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be,” I said bitterly. “Not like anyone ever has to see it.”

She didn’t respond. She grew so quiet, I thought she had left. More guilt crept through me.

I sat up. “Before the Alissedari, when your father took you…” I stopped. I wanted to ask what happened. If she was okay. But she was here. And that seemed like enough. If she told me more, and there was nothing I could do about it…it would only hurt worse. “You’re okay?”

“I’m okay,” she said uneasily.

“Well thank you for coming to see me.”

“I’m not leaving so quickly. I came here for you. I needed to…to see you. See that you’re all right.”

Do I look fucking alright? I wanted to scream. Gods, the outside really did match the inside now.

“Dario and Aiden are safe. They’re—”

“Good,” I said, cutting her off. I didn’t want to know more, didn’t know if I could handle knowing more—if they hated me, if they forgave me. Safe was more than I could ask for. More than Garrett had received. More than my mother.

“Are you able to stand?” she asked.

“Yes.”

“Will you?”

I closed my eyes again. “Why? So, I can come admire the view?” I snarled.

“Please? Please just, I had to… had to do some negotiating to get this meeting with you.”

Only that could have gotten me up, gotten me to stand and approach the bars.

“Negotiating? My right eye immediately began to scan her body—searching for injuries. “What do you mean?”

She shifted her weight, and her body turning in the moonlight revealed the fresh bruises on her neck. I stepped closer. The second I was within reach her hand pushed through the bars and took hold of mine.

Tears fell immediately. This was my first touch in days that wasn’t from a healer, wasn’t from someone paid to methodically treat a wound I’d never truly heal from.

“I’m sorry, Kenna,” I sobbed. “Did they hurt you?”

“They… um.” She swallowed roughly. “They want me to write a statement. I’m to proclaim to the whole Council that I witnessed everything. And that you’re guilty of murder. But I can’t… I just… I know what happened. I know the truth. Know you’re innocent.” She made a strangled sound. “Even if I hadn’t been there, I’d know the truth, know you’d never be capable of anything like that.”

“Why not? I killed Garrett.”

“No.”

“Yes. You were there for that, too, you saw me.”

“Stop! Stop trying to turn me against you, to convince me you’re evil. It won’t work. I know you. I know who you are, and I know you only did what you had to. I know Garrett… I know he…know he was turning.”

“You saw?” I asked, something desperate in my voice.

“I…” She shifted again, uncomfortable. “I was told.”

No one was supposed to know. My father didn’t want anyone to know.

“Was anyone else told? His family? Aiden?”

She shook her head. “It’s all a secret at Court.”

I let out a shaky breath. It would always remain secret, and now her knowing that would only put her in more danger.

“Write the statement.” My voice broke. “Name me forsworn. Denounce me, say I’m a murderer. Just do it. Promise me. Swear.”

There was a stubborn look in her eyes. “You’re not though.”

“It doesn’t matter. If it will keep you safe, then you must.”

“I can’t. It’s not right.”

“Nothing is. But they’re only going to come after you more. Hurt you. Let me do this for you. Please. Please. I lost Garrett. I lost my…” I trailed off. I couldn’t say out loud that my mother was gone. “I’ve lost everything. And if this is all it takes to let me protect you, then please, let me. Write the statement. Tell the Council what I did, tell them whatever they want to hear. Make me a monster.”

She sniffled. “I came here because I wanted to protect you. And yet you’re still…” She squeezed her eyes shut.

My heart pounded, as something I’d thought was dead came alive inside of me. It was the will not just to live but to protect my friends. I needed to protect them more than I needed to breathe. She’d said before I always needed someone to protect and I couldn’t save everyone. Now I knew she was right. Maybe I couldn’t do more for her—couldn’t get her out of Glemaria, couldn’t guarantee she’d be free from physical harm or save her from my father or hers—but I could do this. With my last bit of will, I would do this.

Another tear rolled down her cheek, and I reached forward to brush it away.

“It’s okay,” I said. “Kenna, it’s all right. Just listen to me. I know this is your home, I know you want to stay. Do not under any circumstances let them hurt you for this. Nothing is going to change my father’s mind or his lies. Nothing is going to undo this. He knows Godsdamned well what he did, and so do all twelve of his guards. So does that spineless arkmage. If you need to say that I did it, then say it. Say I’m a monster. Say I was…” I swallowed, my throat tightening. “Say I was a violent,” tears blurred my vision, “a violent lover. That I was cruel to you. That I happily killed Garrett.” My hands trembled, and she took them between hers. “Say I was jealous he’d killed an akadim before me. Say I was in a rage over what I’d done that caused me to kill my mother, too. Say anything,” I whispered, “just keep yourself safe. Don’t be a martyr for me.”

“But you’re innocent.”

“And you know it. That’s enough. Now swear. Swear to me you’ll do this. Denounce me. Have Dario and Aiden confirm your story—whatever it takes.” I took hold of her hands, my grip tightening. “I need to know you’re okay. I… I can’t live with myself if you’re hurt by this, too.”

Tears ran down her face as she shook her head.

“Kenna, swear!”

She was crying now, but with a nod, she pressed her fist to her heart, and her eyes closed.

“ Me sha, me ka . I swear.”

I exhaled, my head falling against the bars, shoulders slumping with exhaustion. “Thank you.”

There was another stretch of silence during which I felt the cool metal slowly warm against my head.

“Rhyan?”

I took a deep breath, pulling my head up.

“I love you,” she said.

I tried to take in those words, to let them be a comfort. To pretend they were true. But I knew otherwise. I knew how it had always been between us.

“No, you don’t,” I whispered.

Her fingers ran over mine, and I found myself leaning back into her touch, her softness, her warmth, needing it far more than I wanted to admit.

“Yes, I do,” she said. “I love you. In my way.”

I knew what she meant. It wasn’t about sharing a bed. It never had been. We’d been something more than friends. We’d been a solace for each other, a small light in the darkest corners of Glemaria, a shield against our fathers’ expectations and manipulations. Against their cruelty. We’d been a soft place for each other in a world that was harsh and unfair. A temporary bandage for our hurts. But that was all. And that was enough.

“I love you, too, Kenna.”

She smiled through her tears. “I know.”

At least there was this. At least we understood each other. At least one person was alive who knew me, who knew the truth. At least there was one person who loved me anyway.

She pulled my knuckles to her lips, pressing a kiss to them through the bars. There was a rise in tension from her, a burst of nerves and sadness rippling through her aura. It was a goodbye. I could feel it in my bones—my time with Kenna running out, slipping away forever. She was already pulling her hand back with another glance down the hall. The faint echo of boots marching in the distance sounded.

“Do you know something?” I asked, gripping her fingers between mine.

Kenna tensed; her expression startled.

“You reminded me of hope,” I said. “Reminded me it exists. I hadn’t felt that in a long time. Not since…” Not since I’d stood under the golden leaves of a Bamarian sun tree two summers ago.

“Give it time. You will feel hope again.” She set her jaw, and for a moment, I saw her as I’d known her long before all of this had happened: brave and headstrong, always keeping step with me and Dario and Garrett without missing a beat. She was the girl who decided something was true and made it so through her sheer force of will. She was the girl who’d been through more than I knew and yet was standing here, stubborn as ever, determined for things to be right.

My mouth twisted into a joyless smile. Kenna was fierce, but there was strength of will, no amount of stubbornness or determination, that could change things now.

“I don’t think so,” I said honestly.

“Trust me,” she said, a forceful, commanding tone in her voice.

I nodded, not believing her. But if my agreement was what she needed from me, if it gave her peace, I’d give it.

“Rhy. I have to go.” Her voice broke, and she glanced again down the hall to Bowen before she turned back to face me. “I’m not sure… I don’t know if I’m ever going to see you again.”

Our gazes locked, and I let myself see her. Her kindness. Her beauty. Her bravery. Her love. She’d been a good friend, more than she knew. She deserved so much more than what I could give her, than what I had given her. Her coming to see me like this was one more kindness I could never repay.

“Kenna, wait, do one more favor for me, will you?”

“Anything.”

“Promise me that when you walk out of here, when this is all over, promise me you’ll find someone to love. Someone who loves you back. Loves you the way you deserve. Because if I know anything, you of all people deserve a great love.”

Something softened in her expression as she watched me carefully. “Only if you make the same promise back to me.”

I couldn’t help but laugh. “Kind of hard to court someone when this is what I’m working with.” I gestured to the dirty cell behind me. And yet… my heart thumped, remembering a very different prison. A different punishment. A different type of desperate hope.

Kenna’s eyes remained serious, like she was trying to convey something bigger than her words. “Promise. Promise you will love. Promise you’ll live. Not just survive, but live.”

I gripped the bars to keep from stumbling back. My mother’s final words. I wasn’t sure I could keep that promise to my mother, and now Kenna was asking for more, for the impossible.

The clock tower began to ring, the bells booming through my cell.

Bowen came back into view. Kenna stepped back from the bars. “Remember who you are,” she said. “This,” she gestured to the left side of my face, to my scar, still fresh and red and angry beneath the bandage, “this only changes you if you let it.”

I nodded, biting the inner corner of my cheek. Then, I watched Bowen take Kenna’s hand, offering one small squeeze before he released her.

Only then did I see what had truly happened. She’d handed him a key.

“Goodbye,” she said, her eyes lingering on me before she raced away.

I watched until her figure faded into the shadows, until she was gone.

The sound of metal scraping against itself turned my attention back to Bowen. He’d inserted the key Kenna had given him into the lock and was opening my cell door.

“Bowen? What are you—What are you doing?”

The bells stopped ringing.

His lips turn up into a rare smile. “Breaking you out of prison.”