Page 10 of The Healing Dragon (The Red Book #2)

CHAPTER SIX

JESSE

I pace back and forth along the length of the basement. The prisoners are no longer looking our way and have instead resorted to staring at the walls or converse with one another. All except for him.

Matias.

The one variable I was not prepared for. Janelle’s connection to him still makes no sense to me, but it doesn’t matter. The fact of the matter is that I can’t leave without him. Bianca will never forgive me.

Bianca is the future queen of Puerto Quinn, if my brother has his way.

I’ve known him his whole life and never would I’ve imagined his ruling partner to be a woman like Bianca.

She’s such a wild card and unpredictable.

The total opposite of all the women that came before her.

I’ve spent days watching my brother worry himself sick over her whereabouts while she was looking for Matias, and here he was all along.

Matias stares at the wall with no expression.

His body might be here, but his mind is gone.

I fear Bianca will hate me if I don’t bring her Matias back, but I also fear what seeing Matias in this condition will do to her.

He is a shadow of a person. I never got to meet him, but from what Roman and Santiago told me, the man before me is not him.

What remains here is the shell of who he used to be.

“If you help me, this would go a lot faster.” Janelle is holding two mops and a bucket.

She has filled the bucket to the brim and from the bubbles at the top, I’m inclined to believe she has already added some type of soap she probably found in the supply closet. Uncertain if she really thinks I’m going to let her do the manual task, I approach her.

“You don’t need to do that.” I place my hand over the cleaning supplies and spell the inanimate items to do the task themselves.

They move clumsily but quietly. Beginning at one edge of the basement, they scrub and wipe the floor.

“Thank you,” she says.

I clear my throat and move to look at Matias again. He remains unmoving.

“What is your business with him?” I ask.

She steps to my side, her eyes train on the boy. “Like I said, I met him once. He was kind.”

“Outside of the Black Castle?”

“Yes,” she says and inclines her head. “After my exile. As I made my way out of the forest.”

If she saw him after she was kicked out, then he must have been on his way back. He was going to make it back in the time frame he gave Bianca. He was so close. I can’t help but pity the guy.

“What do you think they did to him?” I ask her.

He is in terrible shape. No wonder he has this gone look in his eyes. He has escaped to a place in his head to survive.

“My father is ruthless. But I can only imagine. We have no real clue how the Red Book works, but I know what my father wants from it.” Her eyes are pained.

“And that is?” I ask.

“To uncap his magic and be as powerful as he can be. He plans on taking down your brother and his reign that way.”

My brothers and I had guessed as much in the meetings after the attack.

There are only so many reasons the traitor would choose to take the Red Book.

I look back at Matias’ beaten form and broken spirit.

The Red Book sealed something in us to cap our magic and whatever Lord Duelo is doing to uncap it, it’s simultaneously breaking the person.

“Your father must first figure out how to do it on others before doing it on himself.”

Janelle gives me a look that says I’m stating the obvious. “My father might be brave enough to declare war on the Black Castle, but he sent us, his children, to do the battle.”

“I saw him, you know.” I recall clearly the moment my eyes landed on him that night.

At the sound of distress, Brandon and I had agreed we needed to get to my grandfather.

He had departed to his office to relocate the Red Book.

Brandon took the route inside the castle passages and I, with a group of soldiers, took the castle halls.

The smell of burning wood, the loud screams of people scared and in pain echo in my head.

I made it to my grandfather’s office first. Lord Duelo was already inside with his hand on the Red Book as my grandfather laid unmoving on the floor. The moment his eyes met mine, a smirk painted his lips. Ethan, his son, stood over my grandfather’s body.

“I killed him,” I say. A part of me is glad but another dreading the response.“Your brother.”

Would she hold it against me? A pause echoes in the space between us .

“I’m sure you had to,” she says.

I did. There was no choice. But she had choices.

Her eyes aren’t on me but on her own hands.

The dread that must exist on her conscience must make it hard for her to sleep.

Everyone back at Puerto Quinn thinks of the Duelos as soulless evil people who attacked us completely unprovoked.

The latter is true, but I know the soul that lives inside that chest. At least I did, and it wasn’t evil.

At what point does the responsibility weigh on her, considering how much of what she did can be blamed on others?

“Do you feel guilty?” I ask her, not knowing if I will like the answer.

Her eyes finally meet mine once again. “There are no words to explain all I wish I could do over. But I cannot dwell on the past. I can do something about today, and that’s what I will focus on.”

A yes was all I wanted to hear to know the girl I once knew was still there.

“What about Oliver?” I ask her.

I’ve known Oliver far longer than Janelle knows.

I knew he lived and worked at the Duelo home but I didn't know his connection with Janelle was deeper than the one between a soldier and the lady of the house. The hug and appreciation in both their eyes as they embrace one another tells me I am missing important information. It also fills me with fury because he should have taken her away at the whispers of Lord Duelo’s plans.

If I had known, I would have never left her there.

“Oliver isn’t like my father. He is good.”

I point at Matias over my shoulder. “He helped your father do that. He’s obviously not that good.”

Anyone that can look at Matias and not want to get him away from here is a monster .

“You don’t know what you’re talking about.” She frowns as if I’m the one who doesn't understand.

“Sure, Janelle, what I know is that you will make excuses.”

I once believed I knew Oliver, but after the night at the Black Castle, I cannot trust anyone.

Including the girl in front of me. Regardless of how much I wish I could.

Oliver obviously has affection for Janelle and the feeling is mutual.

I’ve never seen her hug anyone before, let alone one of her father's soldiers. Having Oliver on our side inside these walls could be instrumental for the mission, but after laying eyes on Matias, I’m afraid that is not an avenue I’m willing to take.

She says nothing and instead turns away from me and the conversation.

I let her have her space and peace. For the sake of having something to do, I move around the room and try to talk to the other prisoners, but none of them do anything but twitch or murmur to themselves.

These people aren’t far from the brokenness Matias is in.

A loud buzzing from above blurts through the walls, making the prisoners instantly move away from the cell bars towards the back of the prison walls. This urge to get away at the sound of the buzzing is the most reaction I’ve seen out of them in the past couple of hours.

I wave my hand toward the cleaning supplies still scrubbing the floors. They instantly drop. I pick the cloak up and wrap it around me just before a figure reaches the stairs landing.

The man who recognized Janelle outside looks around with suspicion. “Did someone come out here to help you?” he asks.

He probably didn’t expect Janelle to get this much done in just a few hours. We should have been more conscious about this. I turn to look at Janelle to see if she also gets the feeling we might have messed up. She doesn’t look concerned. If anything, she wears a bored expression on her face.

“No,” she says. Then picks up the cleaning supplies and places them off to the side by the wall. “Is that why you’re here?”

“Dinner should be ready soon. Your father wants you to be cleaned up and presentable to sit at the table.”

I look out to the only small window on the back door and see that the sun has begun to set. The small amount of light coming from there is nearly all gone.

“I’d rather have it in my room.”

“You have a room because of him, so I would show more respect if I were you. When the King asks you to be present for dinner, you do it with a smile.”

“Has being his dog given you the satisfaction you want out of life?”

“My name is Ernesto, not dog,” he says, and waits for Janelle to react, but she doesn’t. “Iris is upstairs. She will show you to your room.”

Janelle doesn’t address anything else as she makes her way up the stairs. I follow her and hurry past her once at the top.

An older woman waits for Janelle at the end of the hall. There is no pleasant expression on her face, but a familiarity passes her eyes as they land on Janelle. Regardless, she says nothing to her. Janelle knows to follow the woman to the second floor of the house. I’m always a step behind.

On the second floor, the floor plan spreads into two sides. Each side looks to be hallways with doors to either side. We take the left one.

“The soldiers are to the right,” the woman says without looking back. “Female staff and your parents are to the left. It will be best if you stay to the left at all times. ”

We pass several doors before we reach one at the end of the hall. The hall turns left again and another hall of doors. At the end of that hall, there is a set of double doors.

“The end leads to your parents. Don’t go there. If you need to speak to them, do it when they are up.”

There are still ten doors that need to be crossed to reach Janelle’s parents’ door from her own.

She walks into her bedroom, and I’m glad she remembers I’m right behind her.

Leaving the door wide open, she waits for me to come after her.

She looks so natural you would think there was nothing amiss.

The maid doesn’t wait for Janelle to inspect her room.

It’s not like Janelle would make any requests.

It’s clear that the staff is currently providing a “You get what you get” service.

The room is a sad white and beige space with just a bed and a nightstand. The mattress looks lumpy and old, but at least the space smells clean.

I remove my cloak and move about the room, inspecting it. Janelle stays seated at the foot of the bed while I conduct my inspection. There is a bathroom adjacent to the room. That in itself is going to prove very useful.

When I exit the bathroom into the bedroom, Janelle passes me, then locks the door behind her. After a few minutes, the sound of running water begins. A shower sounds amazing after sleeping outside and then spending hours on the cells downstairs.

Janelle is speedy with her clean up. When she walks out of the bathroom, she’s changed to a dress I recognize as hers. Her hair is down her shoulders, wet and curling at the tips.

“Where did you get that?” I ask.

I think I would remember this dress being packed in her bag. Perhaps not since her bag can very well be spelled to have more room than appears .

“The dresser in the room is full of my clothes,” she says as she laces up her boots.

I look at the dresser in question. Starting from the bottom, I open each drawer one by one, finding Janelle’s clothes, neatly folded and smelling fresh and clean.

“They expected you to come here,” I say.

“Of course they did,” she says with a smirk. “Well, I’m off to dinner. I will try to get you something, but it might be easier if we get it when everyone is asleep.”

I tell my heart not to confuse her concern with whether I eat for anything other than assurance that I won’t hinder her mission. But my stupid heart still argues with me because when it comes to Janelle Duelo, it has never cared for logic.