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SORA

IDLE PRISON, YUSAN

ONE WEEK LATER

T his place is pure evil. Despite it being empty, torture and death cling to the stone walls of Idle Prison.

Mikail walks by my side. We are a few steps into hell before I realize that he’s familiar with this place. He walks with the certitude of someone who memorized these halls.

“You were down here as spymaster?” I ask.

He gives me a quick nod. He’s far more himself now that Aeri destroyed the relics a week ago. I have missed her every minute since. We all have—Royo most, of course.

“Not often, but yes,” he says. “It was worse when Joon was in power. This place was full.”

Kingdom of Hells, I can’t imagine it. Or maybe I just don’t want to.

We take a ramp and pass a foul-smelling pit.

Mikail shakes his head. “Don’t look down.”

I don’t.

Idle Prison is a warren with tight corridors, but I follow Mikail. We pass into vaulted, open spaces, and I can finally take a full breath, until I realize we’ve entered torture chambers.

“Interrogation rooms and…tools of the trade,” he says.

We pass a series of cages. The stench still lingers, blood caked on the chains along with other filth, and I grimace, far too well trained to gag.

“Those held people?” I ask.

He looks down and smiles but not in a happy way. Maybe I should just stop asking.

I swallow hard and draw my gaze away from the four-foot-high cells. The horrors men are capable of inflicting on each other are endless. “I’m going to shutter this place once this is over.”

I’ve considered it since Tiyung told me about the torture here, but I’m certain of it now.

Mikail sighs. “Don’t. It’s an admirable wish, but your throne will have enemies. To keep a kingdom, prisons like this are a necessary evil.”

I shake my head. “If this is the cost of keeping the kingdom, the realm isn’t worth it. And the soul of Yusan can’t afford it.”

“All right, Sora. Have it your way.”

I side-eye him. Mikail gave in far too easily. What he means is he’ll make his own plans to keep my throne secure and he just won’t tell me about them.

He catches me staring, and I raise an eyebrow. Mikail is Adoros, king of Gaya, but I wonder if he will ever stop being a spymaster.

Probably not. Ultimately, we are who we are.

“He is in there.” Mikail points to a door that has a metal slot about three feet off the floor. There’s a transom window up high. The door is heavy wood and iron. I brace myself. It looks barely fit for a beast.

“Joon held Tiyung in here?” I ask.

“And before him, Euyn,” Mikail says.

I draw a breath, forcing down my horror.

The only reason I haven’t dealt with Idle Prison before now is because of how busy I’ve been.

The remaining Weians were allowed to return home after full and unconditional surrender.

General Vikal and her soldiers were also permitted to return to Khitan once we entered into an everlasting peace accord.

New treaties and terms were negotiated and signed.

Then I burned the colonial treaty and granted Gaya its full independence.

It’s been a lot.

Now, I have one last thing to deal with before I’m officially coronated. One last piece of history before the new realm is born.

Mikail lingers in front of me, wearing regalia and the crown of Gaya.

I found the emerald-and-platinum crown in the palace vault.

I’ve arranged for the return of all of Gaya’s looted treasures that I could find.

No one can ever be made whole after an atrocity, but we can still try.

Our shared goal is to build a world worthy of Aeri’s sacrifice—no matter how impossible that is.

Mikail stares at me, obviously wanting to say something.

“Yes?” I ask.

“Sora, I can take care of him, or there are any number of executioners…”

I meet his eyes. “I survived just for this.”

All the poisonings, the torture, the murders, the close calls. I endured losing everything I loved just to see Seok destroyed. I have lived far longer than I’ve wanted to for revenge. No one will pry this from me.

“Very well, Your Majesty,” he says with a bow. “He’s chained in there.”

I nod. “Open the door.”

“Yes, Your Majesty,” the four guards in front of us say.

Some of them served Seok and Joon, but most of my palace guards are former indentures I freed as soon as I got back to Yusan. Thousands rushed to enlist into my service.

One guard turns the key, and another pushes the door in.

I wait as the hinges creak. I’ve dreamed about this for a dozen years—imagined what I’d do and say in this moment hundreds of times.

I’d expected to feel giddy anticipation flutter in my chest, maybe a little fear or trepidation along with righteous anger, but now that the moment is here, I feel…nothing. Nothing at all.

Strange. I blink and focus on the feelings in my chest—or the lack thereof. There’s a vague sense of obligation in my mind, because this is what needs to be done, but aside from that, there’s nothing. It’s like I’m hollowed out.

Tiyung and I spoke about what to do with Seok.

We both agreed that for as long as he is alive, Seok will try for my crown.

The realm won’t know peace, and neither will I until he is dead.

But the triumphant joy I expected isn’t blazing in my chest. Seok is just an unpleasant reminder of my past that I will be rid of today.

I was once a line item on his ledger, but he is nothing more than a debt on mine.

I’m just ready for this to be done.

As light from our torches hits the cell, Seok blinks, then struggles to stand, balancing himself against the stone wall with his arms and legs chained.

Gods, the smell. I place a hand in front of my nose.

They must not have cleaned out his wounds from the samroc claws. The odor of rot and infection makes my stomach turn as I step inside.

Seok closes his eyes, his face scrunched in pain.

For the first time, I’m seeing him dirty and unkempt.

I pause, not because I care for him at all, but because this is what Tiyung must’ve looked like when he was kept in here.

My heart falls—they do bear such a strong resemblance to each other.

No matter what Rune claimed, Tiyung is undeniably Seok’s son.

But Ty was in here because of his father’s schemes and ambitions. Seok is here purely because of his own.

My former owner has fallen from grace, but he still has much further to go. I swore I’d show him what it feels like to be powerless. And I will keep my word.

“Close the door, please,” I say to the guards.

They hesitate, and I glance over my shoulder, vexed to be disobeyed. Everyone, including Mikail, bows, and then a man with a red birthmark on his cheek quickly shuts the door.

I put my torch in a holder on the wall, then take off my cloak.

I have on a plain white cotton dress. The gold coronation gown that Sun-ye and her twin sister finally agreed on lies on my bed.

Aeri would’ve loved it, but I don’t care about fine dresses and tradition.

If it weren’t for decorum, I’d just wear this.

It’s the kind of simple dress I wore in my cottage when Hana and I stayed together, pretending we were free.

She came to this place, braving the screams and filth to help Tiyung.

Royo, in the rare times he’s sober enough to talk, has told me about what Hana did on the warship that night.

How she helped them live and how she paid with her life.

My name was her dying breath. He and I drown our sorrows together even though I still don’t drink.

We cry and we remember. We share our regrets, of which we both have many.

Too many.

Somewhere in my mind, I escape with Hana to Khitan. In that corner of my dreams, none of this happened. They’re all still alive. I’m going to the market with her and Daysum, not about to torture someone to death.

I shake myself out of the daydream and square my shoulders. Right now, I’m very much in Yusan. In Idle Prison. I turn my attention back to the man chained in front of me.

“So you’ve finally come,” Seok says with his head high.

Even chained, about to die, Seok still believes he has control over me. He still believes he has power. I sigh and shake my head at his delusion as I reach into the bag.

“This is for her.”

I toss down a whip.

“This is for them.”

I drop a boning knife onto the filthy stone floor.

“And this is for me.”

I reach into my pocket, pull out a bottle of poison, and show it to him before I set it down next to the knife.

He laughs but then coughs until he’s out of breath. “You see, torture is easy once you’ve lost your soul.”

I tilt my head, staring at the man who used to make me freeze with fear. There was a night in Khitan when he did break my soul. Aeri was the one who helped me put myself back together. And then, as her final act, she made me queen.

Now, I remember her kindness—the light, not the darkness. I feel joy at having known her more than the pain of losing her.

“I still have my soul,” I say, my voice smooth and steady.

“After everything you did, I have the throne you wanted. I have the love of your son, which you lost, and your wife has been left at my mercy. I swear and I vow, I will destroy every single thing you built within a sunsae. There are no indentures, and your rank will be next. All of it will be gone, and no one will remember your name.”

Seok frowns, his mirth gone.

He finally looks me in the eye, and I casually hold his gaze.

Fear, true fear, flashes across his face.

If I were angry, screaming, righteously vengeful, I don’t think it would’ve frightened him as much as the fact that I just don’t care anymore.

I’ve become something that he can’t touch, and that terrifies him.

I pick up the whip. Let’s get this over with.

I strike the air to get the rhythm down. But the crack of the whip jolts me into a memory.

Seok lined up his entire household and then pulled Daysum out of formation and threw her onto the gravel in front of his villa.

He was going to whip her, but Tiyung volunteered to carry out the punishment instead of Seok to try to spare her some of the pain.

All of it was done to punish me after I fled to the Xingchi forest. I had to watch in horror and guilt as the whip shredded her skin until I couldn’t bear it anymore.

I crawled to Seok, kissed his shoes, and promised never to flee again.

I stare at the wooden handle of the whip in my hand.

He deserves it. There’s not a doubt in my mind—he deserves all the pain I planned to inflict and more. I wore this dress because it’s cheap and I could dispose of it or keep it as a blood-soaked reminder of what I’ve endured.

But the thing is, I’m already well aware of what I’ve suffered. In truth, I’d really rather forget.

I press my lips together as a new feeling takes hold. One of peace. Maybe peace is being beyond the reach of your past.

Hana used to say you are more than what you endure, and I know that I am.

The problem is that no matter what I do to him, it won’t bring her back.

Mikail chopped off Joon’s head himself, and it didn’t bring back a single Gayan soul.

Doing this won’t lessen the suffering of any of the girls I knew.

I won’t get to live in a country villa with Daysum or ride horses with Hana, even if I carve him up after whipping him to death.

My shoulders droop. Tiyung said vengeance is a fire without warmth, and maybe I’m just tired, but I don’t seem to need it anymore.

I toss the whip down.

I step over the knife and leave the poison behind, and then I knock on the door.

The guards immediately open it.

“Wall it off now,” I say.

“Yes, Your Majesty,” they answer.

I glance at Seok’s shocked face, then at the poison and the knife that are just out of his reach. He won’t be able to do anything but wish for a faster death as he suffers alone with no one to hear him.

I take the torch from the wall. I don’t spare Seok another glance or thought. Mikail offers his arm, and he escorts me out of the prison.