Page 27 of Ties of Deception (Tethered Hearts)

Chapter

Twenty-Seven

I jerked awake, my heart pounding. I was lying on a soft couch. It took a moment for my vision to focus, and I took in a grand room with ornate furniture and mirrors lining most of the walls. I’d never been here before, and there were no windows to help me work out where I was or even what time it was. Three closed doors stood among the mirrors, and a table beside me held a cup of water and an apple.

I stood on shaking legs, supporting myself on the back of the couch before stumbling to the nearest door. It was locked. I tried the second one, but it didn’t budge either. Blowing out my breaths slowly to keep calm, I made my way to the third one. It opened into a study. Prince Sebastian sat at a large desk, his back to me.

What was going on? None of this made sense.

He turned and smiled his charming smile as if I were merely paying him a visit. “Ah, you’re awake. How are you feeling? I heard moon blossom can cause headaches, so I left you some water. Please don’t push yourself—there’s no need.”

I worked some moisture into my mouth and attempted to move my sluggish tongue to form words. “Where…am I?”

He sat back and spread his arms. “My private villa. Don’t worry, we’re still in Fierro. I apologize for the kidnapping, I just couldn’t risk the Aidis taking you first, particularly since he didn’t come to you in your rooms this afternoon like we had expected. I believe Mother quite fell for his lies.”

A tremble ran up my legs. “What do you mean?”

“Oh, it’s clear you’re the Fated Grace, or he wouldn't have gone to all that trouble—taking the blame himself instead of letting it fall on you. He’s ignored every other Grace who we’ve put in a tricky situation—but not you.”

I frowned, a headache beginning to pound behind my eyes. “I don’t understand. Why are you certain he was lying?”

Sebastian stood and walked toward me. “Come now, my dear. Enough talk about him. You really should be sitting down. You are quite safe with nothing to fear. Soon this will all be over, and you can return home.”

I shook my head, trying to clear my mind from the fogginess of the sedative and the headache that was relentlessly battering against my skull. “No, I need to know. How was what he said a lie?” Beside me, the door handle thudded to the carpet, the bolt broken. A crack climbed up half the door.

Sebastian folded his arms. “Don’t distress yourself. Come, take a seat.” He placed a hand on my back, but I stumbled away from his touch.

A mirror on the wall shattered as I let my emotion run wild. “Explain what just happened, or I will smash everything in this room.”

The prince sighed as if I were being overdramatic. “I only know he lied about the poison, because I know who arranged for the kitchen maid to slip it in the ambassador’s drink, and it wasn’t the Aidis.” I frowned at him in disbelief.

He raised an eyebrow. “It was Constance.”

The last strength in my legs gave way as they buckled under the shock. “What? Why?”

He gave me a pitying smile and hooked his hands under my armpits, ignoring the way I squirmed to get out of his grip. He dragged me to the couch, and I rolled out of his arms as soon as possible. “Just sit there, won’t you? Sit still, and stay calm, and I will tell you. If you keep breaking everything, I won’t say anything.”

I slumped back against the silk cushions, wishing I could move miles away from this man, yet needing to hear what he had to say. He had to be lying, surely. Constance wouldn’t have poisoned that man.

He moved away and poured himself a drink. “Trust works both ways, Purity. I need you to listen to me carefully and calmly. Constance and I have been working together to find the Aidis’s Fated Grace. With this move, we tested both you and Charity. It was you he came to save, so you must be his Fated one.”

I blinked in shock. He paused to let his words sink in, then continued. “Of course, we only meant to frame Charity by using her ex-maid to poison the man. Taking the poison herself—not enough to die of it, mind, just enough to cause a stir, in order to point the finger back at you—was unexpected. It was quite the clever move on her part and made our results come quicker and clearer than we had ever dreamed. The Aidis stepped in to your defense.”

His words crushed my chest. I licked my lips, trying to ask the right questions—trying to understand this mess. “But surely finding the Fated isn’t worth such extreme methods? Not the death of an ambassador and potential war with the Unseen Lands? I don’t even have powerful Blessings yet.”

He shook his head slowly. “Purity, you don’t understand. It’s good to have you as the Fated Grace—I want you to know we appreciate having you here—but you're not the one we’re after. It’s him. And the threat of war makes him even more vulnerable.”

Dread buried cold fingers into my stomach. “Why?”

He tilted his head, looking down to neaten the sleeve of his tunic. “Now you are here, we have leverage to ask him to do what we want.”

My voice dropped to merely a breath. “What?”

His serious expression was replaced by another disarming smile. “It’s really nothing you need to worry about, Purity. Soon you’ll return to your family, and I’ll get my mother off your back.”

All the mirrors in the room smashed at once in tiny shards of silver. “What are you going to do to him?” I repeated, firmer this time.

Sebastian pinched his forehead. Behind me, a lock clicked and a door opened. I turned to see Constance entering the room, dressed as immaculately as always, a starburst tiara in her chestnut hair. She took in all the shards of glass and bit her lower lip while frowning as if trying to solve a small problem. She had killed the ambassador just to identify me—Constance, always so doe-eyed and innocent. I didn’t understand any of this.

She came and knelt beside my couch. “Purity, please don’t be anxious. Everything is all right.”

I shook my head and glared at her. How could she say that when I was lying half-drugged on a couch so they could get to Ethen?

“Purity, for the sake of our friendship, please listen to Sebastian. He is not your enemy.”

“Neither of you are my friends. Why are you after the Aidis? Why am I locked up to be used as leverage ?”

“That was a…poor choice of words.” She swallowed, her eyes full of compassion and pity. “Purity, things aren’t exactly as you’ve been told. The Aidis is your enemy—not us. He killed you in your past life, even as he claimed to love you. In this life, he used you to attempt to disrupt our access to Graces and so stop our people being Blessed. One of his own followers was so disgusted by his treatment of you in your past life, she gave us the nightstar from the Unseen Lands. She wanted us to frame him, so he would be forced to leave. He is hated by many.”

Ava .

I glared at her. “By all accounts he is the one who saved me while the two of you also framed me as a murderer. Was it you who ‘tested’ Serene? What did you do for her to end up dead?”

Her gaze hardened. “We didn’t intend for her to die. She was already feeling trapped by the palace and had recently lost her friend Harmony. She was asking many dangerous questions about what happens when goddesses are retired, and the empress had reprimanded her. When her life was threatened and nobody came to save her, even though she came through unharmed, she…simply couldn’t cope anymore.”

I rose my eyebrows. “So threatening her life was nothing but a small final straw for her?”

Tears glistened in her eyes. “Please, Purity, you don’t understand. She wasn’t in her right mind. She’d made many poor choices. The Aidis was just as much to blame. I think his rejection affected her more.”

Sebastian rested his hand on Constance’s shoulder for comfort and she took it in her own, nestling the side of her face in his arm. The familiarity between the two of them was obvious.

I looked between them, wishing I didn’t still feel so drowsy and weak. “You two are genuinely courting?”

Constance nodded and pushed the sleeve off her left shoulder to reveal a gold tattoo. “More than that. We were married in secret four years ago.”

My mouth fell open. None of this seemed real. “But…but courting the other Graces. The boundless flirting. The contest…”

Sebastian straightened up, his lips firming into a straight line. “Mother doesn't know, but I’ve already chosen her replacement. Constance will be the next empress. She is my wife and marriage bonds can’t be broken.”

Constance gave him a brief, tender smile. “Sebastian was flirting with the other Graces to try to provoke a reaction from the Aidis. A nicer alternative to threatening lives. We tested the Graces however we could, whether trying to make him act out of jealousy or cause him to rescue one in danger.” Her expression became solemn, almost pleading. “He’s heartless, Purity. He doesn’t care about anything but gaining his Fated and only because she can be useful to him. He could have stepped in to help so many others.”

I shook my head. “You’re wrong.” If any relationship was heartless, it was hers and Sebastian’s. Who plans to make somebody jealous by having their husband kiss as many women as possible?

She removed her hands from Sebastian’s and took my hands instead. “Oh, my poor sweet girl. Think about it. It’s time to stop letting other people control you.”

Sebastian folded his arms as he loomed over me. “Did you never hear what happened to the last Aida prince? He didn’t return with his Fated. He married a different Grace who bore him a son—the current Aidis. Don’t think you’re not replaceable, Purity. Don’t think that your mortal death was the only way for him to find a bride. It was unnecessary—cruel, what he did to you. And now, do you really want to bear a child of death who will also kill any mortal he is around for too long? Fated ones might be powerful, so of course you’ll be his preference, but you’re nowhere near as important as I’m sure he’s been telling you.” He spread his hands. “Because of course, you have no way to verify his words. He can tell you any lie he wants without proof.”

I wrapped my arms around myself and swallowed. “That’s not true. I’ve found proof that we loved each other.”

Constance took my hand, gently pulling it away from my body and rubbed the back with her thumb. “Your home is here now. We won’t harm you. You are precious to us too.”

My heart was pounding. I needed them to say more. I needed to understand. “Constance, how exactly are Graces made?”

Constance inclined her head slightly. “Our bodies and our souls are recycled to create something powerful. Whatever the Aidis has told you, it is not sinister. We live a mortal life then are reborn into luxury and peace with an immortal, beautiful body which is no longer needed by its former occupant.”

I frowned at how accepting she was. “Don’t you wonder who you were?”

She shrugged. “There’s no way to know one’s past life. No memories are left. The bodies and the souls don’t come together, so we don’t look like our previous selves. The bodies come from Atos and are prepared by the priests, carried through tunnels to the temples. The souls come at random from all around the world, and their powers of life make their new body youthful and beautiful.”

I pushed her, no longer concerned about hiding my curiosity. “How? How are the souls taken?”

Constance met my eyes, and the strength behind them seemed unwavering and fathomless. “The Aidis wishes to stop this practice, doesn’t he? Have you ever thought of the consequences of not having Graces? Would you really wish famine and ill fortune on the entire empire? We flourish because we allow souls to be reborn.”

I frowned. “But it’s not fair. There is still so much poverty. Only the rich have easy access to the Graces, and much of their power remains inside the palace.”

Constance nodded passionately, her eyes pleading. “There are reasons things have ended up the way they are, but you can help us to change that. You are immortal, Purity. And powerful. Make it your aim for all people of Atos and beyond to be Blessed. Fight for what you believe in—not to destroy the whole system on behalf of somebody you barely know. Your vision of a fair Atos still requires Graces. Don’t run away to a dead world. Purity, you could do so much good here.” She brushed my hand. “One of the followers of the Aidis told me what you were like in your last life before he interfered. You helped so many people. That is who you are.”

Her words stirred something deep within me, resonating with what I so desperately desired to do. I wanted to help the people of Yienna. I really did. The thought of abandoning the hospital patients or the girl begging me to save her father made me feel sick.

But Ethen had always given the impression he wanted to help the forgotten people too. He had shown that far more clearly than anyone I had met from Atos. Constance had been here a long time. If she truly believed the system was corrupt, couldn’t she have done more to change it?

I straightened, trying to keep calm and remain focused on the most pressing problem. “So you’re going to catch the Aidis when he comes for me? And then do what? What is it you want him to do?” If he came at all. He hadn’t come to my rooms earlier. What if he had left Atos?

Constance patted my knee. “It’s nothing too terrible. We simply wish for him to marry somebody else—just like the last Aidis did. Only this time, she’s an Amazone.”

My eyebrows rose. “An Amazone? But I thought only Graces could bear them children?”

Constance inclined her head. “Amazone’s were also Blessed with life by Ismara, even if they are not as powerful as Graces. We’re hoping they will create a new type of offspring, one whose creation we can influence.”

My mouth was so dry it could barely form words. “What do you mean, influence? What offspring?”

Constance and Sebastian looked at each other for a long moment, silently communicating something between them.

Sebastian cleared his throat. “We want you to work with us, Purity—when we take control from Mother—so we will tell you this as a peace offering to remove the secrets between us. But please do not share it with anyone else. One hundred and eighty two years ago, the priests of Atos gained the power of life from Ismara in the form of a daughter. Many know of the son she and Ienar had centuries before, the one who became the first Aidis and from whom all the rulers of the Unseen Lands are descended. But more recently, they had a daughter. And she inherited the gift of life instead of death.” I blinked in shock. Another goddess. I remembered the sandaled feet in the torn page of the book Ethen had found. It made so much sense. If Ienar and Ismara were meant to balance life and death, of course they would have two children. The world would have been unbalanced by the son of death until they had a daughter of life. The Aidis needed a counter balance.

Sebastian continued. “She is far more like a goddess than any Grace, and she has much more power. While living in Atos, she can claim a soul all the way from the Unseen Lands and grant it to a dead body brought by one of the priests. But unlike her mother, the souls come at random from the Vale, like seeing bright lights from afar. She has no idea who they were, how long they have been dead for or which one might be a Fated chosen by Ismara. She didn’t know for the last Fated, who came only shortly after she gained the ability when she was only seven years old, and she couldn’t tell for you either. We believe the Fated must be easier to claim, so she would have taken you quickly before Ismara had a chance to put your soul back into your own body in the Unseen Lands. The only way we knew to hunt you was because of the arrival of the Aidis.”

My eyes fell back to Constance as everything started to click into place. One hundred and eighty two years old . “You? You are the daughter of Ismara and Ienar?”

She smiled, and for a second it was like I was seeing the depths of her beauty for the first time. She had always stood out, even among the Graces. “My powers are nowhere near the strength of my mother’s, but yes. I give new life to those who have passed. I give beautiful bodies new souls so they can breathe again. I am the mother of all Graces.”

I stared at her in shock. “But…but…”

Sebastian scoffed at my reaction. “She hides it well, doesn’t she? The fact that her powers could outshine those of a thousand Graces. And so, you see, Purity, we have no interest in you as the Fated, for you could never match a true goddess. We’re not after you. We have all the power of life we need.”

“But…but, surely if your mother is Ismara, she would never approve of you giving life to so many Graces?”

Constance shrugged. “I don’t think she cares. I use my own powers to do so— I’m not borrowing Ismara’s—hence why Graces are weaker than the Fated. I am simply creating more life. It was what I was born to do. Besides, my mother never took an active interest in me. As a small child, she left me with her priests in Atos, the country that worshipped her most. I doubt she or my father follow much of what goes on anymore.”

Of my thousands of questions, one stumbled out of my tongue as if at random. “Does the empress know?”

Constance nodded. “Yes. I have worked closely with her, her father, her grandfather, and her great-grandmother. But I wish to keep my identity a secret. I do not wish to become a target of the Unseen Lands for Blessing my own people. And the empress doesn’t know about our marriage.”

I blinked, the rush of information overwhelming. “Why do you want the Aidis to marry an Amazone? Do you plan to weaken their descendants, ending the power of your brother’s line so they never stop you from making Graces?”

She laughed. “No, no, nothing so dramatic. The empire has the Graces and Amazones, but we have no access to the powers of death—if we gain those, the empire will be invincible. If we could combine the Amazone’s vitality of life with the powers of death in battle, nobody would ever threaten us. Our empire would be secure forever, and we could bring more countries under our protection and Blessing. With my powers, I could help them conceive children that draw from both of their powers. Multiple children, hopefully. We would create something new.”

Ethen had said the powers of life and death always had to be kept separate and could never exist in the same person. He’d said there needed to be a careful balance. Surely Ismara and Ienar would hate what Constance was trying to do. But what if it worked? Constance’s powers alone were terrifying, but if she had an army of both life and death behind her…

I felt sick. “So you would keep the Aidis here to use his children as guards and soldiers like you use the Amazones?”

She shook her head. “He could return to the Unseen Lands for the majority of the time. His Amazone wife would stay here and raise their children. The Aidis are immortal. They don’t need another ruler. They could merely rotate out of retirement. The children would be looked after here and be trained up as great military leaders. We would be able to extend our borders, create more Graces, and Bless the whole world. There would be no more famines. No more wars. No more instability. And you could help us build this new world, Purity, as you would be the last of the Fated.”

I swallowed. “But what if the Amazone can’t bear him a child?”

A small frown wrinkled the freckles across Constance’s nose. “I have studied this area in great detail. My powers will be enough, I am sure of it.” I remembered Pris telling me that pregnant and infertile women waited for hours to visit her temples and thought of the pile of books in her rooms.

I stared at her, trying to untangle the mass of information from my mess of emotions. She really believed the world would be better if she was the one ruling it with Sebastian. And maybe, in some ways, it would be. But so far, even the small island of Atos was far from perfect. The Graces had been put in an environment where they were forced to deceive and scheme to survive. There were so many things already wrong with this plan. The world Constance dreamed of making would be one of fear, not peace. A world where she would poison anyone who stood in the way of more power, just like she had the ambassador, and lie to even the people closest to her.

And I still didn’t know what exactly she did to ‘test’ other Graces, those who she had created. My voice went very quiet. “How exactly did you threaten Serene’s life?”

Constance winced. “I’m sorry you were the one to find her, Purity. We caused her horse to break its leg and die so she became lost in the fields north of Fierro. Our people were there watching, of course, but she didn’t know that. She was lost overnight and nobody came to rescue her. When she started chewing on uncooked grain the next day, one of our Amazones pretended to find her and bring her home. We were confident the Aidis wasn’t watching her or interested in the starving, cold Grace.

“But when she came home, instead of resting and recovering, she became frantic. Her mind was in a bad place, caused by far more than our test. I don’t know exactly why, but she chose to die rather than be retired.”

Maybe because she’d realized they were the same thing.

I looked away and pressed my fingers to my mouth. Poor Serene, driven so far by other people’s games, she had no escape after Ethen turned her down. All because of Constance and Sebastian’s tests and a world full of lies.

The stressful contest for Sebastian’s bride when he was already married. The shame Patience had endured when her dress fell free. Charity poisoning herself to bring me down. The control and forced ignorance of the Graces. It had all been triggered by Constance.

The weight of it stunned me to silence.

Sebastian handed me the apple. “Rest, Purity, and try to stay calm. Nothing bad is going to happen to you or the Aidis. He will marry somebody else just like the last Aidis did, and your life will be easier now. No more games. You will be free to live your life and help us shape Atos as a valued member of the empire. Everything hard is over now.”

I nodded and mechanically took a bite. I had to stop them. I had to help Ethen. He had shown me so much devotion, and I had shown him so little back. He had waited decades just to kiss me. He had risked everything for me—even war.

And I loved him. Our relationship might be a shadow of the one that had come before. I might be a shadow. But I could still love him enough to fight against this marriage to some Amazone against his will, to not want his children kept away from him and used for their powers.

But I needed to know why he hadn’t come. Was it because he knew my being alone in my rooms was a trap? I didn’t think that would stop him. Had he given up on me? Or was there something else. He had saved me in the council room, wouldn’t he save me again? Even if he no longer planned to take me away? I didn’t understand him well enough.

I needed to be her —not a shallow Grace with no memories or thoughts of her own, but the strong woman Ethen had loved even beyond death. I needed to be Snow.

The Graces brought to life by Constance had no memories. She could only bring back the bare essence of who they’d once been. But my soul had been extracted by Ismara before Constance had seen my light and grabbed it. My memories were still there, if only seen in glimpses. I wasn’t a shadow. I was Snow.

I needed to see it all. The strengths seen by Ethen’s Aida friends. The weaknesses seen by Ava. Only then could I really be me. And only then would I know how to help Ethen.

I twisted the plain gold band around my wrist. “Thank you for the apple, but…please can I have a pomegranate, instead?”

Constance raised her eyebrows in surprise and looked to Sebastian as she stood. “I don’t see why not. I will fetch one from the kitchen.”

I closed my eyes and calmed my racing heart. “Thank you.”