“Hello, Father!” I pasted the sweetest smile I could muster on my face, desperately turning on the charm. “Thank goodness you’ve come to straighten out this misunderstanding. Please don’t punish these men too severely.”
Turning my fake smile on the guard, I expected to see some sort of relieved or scared reaction from him. But instead, there was … nothing. His eyes were completely blank; he wasn’t registering anything that was happening before him. I covered my confusion as I looked back at the king.
Who did not look at all happy to see me.
“Drop the act,” King Hendon hissed. “We both know you’re not my daughter.”
My heart sank. I had assumed he only knew about my journey to find Joichan. Now I knew: he knew everything.
“Dragon spawn.” Hendon practically spat the words at me. “Had I known how faithless your mother was, I would have had her killed long ago.”
My eyes narrowed. Since he knew the truth, there was no point in pretending anymore. “Don’t flatter yourself. She could never have been faithless to you. You never had her heart to begin with.”
The king stiffened, and I realized with surprise I had hit a nerve. “Who needs a silly queen’s love when you can have a whole kingdom?”
He came nearer. Taryn shrank behind me. I wanted to back away, too, but didn’t want to show any fear.
Hendon stopped just in front of me. He was so close I could have spit in his face. Or wrapped my slim hands around his neck. I subtly shifted, readying myself to take action.
“Don’t even think about it.” Hendon toyed with the dark red jewel at his throat. It glowed unnaturally, too bright for the small amount of light in our cell. Its crimson beam fell across Taryn’s eyes.
Suddenly, her fearful fingers on my arm changed to a heavy clamp, effectively holding me in place. Surprised, I tried to pull free, which only made her hold me harder. “Taryn? What are you doing?”
She didn’t answer me.
“Taryn? Taryn!”
But her eyes had the same blank expression as the guard who was blocking the open door.
I eyed Hendon’s ruby pendant. A soulstone. He caught my glance and, with a smug smile, displayed it proudly. “You know what this is, then? Such a handy thing. I don’t know how I ever ruled this cursed kingdom without it.”
“Where did you get that?” I gasped.
“I made it, of course. Using my original soulstone, a lovely little piece of moonstone, to provide the magic to infuse in this one. I had nearly finished transferring all of its dragon magic into my beautiful ruby charm when it was unfortunately stolen from me.”
“Your soulstone? The one you stole from the dragon, you mean.”
He waved his hand, brushing away my accusation. “Mere semantics. The dumb beast didn’t deserve to have power like this at his fingertips.”
Seeing Hendon with a soulstone of his own made me sick. And curious. “So you were able to create one. But why? I thought you hated magic. And you’re not a shapeshifter. Are you?”
“Alas, no, I am not,” Hendon said. “If I was, it might have made things much easier. And magic is abhorrent … too many people have it, but refuse to actually use it to its fullest potential. There are so many things you could do if you had all that knowledge and power. But instead, we teach our children about magic and then place restrictions on its use. Better for them not to have it all.”
“So what do you propose?” I asked somewhat sarcastically. “That no one has any magic at all?”
“I doubt it will even be missed.”
“Magical ability is innate. You can’t just strip people of their inborn abilities. They’ll lose their minds—at best. If you don’t outright kill them.”
“I’ll admit that my first experiments had … less than favorable results. But I was able to get what I needed out of it.” He stroked his ruby soulstone possessively. “From there, I was able to find more, ah, volunteers to help me. Some unfortunately didn’t make it out of the tests with their wits intact. If they made it out at all.”
With a gasp, I realized what he meant by experiments. “The people that kept turning up in the town alley … Sava and her brother.”
“The magic of twins.” Hendon licked his lips as if he was tasting an especially delectable dessert. “Especially potent.”
“All these other people in the cells …?” My vision swam as I turned away, trying not to be sick.
King Hendon shrugged, unconcerned. “The pursuit of knowledge is rarely easy or neat. But failure is an unfortunate necessity.”
“Experimenting with people’s lives is not a necessity.”
“Don’t worry, Princess.” My honorific sounded like a curse word coming from his mouth. “I’ve had plenty of time to perfect the process.” Hendon’s manic smile was chilling to behold. “Would you like to see?”
“Not really, no.” I tried for defiant, but the nervous crack in my voice gave me away.
“You don’t really have a choice, my dear.”
Hendon reached out and tipped my chin toward him so I was forced to meet his gaze. I struggled against Taryn’s hold. Hendon waved in her direction, and her grip grew even tighter around my arms.
“Just think, tomorrow is your wedding day. Aren’t you excited? I understand every young woman dreams of what her wedding day will be like.”
“I doubt Prince Anders wants to get married inside a jail cell,” I said.
“Of course you won’t get married in here.” Hendon absentmindedly palmed his necklace with his free hand. “I’ll release you, just in time for your wedding, if you promise to be on your best behavior. And I’ll make sure you keep your promise.”
The red jewel at his throat pulsed and gleamed; the unnatural light was reflected in his eyes, tinging his eyes crimson. Mesmerized, I couldn’t look away from the light, although every part of my being was screaming that I should.
Hendon murmured a spell under his breath. I could feel the magic forming around me, heavy and expectant. I didn’t know a counterspell, but I knew with all my being I did not want Hendon’s spell to reach me.
At my throat, safely hidden under the bodice of my dress, my amber soulstone started to warm.
Hendon finished his spell. Whatever the spell was, its tendrils were trying to sink into my mind and body, but finding no purchase.
I didn’t know what to do. Should I pretend his spell worked? But without knowing what he was trying to do, I didn’t think I would be very convincing.
I hesitated too long. And, unfortunately, Hendon was smarter than that. He could tell immediately that, whatever his spell was supposed to accomplish, it hadn’t worked.
He snarled at me. “How are you resisting? This spell has never failed.”
His ruby grew brighter, looking like a bright stain of blood at the king’s throat. It pulsed faster, as if in response to his anger. He gripped the necklace so hard his knuckles turned white.
My amber pendant grew hot, as if in response to Hendon’s soulstone. Surprisingly, the heat from my necklace didn’t burn me. I was afraid its reaction might cause Hendon to notice it despite its concealment, but he was concentrating too hard on his spell for anything else to catch his attention.
He repeated his spell over and over. His voice, already loud, continued to rise in volume. But still his spell didn’t affect me.
The more Hendon chanted, the hotter my necklace burned. Somehow, it was protecting me from Hendon’s magic.
Hendon broke off mid-incantation, his hand jerking away from my face so fast I involuntary flinched, afraid he’d strike me. But he didn’t. Instead, he studied me with those calculating eyes. His face was mottled and he was practically panting, like he’d just been running or fighting.
“No matter,” he said. “There’s always an alternate path to achieving one’s goals. I will get what I want, in the end. This is just a little detour.”
He snapped his fingers, and Taryn released me and walked out the door, still in her spell trance. I started after her, but the guard blocked me.
Hendon left the cell. The guard followed, pulling the door shut with a decisive thud. I ran to the door and peered out through the bars, watching helplessly as the king placed a possessive hand on Taryn’s unresisting arm.
The king turned to me. “I don’t know how you resisted me, but don’t think it will last for long, Princess. It will be quite a pleasure to figure out how you did it, and dismantle your defenses. I do so enjoy learning new things.” He patted Taryn’s arm and gestured down the hallway. “After you, my dear.”
They walked away from my cell and out of my line of sight. Hendon’s sickly sweet laughter echoed down the hallway, taunting me as it faded away.
