Page 6 of The Fractured Prophecy

I hadn’t fought back.

After she’d evaporated before my eyes, my body and mind seemed to stop functioning. I’d fallen in love with an apparition—and it loved me back. The princess, who I’d believed to be Nyah’s sister, was indeed as cruel as her father the king, if not more so. She’d broken through my carefully constructed fortress and had as good as pulled the beating heart straight from my chest.

Love was a casualty of war, unwanted and dangerous despite what my own sister had assured me. Follow your heart for it leads to our salvation. I trusted that because she, like our mother, was a seer. What I forgot was that she also harbored another dangerous trait—her godsdamned optimism.

It would literally be the death of me it seemed.

What did I have to live for anyway? I was a prisoner of the man I’d sworn to kill. So close, yet unable to touch him. And I’d promised Nyah I wouldn’t kill her sister… Perhaps I’d have to do it anyway. The princess deserved death for killing Nyah. It was impossible to believe the woman I’d fallen for had been anything but real.

Footsteps interrupted the monotony of the drip drip drip behind me, but I remained still as the worn leather boots of the captain of the guard—Rufus I’d learned he was called—came into view. They were stained with dark droplets of my blood. He beat his sword against the metal door of the cell, causing me to wince from the pain in my temples.

“Get up,” His gruff voice demanded as he swung it open and stomped over to me. “We have some more questions for you.”

“I’ve nothing to say,” I choked out, though I doubted it sounded like real words. My mouth was nearly swollen shut from his fists.

I could have easily dispatched him any other time, but not with the might of the king’s magic behind him and the thick metal collar they’d fastened around my neck. It had a bit of crystal in it which seemed spelled to nullify my power, sapping my strength at the same time. Whenever I’d tugged at it, it grew tighter until I’d given up, knowing it would only strangle me if I continued. Perhaps I was a coward. Perhaps I should have tugged further where it cut into the flesh of my throat so I could end it already. But part of me still ached to watch the life drain from the eyes of these evil monarchs. As long as I drew breath, there was still a chance I could avenge them all. Avenge her.

“I said, up,” Rufus growled, and before I could even pretend to attempt it, his boot collided with my stomach, hitting an already broken rib.

Each cough that burst forth sent excruciating pain spasming through my body, but pain was something I was used to. It distracted me from my misery.

“Too weak already? Some warrior you are.” Rufus leaned over me, taunting, his breath putrid.

“At least I brush my teeth once in a while,” I grumbled.

Apparently he understood because this time he kicked me twice. I may have blacked out for a bit because the next thing I knew, I was being dragged by my arms down the hallway, legs scraping against the cold, rough stone as Rufus led the way to another space I’d become familiar with.

The interrogation room, as I’d dubbed it, was little more than a shadowy hole where I was chained to the wall, keeping me upright as various forms of cruelty were inflicted upon me. They asked questions, but none of them mattered. They were there for one purpose and one purpose alone—torture. It was dark, but not dark enough to cover the stains on the floor or the stench of rot from the various bodily secretions of previous occupants.

This time though, there was another figure waiting silently in the corner as the guards secured my bonds. His dark cloak and hair made him appear as little more than a floating face in the darkness. It was a face I recognized. One that had tried to coerce Nyah into helping him onto the throne.

Renewed rage coursed through my body as I stared back at his fathomless eyes. A snarl burst from my chest as, for the first time since Astridon, I fought against my restraints with a wild desire to rip him to shreds with my bare hands.

Expressionless, the king’s sorcerer and advisor, Serano, approached me. I wondered if he’d seem so fearless if I were free. I doubted it. Men like him were cowards hiding behind their magic and position.

He stopped, staring at me, just beyond my reach as I strained against my chains.

“Who are you?” he asked simply.

“Your worst nightmare,” I spit back, then watched as a slow serpentine smile crept over his face.

“Hardly. You are no threat to me or anyone else. Perhaps you haven’t noticed, but you are powerless.” He waited, maybe hoping his words would dissolve my current burst of adrenaline. But I wouldn’t give him the satisfaction. “You aren’t used to being powerless, are you? You entered the Imrati. You made it almost until the end. You befriended the princess.”

“She wasn’t the princess,” I countered. She was real. She was brave. She was caring.

“We beg to differ.” Serano shrugged and turned to pace, hands clasped behind his back as Rufus spit on the ground at my bare feet. “What exactly did she tell you?”

“That she hated the king as much as I did. That we could kill him together.”

“You admit you intended to assassinate his majesty?” Serano asked, facing me again. His eyes gleamed with something other than death and malice, and I wondered if it excited him to get to punish me for my transgressions.

“Absolutely. Let me out of these bonds and I’ll show you how I plan to do it.” I returned his feral grin and reveled as he backed away ever so slightly.

“Let’s try this again, and you will give me the right answer this time, or you will start losing body parts.”

Rufus moved closer, cracking his massive knuckles in preparation. “Name.”

“That wasn’t a question.”