Page 70 of The Dark Prince
I could barely see a foot in front of us in this abandoned part of the castle, let alone build any idea of where we might be going. I expected Aella to throw up a fuss but she came more meekly than I, her eyes trained to the floor.
No one spoke as Bessy moved quickly and with practiced steps. At least one of us knew where they were going. After a few twists and turns, it became clear we were indeed going ‘up’ as Maddeus had commanded, but up where?
Bessy paused before a heavy stone door, steadying herself. “Alright now, all of us need to push. One, two,three!”
The three of us slammed our bodies against the heavy stone door, but it only gave in a few inches.
“Again,” Bessy demanded. Again, I expected Aella to make a snide comment, but she only wore a look of tired determination on her face.
“One, two,three!”
The door moved in another few inches.
“One more time,” Bessy ordered.
My shoulder was throbbing, but Aella showed no signs of hesitation or pain, so neither would I.
“One, two,three!”
We all fell forward as the door gave in, piling into an undignified heap at the bottom of stone steps. The air was cold, and the stars glittered above us in the night sky.
We slowly detangled ourselves, and Bessy wrenched the door closed behind us. She gestured with us to move up the steps. Aella went first, with me hot on her heels. The wind hit us as soon as we were out of cover, and we paused. I turned back to Bessy. “Take back your cloak,” I insisted, trying to pull it over my head.
She gestured us back down. “Best to stay here out of the wind. And don’t talk nonsense. I’m a born and bred northern woman. You southern folk need all the help you can get.”
Did a small smile tug at the corners of Aella’s mouth or was it a trick of the shadows? Either way, we were stuck outside in this small space until further notice.
Aella spread the train of her thick cloak down on the ground and gestured for me for us to join her.
“It wouldn’t be proper—” Bessy started, but a vicious look from Aella stopped her. Bessy sat right next to her, and Aella wrapped the rest of her cloak around the woman’s shoulders. My heart softened a bit at that, even if she was the princess who’d tried to murder my husband. She jerked her head at me, inviting me to the small patch of cloak left on the ground.
For a while, we simply huddled there, sharing our heat and uncertainty.
“So he’s done this before, I take it,” I started softly, having to fill the silence with something. Silence only meant I had nothing to focus on except the terrible scenarios my brain kept spitting at me, each one with a more grisly version of Tyr’s death than the last.
“He’s always had some bit of control,” Bessy clarified, shooting a look at Aella. “He would change under severe duress or anger, but could come back to us after he calmed down. He has killed no one as a beast,” she finished with a direct glare full of daggers at Aella.
“No, he prefers to do that as a human,” she shot back, referencing his job as executioner.
“Both of you just SHUT UP!” I screamed at them.
They fell silent.
“Servants who spoke to me so back at the palace would have their tongues torn out,” Aella spit viciously. Before I knew what I was doing, I had my hand raised at her. Aella cringed, and with horror I realized I was no better than my stepfather. I lowered it, shaking.
I took a few deep breaths. “Explain to me,” I began softly, my voice as deadly as I’d ever heard Tyr’s, “why you thought murdering my husband in his sleep was your only recourse?”
Aella stiffened next to me and was silent for so long I thought she would refuse to answer. Then her slender body trembled slightly. “You think what I did was easy?” she began, so softly that I almost didn’t hear her. “I’ve loved him my whole life. We were inseparable when we were younger. Until my mother separated us,” she bit off, anguish over the past infused in her voice.
“The queen?” I asked. I knew little about the late queen, except that she had passed five years ago.
“Do you imagine she enjoyed watching her only child spend every waking moment with the heir she could never provide the king? A bastard born to a northern whore?” Aella sneered.
Bessy stiffened. “Lady Helga had more nobility in her lefty pinky!” she argued, distress deepening the wrinkles on her face.
“LadyHelga was selling herself to any man who could rub two coppers together in a whorehouse when my father spilled his seed into her worn cunny.”
Bessy’s hand flew out from beneath her cloak and slapped Aella. The princess reared back, stunned and clutching her face with both hands.
