I started screaming, the sound of my frantic voice piercing my ears. It was an instinctive reaction, but one that betrayed all of the churning emotions inside of me, especially the fear that was supposed to be nullified by the onyx stone around my neck. I jumped out of my seat and stumbled backward, hitting the wall as I stared at my hand in shock.
Everyone seated at the table slowly turned their heads toward the source of the screaming, studying me with passive expressions. A few exhibited mild interest, but most were bored. Statues. I’m the only living thing in a room full of statues, my thoughts flashed. Isn’t anyone even remotely worried? Doesn’t anyone care? My vision blurred as I sank to the floor, gingerly clutching my hand. What have we allowed the stones to do to us?
The muscles in my fingers were limp. I couldn’t move them if I tried, and I didn’t think I wanted to. Searing waves of pain raced across my skin. The cut slashed from my knuckles to my wrist and bled profusely. I didn’t know how deep the cut was, but it hurt like someone had heated a blade until scalding hot and then pressed it across my skin. My blood pounded in my ears and rushed through me, a sharp contrast to the frozen room around me.
Mareena moved first, darting out of her seat to my side. She snatched at my necklace and snapped the chain, scattering the jewels across the carpet. She’s probably trying to make sure I have an excuse for showing my emotions. That’ll work from this point onward, yes, but they have evidence against me now. I screamed a few moments ago while still wearing the stones. Everyone heard it. There’s no getting over that. I could hardly contemplate the trouble I had gotten myself into.
She pulled out a handkerchief and pressed it against my hand to staunch the bleeding. “I’m here for you, okay? Just breathe. Breathe,” she whispered. Then she twisted her head, glaring at Cyrus. Her voice leapt in volume as she spat, “What was that for, you cursed—”
“Silence, Mareena, I recommend that you wear a ruby to palace gatherings like the rest of us.” Kadar’s voice rang out through the room. Though neutral toned as ever, it commanded respect. “What happened here?”
I studied Cyrus who stood frozen next to me. My line of sight dropped down to his hand. He indeed carried a knife tainted with blood. His blank expression gave nothing away. Anger sliced through me, and I tried to choke out a few accusing words. “Cyrus cut . . .”
“Let me rephrase myself,” the king interrupted again, facing his brother. “Why did this happen?”
Cyrus gilded forward and immediately responded, his words wrapped in silk. “My knife wasn’t as clean as it could have been. I found it undesirable to use for eating.” He held the blade in front of him for everyone to inspect. “I was walking to the kitchen to switch it out for a different one when I lost my footing for a moment and just happened to harm the princess.”
Liar, I thought, you deliberately flicked the knife and dragged it across my hand. You did it on purpose.
“Why didn’t you just alert the servants and let them switch it out for you?” Kadar asked.
“I didn’t want to bother them, and they had all left after the announcements started. I thought it would be more efficient if I just did it myself.”
The king’s gaze lingered on his brother for a few more seconds before he glanced at Officer Hazen, still standing beside him. “Go get her a pain stone and try to find someone with medical expertise.”
My stomach twisted. No. Please don’t give me a crystal. I’ll be better without it.
Mareena swore under her breath and clutched me tighter. My heart thrashed around so rapidly I thought it would explode. Black spots danced in my vision, and the room started spinning.
As I cringed again from pain, I observed the seated guests. They still stared with remarkably unconcerned expressions, which irritated me further because I was just seconds away from hyperventilating.
Officer Hazen burst into the room with a crystal strung onto a silver chain dangling from his hand. He promptly dropped it around my neck and rushed out the door again. Besides the quiet humming that accompanied the cacophony of sounds already around me, the stone did absolutely nothing. My hand still throbbed like the knife was stabbing it over and over again. This is it. Everything has led up to this moment. This is what Mareena has been preparing you for. This is the real thing, the day when you’re actually tested. You must pretend the stones work on you. This is a challenge you cannot fail.
Mareena gave me a reassuring squeeze. Her previously spoken words trailed through my mind, almost as if she projected them into my thoughts. I had heard these words a thousand times throughout my stress-riddled life: Focus. Control. You are like ice. Cool. Composed. Nothing can crack you.
I forced air out of my nose and tried to relax my tense muscles. My tendons were like taut wires being relentlessly stretched to pieces. I hastily threw chains around my inner emotions and pressed my mouth into a thin line. You do not feel pain anymore. This stone works. Act like it works because your life depends on it. My hand kept screaming in protest, contradicting my thoughts.
The king glanced at me. “Is everything alright now?”
It took everything I had, but I made my muscles visibly relax. “Yes. I’m completely fine.”
He again faced Cyrus who was still planted next to me. “You’re saying this was entirely accidental?”
Cyrus nodded, never dropping his emotionless mask. His voice sounded calm and controlled. “Of course. Why would anyone even suggest the idea of intention? I assure you; I have never had any ill will against your daughter. I wear rubies like everyone else. Any anger I have against her, if it existed in the first place, vanished under the weight of the stone. What motive could I possibly have for harming her?” He slinked toward me and knelt on the carpet, dropping to make eye contact as he crooned, “Please accept my sincerest apologies, Princess. I hope I can make this up to you.”
His acting was unparalleled. Flawless. It could have convinced anyone—but not me. I stared into his eyes, trying to discern his intentions. Why did you cut me? Why do it in front of everyone? My hand throbbed again, and I tried to stamp out the pain before it could manifest on my face.
Cyrus acted like a hawk, perched above its prey and counting the seconds until he could swoop down for the kill. He scrutinized me: my expression, my body language. His eyes raked over me, searching for something, but what?
The tiniest smile tugged at the corner of his mouth then vanished.
A feeling of dread washed over me. Oh. He’s studying me for any signs of pain or emotion. He’s testing me to see if I’m Malopathic. That’s why he cut me in front of everyone. He hoped I would show signs of pain while wearing a crystal.
I stared into his black eyes, cold and filled with malice. The anger he felt toward me was apparent now, creeping into his expression. My eyes flicked toward his necklace where the ruby hung, glittering in the light. I severely doubt you’re Malopathic like me, so that’s probably fake. a normal one that’s not enchanted. I don’t know how you can get one of those, but if someone could, it would be you. I glanced back up at his face. My, you thought of everything. Wearing a ruby is the perfect cover. Nobody would suspect you of cutting me on purpose if you can’t feel anger.
“I have a suggestion. How about I take Princess Syona with me to get help? It would be more efficient than bringing someone back here. Would that be okay with you?” Cyrus asked the king. The question was innocent, but I knew exactly what he would do. Please don’t let him. Please don’t leave me with him alone.
Kadar glanced over at me, surveying the two of us. “You’re suggesting that you take Syona to a doctor yourself?”
“Yes. It would be faster, and I wouldn’t mind doing it. It would be my way of making it up to her,” he reasoned.
The king nodded. “That seems fine. Make sure she gets the proper care she needs.”
“Thank you.” Cyrus whipped toward me and latched onto my wrist. He half dragged me toward the hallway, going as fast as he could without drawing suspicion. He yanked me into a nook in the corridor obscured by a swathe of curtain and blanketed in shadow. My heart rate leapt, and lightning shot through my veins. I tried to pull away, but he gripped me more tightly.
As Cyrus’s eyes burrowed into me, they became darker. Despite all of the fear coursing inside me, I managed to muster up the courage to form words. “You can take off the ruby now. I know it’s fake.” My voice dropped below a whisper. “What do you want with me?”
“You know what I want with you.” His grip slid lower, toward my injured hand. His fingertips brushed against the edge of the wound, and pain bit at my skin. It stole my breath away.
Suddenly, Mareena appeared, darting over and ripping Cyrus’s hand away. “What are you doing?”
“I’m just testing something,” he answered innocently, his voice smooth and sweet once more.
“Testing what?”
“You know exactly what I’m testing.” His eyes narrowed ever so slightly. “In fact, you might already know she has it, or you may have it yourself. I’m the king’s advisor. I can do whatever I please.”
“You may be her uncle or a lord or the king’s personal advisor, but you cannot physically harm her,” Mareena protested.
“Shut up,” he snapped. “I can do whatever I please when you’re not around, and I outrank you. So . . . you are dismissed. Go.”
The minute of silence that ensued was painstaking.
Then, Mareena did something I never would have expected. She glanced at Cyrus, then at me. Her expression was so pained that I wanted to comfort her. After a moment’s hesitation, she stepped backward and took off down the hallway, leaving me alone with a monster of a person.
With my protector gone, he pounced on me. “You screamed when I cut you. Everyone heard it. You can’t deny it.”
Breathe. Just breathe. I was prepared for the interrogation. I already had composed responses in my head to combat the barrage of questions. “Screaming is a perfectly natural response to feeling sudden pain.”
“No, people scream when they feel pain because they’re frightened— something you could not have felt as you were wearing an onyx stone,” he shot back at me. “You also had an—how do I put this—interesting response when Officer Hazen told us about the Malopaths.”
“You can’t accuse and condemn someone for being Malopathic on hunches and theories. There has to be physical, irrefutable evidence. You don’t have irrefutable evidence.”
“We do, and when has that ever stopped anyone? Those people don’t deserve trials. They’re dangerous. People have been imprisoned and executed on accusations less than these.”
“You can’t do anything to me. I’m the princess. You can’t execute royalty.”
I could tell he was enjoying this. “Yes, you can. You absolutely can.”
I threw out my hands in defense. “If you’re so mad at me, then why don’t you just wear a ruby?” That’s what everyone does instead of sorting through the argument and actually solving the problem, of course. It’s lazy and unsympathetic but efficient in this case.
He exhaled hard, moving closer to me. “Anger may cause conflict, but it can be a very useful weapon. Why would I ever want to get rid of it?” A bit of a smile broke through his dark expression. “I love hating you.”
I held eye contact with him for a few more seconds before I couldn’t stand it anymore. I peered at my hand, which reminded me of another problem.
“I have to go,” I protested. “I need someone to fix the accident you caused.” I managed to pull my wrist out of his grip. I spun away from him and strode down the hallway as quickly as possible. Even though I could no longer see him, I could feel his cold stare on the back of my neck.
He knows. He most certainly knows. He just has to prove it, either by making me confess or throwing me into a situation identical to this one. I clutched my injured hand to my chest. He’s willing to do some pretty reckless things to prove it.
I guess I’ll have to be a bit more careful from now on.
The halls of the palace were eerily silent. A few of the candles were still lit, probably for my benefit. Everyone knew I stayed up ridiculously late sometimes, especially after a rough day like this one. I always needed time to analyze events.
I had wrapped up in a blanket because the hallways were too cold for my liking. The palace was always cold at night, and the freezing temperatures hampered the productivity I could gain in going to bed a few hours later than everyone else. The thickness of the blanket worked effectively and kept the cold from penetrating my skin. But in a way, I felt like I wanted to be cold, my hand especially. It felt like I had laid it into a bed of hot coals. They had stitched it so that it no longer bled, but it still hurt. The stupid pain stone they were making me wear—that they were requiring me to wear for at least another day—didn’t do any good.
After a few minutes of pure indecisiveness, I decided to walk in the direction of Mareena’s room. I needed a safe place, and the hallway was not a safe place. Besides, I desperately wanted to talk to her in private, to talk about something I had wondered about for almost a decade, ever since Mareena first told me what I was and what my life would be like because of it.
I paused in front of her door and gently knocked, hoping she would be awake or at least awake enough to let me inside her room. The door suddenly yanked open, startling me. Mareena stood inside the doorway, fully dressed with all of her candles lit.
I exhaled with relief. Of course she was still up hours after midnight like me. We were both constantly paranoid, but she not only had herself to take care of but also a teenage princess, a Malopath who was almost impossible to protect. The fact that she slept at all surprised me.
“Well?” she whispered with one eyebrow raised. “Are you going to come in or not?”
I let out a tense laugh, but I hurried inside. Mareena pressed her hand against the door and closed it immediately. Her movements were slow and weary as she staggered to her bed and collapsed into the blankets, sinking into them like she would stay there forever.
“Why did you leave when Cyrus asked you to?” I immediately questioned.
“I do have to follow his orders, and I thought it would be too suspicious if I constantly defended you. I’m sorry for that.” She paused. “Did he do anything to you?”
“No.” Just an interrogation and threats that will keep me up at night. “He didn’t do anything to me besides what he did in the dining hall.”
She absently stared up at the ceiling, still not making eye contact with me. “What . . . a stressful . . . day.”
I smiled, sliding into a chair next to her. The effects of constant anxiety were plainly visible on her face. I saw overwhelming exhaustion marked by the deep creases beside her eyes and across her forehead.
“I’m sorry,” I managed to say.
She chuckled, pushing herself into a sitting position. “You don’t have to apologize. It’s all part of the job, but it’s getting a lot harder to hide what you are. Who knew Cyrus would be cunning enough—and reckless enough—to actually cut you in front of everyone? He was able to make it look like an accident too. We’ll have to be more wary of him now. He’ll do anything to expose you.” A few seconds of silence followed, and she asked, “Why didn’t you just clench your fingers into a fist after you were cut? That’s the signal for fear. You could have expressed your emotions that way.”
“Oh, seriously?” I scoffed at her. “The scream was an instinctive response! Do you know what it would have taken for me to move my fingers? Are you kidding?”
“Yes, yes. I’m kidding,” she assured me, laughing a little.
I leaned forward. “Someone should worry about you, though. How can I guarantee your safety?”
Mareena’s smile was tired. “I’ll be fine. I’m just a simple lady at court, not even related to the king by blood. Nobody pays attention to me. Unlike you, that’ll never change.”
I closed my eyes and settled back into the chair. “Thank you. Thank you for helping me.”
“Malopaths have to stick together, especially in the palace.”
We sat in silence for a couple of minutes before I spoke again. “Does anyone know where Malopaths come from in the first place?”
Mareena shrugged. “It’s not like you can just ask anyone. No research has been done to answer that question. As soon as they discover a Malopath, they kill them. No questions asked.”
I leaned forward again. “I’m already aware of that, but this is a serious question. Nobody knows where we come from or why the stones don’t work on us?”
“I haven’t put much thought into it,” Mareena admitted. “But based on recent events, I think I should.”
I dove right into the realm of possibility; it’s where my mind is happiest. I twisted through different scenarios and started fitting theoretical puzzle pieces together. “Could it have been something we were exposed to when we were younger?” I suggested.
She shook her head. “I took care of you your entire childhood. I promise you weren’t exposed to anything the entire palace hasn’t already been near too.”
“But we’re royalty. Is there anything we do that’s different from others when a baby’s born?”
“I highly doubt that relates to anything. In twenty-five years, there hasn’t been a single Malopath of royal or noble blood besides us. It’s unheard of. Most Malopaths appear in cities farther away from the capital.”
“Was it something magical?”
Mareena raised an eyebrow. “You believe in magic? That doesn’t actually exist, you know.”
“I’m just spouting out ideas, no matter how implausible they are,” I said in my defense.
“Well, you’d better come up with more ideas. Malopaths are discovered all over the kingdom all the time.” She smiled. “So, my little scientist, what’s the correlation between all of these people?”
I paused for a few moments. “Maybe . . . maybe it’s hereditary.”
Mareena stared at me. “What?”
“It’s a possibility that being Malopathic is something that’s passed down through families. It’s not a bad guess. Even newborns can be Malopaths. You told me yourself. You noticed it moments after I was born, so it can’t be coming from an external source. It’s something you’re born with.”
She faced away from me, rubbing her forehead, her face creased with skepticism.
“Just think about it for a few seconds.” I threw my hands out to get her attention. “We’re family. You’re my aunt. You’re Malopathic. I’m Malopathic. Maybe, somehow, since you and my mom were sisters, something was passed down.”
“But Ionda wasn’t Malopathic. I’m certain of that.”
“I . . . I don’t know, but I don’t think it’s a coincidence that two Malopaths are so closely related. It makes more sense than anything else we’ve come up with so far.” I frowned. “Why do you look so doubtful? Isn’t it a compelling theory?”
“It is a compelling theory,” she eventually responded. “The problem is that it might just be true. The trait doesn’t show up often. Your mother wasn’t a Malopath, and your brother wasn’t either. You’re possibly right, but we still don’t know how this trait got into the royal family in the first place.”
“Your parents.” Everything suddenly clicked in my head, tumbling into place. “We didn’t know about the stones back then, so there’s no way you could have known if they were Malopathic, but was there anything different about them? Their origin? Ancestry? Anything?”
She shook her head. “I never knew my parents. They died when we were very young. Your mother and I were adopted into another family.”
“What? How come you never told me this? Do you know how they died?”
“I didn’t tell you because I didn’t think it was important. You never asked. No, I don’t know how they died. All the information I have about them is hazy and full of holes. Our adoptive parents discouraged us asking about our biological parents, so we didn’t. We were only a few years old. I don’t remember anything.”
“We need to find that out, then! That might be the answer!”
Mareena placed her hands on her hips. “Are you trying to make something out of nothing?”
I laughed. “At this point, I’d be willing to accept any possible leads or anything that could shed some light on this mess.”
The conversation simmered down, both of us drifting off into our own thoughts. Now that we were alone, I took the opportunity to unfasten the crystal necklace Offer Hazen had given me. I gathered the chain and gently laid it onto Mareena’s mattress. As soon as the crystal left my skin, the insufferable humming stopped.
Mareena studied my actions. “Why are you taking off the necklace? You’re required to wear it, and everyone thinks you’re in pain without it.”
I grimaced. “Nobody’s around except the two of us, and that stupid humming noise bothers me.”
She was hesitant when she responded. “What humming noise?”
I waved my hand dismissively. “You know, that humming noise we hear whenever we wear the stones. It kind of sounds like a beehive, a buzzing noise, a vibration. It’s the really quiet background sound that drives me insane . . . You know, that humming noise.”
Mareena shook her head. “I’ve been wearing the stones for over two decades, and I’ve never heard anything like that. Ever.”
I threw my hands up in exasperation. “Great, so you’re telling me that I’m even weird for a Malopath? How does that even work? I might as well tell Kadar my true nature right now and arrange for my own execution because this is ridiculous.”
“There aren’t very many of us! We certainly don’t go around talking to each other about our experience either. Maybe hearing that noise is a normal thing for Malopaths, and I’m the one who’s different,” she suggested.
“It doesn’t matter anyway. Do you know how much the people hate us? The royals call us Malopaths, which means a bad feeler.”
“It’s not that . . .” Mareena tried to say.
“A bad feeler.” I sighed, resting back into the chair. “What hope is there for us? We’re either executed or forced to live a life of danger and misery.”
Mareena hesitated for a few seconds. “What can I do to make you feel better?”
I thought for a few seconds. “Apparently, this humming noise that I hear makes me different from all the other Malopaths, or maybe the noise is normal and you’re the different one. We don’t know anything about this noise, so could we discuss some theories?”
“You are, without a doubt, the weirdest girl I’ve ever met. Normally, I would let you talk, but we’ve stayed up for too long. You need to go to sleep.”
“Seriously?”
“Yes. Human beings need sleep to function, and you are not getting enough of it.”
I chuckled. “Really? You’re ending this conversation that abruptly and on that note?”
“Yes,” she immediately replied. “Now go to bed, Highness.”
Mareena only used my proper title when she was trying to be serious with me. Taking the hint, I leaped out of the chair and darted out of the room, carrying the blanket with me. I sped down the hallway, trying to keep my steps quiet in the insufferably echoey corridors.
There’s something different about me, different from the people around me and possibly even different from other Malopaths. I’m not only cursed but double cursed.
So help me, I will find out why I’m so unlike others.
Or I’ll get myself killed trying.