Eric was leaning against the bars of his cell with a downcast expression. He was exhausted and stressed out, and from the way he rubbed his arms, Zoey thought he was either cold or sore. He must be hungry, too, but no one was going to feed him.
In the cell next to Eric was Fleur; her cell bars were enchanted from the inside so that she could not break through them. She had not said a single word since they had been thrown in there. With the two of them next to each other, Zoey could see the similarities. They both had the same chocolaty eyes and thin noses. Now that Fleur was Fata, her skin had a stronger glow to it, and her hair was shinier and softer. Eric’s face was pink from the cold, and his hair needed to be washed.
Zoey finally fell asleep against the bars of her own cell – she had followed Tarragon’s guards down there and they had locked her up. It was not a comfortable sleeping position, and she woke up stiff when loud voices and footsteps approached.
“She is mine. You had no right to throw her in here,” Caynin growled. He spoke with such dominance that if he had been speaking to anyone else, they would not have responded.
“She tried to steal from me!” Tarragon said. “That can’t go unpunished.”
It was not stealing. It was rescuing. Anyway, she hadn’t rescued Eric, she’d failed, as he was back in his cell. The way she saw it, Tarragon had nothing to complain about. Yet, he was not going to let this slide. She had defied him too many times.
“It’s my responsibility to punish her, not yours,” Caynin growled.
“If you don’t punish her, you’d be showing the whole kingdom that it is all right to steal from me,” Tarragon said.
The two came into view, and Zoey didn’t bother rising. She regarded them with a bored expression, knowing that Caynin wouldn’t let Tarragon hurt her.
“You don’t get to tell me how I should do things in my own kingdom,” Caynin said. “If you don’t like it, leave.”
Zoey smiled at Caynin’s dominance and really hoped Tarragon would leave. Leave the dungeon. Leave the kingdom. She never ever wanted to see his stupid face again.
“I will,” Tarragon said, “after I execute the boy and the servant tonight.”
Zoey realized with a shudder that Fleur had tried to save Eric, at the cost of her life. Mother and son would die together. Fleur worked for Caynin, and Zoey assumed Caynin had given her to Tarragon to keep the peace.
“You should let me kill your pet, too.” Tarragon’s dark eyes found Zoey.
Caynin spun around and bared his teeth. “If you ever say something like that again, I’ll kill you.”
His threat was sincere, and Tarragon stepped backward. He knew there was no further reasoning with Caynin, and it was time for him to walk away.
Just before he left, he said, “You don’t know what she is.”
Zoey was not sure what he meant by that. She was human. Everyone knew she was human.
As Tarragon’s footsteps faded, she forced herself to look up at Caynin as he opened her cell door. It must be some form of magic because he did not use a key. He simply grabbed the bars, pulled, and the door opened.
“Come on,” Caynin said. “I’m going to get you out of here.”
She slowly got to her feet and pushed past him, not because she was obedient but because she needed to talk to him in private. Caynin was confused by her behavior, but he followed her. She headed deeper into the dungeons until she found a place where she couldn’t see any prisoners. There, she halted, facing the darkness, with her back turned to Caynin. She drew a deep breath before she said, “There is no curse, is there?”
The silence was deafening until Caynin finally said, “No.”
Zoey squeezed her eyes shut before she could muster the courage to turn around and face him. “You lied to me.”
“Yes.”
She nodded and bit back tears. “Why?”
“I met you and you couldn’t be compelled. That fascinated me,” Caynin confessed. “I didn’t understand it. I still don’t understand it. I told you to not come back to the forest, because if you came back, I knew I’d be tempted to make you stay so that I could study you.”
She shook her head. Study her? As if she was nothing more than a lab rat.
“When Lore and Bane brought you to me, they told me you touched the Globetrot-tree. A Globetrot-tree has so much energy that if a human touches it, they should die immediately. Human bodies cannot handle that much magic. Yet, you survived. You weren’t even injured. It’s unheard of.”
“Then you lied to me and told me I was cursed, and I had to stay. But I was going to leave anyway. You lied further when you told me the curse would spread to my family if I crossed the border. You manipulated me into staying. All for what? Your own amusement?”
At the beginning, Caynin probably hadn’t cared about what he had done. But as their connection had grown, he must have started to feel guilty.
I told you, you could never go back.
When he had said this, Zoey had thought he felt bad for her because she could not go home when in reality, he felt bad for lying. Good. That showed he was capable of feeling emotions.
“I wanted to tell you,” he said.
“Right before we made love,” Zoey realized.
He had told her that he wanted to tell her something, but she had been caught up in their moment of passion and had not been in the mood for talking.
“I was going to tell you the truth,” Caynin said.
“You should never have lied in the first place!” Zoey cried. Her heart dropped. “Do all the Fata know I am not cursed?”
“Yes.”
Zoey almost cried out in anger and betrayal. She had thought Rane was her friend. Yet, he had also been lying to her all that time. “Rane never told me.”
“Rane’s loyalty to me comes first,” Caynin said. “You can’t blame him. I also told the others not to tell you the truth.”
Zoey couldn’t believe it. After all this time with Caynin, she had trusted him. Maybe she was as naïve as Eric had accused her of being. After all this time she’d fallen in love with Caynin, and believed he felt the same. She had been played for a fool. “Shame on you.”
Caynin said nothing, and he made no attempt to touch her. Zoey did not know why she couldn’t be compelled or why she had survived touching the Globetrot-tree. She did not know what Tarragon had tasted in her blood.
You don’t know what she is.
Did that mean Tarragon knew something about her that she didn’t? Even if he did, she would never ask him. She didn’t ever want to see him again.
You are his possession.
Zoey glared at Caynin. “Are you going to force me to stay?”
“You are free to go,” he told her. “No one will stop you.”
She nodded and passed him. Instead of leaving the prison, she returned to Eric and Fleur and sat down in her own cell. Caynin lingered in the darkness before he left.
Whatever was between them was broken. Everything they had was built on lies, secrets, and betrayal. He had never done what was best for Zoey. He had only ever done what he wanted to get what he desired.
Zoey pulled her knees to her chest and hid her face so that Eric and Fleur could not see her tears.
***
Footsteps approached, and Zoey couldn’t summon the will to lift her head from her knees. Her head felt thick and heavy, and her cheeks were wet from crying. She had failed. She couldn’t save Eric or Fleur. They were both going to be executed in a few hours.
“Go away, Caynin,” she said.
“I’m not the Everwhite Prince,” a female said.
Zoey looked up. “Bella.”
She had been searching for Bella for weeks. She had so many questions to ask the servant Fata who had told her about the Fluver-luzile.
“What are you doing here?”
“I’m here to give you a way to save your friends.” She gestured to Fleur and Eric, who hadn’t spoken a word.
“You always show up when I need help the most,” Zoey said, “but why do you always help me?”
Bella said, “There is only one way to stop Tarragon from executing Fleur and Eric tonight.”
“How?” Zoey asked eagerly.
Zoey had been in a similar situation when Violet had been dying, and Bella had offered her hope by telling her about the Fluver-luzile. Now, when there seemed to be no hope for Eric and Fleur, Bella was once again offering her a lifeline.
“The only way to stop the execution is by taking Tarragon off the throne. We have to make him lose the title of ruler.”
“How would we do that?” Zoey asked.
“We have to prove to the Fata that he is not fit to be a ruler. We have to find dirt on him.”
“Finding something on him could take a long time. We don’t have time,” Zoey argued.
Bella smiled mischievously. “Did you know I worked for Prince Calico and Princess Harmonia, and I babysat their daughter Princess Celine?”
“Tarragon said you worked for the royal family,” Zoey recalled.
“What Tarragon does not know is that I was there the night they died. I was hiding by the door, and I saw all of it happen.”
“You saw the Prenumbras kill them?”
Bella shook her head. “I saw Tarragon kill them.”
Her words chilled Zoey. “What?”
“The door to Erken was opened in Princess Celine’s room. I heard Harmonia scream, and I rushed to the baby’s room. I saw a Prenumbra, by the crib, draining the baby’s magic. I was too scared to do anything – I’m a servant, not a fighter! I hid by the door, while watching. I thought everything was going to be alright because Tarragon was there. He was Calico’s Waerie, and he was supposed to protect them. But instead of protecting them, he murdered them. He killed Harmonia first, then Calico, and then he walked to the crib and fought the Prenumbra. He managed to shove the Prenumbra through the door and lock it – but he broke the key.”
“And Princess Celine?”
“He walked to the crib, and I thought he would kill her, too. But he did not. I figured he felt too guilty for betraying her parents. He sent her away to a place where she would never know her real identity and told everyone that the Prenumbra had stolen her back to Erken.
“He lied more and told everyone that the Prenumbras had killed Calico and Harmonia. If he told Fata that he did it, he would be executed, if not imprisoned for the rest of his life. Instead, he pretended to be the hero, and he was rewarded. They gave him the title of ruler! I couldn’t say anything. Who would believe me? I have been waiting for years and years to get justice. That time has come.”
“But we don’t have any proof that he did it,” Zoey said.
“Have you ever heard of the No-Name sword?” Bella asked.
“Yes. Tarragon got this sword from the Elves after winning a duel.” Caynin had told her this.
“And the sword keeps the names of every life it took.”
“But I heard that Tarragon lost the swords in the battle with the Prenumbra,” Zoey said.
Bella shook her head. “That’s a lie. He used the sword to kill Harmonia and Calico. If anyone ever saw the sword, they would know what he had done. So, he threw the sword into The Lake of Lost.”
“If we find the sword, we prove he murdered the royal family, and we get him removed from the throne.”
“We don’t have much time,” Bella told her.
“You don’t have enough time,” Eric finally said. His shoulders slumped, his eyes dull and hopeless.
“Then let’s go!” Zoey followed Bella out of the dungeons. “Where is the Lake of Lost?”
“In the Everblossom Kingdom,” Bella replied. “We will have to use the Globetrot-tree for teleportation.”
“I’m human – the tree won’t work on me.”
“Trust me, it will work,” Bella said.
As they went, Zoey had an idea. “I think I can buy us time.”
“How?” Bella asked.
“I need to find Prince Dagan,” she responded.
But first she went to her own room to get her iron knife. There was nothing wrong in having additional protection. The blade lay on her bedside table – next to the emerald necklace Dagan had given her. She took both items and stuck them into her pockets.
She didn’t ask Fleur for permission and rushed to Dagan’s room. She flung open the door, causing the prince to look up from the book he was reading. For a moment, he looked just like Caynin had, when she walked into his room and found him stuck in a book. But then she decided he couldn’t be compared to Caynin – there was no way he was that horrible. Zoey knew she was filthy, panting, and not supposed to be barging into his room.
“This is pleasantly unexpected.” Dagan closed his book and grinned at her.
Zoey stepped into the big, luxurious room while Bella waited outside, out of sight. Dagan looked at Zoey as if he were a cat, eagerly awaiting a backrub.
“I need your help,” Zoey said.
Dagan smiled even wider. “What can I do for you?”
“I need you to delay the execution,” she told him. “I need you to buy me time.”
His green eyes shimmered. “And why would I do that?”
She sighed. “Because I have a way of getting Tarragon dethroned.”
Dagan’s smile disappeared, and he gaped at her. “Tell me what you have over him.”
“I will, but not now. I don’t have enough time,” she said.
Dagan hated Tarragon, and she could use this to her advantage. He used to think he would marry Celine and have a certain amount of power over the Everblossom Kingdom. Tarragon had taken that away from him, and Dagan would do anything to get him off the throne.
“Delaying the execution is in your best interest,” Zoey pushed.
“How do I know your plan will work?” Dagan asked.
He was no doubt recalling the previous night and how she had miserably failed to free Eric. “You don’t. But you also have nothing to lose and everything to gain by trusting me.”
“Trust you?” he asked.
“Do you have a hard time trusting people, because you are not trustworthy?” she asked him.
“Excuse me?”
“You knew about Ravon’s tunnel in the dungeons. Yet, you let me make a deal with you so that I would be in debt.”
Dagan laughed. “You failed to do your homework on the dungeons. That’s not my problem. Besides, I kept up my end of the bargain.”
He would come and collect one day. She wished she knew what he would want in return but reminded herself they were not friends, and he was almost as self-serving as Caynin.
“Can you buy me time or not?”
“Yes,” Dagan said. “Then you’ll owe me even more.”
Now it was her turn to laugh. He would want something. This was why she had taken the emerald necklace from her room. She had hoped she could trade it for his help, but now she decided she could convince him that helping her was in his best interest. “I won’t owe you a damn thing for your help,” she said. “If I get Tarragon off the throne, you will owe me.”
Dagan appeared to give this some consideration. “Consider it done.”