“Yes, my lady. And just so you know, no one’s been in or out. We’ve been here the whole time,” answered the young blond male. “During our guard duty, that is.”
I smiled, placing my hand on my sword belt. The gold hilt warmed under my touch, both in warning and greeting. “Well, it is refreshing to hear you can do your job.” Both men stood there, frozen, as I grabbed a torch and pushed past them into the darkness below.
This was the worst part of this task. I hated coming down to the dungeons. It was freezing and damp and disgusting. There was no telling how long it had been since the place had a proper cleaning and inspection. It smelled of mildew and body odor, the remnants of corpses long since forgotten lingering in the air.
It’d been so bad that I’d petitioned to have Damien moved to one of the taller towers. I’d inspected the area myself. The king had said it’d once been used as a last stop for prisoners before they were executed. Some kind of mercy before they went into the afterlife. The tower stood proudly, looking over the green fields and farming plots. A large window allowed for one last look at the horizon. It’d been barred, of course, and the iron remained strong today. Animals and houses were mere specks on the ground. Below, a rocky river flowed toward the ocean, promising death to any who found themselves falling from such a great height.
The king, though, had said Damien did not deserve such compassion, and therefore would remain in the darkest part of the dungeon until his death.
Through the eerie light, I could make out the shadowy figure of Damien’s silhouette on the wall. What surprised me was the fact that there was a shadow at all, for any light that had been left would have been bare embers at this point. My stomach clenched at the thought of Eva coming down here, alone with him.
I felt for the poor woman. She must have been suffocating under everyone’s watchful eye. She’d been a free spirit, or so I’d heard from Luka. Her time with Damien had dampened that carefree nature. I wish she had known me well enough to turn to me. I would have helped her get the space she craved while keeping Matthew from losing his mind. Perhaps later, when all of this was over, we would get the opportunity.
My fears were realized as I saw Damien sitting with tear tracks down his face. He’d buried his hands in his hair, staring down at the ground with ragged breaths. All lanterns in his area had been lit, something a guard wouldn’t have done. He looked like a man who had seen the woman he loved with his whole heart and watched her rip it to shreds.
“What happened to you?” I asked, placing my torch in the holder near the hallway. “You look as if you’ve seen a ghost.”
He did not move, did not glance my way. “Perhaps I have,” he muttered, shrugging his shoulders. “Why are you here? Isn’t it late?” There was no life left in his voice. It remained hollow and empty, just as he looked.
“Or early. Depending on how you look at it, I suppose.” A thick table stood to my right, and I walked over and hopped onto it, my legs swinging away underneath me. “I’m going to ask you a question, and I need you to answer me honestly.”
He met my gaze and glanced away, knowing exactly what I was going to ask because he was guilty of it. Yet he would lie anyway. We both knew it.
“Have you seen Eva this evening?” I asked, crossing my arms and leaning back against the wall.
“No,” he said without hesitation. “I have not seen her since the throne room.”
A lie. The telltale sign tingling against my skin in warning. “Then how were these lanterns lit? They burn bright, and not of regular fire. We both know those two idiots up there would not have made sure you had light to see.”
He shrugged, drawing his fingers along his skin. It was impossible to ignore the way his muscles strained or how rugged his look had become. I chastised myself for noticing, trying and failing to curb a strange feeling inside as he looked up at me with eyes of broken sapphire. There were more important things to think of, like finding Kalen and Eva. “I don’t know.”
Focus. Focus. Focus.
I tsked, hopping off the table. He watched me with those unnerving eyes—trailed them along my body in appreciation. I hated that I liked it, especially as Kalen was gods only knew where. “Oh, Damien. I wish you hadn’t lied to me. I thought we had a better working relationship than this.” I stalked toward him, bracing my arms on the bars. He stared up at me. “Where is Eva?”
He shook his head. “I don’t know.”A half-truth. He knew something, and that something may help tell us where she went. But there was more to it.
“Try again,” I said, opening the door of the cell and closing it behind me. He didn’t flinch as I crossed my arms and stood above him. “Come now, Damien. Where is Eva? Surely you must know how worried the palace is. Everyone is searching for her and in such a volatile time, we need her presence known.”
He thought over my words, sadness crossing over his features. Perhaps I’d laid on the guilt thick, but it was still the truth. If she wasn’t found by morning light, we would have to send out riders to search. It would only prompt more scrutiny from the Helian people, and we could not afford to lose their allegiance. “I already told you,” he said, his words low. “I do not know where she is right now.”
I smiled as his face fell, quickly realizing the mistake he had made. “Ah, now we are getting somewhere! Where was she, Damien? Was she here?”
He jutted out his chin. “Why should I tell you?”
I shrugged. “Do it or don’t. It’s your choice. But I think we both know you’d prefer it if you told me. As I’ve said, the entire palace is in an uproar. I don’t need to tell you how bad this could end, since we have foreign rulers amongst us. Ones who would surely love to sell her to Lachlan.” His face paled. I softened my words, fighting the urge to protect him. “Tell me where she is so I can help her, Damien. You do her a disservice otherwise.”
“She doesn’t need coddling,” he said. “She needsspace. From the situation. From you. Fromhim,” he sneered the word. “This is all too much for her. She’s drowning. And I know I have contributed to her anxieties. There’s nothing I wouldn’t trade to take them away, but you can’t push her.”
“We can’t help her unless we know where she is.” He worried his lip, the same way Eva seemed to do when she was thinking too hard. “Look,” I said, striding over and sitting down next to him. He looked confused about why I would chance the proximity. Truthfully, it was a foolish thing to do. Even though I was a skilled warrior, so was he. With his size, he could overpower me if I wasn’t careful, despite the hollow look in his eyes. But there was something in my chest that told me he wouldn’t hurt me at all. “Iknowyou want to protect her. She means a lot to you, even after all this time. But she is a danger to herself and others when she is in this state. Eva is carrying the weight of many emotions, and with her powers reemerging, it is possible the slightest trigger could set her off.”
Damien thought it over until he sighed and tipped his head back, closing his eyes. “She was here. Don’t ask me why—because I asked her the same thing and neither of us could come up with an answer—but she paid me a visit and told me to keep quiet. Not that she thought anyone would come to me to ask, but here we are. And no, I did nothing. I let her ask me questions, anything she wished, and I answered them as honestly as I could. She gave me warmth and water, promising to send someone down with food from the kitchens. Then she was simply gone.”
Food? Why would she send food? “Have you not eaten today?” I asked. Surely the guards had done as I’d instructed, had allowed someone down with his meals.
He shook his head, looking ashamed. “No, I—” He blew out a breath. “The guard that came down earlier threw a moldy piece of bread on the floor at my feet. I would not give him the satisfaction of eating it like a starved beast. When I tossed it back to him, he laughed and dumped my water before he walked away.”
Furious did not cover the emotion coursing through me. My orders were disobeyed and disregarded. Damien’s meals were most likely eaten by the two on duty. I couldn’t care less about the fact he was a prisoner, he was a person of value. A person, gods willing, who held useful information that could aid us in this war. He was not to be treated like street rabble.
