“The spike in power not only yielded our esteemed devotees, but it also allowed us to split the true gods in half, veiling their counterparts in a mirrored realm. In controlling both sides of the Damned, we havebeen able to wreak havoc on your world and the one just beyond, infiltrating the minds of the senseless and continuing to spread our pollution.” She smiled, her canines glinting beneath the minimal light snaking through the stained glass windows. “When all is said and done, every being littering the lands will obey our every beck and call. You will do as we wish, when we wish, and the reality as you see it now will cease to exist.”
Tearing away from her touch, my brows narrowed. “And what do you believe you will get out of me after your admission? Because it sure as fuck won’t be submission. If you believe I will bow to you solely based on the fact that I am bound by you, then you are sorely mistaken.”
“Oh, I wouldn’t expect such a thing,” she hummed, stepping away from me and toward the throne. “Though I would be happy to grant you a life of freedom from the ancient language that taints your skin, as well as promise protection of those you love when we open the portals to our realm. You could live alongside us, in power, command, and status, without being enslaved by our rule.
“And if you elect otherwise, then I will waste no time butchering those closest to you while forcing you to watch, and then puppeteering you with the bind after they're all dead at your feet.” Sinking down to sit on one of the dais steps, she grinned. “So what will it be, Caspian Vayne? A life devoted to standing alongside the Others with the freedoms you’ve been granted, or a life controlled by every word that leaves me?”
Fingers twitching at my sides, I struggled to draw enough air to breathe, tothink.I’d been trapped by the crown my entire life; the king’s boot settled on my neck throughout my childhood and early teen years. Where I thought there was a light at the end of the tunnel, it’d been a mirage, and what I believed to be freedom was merely manufactured.
I am not a free man, and I never will be.
And Sorva knew where to strike.
“What does standing alongside you entail?” I questioned, everyalarm in the back of my mind sounding as Elaros’s presence demanded my attention.
“Do not be foolish, Son.”
“What does it entail?” Sorva tapped her chin. “Trading your life at sea for a life here and serving as the king’s right-hand just as you’d been purchased to do. You remain faithful to the throne, and you can count on me sparing whoever you wish when the time comes. Even that pitiful red-headed little bitch.”
My throat bobbed, her ultimatum sinking its talons into my mind with no sense of escape. “That is all?”
“And your blood, of course,” she snickered, gaze flaring with hunger.
“Caspian,”Elaros commanded, my name uttered as a warning.“You do not shake this woman’s hand in declaration of peace, for she is not honorable. All she speaks is lies. She will spare no one, and you, granting her closeness, providing her access to your lineage, it’ll only speed up the decimation that is already rapidly approaching.”
“Yeah?”I seethed back, pressing my palm against the marble.“And what are you going to do, Father? Save me? As far as I’m aware, you’re bound in chains far heavier than my own, so perhaps consider that before commanding what I do and don’t do with my life.”
Not granting him enough time to offer a rebuttal, I looked at Sorva. “Fine. You have a deal. I will give myself to the crown ifyouuphold your end of the bargain: the removal of the bind and the safety of those I love.”
She snickered, nodding with lustful sluggishness. “Absolutely.”
Holding her stare, I mirrored her offering and signed my life away. Though the intentions I spoke of remained only partially true, because without the bind, I could finally speak the truth.
I could warn others of the demise she planned, the war lingering on the horizon.
And if taking the Others down meant devoting myself to the crown, then I would happily sign that line of fate.
CHAPTER 44
Shattered Sacrifice
KAEL
The pirate’s words seeped beneath the large, sealed doors as a percussive warning, carrying with them the weight of my arrival and my father’s expectations.
“Fine. You have a deal. I will give myself to the crown ifyouuphold your end of the bargain: the removal of the bind and the safety of those I love.”
Percy stood beside me, but unlike our usual arrival into my father’s throne room, he wasn’t accompanying me in his usual manner. Where Percy carried the weight of protecting me with his life, this moment felt far too minuscule, like he was being robbed of the chance to do so as a means of punishment for both of us. Flanked on both sides by men I didn’t recognize, his title had been stripped, and my usual circle of guards was nowhere to be found.
It was a statement, a reminder of how fragile autonomy was in a world ruled by forces so tainted that there were no routes to atonement.
Tearing me from my internal spiral, Percy squeezed my hand once. “Whatever this entails, I hope you know that I?—”
The king’s jarring timbre cut him off before he had the opportunity to finish. “Enter.”
Both guards moved with a near-robotic nature, stepping forward to push the doors open with a forceful shove. Simultaneously, as if controlled by some unseen force, they both glanced over their shoulder and ushered us into the room beyond.
Obliging with hesitance, I crossed the threshold, the large mahogany slabs sealing behind us alongside our fate. My nerves spiked with the sudden closure, and I raised a shaky hand to brush down the front of the royal attire I’d been required to change into immediately upon my return. Once the fabric was smoothed, I counted each step of my approach to distract myself. But my mind wandered to the endless possibilities of our summoning, and that method of ceasing my anxiety became null and void.
