"You will come with me now," Caliban said to Luella.
He turned and headed to the darkened doorway, and she had no choice but to follow. Her left ankle twisted on the stone, making her limp awkwardly.
She felt the healers staring after her. She couldn’t bring herself to glance back at them as she ventured out of the only room she had known in this cold stone prison.
Beyond, the walls were made of stone. Grey and dark marble. The floor was cool beneath her bare feet. She felt the chill against her exposed back. It seemed to ricochet off the walls and seep into the very marrow of her bones—so different after the warmth of the Isles. At the mere thought, her throat closed up.
What had become of the Fallen Isles? Had it fallen to the Umbra entirely?
What about… Graves.
Her right hand spasmed against her chest.
He had been hurt. She hadfeltit. What if—what if he had been killed, and she would never know?
Her eyes stared, unseeing, at Caliban’s back as he walked in front of her. He didn’t seem to care that she was left unwatched. She could run right now. She could turn and flee. But where would she go? How far could she get before he caught her? She was in no state to escape. She could barely manage walking in a straight line now with her ankle. Every step made her back twinge with discomfort. She imagined her wings were scraped and raw. They certainly felt like it.
He led her through an endless loop of stone halls, the ceilings curved overhead, making her breath rattle in the air as it echoed past her chapped lips.
One step. Then another.
A distant roaring sound made her freeze.
She gasped softly, and Caliban finally turned to meet her eyes. He was haloed by the softest rays of white light, radiating behind him from a break in the stone halls. It was a mocking contrast.
His hands were loose by his side, posture at ease. His dark clothing was stitched impeccably. Stolen clothes for the false King.
"Do not tell me the sound of your storms frightens you. I would assume after all the havoc you have wrought, this would be a mere lullaby, soothing you to sleep like a babe." His hand rose in the air, fingers curling until he made a lazy fist. Shadows drifted over his knuckles. "As soon as I brought you through the portal, rain unlike anything Luna has seen in centuries arrived. We’re already seeing the devastation from it."
He took a step toward her, and the light grew brighter behind him as it was no longer blotted out by his frame. "I wonder what would happen if it continued. Famine? Flooding? If the fae in the outer villages see their crops flooded, what would happen if they are trapped by water and cannot escape? Hungry." A step closer. "Starving." He was right before her now. The light behind him was nearly blinding. "Would they turn on each other to fill their empty, aching bellies?"
She flinched as he reached for a strand of her hair, brushing it away from her shoulder. Her magic was curled so tightly within her she could barely feel it.
"Why so quiet, Luella? Is my presence that unnerving to you? It should not be. We have known each other since your birth."
She didn’t speak. If she spoke, it would make it all real.
Sharp, vivid anger befell his face, turning the otherwise softer beauty into a deadly rage—with her as its recipient.
"Speak!" he roared, the word echoed and echoed, bouncing off the stone.
Speak.
Speak.
Speak.
"I-I do not—what do y-you—" The elixir she had been given thrummed in her blood, coiling around her heart. She felt faint. Her tongue wouldn’t work again, heavy in her mouth.
The rage was snuffed out like a light. "You are pitiful. Weak. I thought I was doing you a service by allowing you to grow up away from me, but you have only become a product of those around you. If you had been with me all this time, perhaps I could have molded you into something far greater than the tragic, guileless Princess standing before me."
It was a relief, in a way, to hear such words from her enemy. For she knew he wouldn’t lie—he had no reason to. It was the truth, laid bare.
She was weak. She was nothing.
Caliban’s head turned, blotting out the light once more. "Come. I will not allow you to make me late when it is our first appearance together."
She had no time to focus on his words, for he grabbed the elbow of her good arm and tugged her onward.
