“Good.” Kost adjusted his glasses and looked over my shoulder. His body went rigid.
“What’s wrong? Are you hurt?”
“No. Look.” His nod was sharp. Definitive.
I turned, unease stirring in my gut, and froze. There, lined along the cavern wall, was a row of bodies draped in stark-white linens. Bile crept up my throat as a heady ringing crashed through my ears. Not one of them moved. Tree roots dripped from the ceiling and attached to their heads. A strange, pulsating light traveled through each tendril, illuminating the veins along the Charmers’ faces and necks. My father’s beast crossed the room to stand before a cot at the end and let out a heartbreaking groan.
“Dad.” I rushed to his side. At first, I couldn’t bring myself to look at his face. What if I didn’t recognize him? What if Idid? The guilt of realizing he’d been alive all this time and I’d done nothing to seek him out… Something cleaved my heart in two. Tears burned the back of my eyes, and my breathing ratcheted several notches. If I’d known… Swallowing the rock in my throat, I held back a sob. It didn’t matter. The only thing that was important now was finding a way to save him and my mother. Wrapping my fingers around his lifeless hand, I forced my gaze upward.
Charcoal-black hair curled around his oval face, and thick lashes lined his closed eyes. A light smattering of freckles dusted across the bridge of his long nose, and slow, even breaths slipped through his parted lips. With shaky fingers, I grazed his cheek. Memories I hadn’t even known existed rushed over me. Him chasing me across the bridges of Hireath, shouting playfully while also urging me to be careful. Late-night treats he’d sneak with me on the back porch while we looked at the stars. A soothing song he’d sing to distract me as he’d cleaned up minor scrapes and bumps on my knees.
My chest heaved, and a hot tear escaped down my cheek. I’d buried somuch. Everything, really. The pain of losing him and my mother at the same time had been too great, and I’d ignored those emotions, kept them locked away in a chest, because that was the only way I knew how to cope. I was too young to do anything else. And as the years had passed and life grew more complicated, the memory of my father had faded. I swallowed thickly as I studied his face. At least he seemed peaceful, though his head was angled toward the cot behind me.
Without letting go, I looked over my shoulder and gasped.
Mother. She was stunning, even in her slumbering state. Walnut-colored hair, smooth skin. We shared the same, angular cheekbones and full lips. There wasn’t a doubt in my mind that I was her daughter, and my heart thundered in my ears. It was almost too painful to look at her. Seeing her had the same effect as my father, and the memories came swift and hard. My whole body was trembling by the time my hand found hers, and I let out a wordless sob.
“Leena.” Kost’s voice was soft. He’d moved to the other side of my mother’s cot and was holding several sheets of parchment. His eyes flew over the page as he read. “She was attacked by a Revmandra and brought here for treatment. But…” He frowned. Paled. And then tossed the parchment to the floor, as if he couldn’t get the damned paper out of his hands fast enough. “They were tricked. They were supposed to be released once they were healed, but have been placed in some sort of coma-like state for testing. The king himself signed off on it.”
Slowly, I bent down and picked up the parchment. With every word I devoured, heat crested inside me. Varek’s notes about my parents, about these wonderful, caring people, were so…inhuman. Dry. Despicable.
“Vessels for magic, nothing more. Continue testing and…” My throat burned as I forced myself to read aloud. To acknowledge the true breadth of his wickedness. Swallowing, I tried again.“And terminate once powers are successfully extracted.”
My vision blurred, and I let the parchment fall to the floor again. Kost let out a rare curse. “I would’ve never expected this.”
“We have to get them out.” I spun toward the cavern wall, eyeing the tendrils that had rooted into their scalps.
Kost flinched. “Yes, but—”
“I know I said we’d wait, Kost.” I moved toward the crown of pulsing vines lining my mother’s forehead. “But I can’t leave them. Not like this. Not when he plans to kill them.”
“Leena—”
I didn’t give him a chance to sway me. With one quick tug, I yanked the roots away from my mom. The foreign, pale-green light receded, and my mother started to shake. Not a light tremble. Not a quiver of her hand. But uncontrollable, full-body shudders. Her eyes raced beneath her closed lids, and her breathing turned erratic. Frantic.
“Leena! Put the roots back.” Kost rushed to the cavern wall and reached for the tree, yanking the tendrils toward my mother’s head. I’d frozen entirely, my hands like statues above her face. He pushed me aside, breaking my trance, and reattached the roots. The rhythmic, glowing light returned, and my mother’s convulsions stopped. Slowly, she fell back into a calm, sedated state.
“What the hell?” I whispered.
“I don’t know.” He clenched his jaw tight. “But until we figure out how to safely wake them, we must leave them here.”
Tears lined my eyes. I couldn’t leave them here. Icouldn’t. And yet, I had to. What’s worse, Yazmin had been right. Wilheim had been capturing us. Testing our abilities for their own gain. Did that mean she was right about everything? About raising Ocnolog and setting the world on fire? The room turned. I was supposed to be the queen of Lendria. The queen of…this. My throat closed, and I took several steps back. I had to get out. I had to run and fight and… Anger replaced panic, and everything steadied. A strange calm soothed my frayed nerves, and a drive like I’d never experienced before settled deep in my bones.
I had to kill Varek.
I glanced around the room until I spotted a staircase and stormed off, Kost and my father’s beast a breath behind me.
“Where are you going?” Kost whisper-yelled as he tried to grip my arm.
I shook him off and ascended quickly. “To find Varek.”
“And do what?” The narrowness of the dark stairwell forced him behind me, and I didn’t slow. I would’ve vaulted up the stairs if the light hadn’t diminished to something dim and near impossible to see through. Nothing else mattered except getting out of this hellhole. I didn’t give a damn what I was about to walk out into. Varek would answer for this. They all would.
“Make him pay.”
“Leena, listen to yourself. You sound like Yazmin,” he tried. “Think about what you’re doing. I know you’re upset, but doing something like this won’t help anyone. Not even your parents.”
I whirled in place, towering over him from the step above. “I’m supposed to just let that injustice go? Forget what I saw? Yazmin was right.” I exhaled sharply and formed fists by my side. “Maybe she was right about everything.”
