Damien takes a small step closer, and I think he might say something, but instead he turns on his heel and heads back down the dimly lit corridor. When the door closes behind him, my knees finally give out, and the hold I had on my emotions shatters along with my heart.
“You’re better off without him,” I hear Kane say, but it does little to alleviate the pain rippling through my chest.
“I wasn’t going to say anything because… well, quite frankly, I don’t care for you, witch, but for the sake of my sleep schedule, there’s something you should know.”
Kane and I both glance at each other with confused expressions. I hadn’t even realized Slader had woken up.
“What are you talking about?” Kane asks before I have the chance to.
Slader leans against his cell bars, picking at his nails. “Before you got here, the king had me working on your lover boy.”
“Wait, Damien is who you were torturing that whole time? I had assumed it was a rebel,” Kane interjects.
I’m still trying to put the pieces together when Slader continues.
“Nah, it was him. Unfortunately for me, I had a front-row seat to your relationship.” I start to open my mouth, but Slader’s onyx eyes dart to me as if to tell me to stay quiet. “You already know that Damien had been working for the king the whole time the two of you knew each other. But what you don’t know is that when you kissed him that night after the Remembrance Orb, he started falling in love with you.”
“You’re lying. You don’t betray someone you love,” I fight back.
“Yeah, well there’s a bit more to it, but that’s not my story to tell.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” I demand.
Slader straightens and turns to me.
“We all have our reasons for doing the king’s bidding. Did you ever stop and think that maybe Damien didn’t have a choice?”
“There’s always a choice!” I retort.
“Just like you have a choice now?” Kane challenges.
His words pierce me like an arrow.He’s right.Every choice I thought I had has been taken from me.
“Fine. But no one made him sleep with me. No one made him confess his love. No one made him share personal things with me.”
“True,” Slader agrees. “But you don’t choose who you fall in love with. Feelings like that are damn near impossible not to act on.Trust me. I’ve been in a lot of people’s heads, and that man’s love for you was almost irreversible.”
“You made him fall out of love with her?” Kane’s outburst startles me. I would expect that reaction from me but not from him. He’s usually more calm and collected.
“I had to,” Slader growls. “King Cimmerian could tell it was only a matter of time before he completely lost control over Damien, even with the leverage he has on him.”
“What leverage? What does the king have on him that would make him do this?” The last few words come out almost as a plea. I need to know why he would sentence someone he claims to love to a fate worse than death.
“I told you it’s not my story to tell. I didn’t have to tell you any of this. I don’t owe you anything, witch.”
If I could access my power, I’d send a fireball right at Slader’s head. Clearly, being prisoners together doesn’t make us friends.
“Okay, well,” Kane starts in a much softer voice. “That’s something, Reign. His feelings for you were real. Maybe he’s just like us, a good person forced to do bad things.”
“Were,” I repeat.
“Huh?”
“His feelings for mewerereal. They’re gone now. Whatever the king hadthat onedo to him erased any love he may have had for me.”
“Come on, you can’t give up on him. A love like that is worth fighting for.”
When I look at Kane this time, I see a glimmer of a tear forming in the corner of his eye. He slowly slumps to the ground, lost in thought.
