I hate this. And I hate lying too. I reel off lie after lie after lie after lie. They slip off my tongue with the same ease as truths. Going through this is hard enough without having the King and his healer grilling me for an hour.
Eventually, the fever that wracks my body drags me down to the unconscious, and I think I pass out because I don't wake up for two days. But as it does every time, the sickness vanishes as quickly as it comes and by day three, I'm up and walking again.
"Holy fuck," I mutter, catching sight of myself in the mirror. My hair is at all angles, and my shirt is half hanging off. Not even in a sexy way, either. More in a I’m-incapable-of-taking-care-of-myself way. It's not a good sight. No wonder no one is in here with me, I look like a banshee. A banshee who needs to put some underwear on.
I wash my hair with the rose and honey soap that is the only luxury I allow myself when I'm on the road. Stellan's is expensive wine, Anna has weird portraits of ‘lovely men', and Onyx says he has no need for luxuries in life.
Cracking my bruised knuckles as I dress in front of the mirror, I put two small braids in my hair, fastening them with iron rings. Then I toss the whole lot into a long, straight ponytail because today, I'm in the mood to kill something in the forest.
My plan is cut short, though, by a guard at my door who informs me that I am not to leave my room until the week is over. He also tells me that in the two days since I'd left Stellan unattended, he has been arrested and imprisoned for punching three guards. I flop down on my bed and sigh. Despite all my efforts, I cannot tame him. He makes enemies everywhere he goes.
Still, I have absolutely no doubt that this is King Rexxan punishing those two just to get to me. I hate it, and I hate him. I hate that I have to bite my tongue around him just so I can earn safe passage for my people.
I'd heard the King wasn't warm, but he is colder than I could've imagined. Even after seeing how sick I was, he has refused to see me, and I haven't been invited back to meet the Kings and Queens either. He has locked me in this room with guards outside, and I don't do well in locked spaces.
On the sixth day, I am going insane. There is only so much exercise you can do inside before you lose it. Press-ups, skipping, stretching, lunges, pull-ups. I repeat this over and over but it's not enough to keep me distracted, and I know I need out of here.
I should regret blowing a sedative dart into the two guards' necks, but I don't. They'll be fine in a few hours. In fact, with the hours Rexxan has them all working, they'll probably thank me for the extra sleep. Convincing myself I'm being a philanthropist, I step over them and sneak out of my room. In stealthy silence, I climb up the ivy-blanketed stone walls of the palace, crawling along the ceiling rafters. I pull myself up higher so I'm hidden in the shadows, grateful for the years of strength I'd built into my body.
I have a map of this palace ingrained in my brain, but I spend an hour expanding it. I creep like a monkey along the ceiling beams. I pass the grand wine cellars—Rexxan seems to be in a love affair with wine—and the Great Hall where events are held. Onto my map I add Rexxan's private training courtyard, the guest halls, the business halls, the trade rooms, and three different libraries.
I wait hidden in the ceiling for a few minutes until the guard shifts change, granting me five seconds to cross the threshold into a heavily guarded hallway. Only when I get halfway down the familiar arched corridor do I realise I've strayed into the King's Halls, which I'm quite sure is punishable by execution. I need to get out of here, but holy fuck, do I love things like this. Adrenaline spikes in my blood and I feelalive. But my hands and feet freeze on the rough wooden rafter as I slink into a side hallway, hoping it'll be empty.
It's not.
My limbs aren't listening to me.Why aren't my limbs listening to me?Is this how frustrating it is for Onyx when I don't listen to him? I will myself to move but I don't. The King is with a tall blonde in the hallway, the two of them talking in hushed voices as he leans against the polished stone wall. He whispers something in her ear that makes them both laugh.
I should really move now. I shoulddefinitelymove. But fuck, I'm mesmerised. Dumbstruck at seeing the Forest King doing something other than scowling at the other rulers and shouting at the staff. Spellbound by the sheer beauty of this man. He’s not beautiful like spring flowers, or like the sunshine on a quiet stream. Rexxan is catastrophically beautiful, like the first bolt of lightning that shatters the midnight sky. Like crimson blood spreading over soft white cotton. The kind of beauty where you cannot help but stare and wonder how anything else is ever to feel beautiful again.
The blonde tiptoes up and for a fleeting moment I think she’s going to kiss him, but he pulls away just a fraction, preventing her lips from touching his. Instead, he leans round her to undo the latch on the bedroom door and cocks his head slightly as though to invite her in.
But then he looks up. Panic and exhilaration slice through my chest like a hot knife through butter as his eyes meet mine.Fuck. Even now as he finds an assassin crawling along the ceiling of his home, there's not a glimmer of surprise or anger on his face, as if he knew I was up here all along. Amusement glitters in his terracotta eyes and he makes no move to tell the guards I'm up here. One huge hand wraps around the waist of the blonde.
Two of his fingers slowly move her hair from her neck, and with eyes never leaving mine, he places a slow, soft kiss on her neck. I don't know what kind of spells he's woven through the air, but I jolt slightly because I feel his lips on my neck too. Even the heat of his breath brushes my skin, the feel of his hand hot on my waist.
A soft breath leaves my lips, my knees pressing together slightly up high in the ceiling. He pulls away to open the door for her, and with one quick wink at me, vanishes into the room.
Chapter7
The Vault (Rexxan)
Over a thousand years ago now, the Gods began to argue.
In the end, they decided it would be more sensible to pour all their power and influence into five stones. That way, if one of them was killed by another the world would still function on. And so the five Vault Stones were forged.
My grandfather fashioned the red Stone of Fire, and I am its guardian. Lynna’s grandmother created the green Earth Stone, owned now by Holn and Hela. Ocealia’s grandfather, the God of the Sea, created the blue Sea Stone. For generations, it has belonged to her fathers and grandfathers and now to her. Espan is the guardian of the white Air Stone.
I want all five stones for myself. Not for selfish reasons, but to closely protect the world order. Because now King Kelen and Queen Lana, a twenty-two-year-old couple with less than an ounce of brainpower between them, are responsible for the grey River Stone, and I hate that.
The stones all sit in the Five Kingdom Vault, a small room built deep into the side of a mountain. Only the Kings and Queens can access the room, not even the guards that protect it. There are ten doors to get through before you make it in, each one a puzzle to solve. The Stones protect the equilibrium of the elements in Yterras, and removing the Earth Stone would cause city-crumbing earthquakes. Removing the White Stone would see the air becoming unbreathable.
Only once has a stone ever been removed, and I lost everything that day.
No one attempts to get into the Vault, because anyone who would is against world peace, and regardless of what Kingdom they’re from, they’d see the death of everyone they know. So it is odd, then, that for the first time in five decades, someone attempted to breach the first and second doors into the Vault today.
Someone wants us all dead.
Consequently, I find myself with a to-do list about eight times longer than it was yesterday. I have doubled the security, calling the Kings and Queens for an urgent gathering, but beyond that, all I can do is shout at my guards for letting whoever the intruder was outrun them in the forest.
