I bury my face in his cloak as agony shoots like arrows through my abdomen, my limbs on fire. He clamps a hand over my mouth when I scream, gently talking me through it.
"Time to leave," says a guard, appearing at the door as the evening draws near.
"What the fuck? I still have ten minutes," argues a furious Onyx.
"Well, my shift ends now, so it's time for you to leave."
"No," I whisper, grabbing his cloak. "No."
"Renna, I have to go.” He prizes my fingers off him. "We cannot upset the King more or you'll never get out of here." He squats down opposite me, whispering with eyes flooded with worry. I've never done this alone before.
"I'll try and get in here later. Just...stay alive for me. I'll see you in the morning as well, okay?"
I nod, my knuckles white.
"She's sick," he says, standing and turning around. "She needs a healer. She needs pain relief."
"The healers come at eight. I'll send one then."
"No, she needs one now!" He shouts, towering over the guard.
"They come at eight."
Onyx spits in the guard’s face, stalking straight out of the cell and kicking over a tall rack of spears out in the corridor. I imagine he is heading straight to try and see the King, but I can hardly formulate a coherent thought. Agony shreds its way through my insides, my head threatening to split into two. Blood trickling out my nose, ears, and mouth.
I can’t breathe.
I need Onyx and Stellan. Minutes feel like hours until time becomes an unfamiliar concept. Four o'clock turns into nine o'clock, and I see no Onyx and no healers.
I'm going to die in this cell.
I'm going to die the same way my mother did.
Chapter9
The Bathroom (Rexxan)
My week has been nothing short of atrocious. Three days I spent on the Forest border, forced to fall behind on other work to support my guards killing wolves and spies on my borders.
My son has been badly injured in a battle near the Sea City, and I'm too far away to help. My every waking moment is spent trying to find out more about the incident at the Vault. The other Kings and Queens are all shitting themselves over it. I'm the only one acting like a fucking adult. And the Commander’s brother, Onyx, whatever his name is, is a thorn in my side. He offered today to pledge his life as a guard to me if I'd let her out.
But something he said has been echoing in my mind over and over.
She's had a difficult past, my lord. She doesn't cope with being locked up at all. It's harder for her than for others.
Who is this woman? And what has she been through? She's so young to have seen so much, and that pisses me off for some reason. Her brother’s words have infiltrated something I'd forgotten I'd had; my conscience.
I've stayed away from her for weeks for many reasons. I don’t fully trust that she isn’t the person who tried to get into the vault. Secondly, I cannot keep having her trespassing around my Kingdom, endangering herself and others. And thirdly, she’s lying about something. Hell, she’s lying abouteverything. All that she’s told me about herself is a lie. I know women like her, and they’re dangerous.
But like she has all week, she makes it impossible to focus on anything.
I have to check on her.
"My lord, I didn't expect a Royal visit today," says one of the guards at the prison gates.
"I wasn't planning one. I need to see the Shadow Commander."
"The...the Shadow Commander is in the prisons?"
