Page 8 of Heart of the Villain

Her heart raced from phantom hands wrapping around her neck.

One day I’ll show him just how strong I can be. One day.

She had yet to pull herself up from the hard ground, watching as Vega hobbled away, using their father’s arm for support.

Arlet stepped into view, blocking Vega’s and Jonan’s exit. She held her hand out. Marlena stared at her open palm, eyes dragging up to meet her soft gaze. “You did what was right. It’s why I came to get you. I knew you’d help.”

Marlena pushed herself off the ground without Arlet’s help, wiping the dirt off her backside. “It’s still not good enough.” Marlena stored away the hurt, pushing it down deep where no one could find it.

She took the long way back to the dining hall, not ready to paint on a pretty face while the putrid taste of self-doubt crept up her throat.

Why does Vega get two powers too? Is her lightning not enough? Why can’t I just have this one thing?

Fifteen Years Old

A cough tore through Marlena’s chest, crackling in her throat. The force behind it shook the bed, causing Vega to stir and groan beside her.

The Caelum sisters had picked up the flu from school, forcing them to be bedridden for a few days. Vega was finally starting to feel better but still refused to leave Marlena’s side.

Marlena had been running a fever all day and had to stomach whatever tinctures their estate’s healers thought would help.

Healers could do a lot of things, but sometimes these pesky flu bugs just had to run their course.

Marlena rolled over and thrust the heavy blanket off her, swinging her legs over the edge of the bed, and stood on what might as well be legs of a newborn foal. Gripping the nightstand, Marlena steadied herself until the room and her vision returned to normal.

Vega slept soundlessly, nestled in Marlena’s large bed with the covers pulled up to her chin. Marlena tiptoed out of the room, catching the time on the clock as she walked on the lightest feet she could and avoided the creaky spots in the old hallway floorboards.

Her parents and the staff would be in bed, but there wasn’t any more medicine on Marlena’s bedside, and this cough was going to keep her up all night.

Or worse, wake Vega, who had never been too chipper upon waking up, even without the flu bogging her down.

Taking the stairs delicately, Marlena came to a halting stop when she heard voices much louder than she would’ve expected at this time of the night echoing down the hallway.

“You have to keep her safe, Ryanna. Promise me you’ll keep Arlet safe.” Sage Videri’s voice was frantic, a sense of urgency in her tone as she continued to beg. “She’ll be ready for her seat eventually, but for now, she’s safer by not coming with us.”

“Sage, you’re not making any sense.” Ryanna’s voice was raspy with sleep like she’d been woken up mid-slumber.

“We’ve lost control of Vates.” Sage’s voice trembled, getting clearer the closer Marlena got to the kitchen. “Our people are fleeing. Seers are being hunted for sport. We can’t—we can’t stay here.”

Marlena leaned against the wall, hiding herself in the shadows. Her head hurt and her cheeks were damp with a feverous sweat, but Marlena focused past the pounding in her head.

“You’re making a rash decision. We can fix this. No good will come from running, from abandoning your home.” The sleepy fog of Ryanna’s voice faded.

“Don’t teach her how you teach Marlena. She’s not cut out for that.” Sage didn’t listen; she kept vomiting out words as if her personal clock were ticking. “She’s soft. A leader by words, not action.”

Sage wasn’t a seer—she barely had much power of her own. A simple girl from Oro who had been lucky enough to marry into power because Amadeus fell head over heels in love with her, no matter what anyone thought.

“Where are you going?”

As intrigued by the conversation as Marlena was, at the fact that Sage—that anyone—knew what her parents were doing to her, Marlena’s body was still weak, and she was fighting to stay upright every second ticking by.

Sage’s sobs tugged at Marlena’s heart. She peeked around the corner, doing her best to position herself where she couldn’t be seen.

“I can’t tell you. I can’t risk my other children. My husband.” Her husband, the Curia member of Vates—the original bloodline’s strongest seer still alive.

The seers had been hunted for years, their dead bodies washing up on shores across Tolevarre or hung in town squares for everyone to see. But more recently, it was the mutilated bodies dumped at family members’ doorsteps that had gotten the attention of the realm.

Marlena only knew that because she’d heard a few of the Curia members talk of it in passing.