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I take a deep breath and cross the cell, taking a seat between Darsan and the stone wall. I cross my legs, which are concealed beneath the bubble of my skirt, and prop my elbows on my knees. It’s eerily quiet down here, the only sound being of the men’s soft breathing, and I already wish I had something to occupy my time. There’s no telling how long I’ll be down here, but there’s nowhere I’d rather be.
“You better pull through this,” I mutter jokingly at Darsan’s sleeping form. I shift my eyes over to Sedric, whose skin looks blotchy and pale. “Both of you.”
A moan resonates in Darsan’s chest and his eyelids flutter.
“Irissa,” he whispers.
I stare at him intently, wondering if he’s merely sleep talking or if he can hear me, before I open my mouth. “I’m here, Darsan.”
His lids shift again before his eyes slowly drift open, and he rolls his head to the side to look at me.
“How are you feeling?” I ask, keeping my voice just above a whisper.
“Perfect, that’s for asking.” He chuckles once and winces, squeezing his eyes shut against the pain. “Besides maybe a broken rib. Or two.” After a second he relaxes again and takes a long, deep breath.
“I’m so sorry–”
“Don’t,” he cuts me off. “Don’t apologize.”
I take his hand, cradling it in mine. “But it’smyfault. If it weren’t for me–”
“I’d be dead.” He looks at me sternly and softly squeezes my fingers. “The guards only brought us here because I demanded to see you.”
“If it weren’t for me, you wouldn’t have even come here,” I continue to argue. “You’d be at home in Hyatt. You’d be–”
“Not safe either.” His brows lower over his eyes. “I’m not going to let you take the blame for this, Irissa.”
I sigh. I know that all of this is because of me, whether he wants to believe it or not, but there’s no point in arguing. Darsan is stubborn and loyal to a fault, and I appreciate those qualities about him.
“If you’re feeling up to it, you can fill me in on everything that happened now,” I say.
I know that the guard outside the barred door can hear everything with his heightened senses, but I don’t care. If anything, maybe he’ll be able to speak on Darsan’s behalf when he’s interrogated by the king. I don’t know if my heart can handle the details without completely shattering, but my curiosity won’t be sated until I know everything.
“Are you sure?” Worry flashes over his features, and I prepare myself for the worst. “Some of it might be hard to hear.”
At least ten gut-wrenching images flash through my mind at once, and I nod. “I’m sure. Start at the beginning.”
I need to know what’s happened to my home.
“People were celebrating for days after you left,” he begins. “Not because they were happy you’d gone—everyone missed you—but they were so desperate for change. We weren’t expecting things to change right away, of course, but they did. The day you left, the raids stopped.”
Cocking my head to the side, my face screws up in confusing. “T-they did?”
“For weeks.” He nods. “We were beside ourselves. Honestly, I should have known it was too good to be true, but I was just so relieved for some peace.”
My pulse speeds up, knowing his story is about to head downhill fast. I could cut him off and save myself from whatever awful news he has to share, but I can’t refrain from asking, “Then what happened?”
“At least fifty of them attacked during the day.” His voice drops an octave, and his eyes darken. “It was a slaughter. They nearly leveled an entire village, and a lot of people died.”
Nausea turns my stomach and bile burns the back of my throat. I close my eyes, waiting for the sickening sensation to pass.
“After that, your father opened up the castle to all the women and children seeking sanctuary,” he goes on. “They came from all over the kingdom, filling every bed in the castle. Many were sleeping on the floor, but at least they were kept safe. That was the most important thing.”
He sighs heavily, his Adam’s apple bobbing as he swallows hard. “Things were fine again for a little while. We thought maybe they’d moved on after that, but they hadn’t. They were just waiting for us to let down our guard again, which we did. That was when they attacked three days ago.”
His muscles tense. “There were twice as many, Irissa. Nearly a hundred of them on a blazing warpath. They took out houses, crops, livestock. Sedric lost his wife, and barely got away himself.” He jerks his thumb to his unconscious companion. “I’ve never seen such destruction.”
Tears sting the corners of my eyes but refuse to spill over. I completely cried myself out on the way back from Nor’s room, but the ache in my chest turns to a piercing jab. Thinking about my home in peril hurts so badly that I want to run from this cell and race back to protect it, but I know I’m more than useless against a horde of monsters.
