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Closing my eyes, a dreamless sleep found me before I could utter another word.
THIRTY
I swore I could feel arms around me while I slept. For a moment, I wondered if Sebastian had lifted me in his and carried me from my cell when I heard my mom’s voice. “You were close to death. My poor baby.” An icy hand pressed against my forehead. I moved onto my side, noticing the absence of stone. “She still has a fever. This is all your fault.”
Sargon’s tone snipped hers. “How could I have known? You should have said something.”
She clicked her tongue, parting my lips with a goblet, pouring a thick, cloying liquid down my throat. I choked, spluttering a cough as my eyes peeled back to reveal my mom, the king, and Azia.
“What’s happening?” I sat upright, my heart racing, spindling lightness into my head.
“Careful, honey. Lie back down. You’re severely malnourished. Sargon’s given you some blood, but it’s taking some time to work.”
I gagged. Is that what that liquid was? “Sebastian.”
“Don’t worry about him. He won’t be bothering you again.”
I fisted the sheets, noticing I was lying on a four-post bed in a room I didn’t recognize, decorated with the finest furnishings. “Where is he?”
Sargon spoke this time, his eyes softening when he strode to me. “He’s being executed today.”
“No.”
I exchanged glances with my mom, her eyebrows pinched together as she stood, lost for words.
“You can’t mean that? He kept you prisoner.”
I moved back against a hoard of pillows. “He didn’t. Who said that?”
“Sebastian did. He told us you had no part in the princess’s death.” My mom brushed a lock of hair back. “He called on the guards in the night, trying to bargain your identity for his life.”
It suddenly dawned on me when I stared into the eyes of my father, a mirror of my own. He knows.
“Daughter.”
The word chilled me.
“Sebastian saved me. He can’t die.” Panic seized me, and suddenly the air felt thicker than I could bring in.
“He was willing to give you up to save his own skin,” Sargon snapped. “He doesn’t care about you, and we know he hid you from me. Why didn’t you tell me the truth?”
My heart felt ten times heavier as he approached me, a gentleness in his movements, reserved only for me. I couldn’t tell him it was because we planned on killing him, but I couldn’t believe Sebastian handed me over like that. He promised he’d at least think about turning me so we could escape, and now he was going to die anyway.
Anger rolled in my bones, but I didn’t want to show it. I felt like an idiot for trusting him, but I couldn’t let him die. “Dad,” I said, softening my tone, hoping to appeal to the part of him that had craved a daughter and longed for the one he lost. “I will explain everything, but first, please, don’t let Sebastian die.”
“You have a fever. You don’t know what you’re saying.”
“I do!” I flushed red. “Save him, or I will never, ever forgive either of you if he dies today. Please, I will stay here. I’ll do anything you want and take my place as heir, but I beg you, let him live.”
Sargon looked at my mom, who shrugged. He tugged at his collar, then opened the door with a heavy sigh. “Call off the execution of Sebastian Vangard, but keep him a prisoner.”
My mom was shaking, but it couldn’t have been from the cold. “Mom?”
She glanced at a black veil on a hanger over the closet door. “What’s that?”
“I’m sorry. I tried to keep you from all of this.”
Sargon closed the door. “You kept her from her birthright.” He rushed to the veil, running a finger over the thin net. “This is what I picked out for you when you were born.”
