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This conversation was going nowhere. “You’re not making any sense. And I can smell the dark magic all over you,” I choked. “You reek of it.”
“So do you, dear,” she replied sweetly, forgetting her diatribe immediately. “Because it’s in your blood—just like it’s in mine. There’s no escaping it.”
I clamped my lips shut, hurt by the truth of her words.
“You’re just brainwashed, Elix. There’s nothing bad about the Order of Souls. We’ve never wanted anything but to have fairness and justice for all the faeries on the continent. Mystara deserves that. That’s what the original founders always strove for. Agnan lost sight of that. He got greedy with power. That was his undoing. That’s why the King of Silverhold was able to kill him.”
I didn’t care about Agnan or the Order of Souls. They were all moot now with everyone gone, and whatever craziness Lysandra was concocting was hers alone… wasn’t it?
“I don’t—” I stopped and inhaled, refusing to rise to her insane argument. “This has nothing to do with me. Why have you takenme? I’m not part of the royals. Jace doesn’t want me anymore. You might as well let me go.”
A small dimple appeared on Lysandra’s right cheek, and again, I was distracted by her innocent appearance. How could she look so child-like and be such a monster?
“He does. I’m sure he’s looking for you right now. In fact, I’m sure he is.” Her smile returned. “And if I let you go, you’ll just return to him, eventually.”
I refused to let myself feel even the smidgen of hope that tried to surface. I didn’t trust her in the least. She obviously wanted something from me. My gaze shifted around the room tolook for something to use in my current state, my brain still fuzzy from the magic she had imposed upon me. I had been caught off guard by her spell, and she was watching me too closely for me to cut and run under her scrutiny, but somehow, someway, I would have to get an opportunity to escape.
I was reminded of the time I had almost been kidnapped by the warlock, the reason that Saint had sent me to live in the palace in the first place. Why hadn’t I learned my lesson?
“Elix,” Lysandra sighed. “I wish you would try to understand.”
“Understand what, exactly?” I growled. “You’re not making any fucking sense!”
“I know you’re defensive right now, but we’re on the same team. I’m not your enemy.”
“You have a weird way of showing it.”
“The royals have no right to rule,” she pressed. My eyes whipped back toward her, narrowing in defiance.
“Queen Mirielle and King Zen trusted you!” I hissed. “They could have had you and all the others killed instead of giving you a second chance! They didn’t have to rehabilitate you and the others! And this is how you repay them?”
Lysandra sat back and smiled, but there was no amusement whatsoever in her expression. “You know the whole story?”
“Of course,” I scoffed. “You’re supposed to ensure that there is no more Order of Souls, now that Agnan is dead. You’re supposed to be in charge of cleansing Mystara of dark magic, not working from the inside and rekindling the Order!”
She hung her head and reached for my hand. I had no choice but to let her take it, rage boiling up inside me as she did. I willed all my internal fire to fight her off me, but it was useless. However, I could feel my fury chipping away at the block. It wasn’t useful now, but eventually, if my rage continued, I would be able to take it down—and Lysandra, too.
She squeezed my fingers too hard, but I refused to give her the satisfaction of seeing me wince.
“Agnan lost his way,” she said coldly. “But the original founders always had the right idea. The continent and the world deserve to be free of the tyranny that your kings provide.”
“They’re your kings, too,” I fired back.
“I have no king,” Lysandra insisted. “I answer to the calling of the Order only, and I always have.”
My eyes rolled upward, sick of her cultish rhetoric now.
“While working for King Zen and Queen Mirielle,” I taunted her, hoping to lower her guard. “While taking paychecks from the palace and doing their bidding. That’s quite the double standard you have.”
Maybe if she were out of range, her hold on me would diminish, and I would break free of the invisible chains. Or maybe it was the chains themselves that caused the block. There was only one way to find out. I had to get out of them. But I had to keep Lysandra distracted, too. “While eating their food and living in their houses.”
“Clearly, I’m not working for them.” Lysandra was unflappable, my jabbing not troubling her in the least.
“So is the entire Anti-Order really just the Order, then?” I demanded, unable to believe that the King and Queen of Silverhold had been so blind to what was happening under their own noses the whole time. I couldn’t believe that the faeries they had worked so hard to deprogram were truly just biding their time and working against them while rebuilding in Agnan’s shadow. I shivered at what that outcome would mean for them.
No good deed goes unpunished. King Zen probably wanted to kill them all. It was likely Queen Mirielle who begged for their lives, having grown up with all of them.
Lysandra smiled patiently at me. “I’ll tell you what you need to know once I’m sure you understand everything about who you are, Elix.”
