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“I don’t believe you.”
“I don’t give a fuck what you believe.”
He stepped forward and grabbed my chin, fingers digging in painfully into my jaw. One of the soldiers caught the chains around my wrists to prevent me from pushing him away.
“Your…Nathanael!” Parvan snarled in outrage, having apparently been keeping up enough to realise the persona expected of him. I heard the rattle of his chains and mine as I struggled against the grip of the two men holding me in place.
“The next time youdare open that little barbarian mouth of yours,” Navar promised me darkly, “I’ll make sure it’s filled. My guards would love to have their way with you.”
And then he let go, releasing my jaw with a smug look as if expecting me to immediately speak. I swallowed down the retort I so desperately wanted to make, glancing over to where Parvan was tightly held by two of the palace guards.
“Take themto the cells,” Navar ordered, only for Welzes to repeat the command in a rather louder voice.
“Please, my dear,” Alonda said, clutching at her husband’s arm. “We really shouldn’t aggravate Temar. If we were to offer mercy to Prince Nathanael and-”
“This is why women and politics don’t mix,” he said dismissively, turning away from her – and us – as if none of us were worth his time.
Navar watched the exchange with a knowing look on his face, and then gestured for us to follow him. I refused to take a damn step of my own volition but it really didn’t matter, as Parvan and I were shoved and heaved after him anyway, dragged unceremoniously out of the twilit courtyard and down the corridor to the cell block.
It all felt a little surreal.
History was fucking repeating itself, only this time my captors knew who I was and there was no sly southern prince offering inappropriate flirtations and distracting enticements. Perhaps fate had always intended my capture and death at Quareh’s hands, and was correcting the mistake it had made the first time around by putting Ren in my path…or me in his.
When they tossed Parvan into the first cell on the right where I’d once watched Ren slit the throat of a prisoner, I could only hope that noteverythingwould be repeated. And maybe that memory dug its talons a little too deep into my fear, for I didn’t hesitate to snap back when Navar made a snide remark about Parvan disgracing his gender by going to his knees for his slut of a wife.
“If you’re jealous that no woman would look at you twice,” I said sourly as I was pushed into my own cell without even the courtesy of having the shackles around my wrists and ankles removed, “know that no man would either, Navar. A noxious personality like yours needs more to compensate for it than the delusion of royal power.”
The councillor turned, his lips bared in a rictus grin, and it took me a long fucking moment to realise what he was so happy about. I hastily snapped my mouth shut, but it was too late.
“It seems I am able to make good on my promise to you after all, Prince Nathanael,” he murmured delightedly, and gestured for my two guards to re-enter my cell. “For a moment, I feared you were actually going to bequiet.”
Navar smirked as I backed up in horror, and nodded at the guards. “Enjoy yourselves with him, gentlemen.”
And then he ascended the stairs and left us in the dark.
*
Chapter Thirty-Six
“Starling!”
“I’mtrying,Your Vexatiousness!” she shrieked back at me, red and green sparks radiating from her fingertips as she ran her hands frantically across Dima’s chest and throat.
She was the best fucking healer on the continent. If she couldn’t help him, no one else stood even asliverof a chance.
“How did he get his hands onmolchaniyewithout any of us seeing?” Velichkov spat out from where he stood over us, his dawn shadow radiating a long and extremely pissed off shape across the fallen masonry.
We didn’t have time for this. We had to get inside the palace to find Yanev before he was killed, but the man who was supposed to help clear my name was currently spasming in the dirt, green-tinged spittle decorating his slack lips. It wasn’t hard to imagine how Dima had found themolchaniye:any citizen we’d passed within a dozen yards of would have had their minds scoured by the Hearken, and thoughts or memories about the illicit plant wouldn’t have escaped the addict’s scrutiny.
But Velichkov was right in that we should have seenhim take it, especially an amount that had caused his body this much damage. How had we all been so damn distracted? Dima had the advantage in that he’d haveknownwhen we weren’t paying him attention, but it seemed my willingness to give him space had backfired spectacularly.
Starling heaved out a shallow breath, sweat glistening on her forehead. She sank back onto her haunches and shot a dirty look at the Hearken as he began to groan and roll around on the ground. Velichkov dropped a boot onto his leg to keep him still.
“I’ve cleared the effects of the drug from his body,” the healer said tersely, “but I can’t do shit about the way it fucks up your mind.”
I swore quietly, clenching my fists until my nails dug painfully into my palms. Not for the first time, I glanced towards the northern entrance to the ruins, but the dark archway remained mockingly empty.
“We can’t wait for him,” said Velichkov, apparently taking over Dima’s job of reading my Dios-damned mind. “We have no idea how far Nathanael is behind us, and by the time he gets here it could be too late.”
