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“What?” I yanked on the door. “Lark, what!?” I thumped the top of the carriage. “Driver, stop!”
The carriage hastened.Don’t stop for anyone or anything.
“No!” I couldn’t see him outside the window. We’d moved too far already. I grabbed the half-open pane and leaned through the slim gap, trapped to my chest. “Lark?” It was too late. The carriage was taking me away and I couldn’t stop it. “Why?” I called back. Lark didn’t move. He stared back, and by Dallin, I hoped this hurt him, because he was tearing out my heart.
The horses’ steel shoes clattered on wet cobbles and the carriage clanged, rattling around me. Lark stood watching, hands clasped in front of him, waiting.
“Damn you!” Damn him for taking my choice! I’d have stayed with him, faced the council with him, stood beside him. And he’d known it.
Guards poured from the tower’s front door and raced down the steps.
“They’re coming! Run!”
He didn’t run, didn’t try and fight them. He raised his hands at his sides, his stare still on me, and the guards rushed him.
“No!” I kicked the door, but like before, it didn’t give. And when I looked again, they had Lark pinned to the ground.
Lark had just saved my life, and all it had cost him was his.
CHAPTER19
Lark
It had beenthe right thing to do.
As the guards manhandled me back up the steps and into the main foyer, my heart was at peace. Arin was safe. And in the grand scheme of things, he was the only thing in this wretched life I cared for.
If I’d have left with him, they’d have chased us down. But I’d realized it too late to properly say goodbye, to warn him, and to tell him I loved him.
“Hold him!” Malvina barked from the galleried landing above the foyer.
The guards jolted me to a halt beneath the sparkling diamond and amethyst chandelier. Pain’s administrators gathered around. We had an audience. They probably saw the council arresting Razak. He’d be furious if he knew the charade I’d put on. I smiled… Good.
“Remove his gloves,” Malvina said.
I rolled my eyes. The theatrics were unnecessary. We all knew who I was. The guards tugged my gloves off anyway.
“His right hand. Hold it up.”
The guard on my right raised my hand for all to see.
“Oh, how terrible,” I drawled and waggled my remaining fingers. “It seems you have an imposter in your midst.”
“Zayan,” Malvina growled. “Itisyou.”
“I prefer the name Lark, these days.”
The smug smile on her lips was a horrible thing to witness, as though a slug had crawled there and died. “Credit where it’s due, you had us fooled,” she said.
“You never would have known, if not for Danyal.”
“Danyal? No. Not him.” She leaned against the rail and took all the time in the world to study me, captured and at her mercy.
Danyal hadn’t betrayed me. Interesting. Although, regardless, I was caught.
Bendrik carved his way through the gawking crowd, slithering like the snake he was. He eyed me with equal measures of intrigue and lurid satisfaction. “You really are a remarkable creature,” he said, making the compliment sound sordid. “He shouldn’t be wearing those royal clothes,” Bendrik said. “Strip him of his lies.”
Rough hands tore at my coat, jerking me about. They tore the garment away. The expensive clothes had been a delight to wear, but in the end, I was only a prince of a gutter, not a court. Fine silks did not belong on me. The shirt went next, torn free, popping buttons. Someone thought to force me to my knees, and so, there I was, arms spread, naked to the waist, almost all of me on display. There was no denying it now. My body told the truth of me. It always had. Missing fingers, scarred chest. I was Zayan, Razak’s dog on a leash.
