Knight's End: A Reverse Harem Fantasy (Tangled Crowns Book 3), page 5
I asked Cerena. “People actually …”
“There’s always someone willing to try.” Cerena’s response was brusque as she eyed the group. “If we go down there, don’t touch anything.” She wagged her finger at Quinn. “I know you're the most ornery. Maybe you should stay up here."
Quinn crossed his arms and shook his head.
“Promise me,” Cerena said.
Quinn made an X over his heart.
My castle mage sighed. “Let me go first. You all only follow if need be.”
Cerena nodded. And she jerked her head at Connor and gestured for him to pull open the door.
He yanked it open and revealed a ladder descending into the earth. The musty scent of dirt drifted up toward us from the black maw of the secret room.
I held up a hand and pushed out, using a bit of peace magic to light the space in a dull, peridot green light.
Declan immediately started to protest. “Peace, don’t hurt yourself.”
I held up my hand to silence him. "I'm the only one of us right now who knows how to steadily control their power and make a little stream of light. I know what I'm doing."
His lips thinned and he grumbled, “Ryan’s gonna kill me.”
I smirked. “No. He’ll spank me.”
That just made Declan’s look go dark for another reason. “Don’t distract me.”
I rolled my eyes and went over to help Blue lower Cerena onto the ladder.
She looked up at me as she clung to the top rung. “Just in case, I left my pouch on the table. There’s a little more food magic. One disguise spell. And a love potion.”
“A love potion?”
She rolled her eyes. “The wizard insisted on it. It was an old one I had lying around. He said I might need it to strengthen my old heart.”
“I thought love potions made people fall in love.”
“Well, they do. But how do you think they do it? They make your heart stronger than your head.”
That was something the castle mage had never taught me in my lessons. I was beginning to think Wyle had been a bit of an imbecile. Of course, I thought of Donaloo’s skipping—maybe all those who sought magic were a bit mad.
I shook my head in companionable annoyance. “Donaloo is a bit of an oddity.”
She barked out a laugh. “He’s downright mad, that one. Then, most geniuses are. Now, shine your light a bit to the left so I can see the side railings,” she instructed.
I moved my hand and let the light shine as she’d requested. I tried to ignore the constant scratching feeling as the skin of my wrists slowly shredded.
Cerena climbed down at a snail’s pace.
Blue knelt on the floor and supported her for as long as he could. Once she was below his reach, he crouched next to me and put an arm around my waist, helping hold me firm as I leaned forward and tried to provide light for the woman.
Blood dripped down my sleeve and droplets splattered onto the ladder.
“Connor, I think she might need help,” Blue murmured, nodding toward me.
Connor came to my other side and sandwiched me between them. He tried hard only to push a little magic into my arms. But he had no control, and a bright pink burst of light flared from his hands.
My scars healed over instantly, and I grew dizzy and sick to my stomach, pitching forward. My knights both pulled me back from the hole in the floor, but I wasn’t focused on them. I was focused on the dungeon room, which his power lit up like a wildfire lit a forest. The room was little more than a square carved from the dirt, with a floor roughly covered in rotted planks. Somehow, despite the darkness, or maybe because of the magic, a single pink flower clung to existence between a crack in the floorboards. But the flower wasn’t what made my jaw drop. Dangling from hooks shoved into the hard-packed earthen walls were hundreds of black amulets.
Cerena’s feet reached the floor and she turned. When she caught sight of the amulets, she gasped.
“How … how is this possible?” I whispered down at her.
She shook her head. “I don’t know.”
She padded closer to one of the walls and studied the black stones, threaded on leather strings. Her face was full of awe. “Whoever created them had incredible magic. The stamina. The knowledge to create all this. Look at the amazing little runes.” Her eyes started to glow, and not with the light of my green power or Connor’s new pink power. Her eyes glowed white. “Perfectly carved. I wonder—” she breathed, as her hand reached out.
“Don’t!” I cried.
But I was too late.
My castle mage exploded into a fine, black, powdery dust.
Chapter Five
"Shite!" Blue’s exclamation was an understatement.
I met Connor's eyes, and saw my own devastation and frustration reflected there. His blue-green eyes were troubled as he ran a hand through his curls. He exhaled harshly.
“Why did she touch it? Shouldn’t she have known better than to touch it?” I whispered.
Connor shook his head. “She was enamored by it. For all we know, it could have an attraction spell on it, drawing people to it.”
Declan immediately jumped to the practicalities. "We need to make sure no one else can find this place. We need to destroy that room and knock down this building."
Blue released me and stood, leaving Connor to hold me. He turned to Declan and crossed his arms. "Shouldn’t we find a way to use these amulets? They’re an amazing weapon," my newest knight argued.
"If we can't touch them without dying ourselves, they're not much of a weapon." Declan’s sarcasm was not subtle. His lips thinned and he shook his head as he stared at Blue.
"What if we tried to wrap our sleeve around our hands? Picked them up through clothing? "
"Go ahead. Be my guest." Declan gestured toward the ladder.
Blue wrinkled his nose in frustration. "There has to be a way to use these. Someone made them without dying."
"That someone was a wizard, most likely. An insane wizard. And who says they didn’t die? What if they made those as a batch? What if there is an attraction spell like Connor proposed?” Declan said.
"If only we could levitate them or something…" Blue gazed down at the pit, which had gone black again as Connor and I had slowly dimmed our powers. “We could wish for the ability to carry them without their magic working on us.”
Quinn took a step backward, toward the door.
I stood, going toward my silent knight, but my arguing husbands blocked my path as they stepped toward one another, in a heated, testosterone-filled face off.
Declan lifted a hand and raised a finger. “First, while that’s creative, we only have two wishes left. We can’t use them willy-nilly on every thing that comes up.” He raised another finger. “Secondly, Quinn hasn’t even recovered from the first nightmare, which you claimed was temporary.” He leaned forward and got into Blue’s face. “Third, if wish magic was enough to control amulets, don’t you think your nightmare of a father would be using them all over the place?”
Blue accidentally shot us all a thought of him grabbing Declan by the throat and strangling him.
“Try it, I might like it,” My blond knight just grinned.
Blue’s next thought was punching Dec’s balls and Declan’s hands moved to protect himself.
This was getting out of hand. “Stop,” I put my hand up between them and walked forward, forcing them both to take a step backward. “Or I’ll blast you both with peace.”
They glared at one another.
“Let’s think this through,” I said. “It’s fine to talk it through. Fine to have different opinions, but let’s not get so off-track that we lose sight of our purpose. We came here to find Isla’s location.”
“Yes, and we found the perfect weapon to get rid of her!” Blue exclaimed.
Declan turned to me, instead of continuing his face off with Blue. "I think our best bet is to close this place up. We can put the table over the trapdoor, throw broken chair pieces down there so that no one else gets in. Then we can use the gargoyles to take out the house.” He gestured at the secret room. “I think we walk away. We’re already dealing with magic that’s out of control at every step. Eventually, after it’s all said and done, we should come back and try to bury or destroy all those amulets. Because no one should have that level of destructive power."
Blue grabbed my hand and turned me to face him. “I think you might be missing an opportunity here."
I glanced back and forth between them. My knights were my advisors, but I had to make the final call. What Blue was saying was true. We needed every bit of help we could get. But Declan was right; we already had a fleet of uncontrollable stone animals and I had five knights with powers they didn’t know how to use.
Blue clenched his fists in frustration. "You don't understand what you're up against. My father is a full djinn. He has endless wishes. He can't grant his own wishes. But he can tell anyone else exactly what to say to him so that he can grant that wish. And he doesn’t have the side effects of a half-djinn. He suffers no nightmares.” His thoughts flew rapid-fire through different memories, but they were so quick that I couldn’t decipher them.
“How does he get others to wish for what he wants?” Declan asked.
Blue shook his head. “He doesn’t typically even use his own wishes. My father thinks it’s beneath him. He makes others use theirs and suffer the nightmare. He writes out what he wants them to say. Once, he tried to force my mother to wish that an entire town lose their legs from the knee down.”
“Why?” I asked.
“Because several of their sons refused to join his army.”
Declan tilted his head. "He can write down whatever he wants. But can you force someone to make a wish?"
Blue shook his head. "You know why my father first took a harem? So he could turn those women against each other. They’re so caught up in status and jealousy and fear that most of them will do anything. My mother happened to refuse that particular wish. She wouldn’t cripple a village for the sins of a few.”
“So, he doesn’t always get his way.”
Blue’s laugh was bitter. “Oh, he does. One of his other wives wished it for him. And then a third wife wished for my mother's hand to necrotize. Her hand rotted off before her eyes. She was forced to stand there and watch. I was forced to stand there and watch.”
His story alone made my stomach necrotize. I nearly puked at the mental images he sent of his mother screaming and collapsing in pain as her fingers shriveled and blackened.
Blue’s voice grew thick, even though his face stayed harsh. “These amulets are merciful. Death is merciful compared to what happens when you're under the control of the monster."
The rest of us were frozen in shock. We knew the sultan was bad. I had an ambassador that lived in Cheryn’s palace. The reports back had never included dark dealings between the royal family—perhaps because my ambassador was worried about what might happen if his scrolls were intercepted. A sultan who’d destroy an entire town wouldn’t have much consideration for a lone ambassador.
I turned to ask Quinn what his spies knew about the sultan and I realized I’d never gone to him.
I stepped past the others and went to my spy master, taking his hand. “Did your people ever see—”
Quinn ran a hand through my hair and caressed the back of my neck as he nodded solemnly. His eyes tried to speak, but no thoughts followed. He gave a frustrated grunt before turning and striding out the door.
I almost followed, but just then Blue moved, and my attention was drawn to him. My knight from Cheryn strode over to the dining table. He yanked Cerena’s pouch off the top, opened it, and dumped its contents out. He grabbed the tin jar immediately. "Anyone know how to make that spelled bread?"
We all shook our heads.
"Then this stuff is useless.” He dumped out the powder inside the tin onto the tabletop. Then he marched over to the ladder and started climbing down.
No! He doesn’t mean to—my thoughts were a panicked wail.
I took a few steps toward him. “Wait," I called out. He couldn’t do this. What if he … what if what happened to Cerena happened to him?
I didn’t really know him. I hardly knew him as a man. But I knew that fierce little bird that had tried to stop Abbas from choking me. I knew that fierce little bird who refused to let me go to a cave in another country to rescue Declan alone. I knew that we were bonded, even if I didn’t know his favorite things, even if I didn’t know how to make him laugh, even if my mind couldn’t fully understand how or why—he was mine.
Didn’t he feel it too? How could he throw it away?
Blue looked up at me. And I couldn’t read his expression in the shadows. It made me ache.
His tone was harsh, even though his words were polite. “Give me a little light, please."
He was going to do this! No! I refused to let him. "You can’t!”
He just took another step down the ladder.
My feet were automatically drawn closer to him. Shouldn’t he listen to me? Shouldn’t he stop? He was being a fool. I was his queen. He should listen to my orders. He should know we’re bonded. But … we’d just gotten married. My hold on him wasn’t going to be strong enough.
I thought of his father, a man who’d ordered about and abused him endlessly. I briefly wondered if Blue had ever gotten to do anything he’d wanted in life. I highly doubted it. And that’s when it hit me. I couldn’t order him to stop. He was making a choice. Even if it was one of his final choices. I had to respect it. But I couldn’t help the sad words that poured out of my mouth. “But what if you …" I trailed off. I didn't want to say it. But I was already crying … already anticipating what was about to happen.
Blue’s words were a harsh whisper. "Then at least I tried to help you."
Our eyes argued. But he shoved more memories of his father at me. Memories of being thrown across the throne room. Memories of his father forcing his brothers to transform and hunt him through the halls of the palace, when speed was Blue’s only weapon against his brothers’ shape-shifted teeth and claws. He shoved memories at me of finding his mother hanging from the ceiling of her room after she took her own life to escape the sultan.
He needed to do this. I could feel the desperation in his thoughts. He’d rather use this weapon on himself than let his father ever get ahold of him again.
I extended my hand and let my arms rip open as I lit the room slowly for Blue.
Next to me, Connor shook his head, his dark curls falling across his face. But he didn't say no. He wouldn't. Not after I allowed it. My best friend simply came up beside me and put his arm around my waist, supporting me as I used my power and tears streamed from my eyes.
Blue reached the bottom rung and hopped down onto the dusty floor. He walked slowly toward the wall, studying the hanging amulets, tilting his head this way and that. He leaned close to them, so close that I clutched Connor's arm in alarm.
“Stay back!” I called out. “If there’s an attraction spell, resist!” I shot a little peace at Blue. I had no idea if it would counteract the attraction, but maybe it would slow him a bit. Dull him a bit. Let him sink into lethargy. His eyes didn’t turn white as Cerena’s had. I hoped that was a good sign.
But the peace magic didn’t only affect Blue.
The little pink flower turned its head toward my magic and unfurled its leaves.
“More,” a squeaky voice said. “I need more!”
I started, and Connor had to yank me back from the edge of the hole.
Blue turned around and stared at the flower, whose stem started growing rapidly, until it looked like a vine nearly as tall as his waist.
“Pluck me, pull me out!” the flower cried, its five pink petals curling and unfurling rapidly.
Blue turned and looked up at us, his face crumpled in confusion. “Do flowers talk in Rasle?”
Connor and I shook our heads.
“Please!” the flower begged. “I’ll owe you a favor. I’ve been stuck in here for nearly a century!”
Connor and I exchanged a look.
Behind me, Declan shuffled forward. Even his insistence that this was an awful idea couldn’t overcome his curiosity.
“A flower sprite,” my scholar whispered.
“Help me, sir!” the flower begged.
Blue looked up at me, questioning. “Think it’s a trick?”
I shrugged. “I don’t know.”
“Why didn’t you ask for help from the old woman?” Blue gazed down at the flower.
“Magic makers,” the flower’s high-pitched voice spit vitriol. “They can’t see past their own desire for power.”
“Why do you think I came down here if not for power?” Blue asked.
“To grab a weapon. That’s different.”
“Killing someone is just death.” The flower shrugged. “All things have to die. But magic makers are lying, betraying tufts of monkey grass!”
We all stared at one another, weighing the flower’s offer.
“You know what a favor from a sprite is worth?” the flower asked. “I can—”
“Swear it,” I stopped the sprite before she could go any further. “Swear allegiance to the country of Evaness for one hundred years.” I glanced up at Dec, for reassurance that sprites did live more than a hundred years. I thought I remembered that from tutoring.
His nod reassured me.
I glanced back down at the flower; whose leaves stroked its yellow face in thought. “You want allegiance to your country?”
“To the land and citizens of Evaness and the throne, yes.”
“Not to you?”
“To myself while I’m on the throne, but to my heirs and their heirs, however many are within that hundred-year span.”
