Page 77 of Death of a Mortal

“But it wasn’t until Varyn told us your name and that you werelooking for your rebel mother here in Dolvenar that I put two and two together. Naci Corren. Daughter of Keryth Liora, the very dead, headless leader of the very dead rebel movement.”

“No…”

Time froze. It couldn’t be true. Surely my brain just needed a minute to catch up.

“Oh yes. Do you know why I had Varyn bring you here tonight?”

My mouth had gone completely dry, my heart beginning to crack.

My mother had been the rebel leader, and Varyn brought me here tonight for a reason. He knew who I was and sold me out to his father—his father, who had killed my mother. There were too many things happening to make sense of anything.

My chest caved in on itself. The beast inside me went deadly still, as if even it couldn’t breathe.

“He brought you here to give you what you so desperately desire. To reunite you with your long-lost rebel bitch of a mother. You see, her headless bones still rot in the dungeons.”

My world went black.

She was dead. And Varyn had betrayed me.

Chapter 19

Pull the Strings

My plate wasempty because they’d never intended for me to eat. I wasn’t sure if the screaming I heard was coming from me or Noxie or the beast in my chest that was burning and fit to burst free from its cage and burn everything around me to the ground.

The king had killed my mother. She had been the leader of the rebels. And Varyn… I had trusted him and, against my better judgment, told him about my mother. I had given him my body, my heart.

He had been so very convincing. And I, so very stupid. This whole time, I had been chasing two ghosts—my mother, and Varyn’s love, which had never even existed. The sadness and anger were tinting my vision.

It wasn’t until I felt the guards’ hands on my shoulders that my senses came back to reality, and panic set in.

“Noxie, she’s dead.”

The guards lifted me out of my chair by my elbows. I flailed and screamed and kicked.

“They know who I am!”

I fought with all the savagery my shattered heart could muster to get free of the guards and of my certain death sentence if they took me to the dungeons.

“Find Nella and make her run! Get her out of Dolvenar!”

The king had taken everything from me but her. She was the last thing tethering me to my humanity, to life. She had to make it out of here.

“I’m coming foryou!”

“Don’t you dare, Noxie, get to Nella!”

The guards dragged me to a door that undoubtedly led to the dungeons, bloodying my lip and elbowing me in the stomach as I fought against them. It was difficult to hear anything over my own screams, both aloud and in my head, but the king’s laugh rang through my mind clear as day. Louder still was the complete silence coming from Varyn.

Before the door closed behind me, I looked back at the traitorous prince. Seeing him took the last of the fight out of me. I had fallen in love with him, and I didn’t even know it until right now. I had given him my entire heart, and he shattered it completely, irrevocably. And he didn’t even have the decency to look at me as I was marched to my demise.

When the door closed, I felt like it was sealing me into a tomb, sealing my fate.

“Take care of her, Noxie.”

“Damn it, fight! I’ll come back for you as soon as I get Nella out.”

I had no more fight. Every part of me shut down.