Page 80 of Death of a Mortal

The word of the reigning king meant nothing to me, but I had no other choice.

“I’ll need proof that she’s safe and unharmed. I want to see her.”

He turned on his heel to leave the dungeon. As he walked away, he looked back at me over his shoulder. “Fine. Once a week. Five minutes. Remember, Naci, one slip on your part and her corpse will rot next to your mother’s, that I promise you. Guards! Take the girl back to her room. Unharmed.”

A wave of relief coursed through me as the guards released her from her cell. But the underlying unease of trusting the king’s need for me stayed firmly lodged in my stomach.

She reached for me as the guards marched her past my cell. I scrambled to the bars to reach for her fingers just before she was out of sight.

“Naci!”

“Nella! You’ll be okay. Be strong!”

And then she was gone. The sound of the door to the dungeon closing sounded like a death sentence.

I just wasn’t sure if it was my sentence or hers.

* * *

Leaning against theside of my cell, I was trying not to look at my mom’s bones or think about the treacherous things I was soon going to say and do. I was still in the ridiculous purple dress from dinner. What had looked like a fairytale at the start ended up being a nightmare.

The same could be said about the prince, I realized with a pang of sadness. I wanted the dress off, but no matter how wrong it felt against my skin, it was better than being naked in this cold cell.

I told Noxie of the bargain I struck with the king, and it hurt to hear and feel his heartbreak. He said that he would keep as close a watch on Nella as he could.

It was a slight consolation.

So I sat there in silence and near darkness, the only sound being the occasional muttering or sniffling of other prisoners. They mostly stayed quiet, lost in their own minds and hopelessness.

Until they screamed in their sleep.

A guard came by some time later with what I guessed they called food.

It was only a flimsy bowl of brown slop that looked like it was meant for pigs, and a cup of dirty water.

I hoped painfully and desperately that Nella was up in the castle having Halden’s cooking as I ate the disgustingness.

I tried sleeping, thinking that maybe the unconsciousness would bring reprieve from the warring anger and sadness enveloping me.

And that’s precisely how time passed for me. I would sleep fitfully, eat a cup of slop, pace restlessly, eat a cup of slop, and fall back into uneasy sleep.

The king hadn’t come back yet.

Varyn never came at all. My sadness over his betrayal had turned to sharp anger. I had let my guard down for him. Given my heart to him.

But never again.

Caedryn. Varyn. Dungeon guards. Cassius. Aemilia. Purple-eyed blacksmith.

* * *

Going off mysleeping pattern, on what I thought was the fifth day, the two guards came back for me, cuffing me before dragging me from my cell and back to the private royal dining room where the whole fateful night had begun. I shuddered, squinting my eyes against the bright light.

The king and queen sat alone at the table, no Varyn this time.

The guards sat me across from the queen, to the right of the king, who was looking rather pleased with himself. Malvina had her unreadable mask firmly in place, looking at me with little emotion.

I guessed this was the beginning of my dancing puppet act.