They push me across the threshold, then shove me so I have to continue forward. The dungeon smells like mold and decay. Worse than the last time. I don’t think I want to know why that is.
“Why am I here? What is this about?” At least I have enough wits about me to act confused. My brothers taught me that. If you’re ever captured, pretend you don’t know why you’rethere. Never admit guilt before they have proof. Even then, you continue to deny until death.
A lump rises in my throat, making it hard to swallow. They’d be so disappointed in me. When they died, I walked away. And when I came back, it wasn’t to help anyone but myself. I wanted revenge.
They shove me into the torture room I walked past last time, and it only takes a second for my eyes to adjust and see why they brought me here. “Katherine?”
They’ve stripped her down to her underclothes and chained her to a wall. She hangs by her wrists, her legs probably too tired to hold her up. Her head lolls to the side, but she looks up when she sees me. Her hair is matted, and one of her eyes is swollen shut. Blood drips from her temple down the side of her face, and she’s got red slashes up and down her bare arms.
I try to run to her, but the guards detain me. I pull and struggle. “Let me go. Release me right now. You have no business torturing one of my ladies.”
The door creaks, and the legionnaires drag me around so we’re facing the newcomers. Caiden saunters in, a malicious grin on his face. Brevan is behind him, his expression stony.
“How could you do this to her?” I shout at them. “How could you?”
Caiden stops inches from me and glares down at me. His eyes are dark, emotionless pools. “She is a spy. A traitor. And she was in your rooms. She spent time alone with you. She was researching in the library with you.”
“I was. Alone. Sent. Messages,” Katherine says, her words stilted and slurred.
“She used a passageway in your bathroom. Tell me how you wouldn’t know that?” Caiden says through gritted teeth. “You are a spy. Sent by your father.”
“No. I’m not. I came to for the alliance. To be your wife.” Saying those words feels like someone punched me in the gut.
“You didn’t know about the panel in your room?” Caiden asks. “You never peeked inside the tunnel?”
“No, I didn’t know it was there, I swear,” I say.
A vein in Brevan’s temple twitches, but he doesn’t look at me. He’s staring ahead, eyes unfocused.
“Please,” I say. “Let her go. Have mercy. She’s my friend.”
“She’s not your friend. She was lying to you. To all of us.” He marches over to Katherine, then passes her. There’s a fire burning in a hearth, iron pokers sit in the embers.
“No!” I lunge, but I only get two steps before I’m hauled back. I kick and scream, and I manage to break free.
I’m captured again, strong arms pinning mine to my sides. I squirm, but he’s too strong. I don’t need to look to know it’s Brevan. “Let me go,” I say, quieter this time. Desperate. “Please.”
“Stop talking,” he says.
Caiden stalks toward Katherine. Silent tears stream down her cheeks.
“I’ll ask you one last time—who were your accomplices?”
“Alone. I. Was. Alone.”
Caiden grabs one of the hot irons and shoves it into her side. It singes through her underclothes, and the scent of burning flesh fills the room. Katherine screams.
I squeeze my eyes closed for a moment, then make myself open them. I have to be present. I have to figure something out.
I could confess.
I could tell him the truth.
But then there would be two of us being tortured.
Guilt makes my chest tighten. This isn’t fair. It could have just as easily been me.
“Hold her.” Brevan pushes me toward the legionnaires who carried me in.
