Admittedly, I didn’t want to sleep on the floor. Everything hurt. Deciding I wasn’t quite that altruistic, I shrugged. “We’ll share then.” Limping to my side of the thin cot, I pulled down the sheet and collapsed onto the pillow.
Seth sat beside me, but I didn’t hear him lie down.
I opened my eyes to see him watching me. “What causedthose bruises?” He asked.
“Ah . . .“ I sat up. The last thing Seth needed to know about was my torture at the hands of his father. Even if it was just a dream. “I was interrogated.”
Seth’s eyes narrowed. “Aethra . . .”
“He was convinced I was Elpis, and you were the prince. But I didn’t tell him anything.”
“Who? Do you know his name?”
“Icelus, I think.”
Drinking in the word, Seth committed it to memory. Setting his dagger on the nightstand, he pinched the candle, washing us in darkness.
I stiffened as I felt him lie beside me. My emotions stirred, creating another throbbing headache. I had no idea how I felt. Rolling on my side, I let my back face him.
“Was your home in Ikaria like this?” He asked quietly.
“It was about the same size,” I said. “This bed’s a little nicer.”
“ . . . and you really lived like that for years?”
“Yes.”
He fell silent. Fidgeting, I tried to get comfortable, but for how tired I was, sleep avoided me.
It avoided Seth, too. “I . . .” he said, shifting to face me. “I told you what happens to Elpis maidens. My father and I hadn’t fully fallen out when Cassandra’s magic manifested. She was married to my uncle, instead. The other option was a line my father wasn’t ready to cross.”
I kept quiet, listening.
“But he knew I was going to try and stop them. He had me locked away.”
“How did they find out?”
“Aeacus. Once upon a time, I trusted him. When I asked him for advice on what to do, he turned his back and revealed her secret to the world.”
No wonder he had so aggressively attacked the commander of the Hades Knights.
“Back then, I had no magic.” He exhaled shakily. “Aeacus became my personal keeper. Escaping from him, without any weapons, was . . . impossible.”
“He must have been something to keepyoucaptive.”
“He trained me. Beating me half-dead was something he’d grown quite good at. But duties took him away one day, and . . .” He hesitated. “I finally escaped to find I was too late.”
Rolling over, I found his scarlet eyes in the dark. “I’m sorry.”
“My chthonic powers manifested that day. I used them to kill my uncle. And for that, I was exiled.”
“Who could blame you for that?”
Seth rolled onto his back. “Maybe if I’d given him a clean death. But when I saw him suffering beneath my spells, I couldn’t stop.”
Malice dripped from Seth’s words. I blinked hard, trying not to imagine the torture he must have inflicted.
“The manner of death is everything to us,” Seth continued. “I gave him—agod—a humiliating and agonizing end.” He exhaled. “And I’d do it again, in a heartbeat.”
