With his knees wide apart and his gold crown on his head, he looked upon me like he never knew me and he certainly never loved me. “I warned you.” He wore no sympathy as the soldiers forced me to my knees by kicking me.
“Fuck you, asshole.”
He extended his palm to his general, and the scroll I’d written was placed there. He unrolled it, eyes on me the whole time, and once it was straight between his fingertips, he began to read out loud. “King Acana, I wed my father’s best friend under false pretenses, and he’s taken the crown for himself. He’s already preparing his army to challenge yours in the spring. He wishes to claim the dragons for himself, to become king of all kings, and to destroy anyone who’s in his path. Please come to my aid and rid Baccara of this ruthless poison before it seeps into the ground and kills us all.” He released the scroll, and it returned to its rigid coil. “Come with haste, Queen Hanne of Baccara.” He handed the scroll back to his general and looked down at me just the way he accused King Acana of looking down upon his citizens. “Do you deny this?”
I probably should, but I had too much pride to lie. “Will you really kill your wife? Your niece?” I rose to my feet and shrugged off the hold of the guards.
He stared with that same ruthless look. “That’s for you to decide.” He stood and walked down the stairs, his cape dragging behind him the way a snake slithered through the grass. “This is a treasonous offense, the highest there is, and the punishment must fit the crime.” He stopped before me, over a foot taller, a monster dressed like a man. “I will let you decide. Would youlike to be executed by my blade through your neck—or exiled to the Depths?”
The Depths were mysterious craters spread throughout the land, massive holes that led to the darkness below. So deep, a lit torch never reached the bottom. No one had ever ventured there and returned. Under Vulgaris’s command as General of the Kingdom of Baccara, the Mammoths had been forced into the chasm to the west of our kingdom. Driven back by our army, they fell into the hole, thousands disappearing from sight. “The Depths are synonymous with death.”
“None knows what lies below.”
“You’re the snake in our garden. You’re the one who should be banished to the Depths.”
“Even if that’s true, I would never send a missive to another kingdom andaskthem to lay siege to my lands. My interests and ambitions have always been in line with my people, to make Baccara the Kingdom of All.”
“You only care for yourself?—”
“Choose.”
With my wrists bound behind my back, I couldn’t run. Without a living relative or someone close, I had no one who would save me. Vulgaris would cut my head from my shoulders, and I would bleed into the ground before I was dumped into a shallow grave beside my father. Our legacy would fade—and Vulgaris would triumph. But the Depths weren’t a much better solution, a fall so great it would break my neck instantly. I wouldn’t know when it was coming, not when it was so dark I wouldn’t be able to see the ground rising to meet me. But the Depths were still a mystery, an unknown, so there was a chance. “The Depths.”
9
MORCO
Consciousness interrupted the fever dream.
I’d ripped off Krull’s head and taken a bite out of his face—like a monster.
I inhaled a sharp breath and then felt the hand in mine. Felt the thin fingertips that belonged to a woman.
My eyes flickered open, and then I was hit with pain, pain that burned everywhere, from my arm to my stomach to my head. When I looked down, I saw flames engulfing me, felt the fire burn the flesh straight off the bone.
“My son.” Her hand squeezed mine, like she could tell I was awake just by the way I breathed. Her voice was tearful, mourning my passing before I’d gone.
I blinked, and the flames disappeared.
I searched the room, seeing my mother sitting at my side, her face eyeless—and that wasn’t a hallucination like everything else. My eyes went to the empty chair where I expected Hanne to sit, but she wasn’t there.
“Rest.” Her hand went to my chest. “Stay asleep, Morco. Let your body fight for as long as it can.”
“Caius…”
“Rest.”
“Get…Caius.”
My mother remained, her hand still tight in mine.
I waited for her to call for someone to retrieve Caius, but she refused.
I noticed the wet towel secured around my arm. Then the maid appeared out of nowhere…or perhaps she was always there. She pulled the towel away then strained it into a pail before she doused it in wet herbs that burned my nose when I breathed them in. “I’m still living…bring Caius to me.” It hurt to speak every single word, ached with every syllable.
My mother finally cooperated. “Bring Liam.”
“Caius…”
