“Like you said, I despised him.”
“But not enough to kill him.”
“Enough to know a quick, painless death was too easy. He cost my mother her life, and he didn’t even care. I kept track of everything he ever did, read every Shadow Queen column that mentioned him. He had power and status people would kill for—and all he ever did was bed women and abuse his position for his own gain.”
“You poisoned him to punish him?”
“Yes.” Kaidren starts to pace, considering his own words. “Maybe. Part of it was to punish him, but mostly, I just wanted to force him to finally see me.”
Arliss knew he had a child, and rather than acknowledge it, he fired Kaidren’s mother, ensured she would never find employment in Virdei again, and ignored his son for years. Why shouldn’t he have? Kaidren is Opheran, and as far as Arliss knew, he had the rest of his life to sire an heir he wasn’t ashamed of.
He was a powerful man who valued legacy above all else. When someone like that thinks he’s dying and has lost the chance to father more heirs, he becomes desperate. Desperate enough to seek out the bastard son he spent years pretending didn’t exist.
“I spent every coin I had on kishori,” Kaidren says. “A few times each week, I snuck into his house and slipped it into his food. Small doses. Never enough to kill. The same week I heard the news that the great Arliss Vale didn’t attend the latest Honorate meeting, I received a summons to the Vale manor. Hewas sick in bed when I arrived. He looked so weak and fragile—and for the first time, he called me his son.”
Finished with his story, Kaidren stops pacing and looks at me. His feet are hip width apart, his stance is self-assured, but there’s a question in the quirk of his brow. He’s wondering if I’m disgusted by his admission.
I probably should be. He just confessed to poisoning his own father, and all I can think is that I’ve never been more drawn to him.
“Was it worth it?” I ask.
“I planned to poison him for the rest of his life. Just enough so that he’d live on, sick and bedridden for years. And then I’d sit at his side on his dying day, and hold his hand while I told him what I’d done. Unfortunately, someone else killed him before I got the chance. My only regret is never getting to see the look in his eyes when I told him I was the reason he fell ill. The reason he never had a Virdeian son.”
Cold words that inexplicably make me warm inside. Not because he’s lying—he’sviciouswith his honesty—but because there must be something seriously wrong with me.
“Does that scare you?” Kaidren mistakes my silence for fear.
Slowly, I shake my head. “I’m not sure what it says about me that it doesn’t.”
“Probably the same thing it says about me.” He comes to the front of the cell. “Now, I’ve told you everything. How are we getting out of here?”
“We’re going to walk out. These”—I knock against the wall of the cell—“are made of tshira. All I need is a lie. I’ll get a guard’s attention, get him to lie about something, and—”
“I have a better idea.” Kaidren gazes at me from between bars. His jaw is clenched with residual anger, but when our eyesmeet, it softens. A corner of his mouth lifts in an almost smile. “I regret kissing you.”
Heat ignites in the pit of my stomach.
His gaze holds me captive. He gives me a smile. A tender, real one. “Did it work?”
I nod, trying to find my voice. I don’t know how to respond, or if he even expects a response. I press my hands to my cell bars and push magic out. They look the same, but magic has shifted their form to something malleable and easy to move through. I slip through and take hold of the bars over Kaidren’s cell.
“Walk through.”
He looks doubtful but steps forward anyway. We’re outside our cells, but still in the dungeons. Already, I feel the magic waning.
I guide him down the hall, away from the entrance. Kaidren frowns as he follows me. “Why are we going this way? The door is in the opposite direction.”
“The door isn’t the most direct way out of here,” I say. We’re underground. The cells are carved into the tshira that makes up the mountain. When we reach the end of the tunnel, I touch my hand to the wall.
Magic hums within me, warm and soothing. I push it out. The tshira shudders, transforming into something like a membrane.
I tug Kaidren to stand next to me. “Come on.” I try to pull him with me. Even though he just walked through solid bars, at the sight of the wall, he plants his feet. “Not sure if you noticed, but there’s a wall in the way.”
I resist the urge to roll my eyes, reminding myself that not everyone is familiar or comfortable with magic. I shove a hand through the wall, showing him it’s no longer solid. “We needto hurry. It doesn’t last forever, and I’m not sure how long I can hold it like this.”
Kaidren takes a breath and holds it as we step into the wall. Passing through permeable tshira is a strange sensation. Like trudging through slush after a snowstorm. It’s icy, thick, and unpleasant.
We’re both out of breath when we tumble out on the other side. It’s difficult to breathe when walking through solid objects.
