I bit down on my gag. Fuck him, he was a monster. He had tricked Astrid into falling for him. He had used her love for him to get the crown of Lycaster. He…
…he sounded exactly like me.
I unclenched my jaw as my white flame gently fanned truth through my veins.
He was a monster, but so was I. Had I not seen his betrayal coming because he was merely my mirror?
As much as I wanted to deny it, I could not condemn the General for doing what I had done to Derrick for years. I had made him love me, want me, and need me because I had thought that was the only way I could have control.
Even for the past few weeks, what had I done? Entered his mind night after night to get him to free me. I had cared for Derrick and wanted to heal him, but my motivations were not entirely pure either. The result was still the same.
Ragnar’s actions had broken Astrid…and I was going to break Derrick.
I shifted on the floor and rolled onto my back, letting the chains fully weigh on the center of my chest. I could not just wallow in failure. If I did not release Fraleigh by the full moon, Riyan’s body belonged to Ganora.
Ganora had made her terms for Riyan’s freedom clear, but there had to be another way. Something had to be more powerful than…
My eyes widened beneath the chainmail. The white flame gently danced around my heart, filling my body with white light from my chest down to my toes.
Every agreement had a back door except one—one that not even Ganora, nor anyone else, could interfere with.
I channeled what little magical energy I had and sent out a call to Daigen. I felt a little tickle between my eyes as he made the tether connecting his mind to mine. The connection was weak, but I still sent out: “I know what I need to do. Can you get me to Nordingaard?”
Daigen’s answer filtered into my mind. “I will free the corpse reaver. You run, and run fast.”
Heavy footsteps slammed into metallic stairs outside of my prison and then two bodies snapped to attention.
Keys jingled. A heavy lock clicked open. Then another. Then another.
A frightened voice whispered outside the door, “General, are you sure—?”
“I fear nothing, Jonson,” General Hyton replied. A heavy door groaned on its hinges. The General’s voice was louder as he stood over me. “Especially not a girl who just needs a firm hand.”
He grabbed my manacled wrists and hauled me to my feet. The chains slithered off my ankles and my legs were free.
The General’s voice rumbled against my chest. “I will escort her to His Excellency myself.”
My heart dropped. I needed to run, not face Derrick.
General Hyton pushed me forward and I blindly followed his lead. He kept his hand around my chains as we walked up a set of stairs.
His voice brushed against my ear. “Apologies for the preventative measures, but the palace is in chaos. The maids found you in the Duke’s chambers and word spread like wildfire.Everyone from the peasantry to the nobility is calling for your head.”
Even with a chainmail blindfold, I could see right through his lies. He had timed everything just right so Derrick would find me unconscious.
The General’s voice dropped to a whisper only I could hear. “Our Duke is descending into madness. We cannot predict what he will do with you now, but I do know one thing for certain—he is so unstable, he needs his General now more than ever.”
A muscle in his arm shivered as his thumb stroked my wrist. “And even a mad Duke would not kill a sorceress if she was blood-bonded to his General.”
I nearly jumped up the next step but found nothing but air. My heart leaped as I fell, but General Hyton caught me.
He did not just want me as a sorceress, he wanted me…as a woman. I was the only noble woman free of a blood bond, making me able to bear children…heirs…oh, I was going to vomit.
I was no different than a teenage Astrid to him, an available womb.
General Hyton hauled me to my feet. “Your pink-beaked raven is caged in the guardhouse. Your Bloodstone allies have abandoned you. Your mother has no sway over the Duke any longer. Your little friends are too wrapped up in themselves to help you.”
He thought he could back me into a corner to agree to his horrid proposal?
