The secret gate.How the Paravellians had managed to get in.It had never made any sense to me.To any of us.We knew someone must have betrayed us.
He didn’t try to deny it.
“You knew I wondered,” I forced out, voice barely above a whisper.“Five years.I went over everything with you, always voiced my suspicion someone had betrayed us—and all along it was you.”
Torment ripped across his face, tears shining in his eyes.“I was stupid, Analleia, naive.Father and mother, they—they told me no at the last Paravellian Balls.I had wanted to marry that girl, but they told me no.And I was angry.Angry enough that I didn’t return home until a few weeks after they had.I sat in a tavern, nursing my sorrows with drink, flat-out drunk.There was a man there, and he listened, offered advice, said he had a ship, that he would help me get away from my kingdom.And in the midst of our plans, I told him how we could sneak into the castle without being seen.”
I shook my head, unwilling to believe what I was hearing.
“In the morning,” Desmond continued, “the man was gone.I continued on my way home, never giving him a second thought.But when I saw the smoke, when I met you on the road and you told me what happened, said they must have broken in through the secret gate, I realized what I had done.That everything was my fault.”
Tears slipped down my cheeks, betrayal slicing through me.“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I couldn’t tell you,” he rasped.“Couldn’t break you like that.You were all I had left, and I didn’t want to lose you too.I knew you wouldn’t have forgiven me.That’s why I followed you.Why I joined the Dark Walkers, so I could make it up to them.To you.”
I wanted to say I would have forgiven him, but in the moment I didn’t know.Didn’t know if I could forgive what he had done to our family.All this time, he had been lying to me.It made sense now.Our fight.Why he had looked so ashamed when I asked where he’d been the night our kingdom had burned to the ground.
“Enough with the family issues.”The Enchantress’s voice cut through us.“I expect my end of the bargain, Analleia.”
I glared at her.“I’ve already fulfilled it.That bargain is void.”
“I had to force it from you, but if you remember, bringing me the ring was only the first part of our bargain.The second part I said I would come to collect.”
My mind flashed back, remembering her words.There had been a second part to our bargain—and she’d never told me what it was.I’d foolishly agreed to it out of desperation for the enchantment.
I swallowed.“What is it?”
She floated across the floor, closing the distance between us, a gleam in her devilish green eyes.“Your mind, my dear.”
I took a step back.“My mind?”
“You are a member of the Dark Walkers, a keeper of their secrets.You know the ins and outs of everything in this palace.All its secrets, a vast array of names.With your mind and Valeris’s face, who is to stop me from ruling Paravellia?Controlling the world as I see fit?As the chancellor said, you offer the perfect person to blame for the murder, killing the entire royal family as you did.”
My blood ran cold, fear spiking up my spine, drowning me.She’d played me.Played all of us.Visiting her in the woods hadn’t been an accident.“You’ve been planning this.Long before I ever came to you.”
She smiled.“Who do you think assassinated Crown Prince Rivero?Who whispered in the chancellor’s ear about changing the line of succession?Wheedled into Ezrielle’s mind, convinced her to spark a rebellion to save the throne for herself?Who made sure you were recognized during your botched assassination, driving you to me?Who planted you at the seven Paravellian Balls to harvest vital information, kill King Zaricor, and bring me the ring that could restore my powers in the process?”
It all connected, why his brother’s assassination had never made sense, why I had originally thought his uncle was behind the idea to change the line for succession.He hadn’t wanted to put Valeris on the throne only to kill him and take his place.The Enchantress had.The air tightened in my chest, froze in my lungs.None of this had been happenstance.She’d manipulated each and every one of us, groomed us for her own personal use.
“They’ll never let an impostor sit on the throne,” I said.“Even if you possess every bit of knowledge in my mind.”
“No,” she mused.“They won’t, will they?”
Even as she spoke, she moved closer to me, her face shimmering, transforming again, blending in with the light around her until the dress was gone.Until her face was gone—until an exact replica of Valeris stood before me.
“But they will bow to me.”
I shivered as the voice from the impostor’s mouth sounded exactly like Valeris, but Valeris stood to the right of me, staring in shock.
“Not again, witch.”Wylan Athello charged at her from behind, hand raised to sink a dagger in her back.
She threw her arm out, transforming once again into the Enchantress, and the magic thrust Athello into the wall.
“No!”Valeris broke after his uncle, and Desmond flew at the Enchantress, trying to break through the wards surrounding her.Magic lashed out in the room like a firework show, the air humming.The power building.We all darted in and out, trying to escape the bursts of light.One struck the chancellor and he screamed, his skin glowing like fire ignited within him until he crumpled to the ground in agony.
I crept for the shadows, backing away.
She couldn’t have me.
