Glavstone sees my expression for what it is: a challenge. The vein in his temple bulges.
“To my office,” he announces. “For processing.”
Two Halazar guards lead the way. The halls are hazy with smoke from torches and thick with grime. I’ve been out for long enough that I can again smell the stink that clots the air. To think that my nose had become so used to it that I couldn’t smell it when I last left.
Ravin walks ahead of me and alongside Glavstone, lazily holding my leash. The two Stellis take up the rear. No one says anything.
We come to the rough, worn door that looms so large in my worst nightmares. Glavstone unlocks it with a key from a ring attached to his belt.
“Wait here,” Ravin commands the Stellis before we enter. They assume positions in the hallway opposite the door as it shuts behind Glavstone, Ravin, and me. When it’s only the three of us, Ravincontinues, “She’s to go to the dungeons immediately and not to be removed under any circumstances. Put her in level three, cell four.”
“The dungeons?” Glavstone looks between me and the prince. “Did you not bring her to me so that I might kill her?”
Surprise,I think dryly. I almost say it.
“We are not killing her,” Ravin says.
“Your highness—”
Ravin lifts a hand, stopping him. “Notyet,at least.”
“Why?” An ominous shadow crosses Glavstone’s face. He’s so mad that I’m still breathing, and I love it.
“She has value to us alive. We are good at extracting information and utility from our tools. You proved that to me when she was last here.” Ravin speaks so calmly, as if he’s merely planning another soiree.
“There are other ‘tools’ we can use.” Glavstone’s words have taken on an unsettling quiet. He’s planning a way around this. I wonder if Ravin truly doesn’t see it.
“Her Major card is particularly useful, albeit unpredictable. We can force her to make it for us, as you had her make cards before. If she refuses, break her until she does not.” Ravin shrugs. “And at the very least, then she can be used to draw out my brother. He does seem…genuinely fond of her.”
The mention of Kaelis puts me back in the passageway of Arcana Academy on my way to find Silas hours ago. Kaelis is there, barely visible in a sliver of moonlight. His mouth on mine. A kiss that tastes like goodbye.
The second prince won’t be coming for me, not after the way I exposed myself at the Feast of Cups.It’d be too risky for him. The ache in my chest at the thought is worse than any of the lingering pain from Ravin’s beating.
“There are other ways to get at your brother.”
“That is for me to decide.” Ravin’s tone takes on an air of caution. “If we kill her, her power will transfer to another instantaneously. The power of the Wheel of Fortune is not a variable we want out in the world—one that can potentially be used against us.”
“Can the Hierophant not find other Majors?”
“He only has a vague sense of them unless he’s standing before them, and as we know from last time, her power is particularly slippery.” Ravin casts a wary glance my way. “It is better to keep her in hand, for now. Does my brother have knowledge of the dungeons?”
“No. I have ensured that those who do are sworn to secrecy in my service or are dead after they have outlived their usefulness,” Glavstone says.
Did I ever tell Kaelis about the dungeons?I struggle to remember. Every conversation we had replays in my mind in far too vivid detail. He mentioned consigning me to the lowest pit of Halazar. I assumed he meant the dungeons…But he never said them by name.
A new fear looms, more irrational than any of the others.Kaelis won’t know where I am.Even if I’d written off ever seeing him again. Even if I knew, logically, he was never going to come for me.
Part of me still believed he would.
A tiny, insignificant corner of my mind that I’d like to pretend doesn’t exist imagined him turning the world over to find me—the only one who could.You are alone, Clara.The sooner I accept it, the easier this will be.
“Good. See to it that it stays that way. Should you have any reason to suspect otherwise, report directly to me.”
“I always do.” Glavstone bows his head.
Ravin rests his hand on Glavstone’s shoulder. “You have been a true and loyal servant. The crown will not forget this.”
“Thank you, your highness.”
