Forged in Frost and Fire (Book 1 in the Chronicles of Kings trilogy)

Forty Three

‧͙⁺˚*･༓☾　　☽༓･*˚⁺‧͙

I nearly laughed at the similarity of it all. Just like before, back in Verglas, I had been clapped in iron chains and shoved by the royal guard down the halls of the winter palace. And now, I was back in those iron chains and once again being shoved down the hall except now it was the spring palace. Except I didn't laugh. I couldn't laugh. Not when Sable's face was burned into my memory. Not when I could feel his heartache emanating from his side of...whatever the hell had formed between us. We hadn't talked about it yet. Hadn't spoken of whatever the interlocking twin tattoos meant. But Sable knew. He knew what happened and he was about to tell me before the guards flooded in.

The guard behind me shoved me through a doorway and down a winding set of stairs. The air got damp around me and I could smell piss and blood as we descended. The prison. Light barely got through now as we walked down, down, down until I could barely see the steps below me.

"How did they find out?" I asked. I didn't know how they could've known I was plotting to kill the king. Didn't know how they knew I was a spy. The words hadn't left my lips since I'd arrived and Sable had never used his mind-reading powers on me before. Not that he could considering I had a human mind, too stubborn and resistant for magic probing.

"Shut it, traitor," the guard said. As if to shut me up, he jammed the hilt of his sword into my spin and I gasped as fire crackled over my lower back. I stumbled forward but he yanked me back with the chain of my cuffs. I could hardly breathe as we walked to the end of the staircase.

They pushed me down rows of cells, most of them unoccupied, until we reached one that was only barely illuminated by a slim window in the thick, dark wall that was covered in mold. The cell door was opened and I was thrown in, landing in a heap of pale blue, glimmering skirts.

"You deserve to rot in here for an eternity, ice bitch," one of them said, spitting at me. I grimaced as the wad hit my cheek. I did not wipe it off though. I simply stared at them until they left, muttering about how the king would have my head.

Once I heard them clamber up the stairs I looked around. The cell was small, the ground was dirt and there was no pad for me to lay on. There was a simple waste bucket in the corner and nothing else.

I stood and tried to open the door but it was locked shot. Not to mention the bars were made of iron and every time I touched them they'd burn my skin. So eventually, I sank to the floor, wrapping my arms around my knees. In the darkness, the panic set in.

They found out. My secret was revealed. I didn't know how, but the king knew I had been plotting to kill him. That meant someone from the inside, someone who knew what was in that letter, had revealed me. But how? And who? It couldn't have been Elda, the one who wrote the letter, she would have been revealing the spy organization she had only been raising for the last century.

And now...Sable. I looked down at my wrist, watching the white crescent moon glimmer in the moonlight from the window above me. His side of the bond, or at least I was calling it a bond till further notice, had gone silent. I could feel his presence, steady and dark, but I could no longer feel his emotions. Had he already learned to hide them from me? Whatever happened between us had to have been magical. There was no other explanation for it. I just wished I could've asked him. But more than anything, I wished I could've told him I was sorry.

There was no going back now. Now everyone knew I was a spy. I was a traitor. The most gracious thing the king would do would be to spare me. To let me rot away in a cell for the rest of my immortal life. I didn't know when I'd hit my prime but it'd probably be soon and then after that I wouldn't age. I couldn't imagine spending forever in a cell. I'd rather be killed. Would I be killed? The king killed spies, Elda told me of the way he treated them. Tortured them until they broke and then learned their secrets before offing them. But the king didn't do that, his killer did the dirty work. Sable. Would Sable interrogate me? The thought made me feel sick.