The Reckless Reign (Book 3, The Culled Crown Series)

Chapter 74

Oredison Palace, Gazda.

I woke to find Queen Viera sitting in a chair near the foot of my bed. She wore a pair of gray trousers, a white button up shirt, and a dark green sweater. Her black hair was pulled into a bun at the top of her head, stray curls cascading against the angles of her cheekbones. I registered that she was reading something, a stack of papers propped on a crossed knee, just as I bolted upright in bed.

A scream tore from my lungs—breaking into a million gasping pieces as my lungs seized in my chest, unable to expand into a full breath from both pain and fear. My mouth and eyes watered in tandem, bile rising swift in my throat as I tried to get my bearings, tried to rationalize what I was seeing. What I was feeling.

Goddess above, the pain.

Sweat coated my body, sending chills racing up my spine. My jaw was locked so tightly it ached, sure if I opened my mouth I would vomit all over myself. The poison was everywhere, unbearable. Hot and searing and terrible.

I pressed a hand to my abdomen and whimpered, my body folding in on itself like I could somehow collapse inward and become invisible. Stars sparked behind my closed eyes and I felt myself tipping over the edge of oblivion. Scorching, fiery agony radiated from my middle like a pulse. Over and over again. Unending.

I blinked through watering eyes, trying to understand. I'd escaped this, hadn't I? I'd run from the prison. Uri had helped me. I'd run and then Kace...Kace had...He'd caught me and he'd turned me over to Viera but...but—

I shook my head and closed my eyes against the truth of it. "No, no, no, no, no, no, no." I'd gotten out. Ambrose had gotten me out. Cohen had thrown the knife and I'd gotten out.

But the pain. That was real. And Viera was real. She was real and looking at me. She was hurting me.

Salt water stung my chapped lips as I whispered, "Please stop."

She stood, the papers abandoned, and moved out of my line of sight. I heard her say something I couldn't understand. Loud, sharp words. I flinched as a door slammed. At the pounding of footsteps heading in my direction.

"I—I didn't—" I blinked trying to think, trying to remember what I was supposed to do. What I was supposed to say.

What had happened? I couldn't remember anything. I didn't know where Cohen or Uri were. Had she hurt them? Did Viera have Tallis and Juno? I think I'd hurt Dellacov. Pieces of memory flashed through my mind—a broken mirror, a knife hidden in a piece of bread, Larkin's boot on my face, a rabbit head necklace. And Kace was somewhere here. Somewhere working for these people. He'd broken my heart.

And Larkin. Did anyone know about Larkin?

Viera moved again, her form a blur of thin, boney movement as she came to rest against the footboard.

"I worked alone," I said, the words coming out shakier then I wanted them to. "No one helped me. It—" I swallowed down a cry of pain and said again, "I sent the Culled all of the information on my own. I didn't have help. I stole maps and the...the schedules. Guard schedules. I...I got them from Dellacov's office after my trial. No one helped me. I was alone."

Viera spoke, but I heard nothing she said. My ears where ringing. My pulse was too much, too insistent. It was like a symphony in my ears. The only sound. Like it wanted to play one last song before it lost the ability to play music at all.

"I was alone," I said again.

I gasped for air over and over again, each breath coming quicker than the last, more shallow. The room was spinning. Heat pressed at my skin, insistent and I balled my hands into the bedsheets. Sparks flared from my knuckles.