A Dawn of Onyx (The Sacred Stones, #1)(17)

I tried to bite my tongue. I really did. But it was a sore subject.

“Besides decimating an innocent kingdom for their meager wealth and causing thousands upon thousands of innocent lives to be lost?” I asked. “Or training his soldiers to be more brutal, bloodthirsty, and violent than any other army in Evendell? Or what about his famed love of gleeful torture, senseless death, and ruthless gore?”

It seemed the cell I was in was not so great for my bedside manner.

His mouth lifted in a smile. “Sounds like you’re afraid of him.”

“I am. You should be too.” I shook my head. “Defending the very king who chained you up... King Ravenwood’s soldiers slaughtered all of my brother’s men. He was lucky to have made it out alive.”

“Yes, bird. I’ve heard that does happen during wartime.”

“Don’t be glib.”

“Don’t be naive.”

I stifled a groan—another sore subject. I snapped my mouth shut before insults flew out. Maybe it was time to put an end to this deadly tightrope walk of a conversation. I moved further away and turned to face the empty cell on my other side.

But he sighed from behind me, resigned. “I shouldn’t expect you to understand, bird.”

Bleeding Stones.

I spun to face the bars again, ready to ask why he was so intent on talking to me all night, when all he had wanted was sleep, but was caught off guard by the way his eyes bored into me.

Eyes like endless pools of liquid silver flickered with something far more intense than I had expected.

“Why do you keep calling me that?”

It wasn’t what I had planned to say, but came out nonetheless.

For the first time, he faltered, and the intensity behind his eyes vanished as quickly as I had seen it. “I’m actually not sure,” he said, laughing to himself. He looked down at his boots. “Just feels fitting.” He met my eyes. “Perhaps given the cage.”

I gave him a look that said, oh right, that, and closed my eyes again. “Well, this has been peachy, but unless you have some way out of here, I’m going to try to sleep now. I’m sure we can continue this tomorrow, and the next day, and the eternity after that.”

I aimed for biting, but all fiery retorts and energy for banter had dissolved. The reality was worse than bleak. I was alone, exhausted, and more terrified than I could endure for long. I had nothing left in me tonight. Maybe tomorrow I’d figure out how in the world to get out of this keep, this kingdom, this whole mess I was in.

But tonight, I could only slump morosely against the wall and let my eyes flutter closed. As I drifted off to sleep, I thought I heard the stranger whispering in hushed tones to someone else. I fought to stay awake and listen in, but my mind and body were too drained. Sleep came for me, swift and unyielding, against the muted sounds of men arguing.





FIVE


I woke up sore and stiff, but otherwise unscathed. A few whispers of sunlight poured in through the window above me, but moments later the cloud cover was back, casting the cell in gloom. I tried to imagine the sun on my face.

Yesterday’s events had felt like some kind of sickened fever dream—but awakening to the damp stone around me was as grounding as being slapped across the face. I was going to have to find some way out of here. No more blubbering. No more tears of any kind, actually. I steeled myself for the day ahead.

Unmistakable curiosity getting the best of me, I peered into the cell to my left. My eyes widened and my body went rigid to find it… empty. The man from last night was gone.

How had I not heard him be released? No bars clanking or soldiers escorting him out.

Could the argument I heard last night have been between the stranger and a soldier? I hadn’t heard any footsteps come toward us. I tried to peer further through the bars into the cell on the far side of the stranger’s. Was there anyone in there that he could have been arguing with? I couldn’t tell.

Did he escape? Or—

My blood turned to ice at the new thought. An execution might have been silent. I felt a pang in my heart at the thought of his strong, tall frame hanging by a noose inside the castle gates. Or worse, his severed head on a spike.

The thought of my head next to his followed. If it happened to him, it could very well happen to me… I physically shook the dreadful images from my head.

I stared up at the grey, cracked stone ceiling, preparing for a day of being trapped in a damp cell, attempting to keep horrific thoughts and crippling panic at bay.

The sound of footsteps making their way down the dungeon hall drew my attention back down. It was the Broad Man, and he was heading toward my cell. I ripped off the fur cloak and shoved it with shaking hands under the bench beside me. By the time I looked up he was standing at my cell door, working the door open. The lock was old and rusted and took an extra pull for him to wrench it free.

“Good morning,” he offered. His face had gained some color back overnight. He looked much more… alive than he had when he brought me down here.

I scrambled back as far into the wall behind me as I could. “What’s going on?”

“You’re needed.”

I prayed to the Stones that I was needed to heal someone, and not by the lieutenant. I tried to stay positive. At least I was leaving the cell.

He handed me a simple black dress and some aromatic dark brown bread. My stomach grumbled at the smell. Surprisingly, Broad Man turned to give me privacy. I crammed a mouthful of bread in before shedding my Amber clothes with lightning speed and slipping on the black dress. It smelled of lilac soap.