Black Crown (Darkest Drae, #3)(92)

I swallowed the emotion that clogged my throat, sure I couldn’t have heard right. “Twenty?”

She shrugged, her sack-tunic sliding off her shoulder. “Maybe more, maybe less.”

“Ryhl?” I asked, my heart fluttering with anticipation. “Did you know Ryhl?” I pressed my face between the bars.

The Phaetyn straightened. “Did you know her?”

I nodded. “She was my mother.”

The Phaetyn stood and hurried over to the bars. “Is she still alive? Has she come—”

“She . . . died,” I said. “But she sent me.” Maybe not in as many words, but because of her, I was here.

The woman’s gaze narrowed as she studied me. “To end his reign?”

I gave the tiniest nod in answer. “With my mate. The Phaetyn queen, Lani, Luna’s daughter, is outside the mountain, fighting with the others of your people.”

She smiled. “How would you kill him?”

This time, I grimaced. “Permanently. That’s the plan. I’m Phaetyn and Drae,” I joked, weakly. “Draedyn doesn’t stand a chance. I’m actually referred to as Most Powerful Drae in some parts of the realm.”

Ash reached through the bars, slapping her bony hand to my mouth. “He can hear you.”

I shook my head and pulled away so her hand dropped. “I have the ancestral power from Queen Luna. I’ve covered us. He can’t hear a thing. No one can.”

“How do I know I can trust you?”

I shrugged. “You don’t,” I answered honestly. “Anyway, I wanted to know if my friend is here. I’m looking for Kamini. Do you know her?”

Ash sucked in a breath, and her eyes widened, making her cheekbones more prominent, and her entire frame appear even more wasted. “How do you know Kamini?”

I rolled my eyes. Hadn’t I just said she was my friend? Ryn the magnanimous needed to make an appearance here in Draedyn’s dungeons. Al’right. I could totally do that.

“Yep. I met her in Zivost a few months ago. Is she here?”

Ash shook her head. “No, Draedyn took her to his private prison a few days ago. Up by his rooms.”

Dungeons were commonplace, I supposed. But surely owning a private prison near your personal rooms meant for sleep and relaxing was a sign you should check your sanity levels. “Where’s that?

“In his tower.”

Of course it was. “Umm, any chance there’s a prisoner named Dyter here?”

Ash shook her head again. “Is he Phaetyn or Drae?”

“Neither. Human.”

Her lavender gaze darkened. “The only humans the emperor tolerates are the ones willing to work for him. If this Dyter is human and against the emperor, Draedyn wouldn’t have him here. If he found him, he’d kill him.”

“He doesn’t keep human prisoners?” I asked, my voice catching. “Ever?

She pursed her lips. “Not in the seventy-five years I’ve been here.”

Drak.

“Let me have your knife,” she said, pointing to the Druman’s blade.

“It’s not mine. I pulled it off a Druman.”

She waved at me to give it to her.

“Just don’t cut yourself,” I cautioned. “It might have Drae blood on it.”

This time it was Ash who rolled her eyes. “He wouldn’t waste his blood, and the mules’ blood isn’t strong enough to hurt us.”

I handed over the blade though my skin crawled at the wide-eyed excitement on her face. I gulped in horror as Ash buried the blade into her belly, all the way to the hilt.

“What the hay!” I shouted.

“Don’t,” she snapped, hitting my hands away as I reached through the bars to heal her. “If I’m lucky enough to die, it would be a release from this place, a blessing from the stars.”

She wrenched the blade from her body and then held the hilt out to me, shaking the dripping knife when I didn’t take it right away.

“What are you doing? What do you want me to do with it?” I asked, my voice hoarse with shock.

“Stab him. At some point you’ll be close enough, and I would love to have my blood help poison the emperor.”

We’d been talking just seconds ago. I’d given her the blade to protect herself. Shaking, I accepted the weapon, holding the gruesome knife between my thumb and forefinger. I didn’t have the heart to tell her I didn’t need her sacrifice, that I had everything I needed inside. “I’ll do my best—”

Ash reached through the bars and yanked me to her, hissing in pain with the movement. “Don’t do your best. Your best won’t be good enough. You need to stab him in the chest, right near his black heart. Kill him for all of us. Avenge us.”

Ryn! Tyrrik bellowed.

“I’m sorry,” I said, pulling away from her desperate clawing, trembling as my eyes took in the silvery blood covering the ground.

“Go now and do it,” she shrieked.

I backed away, my eyes wide.

“In the heart,” she screamed after me, followed by a wet cough.

Gasping for air, I sprinted out of the dungeons, up to the bath chamber, and up the stairs to the main hallways of Draedyn’s castle. The castle seemed eerily empty; everyone was probably asleep. The moon’s silvery light seeped in through the windows, highlighting the blood on my fingers and the knife.