Page 108 of Down from the Tower

I shake my head, staring at the floor. I almost don’t bother asking, but nothing is black and white anymore. “When you say Queen, you mean the Mad Queen, don’t you?”

He nods once, and I see the hesitation in his eyes. He’s hiding something, but Cyrus and Theo are getting away the longer we stand here. He pushes against his chest, and my eyes soften, thinking he’s in pain. “Oh, let me see if I can temporarily heal you-”

“It’s not that,” he replies, his brow furrowing. “Legs ripped the gold out and put something on it. It’s not bothering me right now. But there’s something you should see-”

I shake my head. If I learn anything else right now, I might collapse. I need to process what I’ve learned, decide who I am now that I know I’m the sister of a long-dead twin and a princess bestowed with the power of a magical Phoenix Rose.

Oh, and my cat happens to be a man.

Quite a man at that.

But there’s no time for any of that. The clock is ticking, and if that window had a view of the port, I wouldn’t be surprised to see ships arriving at the dock. If Arthur’s troops storm the kingdom, all is lost. I can’t even consider the Mad Queen or a shapeshifting cat.

We might be able to kill the King, but we can’t stop a whole army. We’re two people, not two thousand, and everything I learn seems to spiral into so many other problems.

We aren’t just competing with the King; we’re competing with everyone, and I don’t know if I want anyone but me ending Midas’ life.

My parents are at fault for so many wrongs. There’s no way I can ever make everything right.

“No,” I whisper, lifting my eyes to his again. “We have to end this. Anything else can wait.”

“This might help you.”

“Will it change what must be done?” I ask quietly. When he shakes his head, I have my answer. “Let’s end this. I don’t care who else stands in the way. Midas has to be taken out. Nothing else will matter.”

I jog ahead before he can reply, and Zarev is right on my heels. I have no fear that he’ll leave me to deal with this alone, but I fear that we both might die from this fight. I still see no soldiers, no guards and no troops, so what waits for us in the throne room? A cat and one, singular guard won’t contend with Midas, but the Mad Queen will.

Midas is insane, but he shouldn't believe he can stand against an army alone.

The doors to the throne room push open easily, and at the last moment Zarev grabs me and I feel him shroud us in shadows again. It’s a good idea, one I overlooked. If my father is waiting on the other side it’ll be difficult to strike us right away. I don’t hear anything, but that’s not reassuring either.

The doors open to silence, and I’m beginning to think there’s nothing left in Tressa. We step in, and when the door catches on something I turn to see what it is.

Zarev barely manages to slide a hand over my mouth before I scream. The door has hit against a severed head. The face is so bloody I can’t make out who it once was. A few feet away, the headless body of a guard lies in a pool of blood.

Lifting my gaze, I realize the room is strewn in dead bodies. Not Arthur’s troops, or even innocent civilians, but guards. So many guards who served Midas. Some still have their heads, some are in pieces. It looks like they were butchered recently.

I shrug off his hand and step further in the room, Zarev right beside me to keep us hidden in the shadows. There’s carnage all around us, but no signs of blood on the throne. I don’t know if that’s a good or bad sign.

I accidentally slide in a bit of the blood, my feet losing purchase on the smooth stone floor. Zarev’s grip on my elbow keeps me from sliding into the bodies. My mother had a hand in the deceit of the kingdom, but these troops were just doing their jobs for the King. Now they lay slaughtered in the throne room.

Coughing, I clear my throat. The sooner I fix everything that’s happened, the sooner I can get away from here. The weight of the kingdom settles too firmly on my shoulders, and I’m helpless to escape so long as I’m here in the middle of the carnage.

“T - there’s a hidden room behind the throne,” I tell Zarev, gesturing vaguely to the empty seat. “I’ll show you. Midas could be back there. It leads onto the grounds. If he escaped, or someone infiltrated the throne room and killed the guards, that’s the way he would leave. I’ve never personally used the passage, but I know it’s back here. Both Mother and Father told me about it when I was younger.”

Zarev nods, oddly quiet. I can’t get a read on what he’s thinking, but it can’t be anything good. He follows me around one side of the throne towards the hidden door.

I gasp, stumbling back into him. Three bodies lay on the ground near the door, two women and a man. My shoulders droop as I recognize each face, the necks slit and eyes vacant, heads still attached. “That’s Anastasia and Priscilla. And Michael.”

Guilt claws at me. My parents killed Gothel Tremaine, and now her daughters have perished in their castle. There’s no justice here.

Zarev’s grip on my shoulder is reassuring, reminding me that I’m not alone. “You don’t have to do this, Rapunzel.”

Swallowing, I look back at him. He looks like a dark angel with the shadows swirling around us, my Reaper. “Yes, I do.”

Pushing forward, I press my hands to the sliding stones in the wall. Midas showed me this trick when I was young so I could escape if need be, but I’ve never had a reason to use it again until right now. There was never a chance to go exploring in this area he showed me and Dorah told me about. I never had the freedom to go looking.

My breath catches as something occurs to me, my hands pressing to the stone. Gothel Tremaine knew about the passage. If there were questions about her lying, that detail could only come from firsthand experience, and that makes her infidelity with my father that much more real. Even most of the guards aren’t privy to this secret passage, but confidants such as Theo would be.

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